Intelligence & Analysis

Investisseurs & Partenaires publishes “Fifteen Years, Fifteen Lessons from Africa", a new document conceived by the team to present some key lessons learned from our 15-year experience in African SME and startup financing.

In April 2017 Oxfam and Sumerian Partners published a paper called “Impact investing: who are we serving?”. While impact investing is gaining visibility among policy makers and the investment community (see for example the article published by The Economist “Impact investing inches from niche to mainstream”), this paper is a most-useful reminder of what is impact investing and what should continue to drive the actors of the sector: a clear intention to maximize positive social impact.

A recent article published on World Bank's blog "Private Sector Development" underlines the importance of networking African incubators and entrepreneurs, as part of a building ecosystem to support African entrepreneurship.

The article mentions several networks active in Francophone Africa, including the African Club of Entrepreneurs, a pan-African organization of entrepreneurs initiatiated by Investisseurs & Partenaires.

The Malian company Trainis, supported by I&P since 2010, organizes on October 24 and 25 in Paris an important forum on Public-Private Partnerships in Africa. Gathering more than 300 participants and highly-qualified speakers, the Forum will focus on the folloiwing topic: "Meeting the infrastructure and energy challenge in Africa) 

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In September 2015 the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs comprise 17 core goals, from ending hunger to stemming climate change, that altogether provide a critical roadmap to a sustainable future and prosperous world.

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) published the 7^th edition of its Annual Impact Investor Survey report, which presents continued progress in the dynamic impact investing industry, officially established only ten years ago.

Capturing data from 209 of the world’s leading impact investors, this survey presents a detailed analysis of market activity, capital flows (including by geography and sector), and investor insights into key market topics.

Rob Schneider and romi Bhatia, from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) published an article on the collaborative platform Business Fights Poverty, explaining the Agency's strategy to promote sustainable and small businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The last study published by I&P and FERDI, "Investing in Africa's Development" (October 2016), aims to demonstrate why does impact investment represent an innovative and efficient answer to the development challenges of the continent. The study presents in one of the chapters the landscape for impact investing in Sub-Saharan Africa, based on the last reports published by the GIIN, Open Capital and Dalberg.

As I&P and FERDI recently published a study exploring the connections between the impact investing industry and the newly defined Sustainable Development Goals, we will be exploring the main development issues identified in the report: Fighting Poverty and Inequalities, Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Security; Healthcare, Water and Sanitation; Education, Energy Access, Infrastructure and Innovation; Sustainable Cities and Environment and Biodiversity.

The World Bank published a new report on the state of poverty in the world. The study says that extreme poverty worldwide continues to fall despite the lethargic state of the global economy. But it warns that given projected growth trends, reducing high inequality may be a necessary component to reaching the world’s goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.  

► Read the report

Key findings