Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave" to describe separate family leave available to either parent to care for small children. In some countries and jurisdictions, "family leave" also includes leave provided to care for ill family members. Often, the minimum benefits and eligibility requirements are stipulated by law.
Jeffrey Stuart Skoll, OC is a Canadian engineer, billionaire internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly through the Skoll Foundation, and his media company Participant Media. He founded an investment firm, Capricorn Investment Group, soon after and currently serves as its chairman. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he graduated from University of Toronto in 1987 and left Canada to attend Stanford University's business school in 1993.
Social innovations are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions, resulting from - for example - working conditions, education, community development or health. These ideas are created with the goal of extending and strengthening civil society. Social innovation includes the social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques and also the innovations which have a social purpose—like activism, virtual volunteering, microcredit, or distance learning. There are many definitions of social innovation, however, they usually include the broad criteria about social objectives, social interaction between actors or actor diversity, social outputs, and innovativeness. Different definitions include different combinations and different number of these criteria. Transformative social innovation not only introduces new approaches to seemingly intractable problems, but is successful in changing the social institutions that created the problem in the first place.
Lawrence Brilliant is an American epidemiologist, technologist, philanthropist, and author, who worked with the World Health Organization from 1973–1976 helping to successfully eradicate smallpox.
Ann Lesley Cotton OBE is a Welsh entrepreneur and philanthropist who was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 Queen's New Year Honours List. The honour was in recognition of her services to education of young women in rural Africa as the founder of Camfed.
A lactation room is a private space where a nursing mother can use a breast pump. The development is mostly confined to the United States, which is unique among developed countries in providing minimal maternity leave. Historian Jill Lepore argues that the "non-bathroom lactation room" and breast pumps generally are driven by corporate need for workers rather than mothers' wishes or babies' needs.
Lactivism is the doctrine or practice of vigorous action or involvement as a means of achieving a breastfeeding culture, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc. of breastfeeding. Supporters, referred to as "lactivists", seek to protest the violation of International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes by formula companies and industry. Lactivism is a subject that has conjured both negative and positive connotation across the Western world since the term rose in popularity around 2015. The controversial conversation of Lactivism has been noted to be influenced by personal identity, contradictive research, large corporations and political agendas. Breastfeeding being a personal decision, challenges arise with the abundance of voices weighing in in support and discouragement of lactivism. The preached beliefs about whether a mother should breastfeed span from condemning mothers who do not, implying or outright saying they are physically harming their babies, to the opposite end of the spectrum claiming breastmilk and breast feeding have no benefits whatsoever. Amidst the conversation of lactivism there’s a failure to address or reference anyone, cultures, or countries outside of the Western world. By omitting other approach’s, societal norms and reactions to lactivism it creates a narrow focus and excludes many breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding mothers.
The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 1999.
Susan Davis is an author, public speaker, consultant and expert on international development and social entrepreneurship. She is the Chairperson of Solutions Journalism Network, an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University Stern School of Business, a coach to social entrepreneurs and active on many boards and advisory councils.
Breastfeeding, or nursing, is the process by which human breast milk is fed to a child. Breast milk may be from the breast, or may be expressed by hand or pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that breastfeeding begin within the first hour of a baby's life and continue as often and as much as the baby wants. Health organizations, including the WHO, recommend breastfeeding exclusively for six months. This means that no other foods or drinks, other than vitamin D, are typically given. WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary foods for up to 2 years and beyond. Of the 135 million babies born every year, only 42% are breastfed within the first hour of life, only 38% of mothers practice exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months, and 58% of mothers continue breastfeeding up to the age of two years and beyond.
The social attitudes toward and legal status of breastfeeding in public vary widely in cultures around the world. In many countries, both in the Global South and in a number of Western countries, breastfeeding babies in open view of the general public is common and generally not regarded as an issue. In many parts of the world including Australia, some parts of the United States and Europe, along with some countries in Asia, women have an explicit legal right to nurse in public and in the workplace.
The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of Australia which prohibits discrimination on the basis of mainly sexism, homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, but also sex, marital or relationship status, actual or potential pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status or breastfeeding in a range of areas of public life. These areas include work, accommodation, education, the provision of goods, facilities and services, the activities of clubs and the administration of Commonwealth laws and programs. The Australian Human Rights Commission investigates alleged breaches of the Act. The office of Sex Discrimination Commissioner, created in 1984 alongside the Act, is a specialist commissioner within the AHRC.
To-wen Tseng is a Chinese American journalist, author, and breastfeeding activist. She is best known for her regular news spot "To-wen's World Report " on KSCI-TV (LA-18), the Asian-language station served Southern California. She has authored seven books, all in Mandarin Chinese.
Jane Marie Chen is the co-founder of Embrace, a social enterprise startup that produces a low-cost infant warmer, that gives premature and low-birth-weight infants a better chance at survival.
Parental leave in the United States is regulated by US labor law and state law. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave annually for mothers of newborn or newly adopted children if they work for a company with 50 or more employees. As of October 1, 2020, the same policy has been extended to caregivers of sick family members, or a partner in direct relation to the birth of the child therefore responsible for the care of the mother. Although 12 weeks are allowed to them, on average American fathers only take 10 days off, due to financial need. Taking paternity leave is not the norm, due to lack of paternity leave allotted to fellow employees previously in the same situation since the policy change is relatively new. Beginning in 2020, California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island required paid parental leave to employees, including those a part of 50 or less employees. For the majority of US workers at companies with fewer than 50 employees, there is no legal requirement for paid or unpaid leave to care for a new child or recover from childbirth but some US states do require this.
KickStart International is a nonprofit social enterprise headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. KickStart designs and mass-markets climate-smart irrigation technology to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, in order to enable a transition from subsistence agriculture to commercial irrigated agriculture. Donor funds are used to design the irrigation pumps, establish supply chains, demonstrate and promote the pumps, and educate farmers on the benefits and methods of small-scale irrigation.
INJAZ Al-Arab is a non-profit organization for education and training in workforce readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship across the Arab World. INJAZ Al-Arab is the Regional Operating Center of JA Worldwide (JAW), one of the largest global non-governmental organizations dedicated to addressing fundamental social and economic challenges faced by young people. INJAZ Al-Arab is also an active participant in the United Nations Global Compact. Over 3.7 million students have participated in a broad base of entrepreneurship training opportunities aimed at developing basic business skills to start and run their own businesses while obtaining soft skills increasingly demanded by the private sector. Since its inception, INJAZ Al-Arab has built a network of over 88,000 classroom volunteers, who are leaders from the corporate world. INJAZ Al-Arab has a Regional Board of Directors, which comprises 24 executives that manage some companies and institutions, as well as a team of staff, led by Akef Aqrabawi, President and CEO of the Middle East/North Africa for JA Worldwide.
Shazi Visram is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, best known as the founder, CEO, and Chief Mom of Happy Family Brands. In 2013, she was acknowledged by President Barack Obama as "not only an outstanding businesswoman, but also a leader that all of us can emulate."
Celina de Sola is a Salvadoran humanitarian worker and public health expert. She is the Co-founder and Vice President of programs at Glasswing International, a non-profit international organization headquartered in San Salvador and New York City.
Gladys Chepkirui Ngetich is a Kenyan engineer, and a Rhodes scholar, pursuing a doctorate degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. She is the recipient of the Tanenbaum Fellowship and the Babaroa Excellence Award.
