On June 3, via a virtual Zoom event, the Graça Machel Trust (GMT) hosted its Inaugural GMT Entrepreneur RoundTable: Understanding the Fundraising Journey – An Entrepreneur and Investor Perspective. The session was run by Andia Chakava the investment Director, Korkor Cudjoe the technical assistant lead, and Jane Muia the investment analyst at the Graça Machel Trust.
“The purpose of this roundtable is to build a relationship of trust with each other and to be true to our slogan of nothing about us without us – solving the challenge of women’s financial inclusion can be accelerated with increased participation of women as innovators, problem solvers, entrepreneurs and business leaders” – Korkor Cudjoe
The event had a number of objectives aligned to GMT’s vision of growing a robust pipeline of investor-ready businesses. They were:
- To strengthen relationships with entrepreneurs within the Trust’s network through providing informal and periodic check-ins.
- Explain the investment journey to allow the entrepreneurs understand our investment process – including due diligence information requirements.
- To informally determine entrepreneurial tenacity, attitude, commitment, accountability and progress within entrepreneur business and towards achieving growth and technical assistance support.
- Gather market intelligence around both financial and non-financial needs of women entrepreneurs in GMT’s potential pipeline to help categorize the needs and develop product and service offering to respond to those needs.
- Encourage peer listening, learning and communal sharing. Understand regional insights, sectoral differences and or business stage nuances as GLI fund invests.
- Explain the next steps from GMT and the entrepreneurs and call for commitment to partner in the success of the GLI fund initiative.
The Inaugural GMT Entrepreneur RoundTable: Understanding the Fundraising Journey: An Entrepreneur & Investor Perspective
The event discussed the entrepreneur and investor journey, engaged entrepreneurs on their experiences around growing their business, COVID and funding access including challenges faced and support required.
“To adapt to the new normal, I wish to have a business model that’s not constrained to one location to expand and engage women who are sewing from their homes for a collective project. This will reduce costs on infrastructure for my business” shared one South African Entrepreneur – Textile Business. Her sentiments were shared by another Zambian Entrepreneur in Agro Processing. She said, “my wish is to have my product sold across Africa and to have avenues to create opportunities to employ women.”
The roundtable ended with deliberations on how best to drive the possibility of a gender lens investment vehicle designed by African women for African women, with entrepreneurs who were called upon to make commitments towards championing the cause.
“Gender lens investing is not only about ownership but also about leadership and how all those areas can be accelerated at the point of investment. Meaning that as a business you may not already have a gender lens focus but ideally, you may end up having a gender lens after we invest,” – Andia Chakava.
Below are the learnings outcomes from the event
- 9 women entrepreneurs who are graduates from our various enterprise development programs or form part of our investable pipeline participated in the event from 5 countries (South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania)
- Women entrepreneurs demonstrated great resilience during COVID despite facing challenges around cash flow and consumer demand.
- Grant financing and business pivots supported business survival during the COVID crisis.
- The stage was strengthened for building lasting relationships between GMT and our women entrepreneurs.
- Entrepreneurs were willing to make tangible commitments to getting their businesses ready for investments by making necessary changes in preparation for this.
- Entrepreneurs expressed their interest in technical assistance programs that supported funding readiness, involved localised role models for relatability and practicality and provided exposure and linkages to funding and markets.
- Entrepreneurs were committed to being GMT’s ambassadors for the gender lens investment fund and expressed willingness to share the opportunity with their networks.
This article was written by Jane Muia the investment analyst at the Graça Machel Trust.
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.