Concept & Tools

The Inclusive Business discussion emerged in late 2008.

The International Finance Cooperation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, took up the agenda and established a separate division promoting IB business cases in the IFC investments; meanwhile about 15% of all IFC investments ($27 billion since 2005 in more than 600 projects) are classified as IB.

 

Since 2005, various development partners (AsDB, AfD/French cooperation, ESCAP, FCDO/UKAid, GIZ/iBAN, IADB, SIDA/Swe3duish cooperation, UNDP, UNIDO/BCtA, among others), engaged in the global IB discussions.

Since 2017 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) placed the promotion of IB as a special agenda under its SME development program. The ASEAN economic leaders endorsed the

With the help of AsDB, ESCAP, GIZ/iBAN, and UKAid IB landscape studies have been prepared in 12 Asian economies (Bangladesh, Cambodia, China,  India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Tajikistan, Thailand, Viet Nam), Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia) as well as at regional level for ASEAN and APEC.

Various countries established IB promotion programs and or strategies Cambodia, Viet Nam have been prepared and some of them endorsed and are being implemented

There are many IB knowledge studies and company profiles  done by various institutions. Of particular importance are, among others

  • The G20 IB framework (2016)
  • A strategic paper on the Inclusive Business Features (2021)
  • Various e-learning courses developed by former iBAN program under GIZ
  • The ASEAN IB policy guide (2020)
  • Sector and thematic studies done by ADB, ESCAP/Gates Foundation, GIZ/iBAN, IADB, IFC, UNDP/BCtA, SIDA, UKAid, among others, as well as specialized consulting firms and organizations such as CAT, Dalberg, Endeva, Harvard Business School, Hystra, IBSweden, Nextier, Oxfam, PWC, PWC, experts and others.

Of particular importance to better target support programs for identifying companies with IB and IGB business line is the establishment of an official, transparent and easy to implement IB/IGB accreditation system.

Various countries have implemented this. IB/IGB accreditation is based on a composite rating tool where the result performance of companies is rated against 49 criteria and 180 benchmarks.

The system is implemented through an official accreditation committee jointly composed by business associations and government.

The company assessment is done independently by third party (consultant) based on which the committee is making its final rating and consensus decision. Typically per country 30-50 companies are rated on an annual basis of which perhaps 20-30 are found eligible as IB/IGB. For more information on IB/IGB accreditation see here

IB Definitions

IB Policy Tools

IB Strategies

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