Publication database

This report discusses functions and characteristics of multi-stakeholder initiatives, collaborations between a company and other firms, governments, civil society organisations, local communities and/or smallholders to achieve more inclusive business frameworks along the whole of their value chain. It analyses the role of stakeholders, governance models and approaches to evaluate their effectiveness, while providing five successful examples.

This report briefly explains the approach of shared value, including factors and principles which are necessary for the successful inclusion of poor people into a company's value chain. Various business cases from different sectors and countries are presented and the diverse process steps from value chain analysis to project formulation, project implementation, impact measurement and scaling are examined.

This report covers some of the human rights risks faced by businesses who operate global value chains. Through a series of interviews it outlines the opportunities for responsible business practices and some of the barriers to addressing human rights concerns and offers ten recommendations for how businesses can work with other stakeholders to reduce the risk of human rights abuses.

Being able to design and implement insurance public-private partnerships (PPPs) in insurance requires a long-term vision and a good understanding between partners. This paper presents ten recommendations, based on the experiences of four cases from Colombia, India, Mexico, and Peru, which aim to help both governments and the insurance industry to establish successful PPPs.

Most providers of health microinsurance (HMI) can do more to understand the illness and claims patterns of insured clients. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that analysing claims data equips HMI practitioners with valuable insights to improve the client value and viability of HMI programmes. This brief summarizes a study that performs a comparative analysis of three South Asian HMI programmes – run by VimoSEWA, Uplift Mutuals and Naya Jeevan. These providers share a common geographic region and offer broadly similar insurance for hospitalization services to low-income households.

New products and services sold to low-income people in emerging markets often fl ame out before the eff ort reaches the scale it needs to thrive. Here’s what business leaders need to know to escape that fate.

Given their limited capacities to cope, low income people can experience major setbacks when hit by even seemingly small shocks and can experience serious losses of wealth and welfare when big shocks strike. And merely the spectre of shocks can lead to underinvestment that makes even a smooth climb out of poverty take much longer than it otherwise might. This paper explores how low income respondents in the Kenya Financial Diaries think about, experience, and prepare for risks in their lives. 

Across the world, insurers have shifted away from traditional agents and brokers to partner with various alternative distribution channels – ranging from churches, trade unions and mobile network operators to banks, retailers and even civil service organizations - as a way of reaching critical mass at low cost. This brief examines two of these channels – banking and retail correspondents – studying four examples in four countries.

The Inclusive Business Agenda was developed to formulate a strategic research, innovation and action agenda for engaging Swedish organisations with the needs and opportunities of the BoP. The Agenda recommends a comprehensive delivery approach based around 9 workstreams and 6 sectors. In addition to supporting Swedish business both large and small, it is envisioned that this approach will change the prevailing way Sweden does business with the developing world.
 

This report highlights the size of the revenue opportunity for banks which financial inclusion represents, and reviews where banks are at in capturing this opportunity. It documents six key insights on how banks can address this market, and recommendations for how governments, donors and NGOs can enable financial inclusion.