WBCSD-SNV Alliance: Creating inclusive business opportunities by linking local communities with big business

At the crossroads between business case, poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability

Sahba Sobhani, Program Manager, and Austine Gasnier, Research Associate at the Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) recently wrote an article titled The Poverty and Environment Nexus: A Business Opportunity?, in which they highlight inclusive business models that contribute to both human development and environmental sustainability. They showcase examples in the domains of water provision, energy generation, agriculture, recycling, and tourism.

Their article also underlines that grasping these business opportunities “is difficult due to numerous market constraints, such as limited market information, inadequate infrastructure, ineffective regulatory frameworks, missing knowledge and skills, or restricted access to financial services.” Entrepreneurs have found successful strategies to overcome these constraints by adapting their products, investing in infrastructure and education, leveraging the strengths of the poor, combining resources and capabilities with others, or engaging with governments. But Sobhani and Gasnier rightly argue that “further research is needed to get a better understanding of how economic, social and environmental value is created and distributed, and what results can inclusive business models generate.”

Biodiversity business

Biodiversity can be a good business. Business, on the other side, can be also very good for conservation, argues a recently completed study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the use of biodiversity businesses for conservation purposes.

The project, funded by the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Town and Country Planning (MEEDDAT), assessed IUCN members’ needs and determined how to enhance the success of their efforts. It also allowed the members to share their experiences, lessons learned and challenges encountered in developing such businesses.

How can sustainable, nature-based enterprise help the world's 2 billion rural poor escape the cycle of poverty?

Today, 2.6 billion people live on less than US$2 a day. 75 percent of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid live in rural areas and are dependent on natural resources for some or all of their subsistence. The rural poor face even tougher challenges ahead, as climate change threatens to destroy the ecosystems and natural resources on which they depend. 

A recent report by the World Resource Institute, titled World Resources 2008: Roots of Resilience – Growing the Wealth of the Poor, argues that through well-designed, community-based sustainable enterprises, the rural poor can improve the way they draw from their area’s natural resources. Such initiatives become particularly urgent as climate change threatens to destroy the ecosystems and natural resources on which the poor depend.