Award programs

Policy Instruments

Description

A number of challenges and prizes have been launched as a way to showcase, identify, and promote innovative inclusive business models, which have potential for replication and expansion. Through these competitions, they stimulate innovation, showcase best practice cases for replication, generate support for acceleration or expansion, and build awareness around best case examples of inclusive businesses with high potential for further support.

Case writing competitions such as those organised annually by the European Foundation for Management Development and sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme Growing Inclusive Markets initiative serve to identify and share successful business models.

Case Example

Global: Rewarding inclusive business innovation

The G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation was launched in 2011 with the goal of accelerating the growth of commercially viable inclusive business models that expand opportunity and access to essential goods and services for people living at the BOP in developing countries.

The Challenge accepted applications from inclusive businesses of any size, from anywhere in the world. It recognized businesses with innovative, scalable, and commercially viable ways of working with the BOP.

An independent judging panel including representatives from the G20, the private sector, academia, foundations, and international organizations selected 15 winners based on the following criteria:

  • Innovation:  How does the business reach the BOP?
  • Development results:  How many people living at the BOP does the business reach and how strongly does the business impact the people it reaches?
  • Potential for replication: What is the potential for replication of the business model in other markets?
  • Financial sustainability: Is the business commercially viable?
  • Environmental and social sustainability: Is the business socially and environmentally sustainable?

Winners attended a high-profile event at the G20 Leaders Summit on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico to honor Challenge winners and engage with other stakeholders in the inclusive business community. Winners were then invited to a series of G20 workshops where they had the opportunity to strengthen their inclusive business relationships in a business-to-business forum.

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Further Examples