MEDA Annual Report – 2013

Executive View

For 60 years, MEDA has been cultivating solutions – business solutions to poverty – and it has been our privilege to witness a harvest of hope.

Every time we visit women, men and youth who, with the help of a MEDA program, have unleashed their own entrepreneurship and skills to create sustainable livelihoods, we hear the same stories. With shining eyes, our clients tell us of the immediate and dramatic impact their increased income has had for their families and communities, and their dreams for the future. We hear stories of better health and nutrition, of children who are now able to attend university, of small businesses that are able to employ many others from the community, and of their ability to now care for the needy in their own midst. It is truly a gift to be able to share God’s love in this way.

In Nicaragua and Peru, through an innovative program supported by the Canadian government, MEDA is providing 20 entrepreneurial small companies with matching grants to help farmers gain access to new markets and/or technologies that improve their productivity. These companies offer export markets for dried fruits, chili peppers and organic coffee, and provide improved cultivars of plantains, drip irrigation systems, biodigesters and a host of other services needed by farmers. And it is clear that these entrepreneurs, selected on the strength of their business plans, are creating businesses that truly bring a harvest of hope to small farmers.

This year we were able to help more than 42 million families realize healthier, more economically sustainable lives. Working through 223 partners in 49 countries we reached some 38 million clients served by microfinance institutions and small and medium enterprises where MEDA has an investment through one of the Sarona funds; 1.7 million families who received mosquito nets in Tanzania; and 3.1 million farmers and entrepreneurs who received training, financial services and/or access to markets provided by MEDA and our partners. These numbers do not count clients of organizations we worked with in the past who continue to serve thousands of entrepreneurs long after MEDA is no longer directly involved.

Your contributions made this possible! We multiplied your $6 million in private contributions – up 20% from last year – with government and foundation funding to achieve a total budget of nearly $41 million.

Assets in the Sarona Risk Capital Fund increased 10% to $20 million, while total assets under management grew dramatically to $340 million, due in large part to substantial growth in MicroVest and the $85 million first close of the Sarona Frontier Markets Fund 2 LP.

We were grateful to see a net surplus of $2.8 million, resulting from an operating surplus of $802,000 and a $2.0 million increase in the equity of our Sarona Risk Capital Fund. Most of these funds will be reinvested again and again in businesses that serve the poor.

We are immensely grateful to our supporters, our board, and our wonderful staff who generously share their time to cultivate solutions to poverty. We invite you to join in this work, and to experience the harvest of hope.

Allan Sauder, President
Debbie Sauder David, Chair