Inclusive business: business for real

How do we work?

Chain development: Together with research institutions and commercial entities, we collaborate to design innovative and tailored methods to improve the inclusivity of value chains, creating win-win solutions for companies, farmers and consumers.

Farmer Organisation professionalisation: with 40 years’ experience of working with smallholder farmers’ organisations across three continents, Rikolto has developed an in-depth knowledge of the challenges they face to become solid and professional business organisations. We strengthen their capacity to respond to market demands in terms of quality, food safety and sustainability.

Inclusive business to change the recipe of our food system

Exploring, measuring and evaluating: We are frontrunners in creating and testing innovative tools for Monitoring and Evaluation such as the Inclusive Business Scan based on Sensemaker®, the SCOPE assessment or the LINK methodology.

Food policy development: Within the framework of our Food Smart Cities programme, we collaborate with municipal governments and food businesses to create closer rural-urban linkages, promote sustainable procurement, and set up participatory governance mechanisms.

A three-tier approach and a broad network of partners We join forces with a broad network of partners to develop and pilot these innovative and scalable practices. Next, we share the evidence we gather in the field in strategic networks to promote scaling of our practices and to influence the international political agenda in favour of sustainable and inclusive food systems. We are founding member of AMEA and active contributors to strategic networks as ANDE, AVPN, One Planet Network, the Sustainable Food Lab, the Sustainable Rice Platform and the Cocoa Sustainability Partnership.

Rikolto’s has

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“When we talk about inclusive business, we mean serious business. It’s all about doing business with a long-term outlook, fulfilling the needs of farmers and buyers alike. With this kind of forward-looking strategy. they can plan ahead more carefully, resulting in stronger businesses” Chris Claes Executive Director of Rikolto International

Contact josephine.ecklu@rikolto.org

International Inclusive Business Coordinator

Charlotte Flechet

Rikolto believes that private actors can play an important role in addressing this challenge.

Companies and NGOs are collaborating to launch inclusive initiatives and develop effective and scalable solutions by using complementary skills and resources.

Long-term collaborations can solve structural problems that farmers and buyers are facing and can bring mutual benefit both for companies and low-income communities.

private companies have already fruitfully collaborated with Rikolto!

Josephine Ecklu

How can we guarantee that future generations retain access to affordable quality food, and at the same time ensure that smallholders increase their resilience to climate change, uplifting their livelihoods?

How can we facilitate the shift towards a more sustainable, inclusive and safe food system?

charlotte.flechet@rikolto.org

International Food Smart Cities Coordinator

Rikolto

rikolto.org

For over 10 years, Rikolto has been facilitating Inclusive Business models in 15 countries by engaging both private and public stakeholders

In Honduras, El Consorcio, which unites 8 farmers’ organisations, supplies quality vegetables to 50 supermarkets of La Colonia under fair conditions and prices.

Rikolto, Mars Food and AMANAH farmers’ cooperative facilitated improvements in quality, traceability, and collective selling for about 7,500 cocoa farmers in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Inclusive Business: what does it mean for Rikolto?

Rikolto uses the 6 principles of the LINK Methodology developed by CIAT, to define whether a Business is truly inclusive.

Chain wide collaboration Cooperation between the actors in the chain with a common goal

Effective market linkages New relations between all chain actors, leading to a stable market and constant supply

Fairness & Transparency Fair and transparent policy: fair prices and shared commercial risks

Equitable access to services Including credit, technical support in the field, market information, etc.

Inclusive Innovation Not ‘for’, but ‘with’ farmers

Measurement of results Indicators and concrete tailored follow-up plans

Mars supported young cocoa farmers to become professional service providers in their own communities. Rikolto provided business coaching to the cooperatives and farmers set up a mobile communication system to receive information on world market prices.

Meanwhile, Mars has been replicating this model worldwide.

In 2016, Muvikiho, Their vegetables an organisation cover about 90% of of 885 farmers from the supermarket chain’s Tanzania, obtained its own Global GAP intake. certificate thanks to training provided by Rikolto and its partners. The price paid for peas and French beans increased by 20% thanks to the strong competition between export companies eager to sign a contract with Muvikiho.

Rikolto’s

In Burkina Faso, Rikolto and the National Union for Women Rice parboilers, UNERIZ, have co-created an innovative franchise business model that encourages women to set up a parboiling micro-business at their home.

Inclusive Business

Track Record

UNERIZ organises entrepreneurial and practical training, while local banks provide In DR Congo, twenty years credits, and two private companies of political instability have joined them to design the held back investors. parboiling equipment.

Young farmer This partnership has cooperatives struggle led to a profitable to obtain credit at an and scalable affordable rate. business model.

Today Belgian companies Colruyt and Ethiquable are pre-financing coffee cooperatives and have built a solid business relationship with them.

Phoenix, one of the world’s leading rice trading corporations, jointly set up with Rikolto and two farmers organisations, a financing mechanism to support 750 farmers in Vietnam. Phoenix invests in processing infrastructure, allowing the farmer organisations to reduce their costs, while guaranteeing Phoenix’s access to higherquality rice produced according to the Sustainable Rice Platform Standard.