HARA was invited to speak at the Developing Inclusive Business & Impact Investment 2019 seminar organized by Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) and Business Action Network (IBAN) at Hermitage Hotel, Jakarta. The members of both networks consist of leaders from the public and private sector all with an interest in including the poor and underprivileged. The aim of the seminar is to explore the market opportunities of Inclusive Business (IB) in Indonesia.

An Inclusive Business is trusted to give sustainable benefits for low-income communities. In simple words, an inclusive business is all about including the poor in the business process, be it as producers or consumers.

According to AVPN, there are 367 million people in ASEAN that live in the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) on only US$6 or less a day. They are unable to get access to clean water, food, and other necessities for their daily life. Due to their low-income levels, they cannot increase the productivity to get out of poverty. That is why this approach of Inclusive Business is needed.

“The inclusive business can reduce the poverty in Indonesia” — Fadjar Hutomo, Deputy of Financial Access, Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy (BEKRAF)

Inclusive Business has great market opportunities. Based on the research of AVPN, the market size is estimated at $220 billion. AVPN predicted that Inclusive Business has the potential to unlock 1,8 million income opportunities and support over 70 million at the BoP by 2025.

Also, it has a significant potential to contribute to women’s development and empowerment. Currently, there are already several inclusive business models adopted across industries, but exposure in agriculture is still small.

The small adoption rate in agriculture can be related to the high risks in the execution of Inclusive Business. Even though the market potential uses, the conditions at the BoP are far from ideal. For instance, the majority in the BoP has no or low education and is not technically savvy.

“Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid is a huge business potential but is at risk of execution” — Regi Wahyu, CEO of HARA

That is why Inclusive Business should understand the people in the BoP, either as producers or consumers. Doing thorough fieldwork is the key to understand the BoP and come up with sustainable solutions by creating benefits for the local communities.

“One of the challenges of the inclusive business is that they [people at the BoP] are not familiar with your business.” — David Hutagalung, Country Director, GE Power Indonesia

HARA is excited to continue building an Inclusive Business. A business model that is perfectly aligned with our mission: “Empowering billions by utilizing a global and transparent data exchange”. We strive to reduce poverty and create a better life for everyone.

To make this happen, we create jobs as agripreneur for low-income communities. They collect the agricultural data that helps farmers and other stakeholders to make better data-driven decisions.