Project profile — Promoting Inclusion through Leadership and Investment

• South of Sahara, regional (100.00%)

• Government And Civil Society, General: Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions (15170) (10.00%)
• Energy Generation, Renewable Resources: Energy generation, renewable sources - multiple technologies (23210) (15.00%)
• Banking And Financial Services: Education/training in banking and financial services (24081) (20.00%)
• Business And Other Services: Business support services and institutions (25010) (40.00%)
• Agriculture: Agricultural development (31120) (15.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)

The project aims to improve the social and economic well-being for the most vulnerable populations in East and West Africa, including crisis-affected communities, particularly poor women and girls. The project works to accomplish this by building the capacity of targeted innovative social enterprises and emerging leaders committed to improving the lives of Africans, specifically women and conflict affected populations living in poverty. The project also aims to help strengthen the evidence base for gender lens investing – or investing with an aim to earn financial returns and address gender disparities – as a poverty reduction tool. Project activities include: (1) providing “inclusion grants” to African social enterprises to develop or refine products, services and approaches that better serve vulnerable populations in East and West Africa, including women and girls, and crisis affected communities; (2) developing and implementing gender-responsive impact measurement tools to deliver actionable insights into the impact of products and services on women and girls and crisis-affected populations in East and West Africa; (3) delivering training and tools to Acumen portfolio teams from East and West Africa to strengthen the integration of a gender equality lens across Acumen’s organization and investment cycle; and (4) supporting emerging leaders to participate in Acumen’s one-year Fellowship Program (55% women business leaders or entrepreneurs; 35% women and men in, or working on issues related to, crisis-affected communities).

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) enhanced access by vulnerable populations in East and West Africa, including crisis-affected communities, in particular poor women/girls, to affordable, quality and innovative products and services that meet their specific basic needs, including clean energy and food security; and (2) strengthened capacity of emerging leaders, including those working in crisis-affected communities, particularly women leaders, to develop and manage successful businesses and organizations that address poverty reduction and social justice in East and West Africa.

Results achieved as of March 2025 include: (1) Acumen investee companies provided more than 125 million people with affordable, quality, and innovative products that meet their basic clean energy and food security needs; (2) women-led companies raised external capital of $11.24 million, (baseline: $2.25 million); (3) developed 63 new products, services, or processes with the support of inclusion grants, exceeding the end of project target of 15; (4) Acumen’s portfolio teams increased the number of business plans reviewed from women led founders to 32% from a baseline of 18%; (5) Acumen’s portfolio teams increased the number of business plans reviewed from crisis affected founders to 12% from a baseline of 0%; (6) developed two gender action plans for East Africa and West Africa, meeting the end of project target; (7) Acumen companies steadily improved their female board member representation to 36% by the end of the project against a target 25%; (8) awarded 20 inclusion grants reaching 20,163 people (7,939 male and 12,224 female ), exceeding the target of 2,400; (9) incorporated 3 new gender-focused indicators into Acumen’s annual review data collection process, meeting the end of project target; (10) Acumen’s portfolio companies cumulatively created a positive impact on the quality of life for 86% of customers (target: 70%); (11) Acumen’s portfolio companies increased the number of low-income customers they are serving, with a cumulative of 50% of those surveyed living below the poverty line (end of project target: 55%); and (12) 97% of the Fellows surveyed indicated that their participation in Acumen’s leadership development program enabled them to build a wider and more diverse professional network (end of project target of 90%).

• Proactive disclosure
• Related activities: Promoting Inclusion through Leadership and Investment - Monitoring