Have you checked out our new and improved website? andeglobal.org is your go-to source to learn about ANDE, our members, and the small and growing business (SGB) sector - as well as manage your membership and preferences and register for events. It also boasts new and enhanced features, including our member map, searchable knowledge hub, and more. Members will need to activate their account on the new site to access members-only content. If you already had an existing portal login, reset your password, and if not, request a login. Then head to your personalized member dashboard to make sure your information and preferences are up to date.
ANDE West Africa Staff Updates
From the 1st of July 2021, Olatunji Ajani stepped down as the ANDE West Africa Chapter Manager to join the ANDE Membership and Programs team as a Consultant to lead some exciting ANDE global projects. Joshua Adedeji has stepped into the role of Chapter Manager for the West Africa team. We are excited for Olatunji and Joshua as they take on new responsibilities! We are also pleased to announce the recent addition of Ajoke Omoware to the West Africa Team. Ajoke joined the team in April 2021 on a part-time basis and in July 2021 transitioned to a full-time role as a Program Associate,
West Africa Chapter. She has experience working in the human capital development and nonprofit sector. Ajoke’s expertise includes content development, program design and management. Ajoke is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and an Associate Member of the CIPM, Nigeria. She graduated with a distinction (HND) from Lagos State Polytechnic and has an MBA from Plymouth Marjon University, Plymouth, UK. She is also a 2017 Young African Leaders Initiative/Mandela Washington Fellow. Welcome to the team, Ajoke!
2021 West Africa Regional Conference
July 27 - 28, 2021
We are less than a week away from the #ANDEWA2021 Regional Conference! We are excited to share the Conference agenda which focuses on three themes: Climate and Environmental Action, Gender Equality and Decent Work and Economic Growth, features live webinars, panel discussions, interactive breakout sessions, dedicated sessions for our Francophone audience, and online networking. Registration closes Friday, 23rd July, so hurry up and register
now.
We are also excited to announce the Keynote speaker for the #ANDEWA2021 Regional Conference, Affiong Williams. Affiong is a Nigerian entrepreneur from Cross River State. She is the founder and CEO of ReelFruit, a Nigerian company that processes and distributes locally grown fruits. ReelFruit's vision is to be Nigeria's largest end-to-end fruit processing company. ReelFruit's Range of dried fruit snacks and nuts is sold in over 350 locations in Nigeria, as well as airlines, hotels and schools.
ANDE 2021 Annual Conference
September 28-30, 2021
Join us virtually for our annual flagship event to connect, learn and inspire! As always, the agenda will be highly interactive and feature workshops, showcase presentations, speed networking, and more. Any number of colleagues from ANDE member organizations are welcome to attend. Please note members will need to log in to register. ANDE Africa Advocacy Convening
August 31, 2021 | 12:00 PM WAT/1:00 PM SAST/2:00 PM EAT
ANDE West, South and East Africa Chapters, with support from Argidius Foundation, cordially invite ANDE Members to a dialogue on advocacy approaches for the SGB sector in Africa. The meeting aims to highlight the role of advocacy in making a case for SGBs and building a consensus on the most pertinent advocacy issues and priorities that are critical to creating an enabling environment for SGBs to thrive. The convening will bring together diverse ANDE members, experts, business associations, and practitioners to share experiences on effective advocacy approaches and strategies to facilitate and promote the development of resilient ecosystems for SGBs to thrive. Register now.
ANDE Announces Winners of the Advancing Women’s Empowerment Fund in Africa
Three organizations have been selected to receive funds under the second round of the Advancing Women’s Empowerment Fund. AWEF, an activity under ANDE’s Gender Equality Initiative with support from USAID, seeks to address the significant gap in access to finance for women-led SGBs. The first round of AWEF in 2020 funded eight grantees in South and Southeast Asia; this round focuses on western, southern, and eastern Africa. Each winner will receive up to $150,000 over one year to test models that catalyze investment into women-led SGBs through innovative approaches. Learn more about the three projects, in Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, and Kenya. Call for Applications for the Accelerating Women Climate Entrepreneurs (AWCE) Fund
The AWCE Fund will award projects in Sub-Saharan Africa to address the financing gap and support the growth of women climate entrepreneurs in the SGB sector. Winners will receive one-year grants of USD $30,000-$65,500 to pilot, test or expand models for increasing gender-lens investing into women climate entrepreneurs in SGBs through innovative approaches. The AWCE project is conducted in consortium with the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) and World University Service of Canada (WUSC) with funding support from Global Affairs Canada (GAC). See application resources and apply by August 4, 2021. Apply now.
ANDE Career Opportunities
Impact Finance Investments for Quality Education in Côte d’Ivoire | TRECC
In four years, ANDE Member, TRECC - Transforming Education in Cocoa Communities has invested in 16 companies and funds in Côte d’Ivoire to build their capacity and develop innovative learning techniques with the goal of making digital learning available to children living in rural areas. TRECC's goal is to improve the living conditions of children and young people in Côte d'Ivoire by promoting quality education and leveraging the contribution of the private sector. Watch impact documentary.
Accelerating The Accelerators (AtA) | Conveners.org
August 10 - 12, 2021
You are invited to Accelerating the Accelerators (AtA) 2021, under the theme "Thriving Forward". AtA is a three-day global gathering of impact-focused incubators, accelerators, and entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs)--the largest and perhaps only of its kind. It is a unique opportunity for purpose-first leaders and organizations to connect and better serve their entrepreneur cohorts in a creative, collaborative space. Register. The Pan-African Youth Day of Service 2021 | LEAP Africa
August 12 - 18, 2021
The LEAP Africa 'Youth Day of Service' (YDoS) is an annual week-long youth-led social impact campaign, which will take place on August 12 - 18, 2021, as a way of commemorating International Youth Day. The week-long action campaign fosters the spirit of volunteerism within the youth population and inspires them to be active change agents in their communities continuously. The campaign theme for this year's YDOS is 'Youthful and Useful.' Learn more. Impact!Africa Social Entrepreneurship Summit - Virtual Edition | British Council/Ashoka
Ongoing through October 2021
The Impact!Africa Social Entrepreneurship Summit is an annual event held across Africa targeted at the social entrepreneurship ecosystem. The summit is a partnership by the British Council and Ashoka to accelerate innovative solutions to Africa’s most pressing challenges by inspiring, supporting and connecting leading social entrepreneurs and key ecosystem players across countries, organizations and sectors such as policy, social investment, business and media. Register for sessions.
Acceleration Portfolio | David Weekley Family Foundation
Deadline: August 1, 2021
Through the Acceleration Portfolio, DWFF will invest in 30 African non-profit organizations with annual budgets under $300,000 USD. Acceleration partners should be rooted in their communities, have enterprising leadership, and have the ambition to grow their impact in one of our four priority sectors: health, livelihoods, justice, education (early education, primary or secondary). By pairing unrestricted funding with capacity support (provided by our partner Mighty Ally Institute), our goal is to help organizations to lay the groundwork they need to access greater opportunities and funding. Learn more. 4 Revs Innovation Challenge | Socialab/NELIS
Deadline: September 8, 2021
The 4 Revs Innovation Challenge is a global call to identify innovative and scalable solutions from all corners of the world that are already in the market and contribute to at least one of the 4 essential survival challenges (Food, Water, Resources, & Energy). Apply now. Africa -Asia Impact Investing Fellowship | AVPA
AVPA and AVPN in collaboration with Faculty from the Oxford Saïd Business School are proud to announce the inaugural Africa-Asia Impact Investing Fellowship to nurture asset owners and capital managers into becoming effective impact investing practitioners. Leveraging strong networks in Africa and Asia, this Fellowship will build the capacity and knowledge of fellows in areas such as innovative finance, impact management, and leadership in complexity. The Fellowship aims to ultimately increase the flow of social investment capital into Africa and Asia. Apply now. #BackBetterBusiness
Crowdfunding Campaign | B Lab
B Lab East Africa is running a global fundraising campaign to support the growth of sustainable businesses in Africa by giving them the tools and support they need to become better businesses. The #BackBetterBusiness crowdfunding campaign is all about spotlighting the global movement towards building sustainable businesses and giving them the credibility they need to be considered for future funding. Learn more. Call for Applications: Emerging Entrepreneurs Programme (EEP 28) | FATE Foundation
The Emerging Entrepreneurs Programme (EEP 28) is a 12-week strategic growth-focused program that offers owner-managers the opportunity to re-invent their businesses by equipping them with the essential knowledge, and critical tools that can be applied immediately to innovate and grow their businesses in this present economic landscape. The EEP 28 is scheduled to run from September 6, 2021 - November 25, 2021. Apply now. Innovation for African Universities Programme | British Council
British Council invites Universities and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem players from the UK, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to apply as Network partnerships. Network partners will be engaged through a community of practice, exchanging knowledge and ideas that improve their understanding of the roles of universities in entrepreneurship ecosystems, while fostering a culture of innovation among themselves. Each partnership must contain at least 1 University in the UK, 1 SSA University (from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa) and 1 Entrepreneurship ecosystem player from SSA to apply as Network partners. Funding of up to £60,000 is available to support each mutually beneficial partnership to respond to an identified problem. Learn more and apply. Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize Program | Milken Institute/Motsepe Foundation
The Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize program is a series of multi-year, multimillion-dollar prize competitions for technological solutions that accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a spotlight on Africa. Apply now. Peer Learning Partnership (PLP) | Genesis Analytics
The Peer Learning Partnership (PLP) about stakeholder engagement in impact measurement and management is ongoing. This research and feedback, part of OECD’s Global Action Initiative funded by the European Union, is a cross-sector consortium of 26 organizations across 13 nations in the global north and south. Genesis Analytics, and a number of other ANDE members, are among these partners. The research element of the initiative centers on
for-profit participants, particularly in social enterprises and their impact-focused investors, because stakeholder engagement practice is least well developed for them. It focuses primarily on stakeholder accountability practices in activities that intentionally seek to generate positive social and environmental impact alongside financial returns (earned revenue).
How Can You Get Involved?
1. Participate in a survey.
2. Provide feedback on use cases developed to test a range of stakeholder engagement practices. Please contact mishkahj@genesis-analytics.com or alynaw@genesis-analytics.com to review these use cases.
3. To learn more about this, email plp@socialvalueus.org. Social Innovators Programme (SIP) 2021/22 Fellowship | LEAP Africa
LEAP Africa has opened applications for the 2021/ 2022 cohort of the Social Innovators Programme (SIP) - a one-year fellowship for young Anglophone African changemakers between 18-35 years from Nigeria, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana, Anglo-Cameroon. The application portal is open till 11:59 pm (WAT), Sunday, 6th of August, 2021. For further enquiries, please contact Osarume via email at Oakenzua@leapafrica.org, sipa@leapafrica. Apply now. Talent to Transform Africa (TTA) | Open Capital
Talent to Transform Africa (TTA) by Open Capital’s Arcadia practice is providing subsidized embedded talent support to locally founded African small and growing businesses under $2M in annual revenues and total capital raised to date. Open Capital's Arcadia practice embeds high-capacity Analysts to work full-time with businesses for 3-6 months to address critical business needs, solve problems, build systems, and provide analytical and executional capacity to catalyze growth. Interested businesses should apply now.
Accelerating the SDGs - The Role of Crowdfunding in Investing for Impact | EVPA
The role of crowdfunding in the impact sector has grown in recent years thanks to its unique way of raising funds to support social purpose organizations, attracting retail investors to social innovation, and enabling them to participate as funders of societal solutions. This publication from the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) defines how impact crowdfunding platforms can be positioned within the impact ecosystem. Impact crowdfunding platforms are investors for impact pooling and managing resources from the crowd to enable social purpose organizations to maximize their social impact, and taking a highly engaged approach to support their investees. Read the report. Fintech from the Perspective of African Agriculture | Small Foundation
Financial technology (fintech) has received substantial coverage in recent years. In Africa, fintech is presented as a solution to pressing social issues such as financial exclusion. Taking notice, Small Foundation commissioned Zeugma Management to further investigate the fintech sector in Africa. Read the report. Impact Networks: Measuring Towards Success | Small Foundation
This article presents how Small Foundation presents their understanding of how to evaluate the impact that networks have, and how to best support impact network partners in understanding this impact. Read the article.
Institutional Asset Owners: Approaches to Setting Social and Environmental Goals | GIIN
The report dives into these investors' approaches to setting impact priorities and targets - unpacking challenges they face when assessing impact priorities, identifying ways of turning these challenges into opportunities to achieve greater impact, and outlining next steps investors can take to set targets and integrate social and environmental priorities into their investment processes. Specifically, the report offers insights and practical examples into how institutional asset owners are integrating real-world outcomes, or impact, into their portfolios and investment strategies alongside risk and return and within a fiduciary context. Read the report.
Sector Career Opportunities
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is a global network of organizations that propel entrepreneurship in developing economies. ANDE members provide critical financial, educational, and business support services to small and growing businesses (SGBs) based on the conviction that SGBs create jobs, stimulate long-term economic growth, and produce environmental and social benefits.
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