The Business Innovation Facility (BIF) offers two types of support:

1. “Long Projects” - Long term technical support (in general between three and six months).
2. “Short Projects” - Short term technical support (in general up to 20 days) provided to an individual business or a cluster of organisations, e.g. via workshops

The impact…

“Just what kind of company has the perfect DNA to implement and scale up Inclusive Business models?” This is the million dollar (or in this case, Pound Sterling) question. This should be, or already is one of the questions we in the Business Innovation Facility (BIF) intend to answer from this pilot phase of the project which seems to be racing to the end, especially in Nigeria where we just kicked off about 60% of our long term projects within last 2 months. #hectic!

BIF is a…

Mothers and children (in their finest) at an under 5's growth monitoring clinic in Mnthipa Village, Katete

Today (22/1/13) I had the pleasure to accompany the Keepers Zambia Foundation staff on a field trip in Katete where we linked up with a group of women who had brought their children to an under 5s growth…

Rent-to-Own is a business that was born out of the massive need for financing beyond the standard micro credit model.  Specifically, we provide asset financing which is complemented by a holistic set of services that ensure each smallholder farmer and rural business owner can succeed.  For over two years we have provided 600 clients with productive assets, anywhere from water pumps to refrigerators to dough mixers.  Clients start with a deposit then make monthly payments for up to 14…

A common challenge for inclusive business practitioners, much debated at last November's BIF team week in Malawi, is defining their field. If inclusive business is business activity that expands opportunities for the poor, doesn't any business operating in a poor country (or, arguably, elsewhere) count as an inclusive business? And if not, why not?

One way to tackle this question is to turn it around and examine the counterfactual: are there businesses in developing countries…

In June last year I went to Lusaka, the Zambian capital, for the first time. One of the pieces of work I was to complete was a value chain analysis of the charcoal industry along one of the supply routes into Lusaka.

Having seen the destructive power of the charcoal trade first hand in Malawi I was interested to see how the situation compared in neighbouring Zambia. In Malawi, the charcoal trade is illegal and yet over 13% of total forest cover has been lost in the past decade leaving…

The debate in Zambia around a new Companies Bill has caused worried looks on the face of at least one inclusive business entrepreneur. The proposed legislation would severely curtail the activities of foreign owned firms, limiting their ability to borrow money locally and the sectors in which they could operate. The most extreme provisions of this bill may never get passed into law, but the mere possibility was enough to trigger The Economist Intelligence Unit last month to…

Whilst on the BBC World News website a few days ago I noticed this article on Jatropha production in Africa…

In West Africa, energy shortages and the rise of the oil prices have driven some countries to turn to biofuel in order to meet their growing need for energy. With Europe and the US announcing renewable fuel targets that exceed their production capacity, developing countries have intensified agrofuel crops destined for export. Senegal now cultivates sugarcane for ethanol, and…

On a group of islands in the South Pacific, the pre-industrial age ended quite suddenly in 1942. As the American military manoeuvred to block the Japanese advance into the Pacific, rural villagers who had previously considered the iron nails with which they banged together their huts to be the height of modern technology suddenly found their islands overrun with aeroplanes, trucks, machine guns, electricity, Coca-Cola and all the amenities needed to support a modern army of a hundred…

How to scale up a successful local sourcing strategy into an independent sustainable business model?...

Build it in phases and don’t do it on your own.

These would be my top two recommendations, based on my recent involvement with one of our…

National Geographic Newswatch have captured Tribal Textiles upcycling story.  Amazing Bag by Zambia’s Tribal Textiles Turns Used Sacks Into Fashion.

Founder and director of Tribal Textiles, Gillie Lightfoot, wanted to give something back to the local community of Mfuwe, on the…

There is increased interest in agriculture in Africa and in particular small holder farmers (SHF). SHF’s output remains low and is seen by many organizations to hold the key to chronic food shortages in Africa. For any suppliers looking to expand their footprint to access agro dealers servicing small holder farmers, there remain some key challenges.

Infrastructure – Infrastructure remains a key challenge as distances are great in African upcountry areas. According to…

What exactly is inclusive business? This is a question that has a much more varied answer than was previously thought.  The definition of the term itself is new and one that has yet to be settled, which opens it up to interpretation.  There is, however, a general consensus on what it should be: a profitable core business activity that also tangibly expands opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged in developing countries through the engagement of the poor along some part of the value…

Last year, while researching rural connectivity initiatives for the iSchool project, I visited Macha, a rural village in southern Zambia - and was amazed by what I found there.

In addition to the usual dusty jumble of earth huts, stalls and maize fields, Macha is home to an Internet cafe, a large office block, a Western-style restaurant, a craft store, a library, a bank branch, a well-built school that would not be out of place in a California suburb, a biofuel farm, a visitor lodge,…

Los Cabos, Mexico, June 18, 2012—The Group of 20 today announced the winners of the G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation, a global competition managed by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. Ambassador Mr. Rogelio Granguillhome, Executive Secretary of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation and Chair of the G20 Development Working Group, presented the awards at a ceremony here. 

The world’s leading economies launched the G20 Challenge to rapidly…

Innovation and Value Addition: Key to Private Sector Growth was the theme for the Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (ZACCI) AGM Workshop held on 2^nd December 2011 in Lusaka.

Andrew Kambobe was invited to make a presentation on access to finance and value addition. He introduced inclusive business and the type of support offered by the Business Innovation Facility and…

I am part of a team of graduate students from the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science; we are currently providing research support for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in assessing the perception and state-of-the-art practice of inclusive business in India, Bangladesh, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia. This assessment will contribute to new knowledge and insights for PwC's on-going work with the DFID-funded Business Innovation…

Things are moving on at quite a pace as the set-up phase of the ColaLife gets underway.

This image shows the latest version of the AidPod (Version VIII) and its component parts:

We went through this with the PI Globalteam last night over Skype. Enhancements in this version include:

1. Increased 'draft…

Great news as we plan the implementation of two CSA projects in Malawi and Zambia in February:

http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/119835/icode/

Three billion people in the developing world use open fires or wood charcoal for cooking. Cooking over open fire produces black soot and toxic gases, leading to the premature death of 1,8 million persons yearly, mainly women and children. It is also estimated that particulates from open fires is responsible for 18% of the greenhouse effect. Many low-income families spend a substantial part of their household income on wood or charcoal for cooking. Others spend a lot of time collecting wood…