On October 31, 2018, at the European Headquarters of UBS in London, the DFAT-funded Investing in Women initiative organized a workshop to present the findings of the recent review of its impact investment component.  The review team of Ted Jackson and Kaylene Alvarez facilitated the workshop, which was attended by more than 20 practitioners

More than 300 investors, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and policymakers gathered in London, England to participate in the first Gender-Smart Investing Summit.  Major sponsors included UBS, CDC, Investing in Women and the Tara Health Foundation.  Gender lens investing champions Suzanne Biegel and Joy Anderson, CDC CEO Nick O’Donohoe and UN Under-Secretary General Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Collecting data from some of the most vulnerable populations in the world, evaluators have a responsibility to ensure data privacy and security.  As consultant Linda Raftree writes, evaluators must take steps to “have a full picture of the various ways that it could be breached, leaked, or used in unanticipated ways

The costs of participating in impact investing deals are distributed unequally across the stakeholder network.  It is time for impact investors to address this issue.  Read Ted Jackson’s article

In a recent blog for the American Evaluation Association, Asma Ali and Isabel Cuervo discuss ways and means of applying design thinking (DT), or human-centred design, in the evaluation process. “In evaluation,” they write, “design considerations are most often enacted during evaluation reporting and dissemination phases of a project, to engage stakeholders

Feminist, political scientist and longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Annette Isaac, recently signed copies of her new memoir, Missing the Cues, at Books on Beechwood in Ottawa.  The book weaves her personal experiences and reflections together with broader political and cultural analyses from the point of view of a Black woman newcomer to Canada. 

In the latest in their IDS blog series, Peter O’Flynn and Grace Lyn Higdon set out ways and means of using participatory approaches with communities and employees in investee firms in the impact investment cycle, including pre-screening, due diligence, monitoring and exit.  Their thinking is generative and carries important implications, and opportunities, for impact investors. …(Read more)

A group of Sri Lankan leaders is launching the impact investing ecosystem in that country on the basis of a unique television series that matches social entrepreneurs seeking capital to grow their businesses with local impact investors.  Now the number one national TV business series, the show attracts one million viewers a week. 

In their contribution to the AEA blog series, Karim Harji and Ted Jackson report on a collaborative initiative in South Africa and Ghana that has produced a unique curriculum for training investors, investees and policymakers in strategies and tools for evaluating impact investing.