Katharina Banz and Katharina Münster

Katharina Banz (pictured) is engaged in iBAN´s activities in Africa and Asia. She supports the process for companies to scale up their IB models and strengthen their connections to impact investors.

Katharina Münster supports the Communication and Digital Innovation agenda of iBAN. She holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the Free University of Berlin, the Humboldt University of Berlin, and Potsdam University.

Accelerating inclusive business through learning

iBAN launches the free and open “Introduction to Inclusive Business” course
Inclusive business models and strategy
Global
9. Dec 2020

There is no post-Covid recovery without private sector contributions – and inclusive business is especially well-placed to answer the call to help rebuild. But although the pandemic shone a bright light on the concept of inclusive business, it is far from becoming mainstream.

While it may be viewed as an approach to alleviate poverty and inequality, inclusive business also poses a lot of questions for interested policymakers, investors and entrepreneurs, such as: How can companies adopt inclusive business models? How can governments support them? And how do low-income communities actually profit?

Learning for inclusive business

Many answers are already out there – but sometimes they are tedious to find. This is why iBAN is creating a series of online courses on inclusive business. By providing information as a public good and in an engaging manner, the courses aim to help popularise the inclusive business concept.

The first course, “Introduction to Inclusive Business”, explains what inclusive business is, looks at the market opportunities it presents, and familiarises learners with the inclusive business ecosystem. In addition, it presents numerous examples of companies in various sectors. Policymakers, too, can access basic information on how the approach contributes to their national development agendas. This combination of insights, concepts and up-to-date information makes the new course one of a kind.

The course is especially targeted to company representatives, government officials and impact investors. Completing the four-module course will take about three hours in total. To document their learning achievement, students receive a personalised certificate upon completion of the course.

Going deep and going wide

Learners can take the course entirely online following their own schedules. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only highlighted the urgency to fight poverty, after all – but also the need for digital solutions. This has become evident for iBAN while working with inclusive business companies around the world.

For iBAN, the course is a new means to bridge the gap between the ‘going deep’ approach of face-to-face trainings for companies and the ‘going wide’ approach of providing content for the inclusive business ecosystem on a broader scale. We also enjoy being able to engage with companies in this time of crisis.

To access the course, log in here.