Alex Barker leads Be More Pirate, a social movement that supports people and organisations to challenge the status quo. Here she says the best people to hold brands to account are their own people.

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Many years ago...

I had the pleasure of meeting Ashton Barnett-Vanes, a young medical doctor undertaking an internship at the World Health Organization HQ in Geneva. In one of the most expensive cities in the world, all WHO interns were unpaid, making the opportunity untenable for anyone without the means to fund themselves.

Talented medics from low-and-middle income countries were losing out on valuable training, cutting edge knowledge, and useful connections.

In 2012, Ashton started a campaign to make those internships paid, and five long years later it became a reality. “..after a campaign led by a former intern, the UN agency has agreed to provide full financial support for its young workers by no later than 2020. It told the BBC that targets are also in place to ensure that 50% of interns come from developing countries by...