Publication database

To help PPPs with their scaling strategies in practice, PPPLab in cooperation with CIMMYT also developed a tool to strengthen strategies for scale. The tool was developed in 2017 on basis of ongoing research of both organizations on how development initiatives scale in practice. Several test runs with the tool have been carried out with project teams in the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Nepal and Kenya. The Scaling Scan helps you to analyse, reflect on, and sharpen your scaling ambition and approach. The tool consists of a self-assessment that helps you identifying the key challenges for the specific scaling situation and phase you are in.

P2P business models like Airbnb or Uber provide an organised way to collectively share certain resources. Could similar solutions reduce the barriers to sharing of the limited existing sanitation facilities in low income countries? During 2016 and 2017 Inclusive Business Sweden and Aqua for All, supported by Unilever and funded by Transform, carried out a project named ‘Peer-to-peer Business Models to Meet Sanitation Needs’ to explore this possibility.

Part 1 of this report discusses instrumental and infrastructural approaches to ID and argues for long-term investments in ID infrastructure. Institutions and individuals each have key roles in the ID ecosystem, and we will discuss the tensions inherent in trying to serve both. Part 2 of this report asks how the ID landscape is changing. Emerging technologies will expand the options for identifying and authenticating individuals and introduce new actors across the DID value chain. While some emerging trends may offer greater opportunity for inclusion, higher confidence in authentication, or better data security, new technologies and new actors may also change the roles of traditional ID-granting institutions and their relationships with ID-holding individuals. How we address these emerging trends in technology will determine whether ID is an instrument of empowerment and inclusion or surveillance, disempowerment, and exclusion.

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.

Bundling agriculture insurance with other services like credit and better farm inputs is fast emerging as a possible solution to help agriculture insurance to achieve better social outcomes, make insurance more tangible and enable schemes to scale faster. There is evidence that states that access to agricultural insurance leads to significantly larger agricultural investment and riskier, yet more rewarding, production choices in agriculture. However, insurance as a standalone product may not be sufficient to overcome the binding constraints of farmers. Hence, bundling provides more value for all the players in the value chain. 

This workbook has been conceived as a practical tool for innovators working in the agricultural sector to reach and effectively serve the untapped market of women smallholder farmers in emerging economies. The workbook reviews existing resources and tools for designing and marketing products, services, and technologies, provides a way to assess barriers and opportunities for reaching the missing market of women farmers, and recommends specific tools and processes for the entire business cycle, from product design to market entry, retention, and growth.

This case study traces Evidence Action from origin to the launch and expansion of Dispensers for Safe Water in Uganda. It first describes the Dispensers’ pilot in eastern Uganda and then explore Evidence Action’s process of preparing for and scaling Dispensers across Uganda.

This paper is part of a series of papers on inclusive agribusiness written for the “Towards a Global Research and Learning Agenda for Inclusive Agribusiness” workshop in March 2017. This issues indentifies barriers to scaling up inclusive businesses in agriculture and food production and offers perspectives on how inclusive industries or market systems develop. The paper presents aspirational issues for a common agenda, potential research and learning questions as well as ongoing and previous work on these issues.

This paper is part of a series of papers on inclusive agribusiness written for the “Towards a Global Research and Learning Agenda for Inclusive Agribusiness” workshop in March 2017. This issue focuses on how business models in the agriculture and food sector can be modified to ensure that risks, resources and rewards are shared to create enticing value propositions for all engaged. The paper presents aspirational issues, research and learning questions, potential priority areas as well as a list of ongoing works that manifest in the form of value chain development programmes, public private partnerships, company sustainability initiatives, sector roundtables and knowledge networks.

BIF engages with businesses either by first identifying a market in which to operate, and then finding appropriate companies with whom to work; or by identifying multinationals that are looking to innovate, and then introducing a programme to develop the market in which they are working. This report explores examples from both of these strands and distils learning from three countries.