Call for Support: Participate in a UNDP survey on support for Inclusive Businesses in Africa!
Inclusive Business Models, which integrate the poor on the supply side as well as the demand side, have the best chance for success when they are implemented within a strong ecosystem of actors and support.
Many of the world’s most interesting inclusive business models have come out of Africa, and several dozen approaches have been documented and highlighted in a number of case studies and reports. Their success suggests that with more external support, businesses that operate in the continent could make even more significant additional inroads into poverty alleviation. However, businesses need more transparency on what type of support they can attain, and from whom.
Following the success two groundbreaking reports in 2008 and 2010 on the role of inclusive businesses, UNDP’s Growing Inclusive Markets initiative is currently preparing with UNDP’s African Facility for Inclusive Markets , a regional private sector and inclusive market development programme for poverty reduction in Africa,
a third major report, on Inclusive Business models and their Ecosystems in Africa to be developed and written in collaboration with Endeva and Reciprocity, consultancies based in Germany and South Africa respectively, both of which specialize in inclusive business model research. One of the objectives of this report is to identify these support mechanisms and examine how they help businesses to design, develop and grow inclusive business models and innovative market solutions to poverty.
Such support mechanisms may exist, but they are scattered and companies may often not be aware of them. This is one of the gaps this work will aim to bridge. By highlighting most successful instances of support mechanisms available for inclusive businesses as well as the types that are lacking, the report will be able to provide concise recommendations for key actors to improve support.
If you or your organization supports inclusive business initiatives through capacity building, funding, policy-making, research, raising awareness, or in any other way, this is your opportunity to let it be known by participating in this survey!
Ultimately, this action-oriented project seeks to inspire and facilitate further collaboration between key actors – namely the private sector, donors, policy-makers, NGOs, investors, research and other support institutions – by delivering useable tools to practitioners: a written report, a series of inspiring case studies, and a searchable actor database.
Furthermore, if you are interested in sharing your expert input on inclusive business models and their ecosystems in Africa in an in-depth interview, please get in touchwith UNDP’s Suba Sivakumaran from the Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative.