Inclusive Business Newsletter

August 2017
World Business Council
for Sustainable Development

Here is a brief collection of inclusive business related news, updates and insights, collected over the last weeks. Feel free to send us your news anytime!

Thank you for your ongoing interest and participation in our work.

Featured stories

Improving rural livelihoods

Shaping Inclusive Markets

Scaling inclusive business solutions

News from WBCSD and its member companies

Rethinking Collaboration for the SDGs, 18 September, New York

Timed to coincide with the UN General Assembly, this invite-only event brings together 100 senior business professionals and development partners to discuss how business, government and civil society are collaborating to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. Peter White, our COO will represent WBCSD at this event, organized by Business Fights Poverty, Barclays and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Sanitation might be the business opportunity of the decade

Waste-management systems in Africa and India could soon outstrip those in the developed world in terms of sustainability and efficiency. After a first phase of supporting sanitation entrepreneurs facilitate access to sanitation, The Toilet Board Coalition – an alliance including WBCSD members like Firmenich and Unilever – is now assisting companies in turning human waste into clean energy and fertilizers.

Leveraging the Social Progress Index for decision making

In an article on Business Insider UK, Deloitte Global Chairman David Cruickshank argues for looking beyond mainstream economic factors to inform decision making. Inclusive business leaders should, so Cruickshank, leverage the Social Progress Index to their advantage as it broadens our access to data and improves our understanding on major social factor at play on global, regional and community-level.

News from around the world

Scaling inclusive business solutions for better vision

2.5 billion people worldwide suffer from poor vision, 2.2 of them live in emerging and developing economies. Uncorrected vision is estimated to cost 272bn USD in lost productivity a year. Through its Essilor See Change platform, Essilor International S.A. has launched and scaled up several inclusive businesses addressing eyecare in 30 developing nations.

UK Aid and UNDP support production of household water purification containers in Malawi

About 20,000 households will access clean and safe drinking water through an innovative Household Water Treatment and Storage product that’s being produced by Arkay Plastics Limited and SAFI with financial support from UK AID and UNDP through the Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund (MICF).

Tools and Reports

Improving rural livelihoods to address the challenges of migration

This publication highlights by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) sheds light on the impact of migration on agriculture and vice versa. It highlights the most important challenges, but also inclusive business opportunities to develop rural areas and address the root causes of migration, including lack of employment opportunities, food insecurity and the absence of services.

Inclusive business in the Philippines

A new report by Business Call to Action titled “New Horizons: How Inclusive Business is Helping Achieve the SDGs in the Philippines”, outlines the role of the private sector in improving the lives of low income populations in the Philippines. It highlights four sectors that present opportunities for Inclusive Business given the country’s social challenges, development priorities, market needs, and existing successful models. The four sectors are food and agribusiness, skills building and education, infrastructure, and financial services. Earlier this year, UNDP also published a collection of case studies on inclusive business models at the nexus of poverty and environment.

Shaping Inclusive Markets

FSG and The Rockefeller Foundation analyzed historical cases where markets transformed to be more inclusive, ranging from coffee in Colombia, to dairy in India and tea in Kenia. Using these insights, the authors then focus on how funders and intermediaries can create a conducive environment for inclusive market transformation.

Workshop and Trainings

Online Bootcamp on Building an Inclusive Agribusiness (4 September – 1 October)

Through PPPs, smallholder farmers and local agribusiness work together on organizing access to inputs, strengthening market intelligence, bargaining power and other interventions to make their value chains more inclusive. In this course 2SCALE presents methodologies and practical tools used to build this inclusiveness. The program will tackle the following topics:

Value Creation
Innovations in Farming
Access to Finance
Agribusiness Clusters

Executive education: Co-creating a fortune with the base of the pyramid, (2-6 October, Ann Arbor, US)

Ted London and Stuart Hart are unquestionably two of the world’s top authorities in the inclusive business space. In a new, ground-breaking executive education program, they aim to share their knowledge from decades of research and professional experience helping companies building sustainable, scalable inclusive businesses. Aspiring enterprise leaders will come away ready to succeed in the unique, opportunity-rich base of the pyramid markets. The five-day program includes live simulations, case studies, team exercises, development of personalized action plans, cross-industry and cross-functional networking, social events and much more.

Executive Education: (3-6 October, Calais, France)

The HEC Business School, Hystra and Ashoka, offer an Executive Education Program on inclusive business and value creation that prepares corporate executives in charge of designing, launching or scaling inclusive business projects. Its format is based on experiential learning and immersion, cutting-edge academic content, insights from pioneers in the field and peer-to-peer learning, condensed into an intensive 4-6-day session. It is designed for corporate executives, but also welcomes social entrepreneurs, executives from large NGOs, international aid agencies and impact investors.

Building Effective Partnerships for Development (23 – 25 October 2017, Oxford, UK)

The Partnering Initiative’s 3 day training program, Building Effective Partnerships for Development, focuses on skills, understanding and knowledge for effective cross-sector partnering, optionally leading to a Certificate in Partnering Practice. The course balances core knowledge with highly interactive, experiential learning through role play, ‘serious games’ and peer-to-peer exchange.