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Testing innovations to unlock the social impact of last-mile distribution.
Unilever
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Partnerships Resource Centre
Marketing and Distribution
Inclusive Business Empowerment
Water, sanitation and hygiene
Nutrition and agriculture
Nigeria
Bangladesh
2019 - 2021
Despite high GDP growth rates in Nigeria and Bangladesh, economic growth is not equally distributed across the population. Women, particularly those in rural areas, are disproportionately impacted by protracted unemployment, with limited access to training and economic opportunities.
Unilever, through its inclusive distribution programmes, has empowered thousands of micro-entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Bangladesh with income-generating opportunities. To scale this impact even further, Bopinc is working with Unilever to test innovative approaches that will improve the commercial viability and social impact of these models.
Last-mile distribution can be costly, due to households limited purchasing power and distances from each other. However, innovations in business models can help reduce the costs to serve rural areas and also improve the incomes of micro-entrepreneurs .
Bright Innovations is testing three innovations that, if successful, can unlock scale and increase the social impact of last-mile distribution. The innovations include:
Insights gathering to understand current context, challenges and opportunities
Develop and test pilot models
Learn from pilot, iterate and test new model
Validate business model and scale