SEPTEMBER 2015
FOCUS ON…
Collaboration for Innovation
Setting up the right partnerships is often cited as a key success factor for small businesses. The right partners help
businesses overcome multiple challenges, drive growth and innovation. But finding the right partner, deciding how to
collaborate and setting up a mutually beneficial relationship is not an easy process.
This month, the Hub is partnering with the newly launched DFID programme Connect to Grow, to explore the
opportunities available to inclusive businesses to collaborate for innovation. We explore the opportunities for south-
south innovation transfer, speak to businesses that are keen to collaborate, and highlight those that have already
done so successfully. We draw in perspectives from discussions at SEED Forum and from IFC and World Economic
Forum.
Connect to Grow: helping enterprises collaborate for innovation
Indian success story: Kissan Dharamvir’s agri-processing products sell across India,
East Africa & South Asia
Connect to Grow has been set up to help enterprises find
suitable partners that can help them expand and overcome the
many challenges they face working at the Base of the Pyramid.
In his blog, Connect Team Leader David Irwin explains how
Connect will link businesses in South Asia and Sub-Saharan
African looking for innovations, with businesses in India that
already have proven innovations and are looking for new
markets.
The need for appropriate innovations was identified by
enterprises as a key challenge to scale at Connect’s recent
launch event in Nairobi. As both Indian and African enterprises
presented their experiences, it became clear that there is huge
potential for collaboration. Daniel Idowu reports from Nairobi.
India has been applying the Gandhian philosophy of getting
more, from less, for more, for six decades now. Innovation
Alchemy’s Parvathi Menon presents the business case for
collaboration between Indian innovators and enterprises in
other developing countries.
What do the businesses themselves feel about cross-border
collaboration? We speak to Indian poultry business KEGG
Farms and low-cost health insurance provider SAS Poorna in
these video interviews.
In early 2015, the IFC and Intellecap released ‘Corridors for
Shared Prosperity’, a report that strongly advocates south-south
collaboration between Indian and African enterprises. IFC’s
Pallavi Shrivastava speaks to us here about the key drivers for
successful collaboration and the importance of a supportive
ecosystem.
Collaborative innovation is also the key focus of this month’s
Editor’s Choice. Caroline Ashley reviews a report from the World
Economic Forum that highlights different types of collaboration
between mature and young businesses and a 4-stage process for
effective partnerships.
German company Smart Hydro Power is partnering with
Colombian firm ENERA SAS, the German Energy Agency and
Colombia’s National Training Service to provide its sustainable
irrigation solutions to small-holder farmers. Inclusive Business
Accelerator find out more about the collaboration.
The Business innovation Facility is supporting a mentoring
scheme for inclusive businesses in tourism sector in Myanmar.
Tom Harrison discusses the mutual benefits of these schemes for
both mentor and mentee.
Partnerships often come in the most entertaining forms. PROOFs
has been workings with Mobile Movies to increase uptake of
nutrition and hygiene products in rural Bangladesh. Find out how
it works.
Collaboration across sectors can create something new and be
more than the sum of both parts. Graham Day discusses the need
for innovation in education in Latin America and argues for new
public-private sector partnerships.
Building Bridges for Impact was the main theme at the just
concluded SEED Symposium 2015, encouraging key inclusive
business stakeholders to work together to amplify impact.
How can investors & enterprises collaborate to grow? And what
has FOMO got to do with impact investing? Carolin Schramm
sums up some top tips offered at the SEED Symposium for
inclusive businesses looking to access impact investment.
At the session on designing inclusive value chains hosted
by the Inclusive Business Action Network (IBAN), the
importance of knowledge exchange and reflection between
companies was highlighted. IBAN’s Mareike Grytz gives us
an insider view. Bosch India which was part of the session,
speak to us about a new dairy innovation they’ve
developed.
Smart Hydro Power sustainable irrigation solutions for smallholder farmers
PROOFs and Mobile Movies partnering to increase uptake of nutrition and hygiene
products
A workshop bringing together investors and enterprises at SEED Africa Symposium 2015
Are you looking for a new and effective
way to grow your enterprise?
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Enterprise interview: SEED 2015 Award winner Vula Mobile is
helping to make fast, efficient, medical referrals through their smart
phone app. Will Mapham tells us how tech can change the way rural
communities’ access healthcare.
Enterprise interview: Libby Daghlian from SEED 2015 Award winner
Days for Girls explains how their Enterprise training programme is
creating jobs and changing girls lives in Uganda.
VIDEO: In the last ten years, SEED has supported more than 200
social and environmental enterprises enabling collaboration and
peer learning. Its Flagship Report traces the progress made in the
last decade by the organisation and its award winners. Lead Author
Mirko Zuerker summarises the key findings in this video interview.
Days for Girls’ enterprise training programme is
changing lives in Uganda
MORE NEWS ON THE HUB
The Inclusive Business Accelerator (IBA) recently organized a training
course on Inclusive Business Tools and Services in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Find out what they learned and how you can be involved.
EVENT: Business Call to Action's Sixth Annual Forum will take place
on September 24th in New York. Find out more about the event and
how to attend. Read about their new Impact Measurement Services.
EVENT: The BoP Sector Dialogue on Health will take place at the
Ecosystem Day of the 2nd Globalizer on Economic Inclusion in Latin
America on September 25th in Buenos Aires. Register today.
CHALLENGE: The IIX N-Peace Innovation Challenge seeks to redefine
the dominant narrative by catalysing a bottom-up approach to
building peace that is inclusive, sustainable and scalable. Supported
by the United Nations Development Programme the IIX N-Peace
Challenge will select six Impact Enterprises as winners.
Register to attend the BCTA Annual Forum today
IIX N-Peace Innovation Challenge
Why go it alone? Learn more about how
partnerships can help your inclusive
business with this Checklist from the
Business Innovation Facility
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