SEAF and ANDE propose a collaborative session centered around climate metrics for small and growing businesses (SGBs)/small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We believe that SGBs and SMEs are a powerful, yet under-leveraged tool in addressing social, climate and environmental challenges. Entrepreneurs from low and middle income countries have a deep understanding of local markets and needs and thus will inevitably play a critical role in promoting mitigation, supporting adaptation, and addressing issues related to climate resilience and justice. Yet, as laid out in a recent ANDE review of the knowledge base on climate entrepreneurship in developing economies, our understanding of the needs of these entrepreneurs and the most effective ways to support them, as well as the most appropriate metrics to measure their impact, remains limited.
As a result of its thirty years of activity and its sector-agnostic approach, SEAF has become very familiar with the challenges of investing for, and managing impact in the specific SME context. SEAF is also aware of the growing number of IMM frameworks and regulation being implemented worldwide. However, we see that most of these appear to have larger companies in mind, especially around environmental practices and indicators. Because of this, SEAF is developing its Impact Scorecard, an impact management tool that is part of system that allows to properly capture and report impact information as it is relevant to SME’s. SEAF’s efforts are not aimed at creating new regulations or indicators, rather adapting existing ones to our SME context.
SEAF’s impact scorecard draws from relevant and accepted impact management frameworks and regulations and captures information around the categories of ESG, Impact, and Investment Additionality. By identifying criteria that are relevant to SME’s for each of these categories, SEAF is able to create scores with the goal of identifying where an SME can most effectively act to create the most social or environmental impact. With this Impact Scorecard, SEAF hopes to bring impact management practices to all its SME’s in a way that is accessible, actionable, and material.
In this panel session, representatives from SEAF will discuss their process of developing their Impact Scorecard in a way that applies to SMEs and SGBs. Specifically, we will lead a conversation around what intermediary organizations and entrepreneurs can do when widely accepted impact frameworks are difficult or impossible to comply with. In the final part of the session, ANDE and SEAF will facilitate a discussion with attendees and take questions — with the goal of sourcing more insight around appropriate climate metrics for SGBs and SMEs. This session will be approximately 60 minutes. ANDE and SEAF are also sourcing another panelist from SEAF’s portfolio companies to speak from an enterprise perspective. This session will be valuable to intermediary organizations seeking to implement similar impact scorecards for their portfolios, as well as entrepreneurs seeking to operationalize climate metrics.
About the presenters:
Small Enterprise Assistance Fund (SEAF) –
For thirty years, SEAF has pursued its mission of investing in SMEs in emerging and frontier markets, using capital and direct business assistance to improve the lives of those often overlooked and underserved. We invest in SMEs because we believe in entrepreneurs, in their desire and ability to strengthen their communities to build resilience against future crises. SEAF’s vision for the next thirty years is to be a catalyst for change by supporting entrepreneurs who help their communities build resilience by addressing challenges caused by climate change, food insecurity and lack of inclusion. SEAF’s impact investing approach towards climate resilience is double-pronged: adaptation and mitigation. SEAF’s fund initiatives will strategically deploy capital into SMEs whose products or services minimize greenhouse gas emissions and promote resilience in climate-vulnerable communities, leveraging impact as a driver for growth.
Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) –
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is a global network of organizations that propel entrepreneurship in emerging markets. ANDE members provide critical financial, educational, and business support services to small and growing businesses (SGBs) based on the conviction that SGBs will create jobs, stimulate long-term economic growth, and produce environmental and social benefits. Ultimately, we believe that SGBs can help lift countries out of poverty.
