Reducing Poverty through Employment Toolkit

Authors

• Jessica Custer

  Former Associate Director, BSR

• Sara Enright

  Former Director, BSR

Roughly 735 million people continue to live on less than US$1.90 per day, the World Bank’s threshold for extreme poverty. A much greater number of individuals and families subsist below national poverty levels. Ending poverty in all forms everywhere is the first goal of the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development agenda, which provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity, and companies have an enormous opportunity to contribute to this agenda through their existing operations.  

Quality employment is one of the most effective, lasting ways to reduce poverty. As the provider of nine in 10 jobs worldwide, the private sector can take a leadership position in fighting poverty and inequality by actively creating employment and advancement opportunities for those living in poverty, across their direct operations and their supply chains. Importantly for companies, this is also an investment that can create business value and build competitive advantage amidst evolving labor markets and increasing customer and stakeholder expectations for the private sector to contribute to sustainable development. 

To help companies act, BSR and the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition (GISC) have developed the Reducing Poverty through Employment Toolkit, which provides a range of good practices, case examples, and resources to guide companies on how to get started or how to enhance existing efforts to employ, empower, and improve the advancement prospects of those living in poverty.  

This Toolkit, developed through literature review and drawing on the extensive knowledge and good practices of global GISC member companies, is intended as a resource for all employers at all stages of their inclusive employment journeys.