Unilever, FCDO and EY publish TRANSFORM playbook on public-private partnerships

By AI, Created 1:31 PM UTC, May 27, 2026, /AGP/ – Unilever, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and EY have launched a new playbook based on more than a decade of TRANSFORM work across Asia and Africa. The guide lays out practical lessons for building partnerships that can help impact enterprises scale, manage risk and reach more people.

Why it matters: - Governments, businesses and NGOs are facing tighter budgets, more volatility and bigger social and climate shocks. - The playbook is meant to help public, private and non-profit leaders structure partnerships that share risk, lower experimentation costs and improve outcomes. - TRANSFORM’s track record gives the guidance practical weight after nearly 11 years of work with impact enterprises.

What happened: - Unilever, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and EY released the TRANSFORM playbook, titled “How to collaborate for impact.” - The resource was launched at the FCDO Global Partnership Conference on 19-20 May through a side event focused on activating local leadership. - The launch included participation from enterprises Alner and Gwiji and senior TRANSFORM representatives.

The details: - The playbook is an open resource built from more than a decade of support for impact enterprises across Asia and Africa through TRANSFORM. - It combines delivery principles, best practice and case studies with research and ecosystem insights from partners including Acumen and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. - The guide is organized into eight core chapters. - It covers how to make the case for collaboration, secure senior buy-in, set partnership foundations and choose enterprises based on their needs and stage of growth. - It also addresses local leadership, flexible funding, business support and supply chain integration. - The playbook ends with guidance on adapting portfolios over time and sharing lessons so other organisations can build on what works. - Rianne Buter, Unilever’s VP of Sustainability, said TRANSFORM showed how well-designed public-private partnerships can unlock value for all involved. - Buter said the collaboration with FCDO, EY and impact enterprises helped Unilever test new business models and explore innovations that fit within its value chains while supporting sustainability priorities on climate, plastics, nature and livelihoods. - David Woolnough, Deputy Director Research, Tech and Innovation at FCDO, said long-term collaboration with private sector partners has helped support impact enterprises tackling complex challenges across Africa and Asia. - Gillian Hinde, EY Global Corporate Responsibility Leader, said the program shows what becomes possible when public and private sector strengths are combined behind market-driven solutions. - TRANSFORM was established in 2015 to help impact entrepreneurs test and scale commercially self-sustaining and market-driven solutions to global challenges. - Over nearly 11 years, TRANSFORM supported 160 impact enterprise and research projects across 19 countries in Asia and Africa. - The program reached more than 20 million people, beating its original targets by a third.

Between the lines: - The playbook is not just a retrospective on one program; it is a template for how collaboration can work when capital, expertise and networks are aligned around a shared purpose. - The emphasis on local leadership suggests a shift away from top-down selection and toward models that better reflect in-country needs. - TRANSFORM’s results point to a broader lesson for development and corporate partnerships: flexible support appears more useful for early-stage scale than large contracts alone. - Local panels selected enterprises with at least one local founder 88% of the time, compared with 53% under global selection.

What’s next: - The playbook will be used as a reference for organisations seeking to design or improve public-private partnerships. - TRANSFORM is concluding in 2026 after meeting its intended outcomes, leaving a set of lessons and more resilient enterprises for future initiatives. - The case studies in the playbook, including Kasha, Alner and Atypical Advantage, are intended to help other programmes adapt proven approaches in new markets.

The bottom line: - TRANSFORM’s central message is that long-term, well-structured partnerships can move impact enterprises from pilots to scale while helping governments, companies and NGOs do more with constrained resources.