On Wednesday 25th of October 2017, Rotterdam School of Management hosted the Closing Conference for the NWO/WOTRO research project on Inclusive Business Strategies in Africa. The project has been going on for the past two and half years through a collaboration between Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI) and the Netherlands‐African Business Council (NABC). The project involved implementing an action research programme that investigated how businesses can contribute to inclusive development in Africa, also called inclusive business models or Base of the Pyramid (BoP) strategies. The research brought together a large consortium of business organizations, knowledge institutes, NGOs, and government agencies from the Netherlands and six African countries namely, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The main objective of the conference was to share the results from the research programme, and invite further reflection on the way forward.