The Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, have launched the 2022 edition of the FT/IFC Transformational Business Awards, the leading global initiative that highlights and promotes ground-breaking, long-term private sector solutions to major development challenges. This latest programme marks 17 years of collaboration between the FT and IFC on awards that have had a substantial impact on the way financial and non-financial organisations approach sustainable investment. The Transformational Business Awards are open to all private sector organisations, as well as NGOs that can meet the judging criteria. 

Developing countries face multiple social, humanitarian, environmental and structural economic challenges amid a continuing pandemic, renewed efforts to address climate change, and the impact of conflict on fragile nations, communities, infrastructure and supply chains. To reflect this, the 2022 awards feature three core categories: Transformation Human Capital Solutions will group entries in healthcare and education, underlining the urgent need to protect and invest in people; Transformational Climate Change Solutions will focus on initiatives in key productive sectors, such as infrastructure, supply chains and agriculture, that address the climate emergency; and Transformational Finance Solutions will highlight the most innovative and effective impact funds that are helping to scale up promising opportunities.

Last year’s Gender-Lens Finance category is retained to underline the continuing need to counter discrimination against women and girls and ensure they can contribute to, and be included in, broader economic development. The aim across all categories is to recognise and showcase innovation, impact, replicability, financial viability and sustainability. The judging panel will look at how organisations are harnessing disruptive technologies and business models to achieve impact and scale. Entries are particularly welcome from organisations with initiatives that may provide solutions in fragile and conflict-affected states.

Only initiatives that have been implemented since 2016 will be eligible. Entries to the human capital, climate change and gender-lens categories must have annual revenues of at least US$3 million or a capital base of at least US$5 million, to be eligible. 

The 2022 programme will also introduce a special New Frontiers category designed to promote exciting ideas that may not meet the eligibility criteria for the core categories but have the potential, with additional funding, to have a transformational impact on the challenges they are targeting. The winner in each category will be announced at a special awards ceremony on 25 October 2022 that will also include the FT/IFC Transformational Business Conference, a major gathering of thought leaders who will explore and debate the issues generated by the Awards. 

Transformational Climate Change Solutions 

Many developing economies lack the capacity and finance to accelerate the energy transition and generally mitigate the effects of climate change. This award recognises initiatives that leverage private sector expertise and finance and new technologies to ensure climate-smart solutions and environmental resilience across key productive sectors, including energy supply, urban and rural infrastructure, mobility networks, green buildings, waste management, manufacturing, logistics, raw material extraction, supply chain management and circularity, agriculture and food and water security.

Transformational Human Capital Solutions

The impact of the pandemic on communities in developing economies has underlined the urgent need to improve not only health outcomes but also the overall capacity of people to contribute to economic development. This award recognises tech-enabled, scalable solutions that boost human capital by improving on the one hand the access, affordability and quality of healthcare, and on the other, the acquisition of education and skills that help young people and current workforces for the demands of increasingly digital economies. Initiatives that address the digital divide will also be considered in this category.

Transformational Finance Solutions – Impact Investing

 This award recognises impact investing funds that demonstrate innovation, scalability and measured impact in their operations. It is open to funds that can demonstrate concrete impact results and financial sustainability achieved through its investments. Special attention will be given to innovation in the fund manager’s approach to identifying, nurturing and scaling-up impact opportunities; the expected and realised impact results and financial returns; and the quality of impact management, measurement and reporting, taking as reference recognised industry standards.

Transformational Finance Solutions – Gender-Lens Finance

 Investing for financial return through the lens of female empowerment is a proven and growing asset class that can help counter continued discrimination against women and girls and ensure they can contribute to, and be included in, broader economic development. Scalable, gender-focused solutions in areas such as MSME finance, fintech and digital financial services, financial education, insurance and risk mitigation, housing, asset and property ownership, startup capital, and other key areas, can make a big difference. This award recognises innovative, high-quality financial solutions for women and women-led businesses in developing economies, with special attention given to sectors and segments in which such businesses are traditionally underserved.

Transformational Solutions – New Frontiers

 This special category is designed to highlight exciting new deep tech ideas that may not meet the eligibility criteria for the core categories but have the potential, with additional funding, to have a transformational impact on the challenges they are targeting. Entries should be aligned with the themes of the four core categories.

Excellence in Transformational Business

 This prize will be awarded to the initiative that in the opinion of the judging panel stands apart among the winners of all categories for its level of innovation, impact, replicability, financial viability and sustainability in the context of a developing economy.

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