IB Choice

Venture capital firm Village Capital and its partners are supporting early-stage fintech startups in SSA, and this report features its 2018 cohort of 12 startups that are helping farmers, small businesses, cooperatives, and households gain greater and better access to mobile financial services.

This Impact Investing Market Map was developed by the Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI) to help businesses move beyond the traditional environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting to measuring societal impact of business strategies and investments according to the SDGs.

This report by the Global Impact Investing Network and Intellecap looks into the impact investing ecosystem in Southeast Asia, and the experience of two types of investors present in the region: private impact investors (PIIs) such as fund managers, philanthropists, foundations, commercial banks, and pension funds; and government-supported development finance institutions such as the World Bank’s IFC, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

This article summarizes main insights from "Integrating the SDGs into corporate reporting: A practical guide". The publication outlines a process of ‘principled prioritization’ aimed at helping companies to identify and prioritize their SDG targets, take action and report on their progress.

This study aims to depict the current state and trends of the impact investment market. In 2018, GIIN analysed information from 229 participants with a combined impact investment portfolio of 228.1 billion dollars.

According to impact investment chain actors - fund managers, development finance institutions, intermediaries, entrepreneurs, governments, civil society stakeholders, and other experts - there are five crucial factors to improving impact incentives and increasing impact investments that capital providers, fund managers, and businesses/enterprises should focus on:

The findings of this study indicate a strong need for risk capital for agri-food SMEs in Africa. The case studies show that agri-food SMEs need assistance in business strategy development, governance and management, as well as operations and marketing.

Inclusive business is now part of the 2016-2025 ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) Development. This report presents an IB situationer for ASEAN and identifies measures to mainstream inclusive business in member states.

The Model Agreement for Responsible Contract Farming is a simple and practical legal tool to support the implementation of global principles and guidelines and make responsible investment a reality. This article summarizes the main insights and recommendations from the guide to leverage the insights for practitioners.

Sub Saharan Africa (SSA)’s regional economy has quintupled in size from USD 300 billion in 2000 to USD 1.6 trillion in 2017, and is expected to surpass USD 2 trillion by 2020. Apart from the rapidly expanding market, favorable regional conditions have spurred improvements in the business environment, and provide leads to where private sector participation can prove profitable.

This McKinsey study highlights three success factors for mobile money systems: scale, partnerships, and innovation.

The Harvard Business Review article focuses on the implementation of inclusive business initiatives and stresses the need to move from CSR to core business activities.