The Role of the Health Care Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity

This report provides an overview and critical assessment of the ways in which multinational pharmaceutical companies currently participate in expanding economic opportunities in developing countries. As pharmaceutical companies become more involved in both business and philanthropic activities in developing countries, it will be important for each company to identify the best strategies available to it to create new economic opportunities and to leverage the benefits of activities already underway. While the primary focus of the industry is, and will most likely continue to be, on increasing access to health care, the potential for expanding economic opportunities through its activities should not be overlooked as a significant outcome. The analysis and case studies contained in the report highlight companies' contributions to economic opportunity expansion through job creation, training and capacity building, and shaping public policy. The report also offers recommendations for future work to increase economic opportunities. This paper is part of the Economic Opportunity Series published by the CSR Initiative at Harvard University Kennedy School

Ahead of the Curve: Insights for the International NGO of the Future

International NGOs have a unique and important role to play in addressing today's complex global challenges. But few of them are living up to their full potential. With support from the Hewlett Foundation, FSG researched how the most innovative INGOs are adapting to the disruptions in the global development sector and embracing four approaches to create greater impact

Anti-Corruption as Strategic CSR: A Call to Action for Corporations

Corruption is not a peripheral social concern that corporations can ignore or passively address -- it is a bottom-line issue that directly affects companies' ability to compete. Widespread in emerging markets, corruption is becoming an increasingly important issue for business to address. Furthermore, it inflicts enduring harm on disadvantaged populations by diverting resources for critical services like education, clean water and health care into the pockets of dishonest public officials. This white paper presents a critical assessment of corporate anti-corruption efforts in the developing world and offers a guide for corporations to move beyond traditional ethics and compliance activities to strategic anti-corruption efforts. Sponsored by The Merck Company Foundation and developed in collaboration with the Ethics Resource Center, the paper reveals opportunities for corporations to engage in more comprehensive and effective anti-corruption reform as a business imperative

Maximizing Impact: An Integrated Strategy for Grantmaking and Mission Investing in Climate Change

With funding from The Surdna Foundation, FSG has developed this report to help foundations identify how various mission investing instruments and opportunities can help them create greater impact. Guided by an expert Advisory Board and based on interviews with more than 50 practitioners from the field, the report provides a framework for foundations to think about how mission investments can create the greatest impact when combined with grants in an integrated program portfolio, with a specific focus on climate change

Volunteering for Impact: Best Practices in International Corporate Volunteering

Although multinational corporations invest significant resources in international corporate volunteering (ICV), a disproportionate emphasis is often placed on the quantity of activity rather than potential impact. Multinational corporations are slowly moving from traditional measures, like counting volunteers and hours of service, to adopting more strategic measures built around increasing business or social impacts. Companies are evolving ICV programs to strategic partnerships that focus on high-value skills transfer, capacity building and scalability, and driving outcomes beyond conventional philanthropic tools. FSG Social Impact Advisors released Volunteering for Impact, a compilation of best practices in international corporate volunteering (ICV). Sponsored by Pfizer Inc and The Brookings Institution, the study examines ICV within two principal models: local service, in which employees based in countries outside headquarters volunteer in their local communities; and cross-border service, in which employees travel abroad to volunteer. After numerous interviews and the analysis of ICV programs at 14 multinational corporations, FSG detailed current programs and made recommendations to guide corporate philanthropy executives and ICV program managers as they build high impact volunteering programs

Specializations of Security Council in confrontation of Electronic International Terrorism

The issue of international terrorism is one of the important topics of concern to the international community. So that terrorist acts developed by virtue of the development of Man and the development of societies, and also developed by their methods, perceptions and concepts. In the last two decades, international terrorism has become one of the most prominent non – traditional sources of threat to international peace and security, and was one of the most important reasons that led to the emergence and development of terrorist acts because the world is witnessing a tremendous development in the means of communications and information technology, until it became called this era-the era of the information revolution. Despite the many advantages of the internet revolution and the information it contains easily accessible to millions of people at one time, and at a low cost, but at the same time it constitutes a wide field for terrorists to spread extremist ideas, which led to the emergence of what is known as international cyber terrorism. Therefore, this study dealt with the phenomenon of electronic international terrorism and the extent of its compatibility with the concept of traditional international terrorism, and then the extent of the application of the powers of the UN Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security with terrorist acts performed through electronic programs

Clean extraction of pectin from dragon fruit peels, pomelo peels, okra, and pineapple peels using deep eutectic solvents and ionic liquids

Pectin is the main constituent of fruit peels that contributes to the fruit's solid and firm shape. Having wide applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries, its extraction from bioresources would mark a sustainable advancement in biotechnology. The biomaterials for pectin extraction targeted in the study were dragon fruit peels (Hylocereus costaricensis), Pomelo peels (Citrus grandis), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), and pineapple peels (Ananas comosus). Aqueous extractions of pectin from fruit peels were performed in a sono-reactor using deep eutectic solvents (DESs). Ionic liquids such as (Choline acetate ≥ 95%) [Ch][Ac] and (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ≥ 97%) [EMIM][Ac] were also employed as extraction solvents. Morphological screening with the electron microscope (SEM) and FTIR showed that the extracted pectin had a similar surface as commercial pectin. The extracted pectin can completely dissolve in water to form a homogenous suspension. The pectin yield from dragon fruit peels was 60±2.00 wt% with a degree of esterification at about 66-72%. This study introduces a clean extraction that can potentially substitute solvents in the pectin industry