Are social enterprises the inclusive businesses of tomorrow? Development Banks’ perspective

2017
Page count
49
pages
Description

The study (i) reviews the definitions and concepts of social enterprises, (ii) outlines the landscape across 10 selected countries in Asia and Latin America, (iii) discusses challenges to scaling as faced by social enterprises, and (iv) presents suggestions for development banks to extend support to social enterprises through public and private sector investments. The study categorizes social enterprises and argues that the comparative advantage of development banks is to support selected social enterprises that are commercially bankable and have the base of the pyramid (BOP) at the core of their business operations. Development banks can support these enterprises—considered as the inclusive businesses of the future—through investing in impact funds and/or public sector loans.

Publisher
Asian Development Bank (ADB), The Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN)
Publish date
Authors
R. Makhijani
V. Bhandari
Language of publication
English
Region/Country
Region
East Asia and Pacific
Latin America and the Caribbean
South Asia