Caroline Ashley

Caroline focuses on how innovative economic models can deliver more inclusive and resilient development.

Caroline has worked on markets, business models and investment approaches that deliver social impact for many years in roles with challenge funds, impact investors, entrepreneurs, corporates, NGOs and policy makers. As Results Director of the DFID Business Innovation Facility, and Sida Innovations Against Poverty programme, she founded the Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business in 2010, then took on hosting it, and acted as Editor of the Hub for 7 years before it transitioned into InclusiveBusiness.net managed by IBAN.

Most recently Caroline led economic justice programmes at Oxfam GB, before moving to Forum for the Future, to lead global systems change programmes to accelerate our transition to a sustainable future.

Welcoming BCtA as a Hub partner

9. Sep 2013

We are delighted to announce the launch of a new partnership with Business Call to Action (BCtA) on the Practitioner Hub.

BCtA has much in common with the existing Hub hosts, Business Innovation Facility and Innovations Against Poverty: all three programmes support companies that are developing inclusive business, and all three programmes support the exchange of news and knowledge, particularly by practitioners for practitioners.

We have been sharing ideas and material with BCtA informally for a while, but now we are cementing the partnership so that Hub members have clearer visibility of BCtA’s projects and resources, while BCtA members gain direct access to the practitioner exchange on the Hub.

BCtA supports 73 companies that have made commitments to inclusive business. The portfolios compare and contrast well: many BCtA members are bigger and more established than IAP and BIF-supported companies, but are in similar sectors.

When we established the Practitioner Hub in 2010, we said that its USP would be exchange on inclusive business that is rooted in practical projects and targeted at ‘practitioners’ – those that deliver and support inclusive business as their job. Fortunately, the last few years suggest we were on the right track. The number of visitors from the global south has now overtaken those from the north. Our member data tells us that the majority are from the private sector, and for most of them, inclusive business is a core part of their job. Our analytics tells us that our Project Landing pages are the most popular part of the site.

And our visits are going up. Last year we used to get around 2,800 unique visitors per month. For the last 6 months, our average has been 4,800 people per month. And our membership is growing fastest in Africa.

These are all great reasons to keep sharing news from the ground, supporting exchange amongst practitioners, and welcome our BCtA partners onto the Hub.

Information on BCtA is on the new BCtA partner page

Business Call to Action aims to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by challenging companies to develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for both commercial success and development impact.

BCtA member initiatives include pledges to provide access to financial services for more than 57 million people, promote improved health outcomes for 50 million people, and enhance access to energy for 89 million low-income households.

BCtA provides companies with:

  • global leadership platform and opportunities to share expertise, knowledge and best practices for market-based approaches to development;
  • Initiative development advice and assistance, and
  • Linkages with companies, donors and other stakeholders.

Find out about BCtA's Annual Event on September 19th at http://www.inclusivebusinesshub.org/profiles/blogs/register-now-f...

Read about a webinar organised by the three Hub Partners (BCtA, IAP and BIF) on creating demand for renewable energy solutions at the base of the pyramid at http://www.inclusivebusinesshub.org/profiles/blogs/sustainable-en...