AVPA inks $ 1million deal with USADF targeting social impact investors
The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) has signed a Sh100 million shillings, approximately $1 million, partnership with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to connect and empower investors looking to support organizations willing to address societal issues over the next four years.
The funds are provided by USADF – an African-led US enterprise development agency that empowers vulnerable communities to create sustainable livelihoods – and will be disbursed in amounts of 25 million shillings every year for the next four years to tackle issues affecting people ranging from health, education, financial inclusion, skill-building, environment, and youth employment.
“The grant will help us establish a secretariat and fund AVPA’s knowledge center, which explores the state of social investment in Africa and adapts the existing knowledge to inspire new innovations while enabling the establishment of best practices and encouraging collaboration across Africa and beyond,” said Nancy Kairo, AVPA’s Executive Director, East Africa Region.
AVPA, with the support of USADF, also committed to solving the major challenge of unemployment affecting the youth across the continent. The resolve is a step in the right direction given that 9 out of every 10 unemployed Kenyans are 35 years and below, as revealed by the 2018 Economic Survey by KNBS.
Through AVPA’s connections and pooling of financial resources, young entrepreneurs, small enterprises, and other businesspeople will now gain easy access to providers of capital who are inclined to improve the lives of communities across Africa and beyond. This way, they can create jobs and secure a strong and sustainable economy.
“Our partnership with AVPA will allow us to easily bridge the gap existing between social issues and financial access. This is an opportunity for us to better help community enterprises by ensuring that the seed capital and local technical support we provide is utilized well. Moreover, AVPA will now be the perfect link to finding priority areas that need to be addressed first,” said Beth Bundi, USADF’s County Program Coordinator, during the signing of the deal in presence of Zipporah Wangari Gakaya, the Project Development Officer.
Ms. Beth noted that one of the challenges that face NGOs, investors and other humanitarians looking to invest in good causes is the lack of a strategic and cohesive plan that would facilitate a positive impact in their operations and objectives. This, she said, has always rendered them unable to effectively raise and capitalize on their financial support and is the reason why she confidently welcomed the partnership.
The two organizations will now be able to bring together a global network of like-minded individuals and organizations from many different sectors of the economy — all focused on deploying resources more strategically to improve life in Africa.
AVPA is the first-ever Pan-African platform for social investors focusing on improving living standards in Africa by snowballing the flow of financial, human and intellectual capital to social investment and by helping investors to utilize their capital effectively.
It draws inspiration from its sister organizations; the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN).
