Istanbul, 22 March 2017 - Following on from the successful launch of Uncharted Waters, a report jointly published by Business Call to Action (BCtA), UNDP and Deloitte in October 2016, BCtA has now launched its Inclusive Business Maturity Toolkit. While the report examines how the private sector can move beyond philanthropy and corporate social responsibility to more meaningfully contribute to the SDGs, the toolkit takes this concept a step further by helping companies identify both how well they’re including people at the base of the economic pyramid (BoP) as employees, consumers and more, and how they can do it better.

The toolkit acts as a practical reference for businesses to better understand how inclusive businesses – defined as business models that integrate underserved markets into companies’ value chains – can accelerate both business growth and social impact. Participating companies are helped identify where they are on a scale from zero to a profitable and sustainable inclusive business. In a step-by-step approach, they are then provided with recommendations on how to make core changes, such as aligning with the SDGs, building internal capacity and developing products and services tailored to the BoP market.

The toolkit is not restricted to BCtA member companies; it is accessible to any company interested in understanding where they are on their own inclusive business ‘maturity journey’ and in gaining practical guidance on how to evolve into a truly inclusive business. To find out more or to start your business’s inclusive business journey, visit the Inclusive Business Maturity Toolkit here.

Launched at the United Nations in 2008, the Business Call to Action (BCtA) aims to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by challenging companies to develop inclusive business models that engage people at the base of the economic pyramid (BoP) – people with less than US$8 per day in purchasing power – as consumers, producers, suppliers, distributors of goods and services and employees.

The BCtA is a unique multilateral alliance among donor governments – including the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and with the United Nations Development Programme, which hosts the secretariat. It also benefits from the collaboration of leading global institutions such as the United Nations Global Compact.