Inclusive Business: A Market-driven Approach to Alleviating Poverty

In 2008, the term was first officially introduced in an UNDP-commissioned report titled “Creating value for all: strategies for doing business with the poor”. The report emphasized on business which are both commercially sustainable and engaged the poor in it’s core operations. Through inclusive business, an entrepreneur can either serve the poor as customers or can include the poor as producers, employees and business owners.

Therefore, they have two distinct characteristics-

• they are commercial viable (generating profit as well as being sustainable)
• they incorporate the BOP market somewhere in the company’s value chain. In the 2008 report, the target segment was described as having less than USD 8 of income per day PPP (equavalent of USD 2.67 in Bangladesh). This constitues about 4 billion people around the world living in more than 80 countries.

Types of inclusive business?

Inclusive business can range from agriculture to housing to utility service.

International Case Studies

Inclusive business integrates the BOP population as part of the value chain of companies´ core business as suppliers, distributors, retailers, or customers. Some successful inclusive businesses around the world include-

Inclusive Business Cases in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, Jita and Pabna Meat are two key examples of Inclusive businesses.

Impact Measurement Tools:

Some of the common frameworks for assessing impacts of Inclusive businesses include:

Benefits of Inclusive Businesses:

Inclusive business should promote sustainable development in all its dimensions – economic, social and environmental.

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