Hi John and Caroline

First I need to introduce you - so please click the links I have added to your names. 

I have copied some information below from the website, and highlighted it, so John can get a quick idea without needing to log on. After that information I will put some initial responses, to help move things forward.
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How the Business Innovation Facility can support your business

The Business Innovation Facility supports companies to develop or scale-up innovative ‘inclusive business’ models.  The Facility aims to increase business initiatives that are profitable and have a positive impact on international development outcomes.   A DFID-supported initiative, the Business Innovation Facility is at the heart of the UK Government’s commitment to build stronger partnerships with business.  During its three year pilot period, running from July 2010 to June 2013, the Facility's operations will be focused on five countries: Nigeria, Zambia, Malawi, India and Bangladesh.

What support will the Business Innovation Facility provide to business?

The Business Innovation Facility will support companies, company-led partnerships and cooperatives in the following three ways:

• Sharing costs with company-led initiatives as they develop feasibility studies and plans for the implementation of inclusive business model;
• Assisting companies to broker partnerships with local businesses, Governments, NGOs, development agencies, and other partners; and
• Sharing knowledge and learning on how best to execute and evaluate such projects;

How will other stakeholders be involved?

The Facility is focused on supporting businesses as they develop and scale-up inclusive business models. Other stakeholders that will play an important role in the success of these initiatives include:

• Providers of Finance: Commercial banks and other donor initiatives may find opportunities to provide finance to new inclusive business initiatives supported by the Facility.
• Governments: Input by governments will help to ensure initiatives are aligned with national economic development plans. Facility learnings may also be relevant to Private Sector Development policy discussions.
• NGOs: Civil society partners may be able to provide valuable guidance in setting up programmes that involve the poor. They may also be able to share relationships with grass-roots organisations relevant to the development of company-led initiatives.
  

  Facility management will work to broker partnerships between businesses and a wide range of stakeholders to help enable the success of new inclusive business.

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• By the way, I am copying this email to posterous (where I publish quite a few of my emails as open letters). I won't publish any reply that you post to me (unless you invite me to do so). Alternatively, if you do want to respond publicly you can do so through the comments at dadamac's posterous

• It is very encouraging to read so much on the Business Innovation Facility page that is relevant to Dadamac (or at least seems to be). Before I get into detailed suggestions it may be helpful to explain to you (Caroline) why I am so encouraged. 

• John and I have been working together since 2004. We have often expressed frustration about top down initiatives. We felt that many research and development projects were sadly irrelevant to the needs of the people we know in our grass-roots projects in Nigeria. We wanted to find  ways to enter into dialogue with researchers, planners and policy makers at an early stage, so they could be better informed about rural realities. The Business Innovation Facility seems to be offering the ideal opportunity to connect external agencies, resources and expertise with local initiatives.
  

• We set up Dadamac Limited - Knowledge Brokers, to act as a communication channel between the grass-roots and external agencies. My role is UK-Africa connections - and John is the main initial connection in Nigeria. We can help you to find the connections you are looking for, and to work effectively with them.

• Two projects that John is already involved with spring immediately to mind. If we take them as starting points they will serve to help us all get a shared understanding of what the Business Innovation Facility is in fact looking for, then we can suggest additional ones or different ones.

• First there is the social business Zittnet and its rural connectivity programme. I suggest that discussion of the challenges it faces and the benefits it brings could be a very useful starting point. We could look at how it fits the aims of the Business Innovation Facility and how collaboration could aid development of the present business and its replication elsewhere.

• Secondly there is Attachab Eco-Village - This may be relevant as a whole or in part. It is planned to be a sustainable business (or collection of businesses) and all of them will feed into a training project which will aid replication. (The training project is a big vision which is too much to cover here.)
  

• There are other business initiatives at different levels of planning and implementation which John is directly or indirectly connected with, which we can tell you about as we get a better idea of what you are seeking.

• There are various ways we can move forward. We do of course have email. However we also have other options which can speed things up. Caroline, if you look at how we helped Marcus Simmons with the eco-dome you will get an idea of how we can help you to connect with our network. We can mix emailing with UK discussions and with online meetings with John, and others he may want to bring in on the Nigerian side. We could of arrange a visit for you in a similar way, but I realise that you will also be appointing a country manager and of course when (s)he is in post John will be able to work directly with him/her.

• I hope this is useful information to get started with and look forward to giving you more details and help.

• Pamela