Transforming Business Relationships: Inclusive Business in Latin America
Date issued
Dec 2015
This report uses qualitative methodologies to investigate the extent to which inclusive business initiatives can make a substantial contribution to improving the living conditions of the poor while at the same time providing companies with enough incentives to scale up such initiatives. The report examines three questions: (1) Is there a business case for different IB models -for the company as well as for the communities involved- that expresses the value generated for both parties? (2) What does "inclusiveness" in such models look like and how can it be assessed? (3) What conditions need to be in place to achieve IB results, and how can they be sustained and taken to scale? During a first stage, desk research of over 150 inclusive business cases mapped at the global level using publications from between 2005 and 2010 informed the creation of a hypothesis as well as the identification of generalizable guidelines and lessons learned. In a second stage, 27 Latin American cases -either projects led by the Multilateral Investment Fund, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB-MIF) or initiatives led by the international not for profit organization SNV- were selected to conduct ethnographic studies of the beneficiaries of these projects, plus in-depth interviews with representatives of the anchor companies.