Case Studies: Inclusive Business

Mar 5, 2021

Building Inclusive Supply Chains

IFC’s latest publication “Building Inclusive Supply Chains” shows how MUJI has built an inclusive supply chain positively impacting on small producers at the base of the pyramid (BOP) who are mostly women, and how its stakeholders perceive its benefits. The report reflects direct feedback gathered during interviews and surveys conducted by IFC with different stakeholders in MUJI's supply chain -- including producers, customers, employees, and management. The report highlights key challenges and opportunities that stem from engagement with the BOP producers in emerging markets. It also provides insights into good practice in incorporating the BOP producers into global value chains, drawing on MUJI’s experiences.

Feb 5, 2020

Ashesi University

Ashesi University was established to develop entrepreneurial and ethical leaders with the skills to tackle Africa’s pressing challenges and the integrity to shun corruption. Since opening in 2002, Ashesi has taken on a leadership role to promote quality tertiary education and to encourage more centers of excellence in Africa.

Mar 27, 2019

Fedecrédito (Spanish)

Fedecrédito is the largest federation of 48 Credit Unions and 7 Workers’ Banks offering loans, savings accounts, family remittance payments and other financial products throughout El Salvador. The case study highlights best practices the federation employed to achieve its financial results while maintaining its social mandate.

Mar 27, 2019

Fedecrédito (Summary)

Fedecrédito is the largest federation of 48 Credit Unions and 7 Workers’ Banks offering loans, savings accounts, family remittance payments and other financial products throughout El Salvador. The summary highlights best practices the federation employed to achieve its financial results while maintaining its social mandate.

Dec 12, 2018

Goodlife Pharmacy

Goodlife Pharmacy offers safe, high-quality medicine to consumers in Kenya and Uganda, including lower-income 'emerging consumers'. Ultimately, Goodlife aims to become a health hub—a one-stop-shop to meet basic primary health care needs through pharmaceuticals and health care services. In the four years since it was founded in 2014, Goodlife has become East Africa’s largest pharmacy chain.

Apr 12, 2018

Eurasia University

Xi’an Eurasia University provides high-quality, employment-focused private education in Shaanxi, China and is changing the perception of privately-run tertiary education in the country. With an education philosophy to maximize the employment potential of its students, Eurasia is committed to offering a combination of an applied curriculum and student-centered learning with hands-on industry experience. In 2016, 85 percent of students secured a job prior to graduation.

Jan 31, 2018

Luminus

Luminus Education is committed to transforming technical and vocational education (TVET) in Jordan and advancing the Education 4 Employment philosophy. Based in the region with the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, Luminus offers high-quality, market-oriented programs and recognizes that equipping Jordanian youth with vocational skills is important for both economic and security reasons.

Apr 26, 2017

salauno

salauno’s mission is to “eliminate needless blindness in Mexico” by providing affordable and accessible eye care services to patients of all income levels. In the first five years since its founding in 2011, the company has provided eye care to over 230,000 people and grown from one surgical center in Mexico City into a network of ten mid-sized Diagnostic Centers with a staff of over 200, offering a range of services throughout the Mexico City Metropolitan Area and the broader Valley of Mexico. For more information on salauno visit their website at http://www.salauno.com.mx/.

Mar 1, 2017

Corporación Grupo Fybeca S.A. (GPF)

Fybeca a pharmaceutical retailer with a history of innovation, saw an opportunity to complement its high-end pharmacy chain, Fybeca, with a down market chain so that customers could access quality medicines at economical prices. In 2000, GPF launched SanaSana — its first pharmacy for low-income customers.

Sep 16, 2016

bKash

bKash is a mobile financial services company founded in 2010 in Bangladesh. The company brings the unbanked into the formal financial system. It has played a major role in building Bangladesh’s mobile financial services industry from scratch and is the country’s leading player, accounting for 75 percent of the market. It enables 23million people who once dealt only in cash to send remittances, save, and pay for products and services using their mobile phones. This case study is in the 2016 Built for Change report which features companies that are employing unique strategies to integrate people living at the base of the pyramid into the companies’ business operations.

Sep 16, 2016

MicroEnsure

MicroEnsure has developed pioneering insurance solutions for low-income people in Africa and Asia living on less than $4 per day. Founded in 2008, the company has introduced over 200 types of insurance for life, health, and accidents for the poor, and distributes its products through mobile network operators, microfinance institutions, and other organizations that low-income customers trust. The company reaches more than 40 million customers in 15 countries in Africa and Asia. This case study is in the 2016 Built for Change report which features companies that are employing unique strategies to integrate people living at the base of the pyramid into the companies’ business operations.

Sep 16, 2016

Probiotech

Probiotech is a leading processor and producer of animal health and nutrition products in Nepal. The agribusiness was founded in 2000 and produces animal feed for small-scale farmers in Nepal, among other lines of work. The company improves the productivity of its 12,000 feed customers by offering training on farm management and by leveraging its extensive distribution network to provide high quality inputs. This case study is in the 2016 Built for Change report which features companies that are employing unique strategies to integrate people living at the base of the pyramid into the companies’ business operations.

Sep 16, 2016

NephroPlus

NephroCare Health Services Private Limited (NephroPlus) is a provider network of kidney dialysis services across 15 states in India. Founded in 2010, NephroPlus delivers these services in large metropolitan areas as well as underserved, small cities at prices that are 30 to 40 percent lower than hospitals. As of 2015, the company has 75 centers across India that service more than 6,000 patients and provide approximately 50,000 dialysis treatments each month. This case study is in the 2016 Built for Change report which features companies that are employing unique strategies to integrate people living at the base of the pyramid into the companies’ business operations.

Sep 16, 2016

Bridge International Academies

Bridge International Academies is an education organization founded in 2008 in Kenya, and grown to serve almost 100,000 students in over 470 locations in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and India. The company offers affordable, low-cost education to primary school children in underserved, low-income communities. The schools employ low-cost technology to provide teaching content to its teachers and to monitor the delivery of the content and teaching techniques on a real time basis. The company reaches more than 40 million customers in 15 countries in Africa and Asia. This case study is in the 2016 Built for Change report which features companies that are employing unique strategies to integrate people living at the base of the pyramid into the companies’ business operations.

Aug 1, 2015

Faculdade Mauricio de Nassau

Mauricio is a leading forprofit provider of undergraduate, graduate, and technical education programs in northern and northeastern Brazil. Founded in 2003 with one campus in the city of Recife in Pernambuco state, FMN now operates nine campuses across five states. FMN was one of the top 15 post-secondary education providers in Brazil in terms of sales in 2010.

Sep 1, 2014

Millicom

Millicom is a leading international telecommunications and media company dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America and Africa. Millicom sets the pace when it comes to providing digital lifestyle services to the world’s emerging markets, giving access to the world, primarily through mobile devices. Operating in fourteen countries, Millicom offers innovative and customer-centric products.

Aug 1, 2014

Manila Water

Manila Water Company, Inc. (Manila Water) operates in Metro Manila’s east service zone, home to 6.1 million people. Manila Water’s inclusive business model creates partnerships with local government units and community-based organizations to include communities in the design and implementation of water supply systems. For instance, by visibly placing water meters in public areas, the community can regulate itself as water use and fees become more transparent. As a result, 99% of customers in this region have 24-hour water availability and customers now pay 20 times below per cubic meter rates previously charged by private water vendors.

Jun 1, 2014

Kenya Tea Development Agency

The Kenya Tea Development Agency Ltd. (KTDA) was established in 2000 and is owned by 54 tea companies which, in turn, have 550,000 small tea farmers as individual shareholders. The tea companies collectively own 66 tea processing factories. KTDA emerged from the privatization of the Kenya Tea Development Authority (the Authority), a parastatal agency created in the 1960s to support small farmers. KTDA’s services cut across the entire tea value chain and include inputs and agri-extension, transportation, warehousing, processing, marketing, and financing. KTDA farmers receive 75-80% of the final tea price, a higher payout than farmers in neighboring countries. More than 62,000 farmers have received loans since 2009.

May 1, 2014

Engro Foods

Engro Foods Ltd. (EFL) builds strong relationships with small dairy farmers to ensure there is a high quality and consistent supply of milk for its dairy products. Approximately 200,000 farmers supply milk to EFL, primarily through its network of 1,400 Milk Collection Centers (MCCs) and 1,500 Village Milk Collectors (VMCs). In 2012, EFL received the G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation Award. In 2013, the Computerworld Honors Program, which recognizes visionary applications of information technology to promote positive social, economic and educational change, recognized EFL as a laureate for its EMAN system.

May 1, 2014

Roshan

Roshan (Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Corp) is a leading telecommunications provider with over six million mobile telephony subscribers. Its network is available in 240 cities and towns throughout Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. The company engages low-income people through its core business in two key ways. On the customer side, Roshan offers mobile telephony as well as value-added services such as mobile payments, remittances, and agri-commodity prices among other offerings. On the distribution side, Roshan’s 33,000 agents – typically micro and small business entrepreneurs – sign-up mobile subscribers, sell airtime, and offer value-added services.

May 1, 2014

Jain Irrigation

Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. (JISL) is the largest manufacturer of efficient irrigation systems worldwide and a leading processor of fruits and vegetables. Jain’s micro-irrigation systems (MIS) are more water and energy efficient than flood irrigation and increases quality and quantity of produce that farmers are able to grow. The company ensures its systems are affordable through relationships with banks, who provide credit and channel government subsidies. Through its model, farmers using MIS have increased yields by 60%-130% and raised their gross incomes by $500-$6,000 per year.

May 1, 2014

AEGEA

AEGEA Saneamento e Participações S.A. (AEGEA) is a leading private sector provider of water and sanitation services in Brazil. The company operates in 32 municipalities in six states in Brazil including two frontier region states, providing water and sanitation services to 2.2 million people. Approximately 12.8% of the households (285,000 people) in the municipalities served by AEGEA's concessionaires earn up to the minimum wage per month. AEGEA offers competitive tariffs to customers at all income levels – often lower than rates customers previously paid. Its social tariff program grants a 50% discount on regular rates to qualified customers.

May 1, 2014

Promigas

Founded in 1974, Promigas is one of the largest and oldest private utility providers of natural gas in Colombia. In addition to its own operations, it has investments in 18 other companies in natural gas transmission and distribution as well as in power distribution in Colombia and Perú. Its customers include power plants, cement, petrochemical, and mining companies as well as residential users. In its home country, Colombia, Promigas through its five distribution companies serves 2.9 million households.

May 1, 2014

Fundación Cardiovascular (FCV)

Established in 1986 as a nonprofit foundation by a group of cardiologists to address the more than 50% mortality rate due to cardiovascular diseases in eastern Colombia, FCV has grown to become the largest private sector health care network in the country. FCV offers tertiary level services at hospitals as well as telemedicine, training, manufacturing of hospital products, assembly of bioengineering equipment, and hospital management software among other areas.

Dec 1, 2013

Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios (Uniminuto)

Uniminuto is a rapidly growing not-for-profit tertiary education institution, established in 1990 in Bogotá, Colombia. Uniminuto offers affordable, high-quality technical, technological and university education. Its largest presence is at the principal Bogotá campus where 30% of its students attend school. Its national network reaches nearly 82,000 students in 48 locations in over 35 municipalities, with over 50% of its students enrolled in distance learning programs.