How private sector can help achieve Sustainable Development Goals across the country

With almost half of all Kenyans living below the poverty line, efforts to tackle poverty and improve living, working and health conditions must be stepped up if the East African nation is to achieve its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commitments by 2030.

A new report, New Horizons: Accelerating Sustainable Development through Inclusive Business in Kenya, outlines the role that private sector can play in meeting these targets and improving the lives of poor Kenyans.

“Enormous potential lies in aligning private sector approaches with the sustainable development goals, and nowhere is this more relevant than Kenya. With almost half the population living below the poverty line, there is both great need and great potential for businesses to include this demographic as customers, clients, employees, suppliers and more,” said UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Siddharth Chatterjee.

The report, launched on 22 June 2017 by inclusive business advocacy platform Business Call to Action (BCtA) hosted by the United Nations Development Programme, examines how businesses can be more ‘inclusive’ by providing employment, goods, services and livelihoods in a commercially viable manner to people living at the base of the economic pyramid (defined as those earning less than USD 8 a day). By doing so, they are directly contributing to a range of SDGs, including SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being, and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.

Globally, the 4.5 billion people living at the base of the economic pyramid (BoP) are estimated to spend over US$5 trillion per year (in terms of 2005 purchasing power parity), making this a bigger consumption segment than middle- and higher-income earners combined. In Kenya, the BoP market segment accounts for 84 percent of yearly household consumption.

Basing its findings on input from 50 companies already using inclusive business models in Kenya, the report finds that Kenya’s vibrant inclusive business community is already tapping into this market.

For example, solar energy provider Mobisol has expanded its client base by providing affordable solar energy to families who could not previously afford it, enabling children to study at night and perform better at school, while avocado oil producer Olivado is working directly with farmers to reliably trace the quality and source of its fruit, ensuring that farmers receive a consistent income and better working conditions.

“Inclusive businesses are flourishing across the country in a range of sectors and people living at the base of the economic pyramid are accessing high-quality training and skills development along with better healthcare and insurance, and establishing more sustainable sources of incomes,” said Business Call to Action Programme Manager Paula Pelaez.

The report, produced by BCtA with support from Sustainable Inclusive Business Kenya, outlines key opportunities and challenges facing inclusive businesses in Kenya, and makes recommendations on key improvements needed to enable these models to grow, such as more supportive regulations, better coordination between educational institutions and the private sector to ensure students are work-ready upon graduation, and improved coordination between development actors and businesses to reduce duplication of efforts and ensure sustainability of interventions, particularly in relation to skills building.