Why Join

• BCtA raises awareness, provides recognition and visibility to quality inclusive business commitments and supports the inclusive business journey to enhance performance and social impact. We provide:
  • Leadership platform for recognition and greater visibility
  • Support in impact measurement and effectiveness
  • Advocacy for inclusive business support

• Leadership platform for recognition and greater visibility

  Under this area, BCtA provides the following services to its members:
  • Through its global platform, BCtA provides visibility and recognition to quality inclusive businesses commitments
  • Selective membership in a UN-based platform
  • BCtA features member companies globally through various communication channels, case studies, events and webinars
  • BCtA facilitates linkages between businesses, knowledge partners, funders, and other resources

• Support in impact measurement and effectiveness

  Under this area, BCtA provides the following services to its members:
  • Supports companies to better plan for social impact, as well as monitor and drive inclusive business performance
  • Offering a suite of  public tools and conducting workshops and trainings to help companies advance their inclusive business management practices, and allowing companies to understand where they are in their inclusive business maturity curve against peers and how to advance in their journey

• Advocacy for inclusive business support

  Under this area, BCtA provides the following services to its members:
  • Gathering a credible evidence base of quality inclusive business models across sectors and geographies that deliver social impact and contribute to the SDGs
  • Increasing awareness among policy makers on the benefits of the inclusive business approach and thus improving the environment for inclusive businesses overall

How to Join

• BCtA membership does not cost money. Companies join BCtA with specific, time-bound commitments to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through commercially viable inclusive business models that engage base of the economic pyramid (BOP) populations – those living on less than $10 per day in purchasing power in 2015 US dollars.
• Inclusive business commitments are assessed against a set of Eligibility Criteria:
  • Download Eligibility Criteria here
  • Take Eligibility Assessment here
• Eligible companies are encouraged to reach out to the BCtA team at bcta@undp.org to discuss their interest in membership. Companies can also submit a draft application to bcta@undp.org. The current BCtA membership application (last updated May 11, 2020) is available for download here. In completing this form, companies are required to describe their inclusive business commitment and their key objectives, as well as provide detail on the characteristics of the product/service, value chain inclusion, impact at BOP, commercial viability, innovation and scalability.
• The BCtA Secretariat conducts due diligence and risk assessment on all aspiring members according to UNDP’s policy for due diligence. BCtA assesses both the company’s overall environmental, social, governance (ESG) and industry performance as well as the quality of its inclusive business commitment as it relates to the potential for commercial success, impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and benefits for the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) populations. Furthermore, all BCtA members are expected to adhere to the BCtA code of conduct.
   

Eligibility

1. The company demonstrates its adherence to sustainable business practices, especially related to gender equity, human rights, labor, community well-being, environment, and good governance & management.
   • This can be demonstrated through existence of the relevant policies and processes to ensure implementation and adherence to such practices.
   • In the application, companies need to demonstrate how the above ESG practices are used to ensure the well-being, fair treatment, participation, and positive impact on the BoP communities and individuals it works with.
2. The inclusive business initiative the company applies with demonstrates the potential to create both financial returns for the company and economic and social returns for low-income communities in developing countries.
   • To meet the requirement for financial returns, an initiative should:
     • Engage the core competencies of a company and be a sustainable part of its business, as opposed to being driven by philanthropic or social investment goals;
     • Have potential to be further scalable and replicable within a given market or across new markets; and
     • Contribute to achieving a company’s commercial targets such as increased revenue, access to new markets, improved quality of supply chains or an increased customer base.
   • To meet the requirement for economic and social returns, an initiative should:
     • Responsibly integrate underserved populations into the company’s value chain as suppliers, producers, retailers, distributors, employees, stakeholders or a combination thereof, or provide appropriate and affordable products or services to low-income consumers;
     • Contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and
     • Be located in one or more developing countries.
3. The inclusive business commitment the company applies with represents a new approach to doing business for the company, enabling it to access and serve markets in ways that were not previously possible.
   • The initiative should not constitute a long-standing, mainstream business activity for the company without any added value or innovation.
   • It may be a scale-up or an expansion of existing business model; break-through to new markets and geographies; innovative component to the model that increases benefits to BOP communities; or new partnerships among companies and institutions.
4. The inclusive business commitment is able to generate measurable results.
   • Application clearly identifies where an initiative will be implemented, provides quantitative and qualitative targets for the expected business and development outcomes, and defines a timeline for reaching these targets.
   • Once a company is accepted as BCtA member, it will be required to submit annual updates on the initiative’s progress against business and development indicators, identified in the original application.
5. Financing for the initiative is in place.
   • BCtA does not provide funding for member companies to implement their initiatives.
   • A company must demonstrate that financing is secured for at least the initial part of a proposed initiative and there is a financing strategy for the entire duration of the initiative.
   • While initial funding for pilots can come from donor organizations or foundations, companies must be able to present a plan for creating a sustainable business model that does not rely on long-term grant funding.