Small Foundation

We just launched our 2023 Impact Report 🎉 Alongside snapshots of our partners' impact in 2023, this year we are excited to feature short videos of several partners sharing their perspectives on how the investment landscape in sub-Saharan Africa has evolved, including: ♦ Alex Simuyandi, Emerald Africa Financing Facility ♦ Bongani Sithole, 54 Collective VC ♦ Brian Milder, Aceli Africa & Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) ♦ Chris Isaac, AgDevCo ♦ Mobola da-Silva, Capria Ventures ♦ Raphael Dumont, Investisseurs & Partenaires - I&P The report also features looks ahead from: ♦ Elizabeth Howard, Women in African Investments - WAI Group ♦ John Amimo, AFRACA SECRETARIAT ♦ Sam NDONGA, MBA, Samawati Capital Partners ♦ Conor Brosnan & Michael Thompson, Small Foundation We hope you will take a look and let us know what you think: impact.smallfoundation.ie #SFImpactReport #ImpactReport #ImpactInvesting #ImpactNetworks Liz Wilson Gwendolyn Beeman Sam Whelan-Curtin Next Generation Foresight Practitioners 60 Decibels AL for Agribusiness Network AMEA (Agribusiness Market Ecosystem Alliance) Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs Advancing Women in Investing Circle Generation Uganda Agribusiness Alliance Ltd. Warc Africa Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN) Regen Organics Open Capital London Africa Network Jobtech Alliance Invest in Africa - Kenya EFAfrica Group Ltd

Last week our partner AMEA (Agribusiness Market Ecosystem Alliance) launched a new global standard for farmer organisations. ISO 18716: Professional Farmer Organisation Guidance aims to empower farmer organisations to develop business capacities that unlock growth. Representing six years of collaborative effort by AMEA network partners and officially accepted by 27 countries, the framework advances the professionalisation of farmer organisations and uses standard metrics and data to support stakeholders including service providers, buyers and suppliers, investors, donors and governments. Learn more about adopting and using the standard at https://lnkd.in/g-cmXbpJ #ISO18716 #SDGs #cooperatives #agriSMEs Conor Brosnan Liz Wilson Karina Wong Gerard Wynne Thomas Caffrey Osvald Gwendolyn Beeman Michael Thompson Andrew Tarazid-Tarawali Tracy Nzilani Finola Mohan Sally Walkerman Filipe Di Matteo Mark Blackett

We are excited to help launch the next chapter of the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3).   Beginning in 2025, C3 will expand its field-building work to strengthen the global community of practice for catalytic capital. C3 and its partners will work to build connections among investors, intermediaries, and other practitioners to accelerate the flow of catalytic capital - a vital form of impact investing to fuel social and environmental progress.   Small Foundation is proud to be part of this work alongside C3’s other partners: Blue Haven Initiative, Builders Vision, Ceniarth, The Lemelson Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Walton Family Foundation. Together, we are working to enable a more just, equitable, and resilient world.   Read the announcement: https://lnkd.in/dQD3T6Z5 #catalyticcapital #impactinvesting Karina Wong Liz Wilson Thomas Caffrey Osvald Gerard Wynne Michael Thompson Andrew Tarazid-Tarawali Tracy Nzilani

In the latest instalment of the Alive & Learning podcast, our partners Circle Generation and School of International Futures (SOIF) come together for an in-depth discussion about the practice of foresight, exploring intersections with network practice and the power of convening people to deliberately shape futures together.     "We can only imagine what we know, and the contexts that we come from - and it is in bringing people together with different perspectives, different incentives, different contexts, who are able to stretch the limits of their imagination and possibly think outside of the pasts that they've come from in order to build collective power - we need those spaces where people are coming together and imagining a collective alternative" - Abi Nokes, Director of Networks and NGFP Practice Lead at SOIF.     You can listen to the latest episode, as well as catch up on previous conversations, at https://lnkd.in/gQbWpFNt     Circle Generation School of International Futures (SOIF) Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Cat Zuzarte Tully Abi Nokes Carri Munn Elsa Henderson Dimakatso (Nono) Sekhoto Nonzwakazi (Nzwaki) Adonisi, CA (SA) Liz Wilson Thomas Caffrey Osvald Aoife Kenna Gwendolyn Beeman Sam Whelan-Curtin 

Excited to be partnering with The Alternative Bank on expanding local currency lending to agri-SMEs in Nigeria. We appreciate all the work by Yetunde Mide-Ogunsanwo and her team in the design of the new product and their willingness to innovate. Small Foundation hopes to do many more of these partnerships across Africa to scale local currency lending. Sayuri Sharper Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT Catalytic Capital Consortium Jim Chu Aceli Africa FSD Africa Mercy Mutua

We are pleased to share two new blog posts from the Jobtech Alliance, a programme of Mercy Corps, which detail its adoption of systems thinking approaches in its efforts to build an inclusive jobtech ecosystem in Africa.    Small Foundation partnered with Jobtech Alliance in 2023 to strengthen its systemic capacity and support the documentation of its use of systemic tools, resources and practices. Mercy Corps Conor Brosnan Liz Wilson Thomas Caffrey Osvald Aoife Kenna

We are delighted to announce a new partnership with The Alternative Bank, a new non-interest bank bringing innovation to meet the financing needs of agri-SMEs in Nigeria.    Through this partnership, The Alternative Bank will offer a new loan product, targeting agri-SMEs, through which loan repayments are tied to sales proceeds. Sterling Bank Abubakar Suleiman Andrew Tarazid-Tarawali Karina Wong Conor Brosnan Liz Wilson Michael Thompson Tracy Nzilani Gerard Wynne

Our partner Next Generation Foresight Practitioners (NGFP) have announced their 2024 cohort of fellows, with 25 projects from 19 countries joining their global network of over 1,000 changemakers using foresight and futures practices to advance their ambitions for a better tomorrow.     We are delighted to support the work of NGFP, and their parent organisation School of International Futures (SOIF), and look forward to seeing how these projects progress and make meaningful impact for their communities.     Learn more about the 2024 cohort of fellows at https://lnkd.in/dYqb4FeX

This afternoon join 60 Decibels for key findings from its Coffee Farmer Thriving Index, a tool to survey and benchmark farmer wellbeing across geographies and crops. Finola Mohan

With an estimated annual funding gap of USD 74bn, traditional financing models are struggling to meet the needs of agri-SMEs across sub-Saharan Africa. Innovative models such as commodity-backed financing have potential to unlock significant working capital for these businesses, driving economic growth and enhancing food security. We are delighted to share new research from Samawati Capital Partners on opportunities and barriers to scaling commodity-backed financing for African agri-SMEs, including recommendations to help close the financing gap. Sam NDONGA, MBA Sonja Riedke Conor Brosnan Andrew Tarazid-Tarawali Karina Wong Liz Wilson Alex Simuyandi Abena Opoku-Acquah Michael Thompson Tracy Nzilani