UNDP / The Business Call to Action

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The Business Call to Action (BCtA) is UNDP's global initiative that aims to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by challenging companies to develop inclusive business models for poor and marginalized people in developing countries. New inclusive business must have potential for both commercial success and development impact in the form of socially and environmentally sustainable development. The projects selected to BCtA are required to show clear measurable results and financing in place; BCtA doesn't support projects financially but offers a platform for the projects to scale up. 141 companies had joined the initiative by the end of 2015. Inclusive business models and partnerships aim at empowering the poor and marginalized people into active consumers, producers, subcontractors, distributors and innovators in economic activity. The business models mean new ways of organizing the production, distribution, customer and stakeholder links as well as value chains of companies so that the people in developing countries have access to business activity. The business models can focus on any sector, such as food production, teaching methods, health care and environmnental protection. BCtA's short-term results will be: 1) Increase the number of companies with inclusive business commitments; 2) Increase linkages between inclusive businesses, funders, and other resources; 3) Improve tools and methods for measurement of inclusive business impact; 4) Create and disseminate more robust evidence on inclusive business; and 5) Support country-level mobilization around specific development issues. Projects to be selected in BCtA are human rights progressive: companies develop the business models together with beneficiaries, projects fulfill the rights of marginalized people and produce multiply disaggregated data. Projects support many human rights, incl. right to decent work and adequate standard of living, and also advance many other economic, social and cultural rights depending on the project. BCtA is, however, human rights transformative as an initiative since it aims at transforming economic structures and motives into such that favor poor people and vulnerable groups. The project is proposed funding of 150,000 euros in 2016.