One of the most effective ways businesses can contribute to the SDGs is through “inclusive business”. The G20 defined inclusive business as “a private sector approach to providing goods, services and livelihoods on a commercially viable basis, either at scale or scalable, to people living at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) by making them part of the value chain of companies’ core business as suppliers, distributors, retailers or customers”. Given the potential of inclusive business for delivering market-based solutions to the SDGs, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) decided to accelerate the implementation of inclusive business practices by identifying capacity gaps and barriers to the adoption of relevant models and the identification of drivers that would enable businesses to better promote and implement inclusive business models.

Following successful research studies conducted in Turkey (2015) and the Philippines (2017), in close collaboration with the UNDP Brazil Country Office, esteemed academics and business associations, IICPSD initiated the Business+ research study in Brazil in late 2017. Brazil provides a particularly interesting context for inclusive business. 

This Business+ Brazil report aims to analyse the state of inclusive business in Brazil three years on from the comprehensive Inclusive Markets in Brazil report. Furthermore, this report provides specific recommendations which could be useful for policymakers, business leaders and development practitioners in their efforts to advance inclusive business practices and the role of the private sector in development.