<h1 style="text-align:center;">Why Supporting Women in Business is at the Heart of What We Do</h1>“...A woman might have an excellent idea on how to develop her business. But if she wants to get a loan from the bank to expand her business, she needs to have the approval of her husband. And if the husband doesn't approve, then that noble idea must be buried for the rest of her life because her husband didn’t understand it.” - Graduate of The Exec’s ProgramAs we approach International Women’s Day, it is important to remember and shed light on the context under which many women entrepreneurs, executives and employees operate. Unfortunately, stories and sentiments as outlined in the above quote are not unique to East Africa (globally, only one out of three businesses are owned by women); it is an all too common reality that women must face and is why, ultimately, there are less women entrepreneurs succeeding in this part of the world. After operating in Ethiopia for the past nine years, RENEW understands the hurdles that women must face in owning and/or managing a business. It is because of this that we have made it one of our guiding goals to find ways to enable and equip women with the tools they need to overcome the barriers holding them back.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/xec_fotor_0_af0bf06ab0_a9f4459589.jpg"></figure>Barriers in the business world in East Africa tend to be a bit different than the barriers we find in places like the United States. Women are far from being equally represented in Ethiopia’s private sector which, in turn, holds back Ethiopia’s economy from living up to its full potential for equality, job creation, growth and innovation. According to studies, less than 30% of SMEs in Ethiopia are owned or managed by women, and Ethiopia ranks last relative to other countries in the region for women in management and women in entrepreneurship.[1] Further, while gender-inclusive employment practices are critical to developing an equitable society as well as driving business growth, the SME sector is not currently doing enough to promote and incentivize these practices among businesses.[2] We believe that in order to fix this, women need to be given access to resources, financing and best practices to not only move their businesses forward but also help drive Ethiopia towards becoming a gender-smart economy.“The challenges go back to...how women are raised, and how society sees them. I don’t have a sense of entitlement and fearlessness that is more ingrained in men. Had I been a man in my situation, I probably would have gotten more aggressive in getting a bigger investment, but as women, we are told to be more cautious.” - Graduate of The Exec’s ProgramHistorically, gender dynamics within Ethiopia’s business environment have compounded the known problems of the “missing middle” - lack of access to finance and human capital development. In 2016, The Ministry of Women Affairs published a Development and Change Package of Ethiopian Women Report which noted that there was a need to develop a society wherein women are equal participants and beneficiaries of the economic, social and political life of the country. That’s why at RENEW, we believe that providing educational and financial training to women in the private sector is an important step forward in supporting women’s equality and empowering women within the country and region.“...As I mentioned earlier, access to finance and land - they go hand in hand. If I had land then I would be able to get access to financing, because they don’t give you loans [unless you have collateral].” - Graduate of The Exec’s ProgramRENEW has found that women entrepreneurs confront even higher barriers to finance than men because they often lack the collateral and banking relationships to secure loans, are not readily invited to investment forums and “after-hours” events to meet with equity investors and potential clients, and lack networks and market linkages that are afforded to their male counterparts. It is also evident that women entrepreneurs, executives and managers face a persisting historical disadvantage - they are not working from the same starting point nor in as safe of a working environment as their male counterparts. In addition, domestic and family commitments place significant demands on their time resulting in less availability to dedicate to skills training and business development.“As a woman, there is always a challenge...Most of the time we have a fear of failure at the beginning. I think risk-taking is also our problem. And the other thing is, balancing the business with your family. As a woman, you have a lot of things to do with family and children for most of us, I think.” - Graduate of The Exec’s ProgramThis is why RENEW supports and advocates for women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. We want the realities these women identify above to change, and we want the barriers they face to be non-existent. By providing business trainings, policies, practices, and leadership development opportunities, as well as investment facilitation services and networking opportunities, we’re doing our part to try to tackle discrimination and inequality within SMEs in East Africa. RENEW seeks to overcome the barriers that women entrepreneurs and executives face by shifting the mindset and cultures of SMEs so that work environments are supportive of women’s priorities. Our long-term goal is for women beneficiaries to be empowered in the private sector and no longer have to choose between their careers or their families, thereby helping drive Ethiopia towards becoming a more gender-smart economy.Sources: <a href="https://n26.com/en-eu/female-opportunity-index#:~:text=An%20analysis%20of%20gender%20equality,to%20education%20and%20parental%20leave.">The Female Opportunity Index 2021</a>. N26. 2021. <a href="https://www.andeglobal.org/publication/gender-equality-in-the-sgb-sector-ande-india-issue-brief/">Gender Equality in the SGB Sector ANDE Issue Brief</a>. Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. 2019.

The Women in Business Series is offered as an in-person or virtual experience to empower female executives to break through personal and systemic barriers they face in advancing their careers and companies. 

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For Women Executives

Understanding the Context Under Which Many Women Operate

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Why Supporting Women in Business is at the Heart of What We Do

<h1 style="text-align:center;">The Men Who Care About Gender Equality</h1><a href="https://www.internationalwomensday.com/">International Women’s Day</a> (IWD) is a global day to celebrate the achievements made by women, while also putting forth a call to action to accelerate women’s equality. This year, the IWD theme is Choose to Challenge (#ChooseToChallenge): Challenging the status quo, challenging how the world views women, challenging people and organizations to call out gender bias and inequality. We can all do our part and we can all choose to create a more inclusive world, and we can choose to celebrate women and their achievements. “From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge” (IWD).&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/cd294f62_ef0c_4718_9f53_e84ce1e40d5a_fotor_0_708d52ba91.jpg"></figure>At RENEW, we choose to actively challenge gender equality on a daily basis, by creating gender-balanced management teams, by supporting women in leadership roles, and by instilling the benefits of gender equality in our portfolio companies and through our training. While in years past we’ve highlighted all the women on our team for IWD, this year, we wanted to find the men who also care about this day and these ideals just as much as the <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/about/teams">women on our team</a>. So with the theme in mind, we approached the men who are actively challenging the status quo, the ones who see and inherently understand the importance of gender equality. Here are some of the stories from the men on our team.Scroll down or click through to the following team members<ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-davis-a948772/">Matthew Davis, Managing Partner &amp; CEO - Ethiopia</a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-reesor-019a942a/">Justin Reesor, Director of Admin &amp; Finance - Canada</a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoseph-getachew-98184366/">Yoseph Getachew, Portfolio Manager - Ethiopia</a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lincoln-ford-linguyeneza-0674b0b9/">Lincoln Ford Linguyeneza, Legal Counsel - Rwanda</a></li></ul><hr>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-davis-a948772/">Matthew Davis</a>, Managing Partner &amp; CEO - EthiopiaIs there a woman in your life you look up to? If yes, tell us the story? Yes. My wife. She's a trailblazer, fearless in the face of challenges, and she has become a powerful force in the investment world.Is there a female leader you look up to? If yes, why? I like how Bill and Melinda Gates have co-led the Gates Foundation. I think their partnership, respect and shared vision are a model for how couples who are trying to change the world can and should work together.What opportunities and benefits do you see for companies in East Africa to create gender-balanced management teams? Sales teams? HR policies? Financial decisions? Half the population is female. Half the market is female. Half the workforce is female. Is half the company's leadership female? If not - huge opportunity.<hr>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-reesor-019a942a/">Justin Reesor</a>, Director of Admin &amp; Finance - CanadaIs there a woman in your life you look up to? If yes, tell us the story? My grandmother. She embodies the spirit of being selfless and has dedicated her life to taking care of others: from simple acts such as remembering and celebrating meaningful dates to fostering children.Is there a female leader you look up to? If yes, why? Since hearing about Malala Yousafzai's story, I have always looked up to her and admired her courage and persistence. At such a young age, she has been able to make such meaningful change, in spite of the significant trauma she has been through.What opportunities and benefits do you see for companies in East Africa to create gender-balanced management teams? Sales teams? HR policies? Financial decisions? It's a well-documented fact that organizations with strong female representation at the senior management and board-level outperform their male counterparts. I believe SMEs in East Africa have a significant opportunity to scale and become world-class companies simply by focusing on execution and becoming gender-smart and even leapfrog western economies in terms of female representation and management participation.<hr>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoseph-getachew-98184366/">Yoseph Getachew</a>, Portfolio Manager - EthiopiaIs there a woman in your life you look up to? If yes, tell us the story? Abebech, my mother, for me is everything that you wish a human to be; well respected by her coworkers, friends and family because of the spirit and joy she creates in everything she does. She is a true role model for her children and the entire family.Is there a female leader you look up to? If yes, why? Taytu Betul(ጣይቱ ብጡል) the queen of Ethiopia and wife of emperor Menlik, who was not overshadowed by her husband and is behind some of the great things that took place in Ethiopia: from leading an army of her own and winning critical battles to establishing historical cities like Addis Ababa.What opportunities and benefits do you see for companies in East Africa to create gender-balanced management teams? Sales teams? HR policies? Financial decisions? As humans, what makes us powerful is our diversity and what we all bring to the table. Those who win the competition are those who recognize that women are at the core of it all and should be represented if one chooses to stand out from competition irrespective of the size of the company, SMEs included.<hr>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lincoln-ford-linguyeneza-0674b0b9/">Lincoln Ford Linguyeneza</a>, Legal Counsel - RwandaIs there a woman in your life you look up to? If yes, tell us the story? Yes. I look up to my late paternal grandmother, Stella. She sacrificed her opportunity to receive an education and instead single handedly put her kids, siblings, and other close relatives through school in the late 50s when the African society frowned upon women getting a formal education.Is there a female leader you look up to? If yes, why? Mrs. Patience Mutesi Gatera, Rwanda Country Director; Trademark East Africa. She has blazed a path for women entrepreneurs in Rwanda. She has given several inspiring talks and interviews in the areas of finance and entrepreneurship.What opportunities and benefits do you see for companies in East Africa to create gender-balanced management teams? Sales teams? HR policies? Financial decisions? Uganda and Rwanda have taken significant strides towards creating gender-balanced systems which have helped maximize efficiency in fields of management, sales, HR and finance. In Rwanda, women make up 52% of the cabinet. Uganda leads Africa in countries that have a high number of women-owned enterprises as a percentage of total business owners. Hopefully, this will set a precedent for other countries to create gender-balanced management teams as a way of promoting financial inclusion.

RENEW’s Male Teammates Share Their Stories

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The Men Who Care About Gender Equality

<h1 style="text-align:center;">The African Resilience Investment Series for Women Entrepreneurs</h1>On Tuesday, April 6, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), will launch the African Resilience Investment Series for Women Entrepreneurs (ARISE) in partnership with RENEW. The launch event will bring together top female leaders within the agribusiness ecosystem, including financing and development partners, to share perspectives and highlight the impact COVID-19 has had on women-owned SMEs. To register for the launch event, please visit: <a href="https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BG-VCEHpQt6EMqbUyf3gqQ">https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BG-VCEHpQt6EMqbUyf3gqQ</a>.The ARISE program will provide various elements of support to women in agriculture businesses and hopes to shed light and raise awareness on the need to support women-led agri SMEs and to solicit a multi-agency response to help women in agriculture recover from COVID-19 impacts. The program aims to reach more than 2,000 women in agriculture-focused SMEs across sub-Saharan Africa and will provide managerial capacity building, coaching on investment readiness and how to pitch to investors, among other elements of support.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/arise_sm_files_1200_x_637px_01_00adf112ec_1_5113e9f66d.jpg"></figure>

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The African Resilience Investment Series for Women Entrepreneurs

<h1 style="text-align:center;">RENEW Attends GenderSmart Investing Summit</h1>From February 1 to 11, RENEW is grateful to attend the virtual <a href="https://www.gendersmartinvesting.com/">GenderSmart Investing Summit</a>. The GenderSmart summit is an invitation-only forum bringing together more than 600 people interested in unlocking gender-smart capital at scale and connecting leaders and experts in gender finance. The theme this year is “crisis as catalyst” and the team is expertly connecting individuals and organizations and working to marshal efforts in support of gender finance around the world.Given RENEW’s mission to turn SMEs into gender-smart companies with gender-balanced management teams, this conference provides deep resources to learn and contribute. This year, the summit focuses include: From Niche to Normal (which includes discussions on how gender lens investing is becoming "just smart investing"); Building a Better Toolkit; Systems and Levers; Investing for Recovery and Resiliency; and Climate &amp; Gender.If you’re interested in learning more about the GenderSmart Investing Summit, we encourage you to check out their <a href="https://www.gendersmartinvesting.com/">website</a>, their educational resources on their <a href="https://www.gendersmartinvesting.com/blog">blog</a>, and their <a href="https://www.gendersmartinvesting.com/2020-partners-and-supporters">partners and supporters</a>.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/gendersmart_0_448b60299d.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;

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RENEW Attends GenderSmart Investing Summit

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Cut the Fluff: 7 Undeniable Stats Why Women at the Top Grow the Bottom Line</h1>Leading up to International Women’s Day (March 8), we wanted to honor women executives and managers by sharing seven compelling statistics that should get even the slowest of companies to change and encourage everyone to find ways to promote or put women into leadership at their companies. We were so moved by these facts that we built our entire investment strategy around it:1. 20% Better Annual Returns: Gender-balanced senior investment teams in private equity and venture capital funds outperform all-male teams by 20% in annual returns. <a href="https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topics_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/gender+at+ifc/resources/gender+smart+investing+guide">LINK</a>2. 50% Higher Profitability: Where women made up at least 15% of senior managers, companies had more than 50% higher profitability than those where female representation was less than 10%. <a href="https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/csri-gender-3000.pdf">LINK</a>3. 38% Increase in Revenues from Innovative Products: In one study, companies that had higher diversity in management earned 38% more of their revenues, on average, from innovative products and services than those companies with lower diversity. <a href="https://www.catalyst.org/research/why-diversity-and-inclusion-matter/">LINK</a>4. 65% of Household Purchasing Power: Women control 65% of global household spending and an estimated global consumer spending of about $40 trillion. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.deginvest.de/DEG-Documents-in-English/About-us/What-is-our-impact/DEG_Gender-Lens-Investing-Paper_Final.pdf&amp;sa=D&amp;source=editors&amp;ust=1614745322344000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2sB5DNR05eRaccBccOctmi">LINK</a>5. &gt;50% Better at Launching Companies: Startups founded by women receive only half as much capital from investors, but for every dollar of funding, women-led startups generated 78 cents compared to just 31 cents generated by male-founded startups. <a href="https://www.deginvest.de/DEG-Documents-in-English/About-us/What-is-our-impact/DEG_Gender-Lens-Investing-Paper_Final.pdf">LINK</a>6. 10% Increase in Inclusion Improves Absenteeism: When employees feel they are part of a diverse and inclusive environment, even a small increase of 10% in these perceptions improves absenteeism at a company, which adds a day a year per employee. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.catalyst.org/research/why-diversity-and-inclusion-matter/&amp;sa=D&amp;source=editors&amp;ust=1614745304642000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1rPSwfV3_qNajX_2m5rmG1">LINK</a>7. 37.9% Better Assessment of Customers: When organizations have inclusive business environments, they’re 37.9% better at assessing their customers interests and demands. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.catalyst.org/research/why-diversity-and-inclusion-matter/&amp;sa=D&amp;source=editors&amp;ust=1614745304642000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1rPSwfV3_qNajX_2m5rmG1">LINK</a><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/IMG_021_c065013f9d.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Some think RENEW is investing in the most challenging companies, in the most challenging countries in the world. Maybe we are; if it was easy everyone would be doing it. We’re constantly testing new processes to improve our investment playbook, and searching for new strategies to improve performance. In 2019, we made one of the best and most obvious decisions that every fund manager should be making, given the overwhelming data that has recently come out: Going forward, every company we invest in, we will work to build gender-balanced executive teams. We were cautious about this decision because we didn’t want to sound like we were pandering to the development community, which has been advocating for this type of pivot from firms like ours for years. But the data made it clear, and we had first-hand experience of the power of a gender-balance at our own firm. So the decision was simple: now we need to execute.At RENEW, we’re working hard to walk the walk. We have 38% of women in executive leadership roles at our firm, 45% of RENEW’s team consists of women, our portfolio supports 2,288 women employees, we have trained 51 women executives through our CFO100 and Exec’s program, and we’re hell-bent on moving the needle in Africa to build world-class companies that have gender-balanced exec teams at the top to grow the bottom line!

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Cut the Fluff: 7 Undeniable Stats Why Women at the Top Grow the Bottom Line

<h1 style="text-align:center;">RENEW's 2020-2021 Impact Report</h1><a href="https://latest-api.renewcapital.com/uploads/RENEW_2020_2021_Impact_Report_web_5e1a98866d.pdf">Read our 2020-2021 Impact Report</a>RENEW announces our 2020-2021 Impact Report. This document is shareable and documents RENEW and the Impact Angel Network’s investment journey through 2020, the pandemic, and how our entrepreneurs responded and stood their ground.Please share this with anyone who might be interested in what we’re doing in Africa.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><a href="https://latest-api.renewcapital.com/uploads/RENEW_2020_2021_Impact_Report_web_5e1a98866d.pdf"><img src="/uploads/RENEW_IR_2021_social_IG_khaki_big_map_58a726bf84.png"></a></figure>&nbsp;

RENEW and the Impact Angel Network’s Investment Journey Through 2020