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These awards shine a spotlight on excellence in impact investments.
The UN estimates that USD2.5 trillion in yearly spending is required to meet the Sustainable Development Goals each year until 2030. Currently, development funding globally is USD158 billion. This sum, although very sizeable, is not enough but can be re-purposed as catalytic capital to unlock USD212 trillion in private markets. Impact investing is one effective way of attracting private capital to augment development funding.
Impact investments are made with the aim of generating positive, measured social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.
Although the practice is relatively new, there is already a high level of interest among traditional and social investors. But many actors in this space operate with limited connection to others. Similarly, except for impact investing practitioners – those actively designing, investing in or participating in impact investments and those who have an active interest in the field – knowledge is limited. This is true for stakeholders in government, civil society, the media, the broader public and the investment community.
The awards serve to showcase a new world of possibilities to investors and those who are considering it. This in turn could facilitate greater access to capital, particularly for smaller social enterprises. Governments on the continent benefit from additional capital to support their development objectives.
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Objectives:
- Recognise impact practitioners for their valuable work;
- Build knowledge and interest in impact investing among diverse audiences – particularly governments, civil society, the media, and the investment community;
- Inspire those in the investment community to become more involved in the design and participation in impact investments; and
- In the longer term, as methodologies are repeated and strengthened, the awards will help standardise how we view and evaluate the very nebulous concept of impact.
Award Categories
- Social enterprise of the year:
Awarded to social enterprises, i.e. businesses that aim to generate profit and have positive social or environmental impact, that are solving some of the continent’s most entrenched social or environmental problems. - Impact funder of the year:
Funders deploying capital to support impact projects. Can include pension funds, endowments, corporations, banks, governments, development finance institutions, high net-worth individuals, and public funders will be eligible for consideration. The award will seek to highlight funders who opted for a non-traditional funding approach, either as a provider of catalytic capital or a third party investor deploying capital into an innovative structure. - Financial structure of the year:
This award is specifically for the innovative financial structures using new instruments and other mechanisms for impact investments. Innovations can include funding instruments or structures, impact delivery mechanisms and innovation in lending schemes to targeted beneficiaries. - Impact fund of the year:
This award recognises fund managers who have excelled with a dedicated impact investment fund within their investment house. - Impact intermediary of the year:
This award recognises intermediaries that support and enable impact investing, including arrangers, accelerators, incubators, government departments, research & consulting firms, policy think-tanks or professional services companies that promote impact investments through thought leadership, project implementations and advisory work. - Outstanding individual achievement of the year:
This award is for an individual that has made an outstanding contribution in the past year to support the growth of the impact investments ecosystem.
Guiding Definitions
We use the Global Impact Investing Network’s definition of impact investments:
“Investments made with the aim of generating positive, measured social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.”
This excludes the following types of activities for awards consideration:
- Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
- Investments with potential social or environmental benefits that are not explicitly planned for and measured.
- Investments in social and environmental causes that do not also carry financial returns for investors.
Judging Criteria
Each application will be fully screened by administrators to ensure that all information provided on the online application form is legitimate and can be verified. Screened applications will then be passed onto a panel of judges that will rate each application along the following criteria:
- Originality of design (10 points)
- The extent to which an unmet need is filled (10 points)
- Impact (30 points)
- Financial performance (30 points)
- Potential for replicability of the instrument or transferability to other sectors (20 points)
When workshopping to finalise these criteria, a key point to consider will be the extent to which projects that are still in their early stages should be considered for awards. Such projects would then be evaluated along planned impact and financial performance criteria.
Each application will be awarded a maximum of 100 points. Winners in each category will be chosen according to applications with the highest average score.
