MEDA Publications

THE INGO Impact Investing Network was formed in 2015 by Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, GOAL, Humentum, Mercy Corps, and Pact, as a small consortium of INGOs working together to gather and share knowledge about how INGOs are using private investment capital to advance their work in solving pressing global development challenges. Since that time, recognizing opportunities to accrue new value to their missions through impact investing, more than 55 international NGOs have joined and participated in activities, information sharing, and regular network forums.

In 2016, the Network published its first report, entitled Amplifyii: The INGO Value Proposition for Impact Investing. The report outlined the key areas where we saw INGOs adding value to the rapidly growing impact investing ecosystem and named points of challenge where INGOs needed to grow in order to achieve the impact they sought.

Now, two years later, with this report, entitled Amplifyii: The Next Mile of Impact Investing for INGOs, we are telling the story of how INGO offerings to the impact investing ecosystem are maturing and what this new activity means for the process of disruption and innovation currently underway in the international non-profit space.

Our hope is that this data and the ensuing insights and lessons learned add value to the conversation about how the diverse array of stakeholders involved in impact investing can continue to grow their collaboration, moving more capital towards impact around the world.

This is the story of how INGOs are taking impact investing the next mile.

Vérifiez notre brochure sur Trading Up - l'approche innovative de MEDA pour combler l’écart de financement du commerce aux PME! Ce projet est en cours en partenariat avec Sarona Asset Management et Mbuyu Capital.

Explore Trading Up - MEDA's approach to bridging the gap in SME trade financing in partnership with Sarona Asset Management and Mbuyu Capital!

Portea pilots empowerment training for female and male nursing attendants

Established in 2013, Portea is a leading health care provider in India. Portea serves more than one million patients through a home-based care model. Most of Portea’s services, which span elder care, physiotherapy, post natal mother and child care and more, are delivered by low-income male and female nursing attendants (NAs) and nurses. Portea has almost 4,000 employees with women representing about 52% of the workforce, especially at lower levels.

About the Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Pilot

Under the USAID Asia and Middle East Economic Growth Best Practices Project, MEDA partnered with local investment funds and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to evaluate and upgrade gender equality within business operations by mainstreaming gender across environment, social and governance (ESG) standards commonly applied in the investment industry.

Macrosentra Niagaboga invests in male and female employee’s gender awareness.

Macrosentra Niagaboga (MN) is part of Cimory Group, a family business in Indonesia. MN distributes over 500 needed consumer goods including dairy, processed meats, eggs, and soy products across the archipelago. Founded in 2004, MN has 614 employees with 174 women staff.

About the Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Pilot

Under the USAID Asia and Middle East Economic Growth Best Practices Project, MEDA partnered with local investment funds and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to evaluate and upgrade gender equality within business operations by mainstreaming gender across environment, social and governance (ESG) standards commonly applied in the investment industry.

“Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.”
-    James E. Faust

The above quote from James E. Faust lies at the heart of the movement to go from Development Finance Institutions to Blended Finance Institutions or “from DFI to BFI” as a key contribution to the global effort to strengthen collective action from public, philanthropic and private sector investors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For it is absolute honesty that has led to leaders from public, philanthropic and private sectors to acknowledge their need for each other and their limited knowledge of each other’s investment values, to redesign development finance and launch a new way to blend capital to promote sustainable development and inclusive growth.

MEDA along with an investment partner, SEAF (Small Enterprise Assistance Fund), will spur economic growth in East Africa by attracting investment to small and medium enterprises that contribute to cross-border trade between East African Community members (Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda), particularly in the agricultural sector.

Linda Jones and Katie Turner (2014), Enterprise Development and Microfinance, 25 (4), 299-310.

 Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) was launched as an investment club in 1953 when a group of North American Mennonite business people joined together to support the development of communities in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. With their business background, this group of early 'impact investors' determined that they would provide loans to small to medium enterprises (SME) in order to catalyse sustainable economic growth. They offered the loans as high-risk venture capital and mitigated the risks with the provision of business coaching and technical assistance. Since those early days, MEDA and the SME investment fund managers which it has co-founded (Microvest and Sarona Asset Management) have continued to make impactful investments and to work towards a common development goal, 'to help people help themselves' (Fretz, 1978 : 19). This paper presents a case study of the 60-year 'MEDA experiment', (Fretz, 1978), describes specific activities and innovations, and identifies MEDA's learnings that have emerged from this SME investment experience.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are engines that drive economic growth in emerging and frontier markets. SMEs make significant contributions to decreased poverty, increased employment, the diversification of products and services, and the creation of market linkages for smallscale producers and other suppliers. At the national level, and as part of the formal economy, SMEs also add to the country’s GDP and tax base, allowing benefits to be shared beyond their immediate circle of employees, consumers and suppliers.

Investment capital is the necessary fuel that enables SMEs to flourish. However, SMEs are challenged in accessing sufficient growth capital. Development finance institutions (DFIs) have played a key role
in financing many SMEs, but in order for adequate flows of capital to reach the growing number of SMEs in frontier and emerging markets, private equity is also needed. Local private equity markets are weak and investor confidence is not strong, so international private equity investment in local funds both supports SMEs and encourages growth in the local equity market. Moreover, many SMEs are either not investment ready or are struggling to grow and therefore require technical support including capacity in environmental, social and governance (ESG) areas.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are engines that drive economic growth in emerging and frontier markets. SMEs make significant contributions to decreased poverty, increased employment, the diversification of products and services, and the creation of market linkages for smallscale producers and other suppliers. At the national level, and as part of the formal economy, SMEs also add to the country’s GDP and tax base, allowing benefits to be shared beyond their immediate circle of employees, consumers and suppliers.

Investment capital is the necessary fuel that enables SMEs to flourish. However, SMEs are challenged in accessing sufficient growth capital. Development finance institutions (DFIs) have played a key role
in financing many SMEs, but in order for adequate flows of capital to reach the growing number of SMEs in frontier and emerging markets, private equity is also needed. Local private equity markets are weak and investor confidence is not strong, so international private equity investment in local funds both supports SMEs and encourages growth in the local equity market. Moreover, many SMEs are either not investment ready or are struggling to grow and therefore require technical support including capacity in environmental, social and governance (ESG) areas.