inclusive business

This report by RAF Learning is exploring the business case for smallholder finance, in particular the role of digital approaches in making it possible to profitably serve this market at scale. New digital technologies and innovative business models are making it possible to provide credit to smallholder farmers in Africa. The report looks at where and how innovations in digital technology promise to enable financial service providers to serve smallholders at scale. »

RVO and IUCN NL organized together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on 28 October a one-day event in The Hague in the framework of the World Bank Group-Netherlands strategic partnership ‘Food for All’. The event convened more than 80 professionals in the private sector, knowledge institutions, NGOs and policy makers engaged in agribusiness in developing countries. »

This report assesses the extent to which inclusive business models promote women’s economic empowerment. As a commercially viable business model, inclusive business bears considerable potential for women’s economic advancement, though not every inclusive business will inevitably do so. It is important to distinguish two ways in which inclusive business is relevant to women’s economic empowerment. »

This paper by FAO and KIT presents a synthesis of deliberations, and a set of policy recommendations and priority actions for pluralistic service systems (PSS). A growing variety of public and private agricultural advisory services are available today, leading to increasingly PSS. PSS hold the potential to overcome constraints related to funding, staffing and expertise, and making advisory services more demand-driven. But are PSS really able to reach the millions of farmers in need of services? »

This publication assesses how to improve agricultural value chains, particularly value chains that include smallholders. Despite increasing use of innovation-system and value-chain approaches to promote rural income growth, poverty reduction, and greater gender equity, there is little systematic knowledge about how to operationalize value-chain approaches in different contexts and how best to evaluate innovation and value-chain development. This book consists of 14 papers that present results of recent work associated with CGIAR and its partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. »

This report by ING addresses the benefits of FinTech for MSMEs in developing countries. The role of FinTech is centre-stage in the discussion on how to financially include poor people in developing economies. This report shifts the focus on to MSMEs as they are important job creators at the bottom of the pyramid. The report contains 10 main insights that could offer important opportunities for the agro-food sector. According to the authors, FinTech has the potential to impact the whole financial value chain and thus improve financial access for MSMEs. »