Dear Partners and Investors,
Enabling Qapital has made meaningful progress in the past year to be true to its mission and vision to move money to meaning in a world where investment empowers people and embraces the planet. We have demonstrated that we “walk the talk” when it comes to living by our corporate values of good governance and servant leadership and to promoting sustainable development through responsible investments.
We are aware of the fact that we need to be deliberate in pursuing these objectives and have therefore invested a lot of time, energy and resources in 2022 to further develop our sustainability framework with the clear and shared intention to do more than what is expected from us and go beyond regulatory compliance.
The aim of this year’s sustainability report is to share with you the steps – from setting up a governance structure for sustainabilityrelated matters, to better articulating our sustainability strategy policies and developing theories of change for EQ and the Funds we advise.
Not only have these achievements been essential to reinforcing our company culture, they have also been recognized externally. In September 2022, EQ became a B Corp certified company, thanks to its high social and environmental performance. Additionally, the EMF Microfinance Fund (EMF) was classified as a sustainable investment per Article 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). We invite you to read the dedicated sections of this report for a better understanding on why these achievements are important to us.
We have also made significant progress in expanding our global outreach and impact. The funding provided by the EMF has enabled us to support over 120 companies in 44 developing countries/ emerging markets and to have a direct impact on roughly 400’000 microborrowers. Their stories of success and resilience – some of
whom are included in this report – inspire our work and fuel our
commitment to move money to meaning.
In line with our strategy to diversify our product offering beyond financial inclusion, so as to achieve greater impact, we launched the Spark+ Africa Fund in March 2022 to facilitate access to clean cooking solutions for the low-income segment contributing to improved health and gender outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In a context where climate change finally takes center stage in decision-making circles like it did during the WEF in Davos in early 2023, clean cooking plays a critical role in climate and our environment. The inefficient production and use of wood and charcoal as cooking fuels leads to deforestation in several countries leading to a cooking related greenhouse gas emission footprint equivalent to global air travel.
In July 2022, we were honored that the EMF Enabling Microfinance Foundation, the original promoter of EMF, passed the baton to EQ to fulfill this role. We committed to ensure the Foundation would continue to benefit from substantial yearly donations to continue its important mission and engage in impactful projects such as the Climate Resilience Enhanced Debt (CRED) Program. This innovative program enables quick access to capital in the aftermath of natural disasters, supporting the recovery of poor and low-income people, which are inequitably impacted by climate events.
We are proud of all the work we have done over the past year to increase our impact and enhance our sustainability strategy. We look forward to continuing this journey to further strengthen our systems to monitor progress towards the achievement of our stated sustainability and impact goals.
Past and future achievements are only possible through the support and trust of our investors, partners, investees and the commitment of the whole team, to which we would like to extend our gratitude. Let’s all continue walking this journey together to move money to
meaning.
