The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), who you may remember having received a $6.5 million pledge this fall as support for their work in developing the impact investing industry, announced today that the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) will provide a £10.5 million boost for them to develop and grow the impact investing market in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The funding is part of DFID’s new Impact Programme, which will also establish a DFID Impact Fund that will be managed by CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution. The DFID Impact Fund will invest in impact investment intermediaries providing capital to businesses and projects improving the lives of poor people. Backed by expert technical assistance, the DFID Impact Fund is designed to attract new investors to promising impact investment intermediaries.
“The launch of the DFID Impact Programme is an important milestone for the growing impact investment industry, especially in its tremendous support for field-building work,” said Luther M. Ragin, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of the GIIN. “The DFID Impact Programme is well positioned to catalyze effective impact investing markets in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and it complements the GIIN’s commitment to grow the field worldwide.”
“Investors are starting to wake up to the benefits of working in the poorest countries,” said UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening. “We can help by removing some of the barriers to investing and by directing investment to where it can make a huge difference to the lives of poor people.”
Funding for the GIIN will help develop the enabling environment for impact investments that deliver basic services such as healthcare, education, clean water, sanitation, and clean energy or provide good employment to poor people in developing countries.
Activities supported will include: an expanded research and outreach agenda to increase awareness and market intelligence; investor education and collaboration for impact investors directing funds to support the world’s poorest populations; expanded market coverage of ImpactBase, the online global directory of impact investment funds, products, and investment vehicles; increased technical training for emerging market fund managers investing to achieve social impact alongside financial returns; and, development and adoption support for standardized impact measurement practices.
Source: GIIN