<h1 style="text-align:center;">An Update on the ABG Project</h1>RENEW recently hit the four-year mark of the five-year Accelerating Business Growth Project (ABG) in Ethiopia, a collaboration agreement with <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/gac-amc/index.aspx?lang=eng">Global Affairs Canada</a>. The ABG project aims to support high potential, responsible small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ethiopia so they can attract and efficiently use finance to scale up, enabling them to play a stronger role in the Ethiopian economy. The project addresses the gap found in the capital markets in Ethiopia and in many other countries in Africa, called the “missing middle”. Learn more about the project <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/stories-histoires/2021/business-growth-ethiopia-ethiopie-croissance-entreprises.aspx?lang=eng.html">here</a>.With four years completed and the May 2021 finish line quickly approaching, we thought it was a good time to look back and celebrate some of the project outcomes achieved to date (these results are also represented in a visual format below):<ul><li>We are supporting 5,806 jobs across the SMEs in our program of which 3,613 or 62% are held by women. The project target of 5,000 jobs was recently exceeded.</li><li>We have helped SMEs attract $56M CAD in financing for their businesses through 85 investments, to help them scale, create jobs, and contribute to Ethiopia's private sector. 29 of these investments have gone to women-owned businesses, with an average investment size of $493K CAD.</li><li>We have trained and graduated 84 finance professionals (of which 25 are women) and 61 executives (of which 26 are women) from our rigorous CFO100 and Exec's Program training and have equipped them to be strong and ethical managers of Ethiopian SMEs.</li><li>We have trained over 700 SMEs and resource providers on private equity through our PE500 incubator program, equipping them to access or help others access growth capital.</li></ul>As we reflect on this progress and these stories of impact in our <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/resources/blogs/Celebrating%20our%20Impact">2019-2020 Impact Report</a>, we do so in a subdued manner recognizing the reversal of outcomes that are expected in light of the COVID-19 pandemic's severe impact on East Africa's already fragile private sector. According to ANDE<a href="#section1">[1]</a>, a funding gap of $930 billion already existed for SMEs in emerging markets prior to the pandemic, and this only stands to widen. The RENEW team has been working hard to develop and deliver virtual programs directly helping SMEs respond to the challenges of the current climate under COVID-19 and providing resources and dedicated coaching to help them access much-needed funding during this time.The economy of Ethiopia has increasingly strengthened during the last two decades as industrialization has expanded. Between 1999 and 2015, the poverty rate decreased by 7.6%<a href="#section2">[2]</a>, lifting roughly 8.3M Ethiopians out of poverty. COVID-19 is putting these developmental outcomes at risk by constraining business growth and capital attraction for SMEs which will be most impacted and will require timely support in order to survive. In fact, it is estimated that 42% of all SMEs in Africa are in danger of failing within the next six months<a href="#section3">[3]</a>. For this reason, we believe that programs like ABG, working to leverage capital into SMEs and training local managers to increase their capacity for scaling companies, have the greatest impact on development outcomes.Cover Photo by Ian Christmann: <a href="www.ianchristmann.com">www.ianchristmann.com</a><a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/ETH/ethiopia/poverty-rate">https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/ETH/ethiopia/poverty-rate</a>

4 years into our 5 year project with Global Affairs Canada

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An Update on the ABG Project

The ABG project supported high-potential SMEs in Ethiopia to attract and use finance to scale up and play a strong role in the economy, while creating 2,632 jobs (70% for women).

<h1 style="text-align:center;">METAD, an SDG Case Study</h1>The following blog is taken from our <a href="https://latest-api.renewcapital.com/uploads/RENEW_Impact_Report_2017_c0d6c8251c.pdf">2017 Impact Report</a>. Be sure to download the report to read more about RENEW’s approach to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.The expression, “It’s not our job, it’s theirs” is a phrase that resonates with the RENEW team. As we look around our portfolio, we see great examples of Ethiopian entrepreneurs, committed to their businesses and communities and making significant impact that aligns with the SDGs. METAD is one such example.The IAN closed an investment into METAD, an Ethiopian specialty coffee company, in October 2013 and made a second investment in 2015. The investments helped establish two coffee processing facilities on the METAD coffee farms, located near Yirgacheffe in the districts of Hambela and Gedeb in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. At the end of 2017, the company reported they were employing 200 people on a permanent basis and 1,200 seasonal laborers, in addition to supporting 5,400 out growers.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/moving_dried_coffees_to_the_hambela_warehouses_d435e600d1.jpg"></figure>We sat down recently with METAD’s CEO Aman Adinew and this is what he said.What’s your vision for METAD? From a business standpoint, we aim to be the best in specialty coffee. We started out to build a company that is socially responsible, environmentally conscious and making the highest possible impact in the community. That’s why we chose coffee. We saw the gaps and problems in the value chain, and we’ve focused on the opportunity of building a trusted, specialty coffee brand. Enhancing the lives of the people we work with…that’s the vision. That’s the biggest impact we can make.How do you engage the community? It’s key to meet leaders, elders and the community. Once you gain acceptance, they treat you like their son. They trust and respect you. We’ve been lucky at both our processing sites. The people welcomed us and truly know we are there to help them. We’ve significantly raised the average price per kilogram of coffee for the farmer by 30-40%.We focus a lot on education. It matters, because we have the opportunity to groom the next generation of leaders. Ethiopia is still a tribal place. My farm is in an area dominated by a tribe that is not my own. My presence and community engagement is breaking down stereotypes. The people see me putting additional money in their pockets, educating their children and helping to build the community. This is more satisfying than the EBIDTA that I have been able to accomplish.Specifically, we subsidize teacher salaries; we have built a school that holds 800 students; and we are adding an additional wing this year. The community leaders are asking for water, so we are hoping to build a well soon. We also sponsor 105 students from the area to attend college at Gilla University. For our 5,400 out growers, we have built a community center where we provide training to enable them to get premium values for their coffee, and we make a second payment to them at the end of the year, to essentially share our profit with them. We’ve been able to get all of them certified organic. The community center is also used for community meetings and other trainings including family planning seminars. The average family size is 12 in their area. Some families have 15-20 children which is unfortunately some of the highest per capita in the world.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/408_students_received_new_uniforms_edfae8f0a2.jpg"></figure>What kind of diversity are you aiming for in your work force? At the farm about 70% of our workers are women. At our headquarters, it’s about 50%. I won’t say there aren’t challenges, it’s hard for women from our headquarters to be taken seriously by some in the field near the farm, but we are working on it. Our staff are highly paid in our industry. We try to recruit the best, and then when the company grows, they benefit. We also encourage our team to take courses. Our high performing people attend conferences and also learn the export side of the business. Above all, I try to lead by example. I even stay at the farm for two months during the coffee harvest to show them that I am committed and with them.Any special programs for women? We helped bring Grounds for Health to Ethiopia and they run a program in coffee areas to screen workers and out growers, and others in coffee for cervical cancer. It’s an important and lifesaving initiative, we are proud to be a part of.We are also founding members of a group called Equal Origin which encourages women in coffee. Currently of our 5,400 out growers, most are men, but this doesn’t mean that the women don’t play a key role in the coffee production. So, we are educating families about equal rights, and in partnership with some of our buyers, including Intelligentsia, we are encouraging husbands, brothers and fathers to register their wives, sisters and daughter on the land documentation. Women are doing a lot of the work, and we, along with our buyers, are willing to pay a premium for families who are willing to recognize equal rights. Some people are rigid, but what we find in the communities where we work, is that most are open to change. And the economic benefit helps too!Why do your customers choose METAD? Our customers care about our story. That’s the beauty of specialty coffee. Specialty coffee is all about the community in which the coffee is produced. Buyers are willing to pay for good coffee. A whole story like METAD is exciting to them. Coffee they can find anywhere. But good coffee with a story is what our buyers are looking for

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METAD, an SDG Case Study

Through investments into METAD, an Ethiopian specialty coffee company, Renew Capital helped support thousands of jobs and educational opportunities for the surrounding community.

<h1 style="text-align:center;">ARISE Re-launches on the Last Week of September 2022</h1>Over the course of 2021, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and RENEW reached 1,382 women-owned and -led agri-businesses in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through the design, launch and successful execution of the African Resilience &amp; Investment Series for Women Executives (ARISE) Program in 2021.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/BOLG_2x_841ad93c4d.jpg"></figure>The ARISE program was designed with the knowledge that agriculture holds the key to broad-based economic growth, poverty reduction and food security in Africa, and with the understanding that the COVID-19 global pandemic had a severe impact on women-owned and -led agri-businesses in Africa. The ARISE program had the goal of addressing issues that can help the businesses boost their capacity to cope, recover and build resilience to future shocks.The ARISE program covered critical and relevant business and skills capacity topics over a series of five training programs, including recovery during a crises and business contingency planning, executive and financial management, leadership skills, investment readiness and pitching to secure third party finance, as well as emotional support and networking sessions. The training programs included the&nbsp; Investment Seminar, Accelerated Women Executives’ Program, Investment Preparation, Pitch Coaching sessions and Peer-to-Peer Support (i.e., virtual coffee sessions).&nbsp;&nbsp;While the ARISE program was successful in engaging with strong and dynamic women and creating a platform through which agri-businesses could come together to learn best practices, attend coaching and support sessions, obtain essential tools to implement learnings, and network with industry peers and discuss the ways to recover and build the groundwork of resilience for their businesses, there’s more to be done.&nbsp; AGRA’s promotion of women’s economic empowerment within the agriculture sector and addressing the persisting problems they face is not meant to be a one time thing, rather it’s a continuous expedition of breaking the barriers impeding growth of agri-businesses in Africa.&nbsp;With the feedback, learnings and key takeaways from the ARISE program the AGRA and RENEW project teams will be enhancing the ARISE program and providing strengthened and further tailored training programs over the coming 4 months. During this period, members of AGRA’s VALUE4HER platform will have the opportunity to go through an intensive upskilling and reskilling program, wherein the original suite of training programs will all be improved to better address self-identified business and skills gaps, as well as bridge the confidence, self-esteem and ambition setting gaps that were observed as part of the post program survey for the original ARISE program. The ARISE project teams believe the enhanced trainings will better meet women-led and -owned agri-businesses’ needs in terms of content, tools and engagement, and we look forward to working with AGRA-supported companies again in the coming months.&nbsp;Note: Be sure to watch your inbox, the Value4Her platform and RENEW’s marketing channels for announcements regarding training dates and times for the above mentioned key sessions. We encourage you to be one of the futuristic, growth-minded and exemplary women agri-preneurs who participate and strive to make a mark on economic growth, poverty reduction and food security in Africa.&nbsp; &nbsp;

ARISE Re-Launches The Last Week of September 2022!

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ARISE Re-launches the Last Week of September 2022

The African Resilience & Investment Series for Executives (ARISE) project helped 2000+ African women in agriculture-focused SMEs with coaching and skills training to help their recovery from impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

<h1 style="text-align:center;">What is the SG2X Playbook?</h1><a href="https://sg2x.squarespace.com/entrepreneurs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Download the SG2X Playbook Now!</a>Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the largest segment of the African economy and yet &nbsp;African SMEs as a business and investment class are under-performing and are rarely gender smart. They do not currently perform well enough to justify the associated transaction and portfolio management costs that would be incurred by investors, and they do not have the resources or capacity to fully support women’s economic empowerment. So, what are SME investors to do? To address the need for improved portfolio and impact results, USAID, RENEW, and a consortium of leading gender lens investing (GLI) initiatives, including members of the 2X Challenge, set out to support the creation of GLI success stories in Africa.The underlying assumptions for the 18-month project supported by the USAID Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment Hub were threefold: 1) Gender-balanced executive teams deliver superior performance than single-gender dominated teams; 2) fund managers need quick and simple tools to share with SME managers to help them run successful companies; and 3) these tools can be gender sensitized to drive gender equality and SME performance.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/image_1_e9531f7199.png"></figure>Keeping these assumptions in mind, the project team created the SME Gender Growth Acceleration (SG2X) Playbook, a gender-smart investment toolkit for fund managers and SMEs operating in Africa, designed to help them build gender-smart SMEs with gender-balanced executive teams that deliver attractive financial and impact results.Now, we understand and fully recognize that there is a lot of great activity already occurring within the GLI space. The internet is full of amazing reports, case studies, and tools for GLI investing, some even targeted specifically for SMEs.Unfortunately, most SME fund managers do not have a lot of time or resources to search, read, extract, and use these tools, which can be hundreds of pages in length and difficult to parse out. SME fund managers and the managers in their portfolio companies need quick, easy to access tools designed to achieve dual objectives: financial and impact results.So, how is the SG2X Playbook different from other GLI resources? The SG2X Playbook builds on these existing resources (i.e., we don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but rather strengthen it) and provides a systematic, replicable, and tested approach in the form of a “Playbook” designed to help grow SMEs into gender-smart success stories that deliver competitive financial and impact results and demand attention from larger private sector investors. In short, the SG2X Playbook outlines a fund manager’s investment game plan, including gender-smart policies, tools, trainings, and best practices to maximize portfolio results. The SG2X Playbook is comprised of the following components:Policies: The Playbook includes a comprehensive Employee Handbook that presents SME entrepreneurs, executives, and managers with standardized, gender-smart policy templates and language they can tailor to the needs and reality of their business.Materials &amp; Standard Operating Procedures: The Playbook includes a module-based narrative outlining the key subject areas of the Playbook, providing best practices for execution and overall instruction on how to use the Playbook through Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).Gender-Smart Exec’s Training Program: The Playbook includes a curriculum, instructional videos, and presentation materials of the Gender-Smart Exec’s Program — a module-based executive capacity building training program that helps SME executives broaden their skill sets across nine critical topics. This program serves as the main training for Playbook implementation within SMEs.Tools, Resources, Templates, etc.: The Playbook includes a suite of more than 45 practical tools that will aid in the execution of the Gender-Smart Exec’s Program and implementation of the Playbook’s guidance. These resources include, but are not limited to, HR tools (e.g., interview templates, performance review templates, etc.), financial tools (e.g., budget templates, cash flow management templates, accounting and finance manuals, etc.), and management planning tools (e.g. annual management plan; mission, vision, and long-term statements, impact thesis).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://sg2x.squarespace.com/entrepreneurs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Get your free copy of the Playbook now.</a>

RENEW breaks down the various components of the SG2X Playbook and explains how it is unique from other Gender Lens Investing resources.


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What is the SG2X Playbook?

Renew Capital joined USAID’s Women Economic Empowerment Fund and members of the 2X Collaborative to develop and launch the SG2X Playbook: a gender-smart investment toolkit for fund managers and SMEs operating in Africa.

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Accelerating Business Growth in Ethiopia

Impacting a Community Through Coffee Farming

Helping African Women in Agribusiness Recover

Accelerating SME Gender Growth with the SG2X Playbook