Publication database

This paper shows an exciting new momentum towards living wages, coming from businesses, investors and numerous civil society organisations. A vanguard of leading companies is moving beyond statutory minimum wages to ensure that workers are paid enough to achieve financial security. However, too many businesses still see living wages as a challenge rather than an opportunity. This paper seeks to change the narrative. It provides a new perspective on what paying living wages offers to companies and demonstrates that living wages generate a wealth of benefits to workers, businesses and society.

This snapshot report details how prioritising green and social enterprises delivers triple returns - economic, social and environmental – in both short and long terms. It analyses the status quo, gaps and potentials of green and social enterprises as well as the SME support landscape in different areas and locations. Building on in-depth SEED-conducted interviews with enterprises and enterprise support providers, green recovery contributions and support opportunities were identified to improve the existing support offers for green and social enterprises in a green recovery context.

This guide lists digital tools that deliver remote data collection, information, or training for farmers and farmer organizations. It assesses them on five criteria: demand, value addition, costs, transcending inefficiencies, and interoperability. 

This learning paper adds to the body of knowledge on the commercial and development impact potential of smallholder-sourcing agribusiness models. It quantifies the share of investment flowing to agribusinesses sourcing from smallholder farmers within the broader category of agriculture. In addition, it captures 15 investor perspectives on the commercial viability and development impact of companies that source from smallholder farmers.

There is a strong need for increased adoption of sustainable agricultural practices to bring the food from farm to fork while addressing three major challenges: feeding a growing population, providing a livelihood for farmers, and environmental protection. This is where decentralised renewable energy (DRE) technologies must play a key role. Moreover, as innovation in DRE-powered agricultural equipment and appliances steam ahead, their technical and commercial viability will improve further. Based on best practices from the 15 case studies, this publication makes recommendations for public and private stakeholders.

This report highlights opportunities for the private sector in Digital Climate Advisory Services (DCAS), including how to implement financially sustainable business models and recommendations for business. DCMS offer a huge opportunity to increase the productivity and resilience of smallholders and support sustainable food systems. 

AMEA’s theory of change considers that the current fragmented, uncoordinated delivery of capacity building services to Farmer Organizations significantly inhibits their ability to become professional. AMEA has therefore developed a Toolbox containing peer-approved assessment tools and training/coaching curricula. It provides comprehensive information to enable potential users to make decisions on which tools would be most suitable for their programming.

This edition of The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets focuses on how markets can bring us closer to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SOCO 2020 offers a detailed analysis of the major global trends in agri-food markets and trade to identify how to reap economic, environmental and social gains and spur overall development. The report also looks at policy responses to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food value chains, both nationally and globally.

This article attempts to move the needle on extant inclusive business discourse by delineating, conceptually, what it means to be(come) an inclusive business. By drawing on the rich literature on inclusive growth, sustainable business models, social enterprise and hybrid organizations, it offers revised definitions of inclusive businesses and inclusive business models. The article argues, amongst others, that inclusive businesses necessarily prioritize value creation over value capture and should be judged based on the net value they create for ‘income-constrained’ groups. It furthermore proposes how the boundaries of entrepreneurial responsibility can be delimited, with implications for how sustainable business models more generally should be designed.

In recent years, there has been growing interest and funding dedicated to technical assistance designed to strengthen the commercial and development impact of businesses in developing markets. However, relatively little is known about the nature and effectiveness of these initiatives. Designed to address this knowledge gap, this paper focuses on efforts by development finance institutions (DFIs) to provide technical assistance to agribusinesses, which receive 30% of all TA. The input for this analysis was obtained through primary and secondary research, including interviews with 11 DFIs. The feedback from DFIs was that they expect the provision of inclusive TA in agriculture to rise. However, to catalyse greater resource allocation towards inclusive TA, respondents agreed the evidence case needs to be clear both in terms of commercial and development impact.