Business Call to Action News Bite | May 2018

Dear BCtA Community

These last months, the BCtA team has been digging as usual into the wide world of Inclusive Business (IB). We’ve rounded up the auspicious tales of a few member companies, revived an old partnership to continue spreading the word of IB; and grown our community with four new exemplary companies.

Now the inclusive business deep dive will continue. In the coming months, we’ll be tackling how best to manage human rights issues with IB, compiling best management practices for IB success, and taking stock of the state of IB in the world. We’re hoping that all of you, our BCtA community, will join us and add your voice and experience along the way.

As you may have noticed, we also decided to mix things up for our newsletter: the BCtA News Bite – a small bite for when you’re hungry for some IB knowledge. Share your stories in The Voice of Our Members; see what’s to come in What's on the Horizon?; and have a look at all the Insights from the Field.

Also, we want to introduce our newest team members – Ivan, our new Outreach and Membership Lead, and our two new Impact Measurement Specialists, Rabayl and Tolga.

Our next News Bite will come during the beautiful month of August.

Paula Pelaez – Head of Business Call to Action

The Voice of our Community

How to Build an Inclusive Business – Lucky (Biomass), Nash & Peter (SafeMotos) and Norihiko (Kaiho Sangyo) take you on their inclusive business journeys. Building an inclusive company from the ground up is a path paved with obstacles, but with the right mix of learning and determination, it can be a most rewarding one. Get inspired here.

Tech Tackling Poverty? FrugalLoos Fighting Disease? – Learn how business innovations are improving lives on BCtA’s Guardian Lab. We’ve rebooted our partnership with the Guardian to bring you fresh stories on innovation from around the world and keep tabs on the ever-evolving world of inclusive business. Enjoy!

New Additions to the BCtA Family – Since February, we have welcomed four new members to BCtA: Crepes & Waffles, Divine Masters Ltd, GiftedMom and Crystal. From Georgia to Uganda, Colombia to Cameroon, these four companies demonstrate that inclusive business comes in all shapes and sizes. Explore their models and discover their contribution to the SDGs here.

Currently, our community is at 213 members in over 60 countries. We want to remind you that this large network can be leveraged by each of you to connect with other members.

Congratulations Edgar! – BCtA nominated Edgar Montenegro, founder and CEO of CorpoCampo for the Oslo Business for Peace Award and, guess what, he won! Following in the footsteps of Paul Polman and many other outstanding business leaders, Edgar’s work in Colombia was recognised in May in Oslo. Read Edgar’s OpEd on our Guardian Lab. What's on the Horizon?

The Landscape of Inclusive Business in Healthcare – BCtA will be in Manila 13-15 June for the Saving Lives Sustainably Asia Forum 2018. We will host a session on Business Model Innovations with Sehat Kahani, GiftedMom and Sanofi, as well as a workshop on Impact Management.

The Far Reach of the SDGs – The SDGs are increasingly influential on how governments, organisations and companies are measuring and reporting their impact. BCtA shared its experience in a webinar hosted by the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford on May 30th. If you missed it, keep an eye here for the recording.

We received valuable feedback on our recently launched Impact Lab! – We are integrating them as they come along and we encourage all of you to go have a look and let us know what you think. This is the only impact tool for Inclusive Business integrating the SDGs and we are so confident that it can make a huge difference for your business.

Don’t be shy – let’s talk about Human Rights – Inclusive business entails working directly with low-income and often vulnerable populations. BCtA is working on building members’ awareness and capacity on management of human rights issues in their inclusive business models. Stay tuned for more

Management Practices for IB Success & the State of IB – We’ve been working with some of our members to identify and analyse best management practices for inclusive business success. We want to hear more! We’ll be reaching out to companies in the coming months to get more insight into the interplay between management and successful inclusive business. Also keep your eyes peeled for our survey to explore the state of inclusive business.

Annual Member Reporting – BCtA annual reporting is coming up soon. We’ve been working on an improved format to make reporting progress on your BCtA initiative easier than ever. Keep your eyes on your inbox for our call for results reporting! Insights from the Field

Are you a woman bringing the SDGs to life through your business? – The SDGs&Her competition for women-owned and women-led micro-enterprises is calling all women in business to enter a contest with UNDP, the World Bank and UN Women. Deadline: June 30, 2018.

Are you a millennial entrepreneur under the age of 30 leading an organization driving change in your community? – Apply now for the second annual GSG Millennial Honors award from ANDE.

The female moto drivers of Kigali – Read Al Jazeera's article about SafeMotos’s work and impact on women. Rwanda's most popular form of transportation is getting an overhaul and changing perceptions of women with its first female drivers.

A Simple Way to Improve a Billion Lives: Eyeglasses – Check out the amazing work of VisionSpring, EYElliance and our BCtA member Aravind Eye Hospital in the New York Times.