The FINANCIAL — Leaders at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China emphasized the need for sustainable and inclusive growth, and welcomed the launch of the G20 Global Platform on Inclusive Business. The platform is a global partnership that seeks to accelerate the adoption of inclusive business policies and programs.
“We will work to ensure that our economic growth serves the needs of everyone and benefits all countries and all people including in particular women, youth and disadvantaged groups, generating more quality jobs, addressing inequalities and eradicating poverty so that no one is left behind,” the G20 leaders said in their year-end Communique.
“We acknowledge the important role of inclusive business in development, and welcome the establishment of the G20 Global Platform on Inclusive Business and its future actions. We welcome the G20 Inclusive Business Report for the 2016 Summit.”
Inclusive businesses directly reach people living at the base of the economic pyramid. The G20’s latest inclusive business report highlights inclusive business’ important role in contributing to the 2030 Agenda by reducing poverty, shrinking inequality, and contributing to sustainable economic growth. It identifies the challenges facing inclusive businesses and outlines possibilities for future action by the G20, according to the World Bank.
“The G20’s leadership on inclusive business has been powerful. The launch of the Platform on Inclusive Business and the high level of engagement by G20 members to share their experience in supporting inclusive business brings a much-needed focus on the policy challenges that these companies face in trying to reach people at the base of the pyramid,” said Eriko Ishikawa, Global Head of the Inclusive Business Team at International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.
“Inclusive business approaches can contribute greatly towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The G20 is clearly supporting this potential with their leaders’ statement and endorsement of the Global Platform on Inclusive Business, giving policy makers a platform to learn from good practices and create enabling environments for pro-poor and pro-business solutions,” said Magdy Martínez-Solimán, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.
As part of its work on inclusive business in 2016, the G20 conducted research on how specific policy instruments support inclusive business and ran a series of workshops to help policymakers learn from each other’s experiences on the topic. The G20 also invited companies to voice their opinions on inclusive business policy challenges. All of the results of the 2016 activities, including a series of country case studies, are posted on the G20 Global Platform on Inclusive Business website.
The G20’s efforts on inclusive business are jointly supported by the World Bank Group and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
IFC is the largest global investor in inclusive business having committed over $14 billion to over 500 companies. IFC captured its experience in inclusive business in its November 2014 report: Shared Prosperity through Inclusive Business.
The UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD) supports the private sector and foundations to become transformative partners in development through research, advocacy for inclusive business, facilitation of public-private dialogue and brokering partnerships. It also hosts the Business Call to Action (BCtA) initiative, a multilateral alliance established in 2008. BCtA highlights the contributions of its 137 member companies to the evolving field of inclusive business.
