New public-philanthropic initiative to improve health in Central America

The Salud Mesoamérica 2015 (Health MesoAmerica 2015) initiative, whose aim is to combat poverty and to reduce infant and maternal mortality in Mexico and Central America, was launched in June. The initiative has attracted an initial investment of USD150 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carlos Slim Foundation and the Government of Spain.

Resources are to be administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and will be used for reproductive health and nutrition initiatives and to fight illnesses such as dengue fever and malaria over the next five years. Salud Mesoamérica aims to effect a significant decline in the mortality rate of children under five, a reduction in chronic malnutrition and an increase in micronutrients among infants and pregnant women. An estimated 10 million people in the region will benefit from the initiative. Pictured at the launch are (L-R) Trinidad Jiménez (from Spain’s ministry of health), Bill Gates, Carlos Slim and Luis Alberto Moreno of IBD.

For more information
www.carlosslim.com/responsabilidad_slim_mesoamerica_ing.html
www.iadb.org/comunicados-de-prensa/2010-06/spanish/la-fundaci0n-bill-and...
www.saludmesoamerica2015.org/

IGNIA Fund raises USD102 million for social investment

IGNIA Fund I, LP Latin America’s first and largest impact investing fund, has reached USD102 million – a sum it will use to serve businesses at the base of the socioeconomic pyramid. Despite the economic climate, the fund has exceeded its initial fundraising objective of between USD50 million and USD75 million.

The last of the seven fundraising rounds was led by J P Morgan, with a USD5 million commitment, and by Corporación Mexicana de Inversiones de Capital (Fondo de Fondos). The Fund’s 34 investors include public institutions, foundations and individuals from Latin America, the US and Europe, among whom are Omidyar Network, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Multilateral Investment Fund, the International Finance Corporation and the Inter-American Development Bank.  

IGNIA has already started six projects in Mexico, worth a total of USD22 million, in the spheres of health, agriculture, housing and telecommunications. It also announced in June that it is working in collaboration with Brazilian venture capital firm Axial Gestão de Recursos Ltda to look for investments in Brazilian ‘base of pyramid’ companies with the same aim of offering basic services and products to reduce poverty.

For more information
www.ignia.com.mx/downloads/IGNIA%20Closes%20Fund.pdf

Philanthropy online in Latin America: advances despite the crisis

Help Argentina and Conexión Colombia (Colombia Connection), online platforms to support social sector organizations and causes in their respective countries, are expanding their fundraising activities despite the recession, especially from people of the so-called diaspora who want to contribute to the social sector in their countries of origin.

This year, Help Argentina is seeking to raise USD1.5 million (double the funds it received in 2009), enabling it to increase the projects it supports, while Conexión Colombia, which has attracted more than USD10 million in donations in cash and in kind since its conception, has added seven more foundations to its portfolio this year. The new foundations in Colombia were selected for their professional history, the work they perform throughout the region and the efforts made with the most vulnerable populations of the country. Conexión Colombia’s strategic alliances enable it to intensify the impact created thanks to matching funds by international organizations and private companies.

For more information
www.helpargentina.org
www.conexioncolombia.com

Ethos conference aims to give CSR a push

Ethos Institute and the Movimento Nossa São Paulo (Our Movement − São Paulo) launched the City of São Paulo Business Support Forum at Ethos’s 2010 International Conference in May. The Forum’s objective is to raise awareness among, and to mobilize and provide advice to, companies so that they work towards fair and sustainable development in the city. It already has 21 participating companies. The conference itself, entitled ‘The world is under new management. Sustainability: society’s partnership with the planet’, drew 1,700 participants and included a session on the search for a common language and data presented in companies’ non-financial reports organized by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Panellists were drawn from BM&FBOVESPA securities exchange of Brazil and PricewaterhouseCoopers of Chile, among other organizations.

For more information
http://ethos.org.br/ci2010

IDIS and Resource Alliance form new partnership to stimulate Brazilian NPOs

Helping Brazilian non-profit organizations to achieve financial sustainability is among the principal objects of a strategic alliance between the Institute for the Development of Social Investment (IDIS) in Brazil and Resource Alliance. Among other things, it will help meet one of the challenges for the sector in Brazil: professionalizing the field of fundraising. ‘In Brazil, although we have advanced in the last ten years, we still have much to do,’ said local Resource Alliance representative Rodrigo Alvarez. ‘We have a large demand for good fundraisers, well trained and supported by specialist suppliers.’ The partnership will provide consultancy, training and information to both social organizations and social investors. In particular, there is a need to produce more material in Portuguese on the topic of social investment, which will be available on the websites of both organizations.

For more information
rodrigo@resource-alliance.org
www.idis.org.br

Ashoka workshop reveals growing appetite for market-based solutions to rural development

‘We should no longer consider models in which this cooperation between sectors doesn’t exist … we have to complement one another and build new models that are based not on competition, but on cooperation.’ Thus said the head of the Sustentavia consultancy, speaking at a workshop organized by Ashoka and Fundemex in Mexico last month. The remark and the workshop at which it was made, entitled ‘Innovations in Rural Value Chains’, are both indications of a growing realization among both CSOs and business in Mexico that the strengths of the two sectors can be combined to create benefits for both, through so-called hybrid value chains which can create increased income for poor rural communities as well as profits for the companies.

The workshop discussed the central importance of social entrepreneurs to these chains, organizing small producers and aggregating demand to make economically sustainable transactions. It also showcased the work of a number of pioneers in the field, including Aires de Campo (pictured), which helps certify and bring organic produce to market, and Frogtek, whose mobile phone applications enable cooperatives to manage certification process or crop diseases.

For more information
https://sites.google.com/site/chvashoka

Templanza wins social enterprise award

Fundación Templanza of Chile has been awarded this year’s NESsT Women in Social Enteprise award. Fundación Templanza, which currently reaches over 300 patients a month, is dedicated to improving the lives of Chilean women, particularly those who are victims of domestic violence. Its social enterprise provides high-quality psychological support services to these victims, through a differentiated fee scale. The award was made at the LAVCA Chile Private Equity and Venture Capital Forum in May.

For more information
www.nesst.org

Conferences and events

18-19 August
Colombia: Fertile Ground for SGBs and Impact Investing
New Ventures Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia
www.newventurescolombia.net

2-3 September
FAST Financial Fair
Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade
San Pedro Sula, Honduras
www.fastinternational.org

Carlos Slim

Slim and Broad in partnership on genomic medicine research

Carlos Slim announced a USD65 million pledge in January to fund a major research project in genomic medicine. The money will create the Slim Initiative for Genomic Medicine to study cancer, kidney disease and Type 2 diabetes in Latin American populations. The initiative involves a partnership with Mexican health officials and the Broad Institute, which was founded by Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Eli and Edythe Broad in 2003 to use DNA sequencing to pursue medical advances. It will also facilitate the training of Mexican experts by the National Institute of Genomic Medicine of the Mexican Secretariat of Health, the main recipient of the project’s findings.

While rich donors are often viewed with a degree of ambivalence, Slim seems to attract a greater degree of it than most. His scepticism about the uses of charity is much quoted (‘Only by creating jobs do you end poverty, charity is not enough’), but would very likely be shared by most of those who work in development and philanthropy. As to his motives, while awarding him the President’s Medal at the George Washington University last June, GWU President Stephen Knapp described him rather fulsomely as ‘an ideal human being: ethical, wilful and spiritual’. On the other hand, critics believe he is as much motivated by self-interest as by regard for his less well-off fellows, pointing for instance to his investment in cleaning up the old colonial centre of Mexico City, which many see as being tied to his large real estate holdings in the area. Alexis Rozvar, a Mexican attorney in New York, recently remarked in Poder 360 magazine: ‘Many people may remember him simply as a savvy investor, who competed forcefully and took advantage of opportunities in a non-leveled playing field.’

For more information
Wall Street Journal, 21 January 2010 www.poder360.com/article_detail.php?id_article=3571#ixzz0iR6WNBPN

FINAE programme to support poor students through higher education expands

The Mexican microfinance institution FINAE has received confirmation from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that it is eligible for multi-million-dollar funding from the IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority programme. FINAE, established in 2006, provides loans to middle- and low-income students. Students are selected by universities for their academic talent and financial need, and screened by FINAE for their repayment capacity. Loans cover all tuition fees for the standard duration of their studies, usually four years. Those who receive a loan pay interest only during their studies, then repay the principal progressively once they have graduated and found employment. Pictured below is FINAE’s CEO Francisco Vizcaya (left) with the programme’s first beneficiary, Carlos Guttierez González (right), and his parents. Carlos has recently graduated from university.

By funding access to higher education, FINAE fills a crucial gap in a country where the tertiary education enrolment rate averages 20 per cent, compared to an average of 60 per cent in OECD countries. Guarantee funds are provided by partner universities, and these help avoid portfolio losses despite a minor loan default rate of 2.8 per cent. In April this year, FINAE’s credit portfolio rose to MXP11.4 million, an increase of 162 per cent over the previous year. It has also received international funding in the form of private equity investments of USD1 million each from two Luxembourg-based impact investment funds, Oasis and SocialAlpha, in September 2009, as well as loans of MXP6.5 million from Oikocredit in January 2010 and USD1 million from Oasis in April 2010. In another sign of its wider recognition, FINAE has been approached by Mexico’s oldest and largest charity, Nacional Monte de Piedad, about the possibility of taking over its scholarship programme. The charity would also match donor commitments to fund student scholarships or low-interest loans through FINAE.

For more information
www.alphamundi.ch