Publication database

The aim of this report is to document best practices by taking a micro-level deep dive into why women entrepreneurs applying for ‘missing middle’ funding (i.e., in the range of USD 30 000– USD 500 000) more often fail than succeed. This report focuses on the demand and supply issues related to women entrepreneurs access to finance in South Africa and Zambia. The study provides a baseline assessment of a cohort of women who participated in the Graça Machel Trust’s Women Creating Wealth (WCW), a Pan African entrepreneurship development programme whose aim is to grow businesses and transform behaviours, skills and build the confidence of women entrepreneurs.

The achievement of global priorities – delivering the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and delivering an inclusive recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic – will require increased cooperation and innovative partnerships between governments, the private sector and communities. As part of its presidency of the G7 in 2021, the UK government mandated the Impact Taskforce (ITF) to support the development of scalable financial vehicles that harness private capital for public good. The result is a set of actionable pathways for greater amounts of capital to invest in solutions that meet the long-term and inextricably linked environmental and social needs of people and the planet.

In 2021, the UK government, during its presidency of the G7, established the Impact Taskforce (ITF) to develop solutions for a sustainable and inclusive recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. This results report focuses on accelerating impact transparency, harmonisation and integrity of all capital flows in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a just transition.

Produced by Magnitt, Wa’ed sponsors the 2021 MENA VC Impact Investment Report, which tries to shed some light on the VC impact investment ecosystem in MENA since 2016. The report reveals that $444m was invested across 403 deals by impact-driven startups across the region since 2016. This accounts for 7% of all venture capital (VC) deployed in MENA startups between 2016 and the third quarter of 2021. The information gathered in the report aims to enable a more informed conversation on this space between stakeholders, and to attract greater investment and support for impact-driven sectors and startups.

Through in-depth conversations with 21 successful women social entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, this report looks at the varying pathways to success, success factors and challenges that are specific to them, and outlines recommendations for business development services to better respond to the needs of women leading early-stage social enterprises in the region. The report also includes profiles of successful women social entrepreneurs in the region.

The social bond market has grown rapidly amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This report explores ways of maximizing the impact of social bonds for sustainable development and of supporting a well-functioning social bond market. It analyzes the impact areas that social bonds have addressed to date and introduces the impact measurement techniques that are in use and under development. It notes the need for common standards of information disclosure and impact measurement.