The African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka has called for enhancement of policies to strengthen their role in growing inclusive business. Inclusive business, he said was an effective means of increasing private sector contribution towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
President Kaberuka was speaking at a forum, "Inclusive Business as a contributor to the SDG implementation", which was held at the sidelines of the Financing for Development conference. It was organinsed by the G20 Turkish Presidency in collaboration with Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA), World Bank Group, United Nations Development Programme, among others. The event sought to showcase the potential of inclusive business (IB) in aligning private sector core business outputs with SDGs.
Inclusive business is perceived as a sustainable business that benefits low income communities. This business approach contributes to poverty reduction through inclusion of low income communities in its value chain processes.
The forum heard how private sector can play a valuable role in development through inclusion of disadvantaged women and men at the "base of the pyramid (BoP)" via business models that involve poor people as an integral part of the business proposition -consumers and suppliers.
IB affords those at the BoP greater access to goods, services and supply chains, while at the same time allowing companies to achieve commercial sustainability and growth.
Mobilising private sector was cited as critical in implementation of the post-2015 agenda through co-financing and transformation of business practices towards sustainability. Accelerated growth and replication of IB models which go beyond corporate social responsibility and philanthropy were mentioned as ways through which private sector could advance implementation of SDGs.
Recognition the potential of IB's contribution to poverty eradication, the G20 Turkish Presidency tasked the G20 Development Working Group (DWG) with developing a G20 Framework on Inclusive Business.
The G20 Turkish Presidency will outline its overall G20 agenda, how Inclusive Business fits within the overall G20 framework and how the G20 Inclusive Business Framework has the potential to support SDGs. It will serve as a long-term tool for G20 engagement in SDG implementation.
