When the UK’s Department for International Development launched the Impact Programme, just over a year ago, we knew we were moving into new territory. The 13 Year Programme is at the vanguard of the UK Government’s shift to an ambitious aid programme focused on economic development and a drive towards sustainable, inclusive growth in the developing world.
We knew what we wanted to achieve: the development of the impact investing market in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. And we had a solid strategy for meeting those objectives, an investment fund and a range of market-building activities which together aim to direct capital towards pro-poor businesses and entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This would create more and better jobs, raise incomes and provide greater access to affordable goods and services, such as healthcare, agriculture services, energy, housing, education and safe water.
We also knew that this first year would mark a steep learning curve, which it has.
The launch of “Beyond the pioneer”, new research funded by the Impact Programme and the Impact Programme’s first ‘birthday’ provide an excellent opportunity to reflect on the progress that has been made in this year and the lessons that have been learned.
During the last year, the DFID Impact Fund—a Fund of Funds that is managed by CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution—has been established along with a Technical Assistance Facility that will support underlying investee companies. The first Fund to receive investment– Novastar Ventures—has been selected. Novastar will invest in transformative businesses in East Africa.
The programme’s market-building activities, led by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) have also made good progress. In 2013, the GIIN launched a dedicated research program, which has undertaken landscaping reports that will detail the impact investment markets South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The AIMS programme (Advancing Investment Management Skills) was also established to increase the local capacity, skills and expertise of Fund Managers to identify, develop, measure and manage impact investments. Additionally, key enhancements have been made to strengthen two important resources for impact investors: ImpactBase and IRIS. ImpactBase is a directory of impact investment funds, and IRIS is a robust catalogue of social, environmental, and financial performance metrics for impact investors. Indeed, IRIS metrics have been leveraged to support a strong framework for tracking and measuring the results of the DFID Impact Fund investments and the programme overall.
