Access to Food and Improved Nutrition at the Base of the Pyramid.

Five business interventions to achieve social impact financial sustainability and scale 

The BoP innovation Centre – in collaboration with GAIN - has identified five different business interventions to increase access and improve nutrition for the base of the pyramid (BoP) consumers.

This study, based on the analysis of 16 cases and expert interviews, five different business interventions for BoP ventures were identified that achieve social impact, financial sustainability and, potentially, scale:

Intervention 1. Interventions focusing on smallholders to improve quality and volume of production. For example, DADTCO, a social enterprise, develops mobile small-scale cassava processing units in Nigeria allowing first processing close to farms.

Intervention 2. Focus on commercial buyers to assure access to a supply of produce that meets specific volume.

Intervention 3. Interventions focusing on BoP intermediaries between (smallholder) producers and consumers. For example, Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar is a rural retailer selling agri-inputs and consumer goods through its chain of centres, which also serve as a common platform for providers of financial services or health services.

Intervention 4. Adaptation of existing products, services, processes to serve BoP consumers.

Intervention 5. Innovative strategies that seek to create new markets at the BoP, through the introduction of new (specialized) products. For example Danone has ventured with Grameen in Bangladesh to create a business Grameen Danone Food Ltd that produces an ultra low cost fortified yoghurt for small children distributed by entrepreneurial Bangladeshi ladies.

Download the report here.