Blog
Widening and Deepening Impact through Innovative Solutions that Uplift the Marginalized
Andia Chakava is an Investment Director at the Graça Machel Trust and a global thought leader in gender lens investing. Graça Machel Trust is a Pan-African advocacy organisation focused on child health and nutrition, education, women’s economic and financial empowerment, leadership and good governance. Over the last nine years, the Trust has worked to “Multiply the Faces and Amplify the Voices” of African women and children.
Where is the Graça Machel Trust currently working, and how does this fit with its JEDI strategy?
The Graça Machel Trust (GMT) has programming in “Africa powerhouses” of investment in West, South, and East Africa - Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya. Through a combination of networks of women, enterprise development support programs, and specific engagements with donors and local partners respectively.
Funding the missing middle: market failure or untapped opportunity?
Women entrepreneurs make a substantial contribution to the economic growth of a country. While many are yet to achieve their full potential, female-led Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are vibrant through self-financing ‘chamas’ where they pool resources as a group of individuals for investments and loans to expand their businesses.
Why gender lens investing in Africa needs a localised, participatory approach: an interview with Andia Chakava
This is a fund targeted at indigenous African women across the continent, starting with East and South Africa. Building the fund helped me be more aware of some of the regional nuances, as well as some of the country differences. Africa is very diverse. It has a colonial background; some parts are English speaking, some parts are French speaking, and some parts speak Portuguese.
Equality Fund Annual report
Andia Chakava, as the Chair of the Investment Advisory Council of Canada's Equality Fund, contributed greatly to their Equality Fund Annual report. The Equality Fund’s investment approach is to address and transform power dynamics in capital flows.
African’s contributions are missing in efforts to solve the continent’s most pressing issues
When Covid-19 broke out in Africa, two non-African billionaires, Jack Ma and Bill Gates, were among the first to donate masks, PPE’s, and other resources to support the fight against the pandemic across the African continent.
Expanding Equality in uncertain times
The year 2020 was supposed to be the big year for women’s rights and gender equality with a number of key events such as the review of the Beijing plus 25, the Graça Machel Trust celebrating 10 years of impacting the lives of women and girls in Africa and the Gender Smart Summit.
Upcoming Appearances
Moderator for Sub Saharan Africa at Gender Smart Investing Summit December 2020
https://www.gendersmartinvesting.com/about-2020-summit
