Publication database

This guide is for development professionals working in and designing private sector development programmes with an interest in starting an inclusive business policy development programme to help strengthen the enabling environment for inclusive business. The guide draws on the experience of development professionals and inclusive business experts who have designed and run similar Inclusive Business enabling environment (IBee) programmes. It focuses on the first phase of the programme which involves an in-depth landscaping study and stakeholder engagement process that lays the groundwork for the second phase of the programme which translates the work from the first phase into implementation and action. Links to useful tools and documents are provided throughout the guide to help readers through the process.

This report reflects on the position of social enterprise across 27 countries, across 5 continents and including both developed and developing, stable and fragile countries. It aims to bring evidence together to provide comparisons between social enterprises across the globe, to highlight commonalities and differences, patterns and challenges. This study also considers the policy and support ecosystems for social enterprise in many countries, draws conclusions and makes recommendations based on the evidence.

The ongoing compound and acute crises of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine meet longer-term but no-less pressing crises of social and environmental sustainability in and around agriculture, food and nutrition security. Many international mechanisms are already in place on agriculture and food systems which are almost unavoidably not (yet) sufficiently coordinated. A new generation of due diligence laws recently is added mostly by industrialised countries to that existing mix of policies in place addressing serious sustainability gaps of supply chains into these countries. However, these regulations also bear the risk of generating unintended negative consequences, particularly for smallholder farmers in poor countries.

Increasingly, development funding is directed to programmes aiming to make market systems more favourable for smallholders and low-income consumers of food. Assessing whether a programme indeed contributed to development outcomes is challenging. Building on real-world experiences with theory-based evaluation in inclusive business programmes, this IDS Bulletin discusses approaches and methods for meaningful impact evaluation. 

This report provides the summary conclusions of the Impact Taskforce (ITF). It presents the case for urgent action, provides actionable recommendations and sets out a clear pathway as to how private capital can be mobilised at scale in support of key global sustainable development targets.

How can governments maximize science, technology and innovation for inclusive and sustainable development? Among other topics, chapter five discusses the experience of members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in promoting inclusive business models. It concludes that, while there are market opportunities for Inclusive Business, it will be critical to establish formal and funded support structures.

This report explores how governments can benefit from collaborating with systemic social entrepreneurs, and the measures they can take to foster that collaboration. For each of these measures, this report outlines concrete recommendations and provides real-life examples of changes that governments around the world have implemented.

This brief examines the contribution of the G20 in facilitating the implementation of its member countries’ sustainable development goals. In order to revive their respective economies, governments globally are ramping up their efforts to promote more sustainable and inclusive business practices. The SDGs can serve as a yardstick to guide the restructuring of the countries’ respective strategies.

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.