Publication database

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.

This report aggregates the voices of 6,000 Kenyan farmers interviewed between June 2020 and May 2021. They relate their lived experience during the Covid-19 pandemic and how livelihoods were adversely affected by supply chain disruptions and government lockdowns. 

As is the case elsewhere, in Africa, many people depend entirely on food systems for employment and incomes as well. For these reasons, building resilient and sustainable food systems is crucial to ensuring sustainable economies and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 Goals. However, Africa remains food insecure, accounting for 256 million of the world’s 795 million people suffering from hunger. Against this challenge, this 2021 African Agriculture Status Report (AASR21) provides evidence and insights on the prospects of achieving resilience and sustainability in Africa’s food systems.

The South African Business Development Services Provider (BDSP) space is active and growing. In an effort to deepen understanding of the incubator and accelerator landscape in South Africa, ANDE hosted a series of breakfast roundtables in Johannesburg and Cape Town in 2017 and 2018. Discussions focused on gathering qualitative information regarding key activities and services, programme structure and funding sources, as well as challenges and opportunities faced by BDSPs. This document presents an overview of the key findings from the roundtables and provides recommendations for further research.

Blended finance is a strategy that combines capital with different levels of risk in order to catalyze risk-adjusted, market-rate-seeking financing into impact investments. The Blended Finance Working Group identified a number of challenges that arise in structuring blended finance investments. This resource is divided into three sections. Each section includes a downloadable list of key considerations and questions aimed to ensure stakeholders are aware of each other’s motivations and expectations in engaging in a blended finance structure; and links to blended finance case study examples to demonstrate the range of ways each catalytic tool can be leveraged in  blended finance structures.
 

This case study gives advice to impact investors and investees on new and emerging methods to strengthen their impact measurement practices. The case tracks the WDI team as it pilot-tested a new impact measurement framework with three social enterprises in Nicaragua, Brazil and Peru. The case also provides recommendations to improve the impact measurement practices of investors, as well as the enterprises they support.

The third major report from GALI examines the ability of accelerators to drive funds into participating ventures and explores which programmatic choices correspond with superior outcomes. The report shows that in a sample of 52 accelerators, the average flow of incremental funds into participating ventures is significantly greater than the average that flows into rejected ventures. In the majority (but not all) of these programs, this difference exceeds the reported cost of running the program. These superior funding outcomes are accomplished in different ways; many programs are most effective at stimulating revenue growth, while others are best at increasing the supply of outside equity investment. Given these differences in program efficacy and different paths to funding success, we then examine how specific program choices correspond with the ability to drive funds into participating ventures.

This report summarizes application and follow-up data collected from ventures that applied to participating Entrepreneurship Database Program accelerators between 2013 and 2016. This report provides a first look at the short-term impacts of accelerator program participation on commercial performance. 

This data summary provides a snapshot of more than 2,500 early-stage ventures that applied to over 50 acceleration programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, and includes regional insights for East and West Africa and country-specific information for Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria.

This guide lists digital tools that deliver remote data collection, information, or training for farmers and farmer organizations. It assesses them on five criteria: demand, value addition, costs, transcending inefficiencies, and interoperability.