Earlier this year we took a group of philanthropists and partners to visit some of the social businesses in our portfolio in Uganda including Godson Commodities, Impact Water&Tugende. We also visited Kenya to see some of our pipeline companies. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet not only with the social entrepreneurs, but with the people whose lives have been changed with the products, services and higher incomes that the social businesses provide.
Building a network requires processes, structure and lots of alignment. But in order for the network to truly work, it requires trust and deep-felt human connection around a common purpose. For over 10 years, YSB has built a strong network and every year we are learning more about the effects of communities and networks. This allows us to address social problems in bold new ways.
Is diversity the only thing that can guide us through this crisis? The F-LANE Virtual accelerator shows why supporting social entrepreneurs that help women is the best way forward to foster resilience in a global pandemic.
Financing and supporting early-stage businesses in Uganda is not an easy task. In this report with USAID we look at what we have learned from our portfolio over the last few years and how this helps to inform our investment criteria going forward.