Over the past 20 years, the world has witnessed a flourishing of business innovations addressing social and environmental issues, yet many initiatives have not reached the impact they and we would have hoped. However, there is much to learn from what they have achieved.

Large-scale food fortification (LSFF) can be one of the most cost-effective ways to address micronutrient deficiencies. However, while the case for society has been made clear, the business case for the private sector has not.

Running a company without business data is like driving a car without a dashboard. In collaboration with the Global Distributors Collective (GDC)* and with support from FCDO, we have leveraged extensive data to create a benchmark of 23 key performance indicators (KPIs) for LMDs...

From 2018 to 2023, together with French NGO Gret and a consortium of partners, the Hystra team co-led the design and implementation of the Meriem project, a 5-year effort to develop commercial solutions to prevent malnutrition in urban areas of the Sahel region...

Since 2020, Hystra has been supporting the Rural Support Network of Pakistan (RSPN) to launch and execute a market test in three rural districts of Pakistan, aiming to improve access and uptake of maternal nutrition products, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation…

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation brought together expert representatives from academia, industry, national research partners and consultancies in a worskhop focused on R&D innovations to advance biofertilizers…

Four out of ten pregnant women worldwide suffer from anemia, which contributes to approximately 20% of maternal deaths. An ever-larger share of pregnant women suffers from other micronutrient deficiencies, as requirements for several vitamins and minerals increase by up to 50% during pregnancy. This is particularly true for women in LMICs…

Climate change is already hitting the world's poorest regions hard: millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) currently rely on rainwater to grow their crops, with extreme climate events increasingly threatening their resilience.

Irrigation in SSA lags far behind global averages (2-5% of cropland vs. 20%), mainly due to the high operating and acquisition costs of available irrigation solutions (manual and motor pumps). Fortunately, innovative technologies (solar-powered pumps) and business models (PayGo and irrigation as a service) have recently emerged to overcome this affordability barrier.

Given the strong biological and cultural interlinkages between family planning and menstrual health, there is a growing call for the integration of these interventions among researchers and practitioners…

Building on Hystra's report on Scaling Up Access to Menstrual Health in the Global South, this business case presents the business potential of selling reusable menstrual products in the Global South…

What if you could assess the strengths and resilience of your (inclusive) business model in 90 minutes through 15 KPIs? In this webinar, hosted by the Global Distributors Collective (GDC) in partnership with British International Investment (BII) and Hystra, we dig into 15 key industry benchmarks…

In a context where non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are on the rise, access to quality healthcare remains insufficient and largely inadequate for the 6.5 billion people in low- and middle-income countries…

1.8 billion people in the world menstruate every month, representing 20% of the global population. Among those, 500 million of them still lack access to menstrual products and adequate facilities for MHH management. An even larger number has access to products, but of poor quality…

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are on the rise in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), increasing the financial and health burden affecting these vulnerable populations…

Women direct sales force models have often been assumed to be a panacea to simultaneously improve women’s access to health and create empowering income for the sales agents…

For several decades, pioneer companies, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations have attempted to build women networks selling “beneficial” products in their communities, with some level of success…

For traditional fast-moving consumer goods companies, maximizing product penetration can be a sound business strategy, but it cannot suffice for brands…

While we might like to think we are 'loyal' to a brand’s products, the reality is that even established brands have a majority of light users (or very light users)…

Increasing internet connectivity and mobile phone use across Africa is paving the way for the growth of e-commerce across the continent…

“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s support was the critical catalyst as we looked to expand beyond low-income rural markets to serve low-income urban areas…