The business case for SDGs: an analysis of inclusive business models in emerging economies

ABSTRACT

In September 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were endorsed by the United Nations and adopted by all 193 Member States. The SDGs integrate the 5P’s: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership and clearly stress the need for all stakeholders to collaborate to create a sustainable world. Most importantly, the SDGs appeal to the central and diverse role that the business sector can play to deliver on the SDGs. This paper provides an analysis of inclusive business (IB) models as market-based solutions to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and benefit those at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). We investigate the IB models and their social impact in 20 organizations from emerging economies across five different sectors. The findings should help increase the uptake and scale of quality IB models and practices among the private sector, development communities, and governments to promote inclusive economic growth and social impact.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• inclusive business
• Base of the Pyramid (BoP)
• private sector
• emerging economies
• social impact

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called directly on the business community to get involved: ‘I’m counting on the private sector. Now is the time to mobilize the global business community as never before. The case is clear. Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals will improve the environment for doing business and building markets. Trillions of dollars in public and private funds are to be redirected towards the SDGs, creating huge opportunities for responsible companies to deliver solutions.’

2. http://report.businesscommission.org/uploads/Executive-Summary.pdf.

3. Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals: Business action & Millennials’ views, a survey conducted by Corporate Citizenship in July–August 2016.

4. Millennials are people born between 1982 and 1996 and there are 80 million of them in the US. They spend $600 billion annually and that is 28% of all daily per-person consumer spending. This spending has been forecasted to increase to 35% by 2030.

5. This includes the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the United Nations Development Programme with UNDP.

6. G20 Inclusive Business Framework: Base of the Economic Pyramid (or BOP) is used to describe men and women who are low-income or who lack access to basic goods and services. The low-income segment is commonly considered to include people earning up to $8/day in purchasing power parity terms (PPP).