Personal note from Caroline Ashley, Editor in Chief of the Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business:

Dear fellow Inclusive Business Practitioners,

The inclusive business (IB) agenda has changed hugely since the Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business (the Hub) was established in 2010. Since then, the Practitioner Hub has evolved hugely, too. We began as a website of a single project of the UK’s Department for International Development (UKaid), we then were co-hosted by UKAid and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency until 2014. Since then Ashley Insight has run the Practitioner Hub, in ever-closer partnership with the Inclusive Business Action Network (IBAN), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and hosted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH. I am delighted to let you know about the next phase of change: going forward, IBAN will be hosting, running, and upgrading the site. I am stepping down as editor, but will continue my support as chair of the editorial committee of the digital platform.

Of course, there is plenty of continuity, too. Whether you were with us from start, or joined recently, I hope you enjoy our thematic updates, our webinars, and the gateway that we provide to what is happening in the IB space. Overall, the Practitioner Hub has always been for people who are at the coalface of work on IB: we are not a 'promotional' site but a place to share experience and reflect. We curate the best content and trawl for information and resources, so that you don't have to.

As 2017 draws to an end, we have been reflecting on IB – and I hope you enjoyed our recent theme with a great set of blogs on the current state of IB – I  hope you are making progress in your work, and continue to benefit from all the upgraded Hub will offer going forward.

Warm wishes for 2018,

Caroline

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Personal note from Dr Christian Jahn, Executive Director of the Inclusive Business Action Network (IBAN)

Dear Practitioner Hub users,

IBAN is delighted to start running the Practitioner Hub on 1 January 2018!

Already this year IBAN has been running the site in partnership with Ashley Insight and co-produced the Monthly Theme.  It was a great transition phase in which both teams worked together enthusiastically.

The Practitioner Hub is an immensely important knowledge resource in the Inclusive Business (IB) ecosystem connecting users across the globe on this theme. We therefore want to keep and further curate this knowledge while making it even more accessible and user-friendly.

It is therefore with great pleasure that I can inform you that IBAN will not only run the Practitioner Hub moving-forward, we will also upgrade it to a high-quality online knowledge platform with improved functionality. The upgraded platform will allow for more interactive user journeys. An enhanced content generation approach will also be implemented that is based on the creation of an editorial committee of IB experts, as well as a targeted and collaborative content creation approach focused on high-level IB expertise. A dedicated learning and capacity building space will guarantee a continuous debate among IB companies and policy makers. IBAN will launch the upgraded digital platform in mid-April 2018.

We are thankful for all work Caroline Ashley and the team of the Practitioner Hub have invested over the past years to establish the Practitioner Hub.  We look forward to continue working with her as the chair of the editorial committee of the upgraded digital platform.

In the New Year, we will send you information on all editorial committee members.

We are also grateful that our current funders, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union, continuously trusted our approach, provided insightful advise, and continue to support our digital innovations.

The spirit of collaboration will remain strong in IBAN when we deepen our strategic approach in 2018 to engage established IB companies and policymakers in emerging and developing markets. We will make sure to curate related IB content carefully and share all ‘lessons learnt’ that emerge from it to ensure the improved digital platform will become a pivotal point for exchange and information on IB.

Yours,

Christian Jahn

We also want to seize this opportunity to wish you a joyful holiday season and a good start of the New Year!