Pakistan, May, 2013– Acumen, a pioneering non-profit global venture firm addressing poverty across Africa and in South Asia, today announced its first investment in the growing rural energy sector of Pakistan. Acumen is giving a loan of Rs. 86 Million to Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) to support the creation of four community managed micro-hydro units in Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province in Pakistan. These plants will provide 24-hour clean electricity to remote off-grid communities in Chitral district, a region with limited access to electricity.

“There is a growing need for reliable power in Pakistan’s rural communities right now,” said Farrukh H. Khan, Pakistan Country Director, Acumen. “AKSRP’s community-based model has the potential to provide millions with access to an important basic service and revolutionize the way poor Pakistanis access energy.”

Acumen and AKRSP have joined hands to address the pressing energy needs of isolated rural communities in Chitral who are currently not connected to the national grid.  Households living in the off-grid villages rely heavily on fuel wood and fossil fuels to meet their daily energy needs, thus adding to environmental fragility. Innovative private and community-based models of energy generation from clean sources can help address the energy crisis in such remote and underserved regions.

“We work very closely with the local communities to generate energy that is clean, affordable and reliable. The ultimate objective is to improve the quality of life of local communities by making energy available for small-scale commercial and household uses without burdening precious natural resources such as forests”, said Abdul Malik, CEO of AKRSP.  “Acumen Fund’s investment will help local communities overcome the capital constraints and combine their own resources to provide reliable electricity to thousands of their members”.

The investment in four micro-hydro units will provide an opportunity to test and demonstrate the viability of investments in off-grid community-based models, paving the path for scaling-up through replication.

For additional information on Acumen Pakistan and its investment in AKRSP or in the Energy sector, please visit www.acumen.org or contact Saima Iritiza at siritiza@acumen.org or Elizabeth Patella at epatella@acumen.org.

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About Acumen

Acumen is working to create a world beyond poverty by investing in social enterprises, emerging leaders and breakthrough ideas. We invest patient capital in business models that deliver critical goods and services to the world’s poor, improving the lives of millions. Since 2001, Acumen has globally invested more than $83 million in 72 companies. We are also working to build a global community of emerging leaders that believe in creating a more inclusive world through the tools of both business and philanthropy. Please visit www.acumen.org for more information.

About AKRSP

AKRSP, a project of the Aga Khan Foundation, is a pioneer of participatory development approaches in Pakistan. Established in 1982 as a not-for-profit company under the Companies Ordinance, AKRSP has been working with the rural communities in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral regions of Pakistan to build their institutional capacity to plan and manage their own development. AKRSP’s work includes fostering communities’ own institutions (village and women organizations and their umbrella Local Support Organizations), small-scale infrastructure development (including energy projects), agriculture development, youth development, and cross-cutting initiatives aimed at reaching out to poor, women and other marginalized groups.

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When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.

I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.

When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town.

I couldn’t change the town, so I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I know the only thing I can change is myself.

And suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family.

My family and I could have made an impact on our town.

Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

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Since I left Acumen about eight months ago to work with Ray Chambers, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Financing the health related MDGs and Malaria, I have been thinking a lot about the question: How do we find ways for the innovation of the social enterprise sector to meet the scale of the the World Bank, USAID, United Nations, or emerging market governments? I believe this collision will create new systems, shatter old ones, and ultimately make us more effective and efficient at delivering products and services to the poor.  So what might this look like?

Scale may not mean going from building 50-100 hospitals, scale could be inventing a new model of healthcare that can be replicated around the world.  I was recently talking with one of my friends, Nick Pearson, Acumen Alumni and founder of Jacaranda Health, a low-cost mobile maternal clinic in Nairobi.  Nick told me that he is not looking to build thousands of clinics, instead he is going to develop a revolutionary model that has the highest quality in the world at an affordable price (this reminds me of my late mentor CK Prahalad’s article “Innovation Sandbox”).  This mentality enables him to think outside the confines of his social enterprise and it will allow his model to scale beyond his organizational capacity being replicated by governments and multilateral organizations around the world.

Another strong model is that of 1298 Ambulances.  The founders from the outset were in conversation with the government about their model and how it might work with or complement the current infrastructure.  That being said, they needed patient capital early on to prove their model.   When Acumen invested $1.5 million equity in the company they had 9 ambulances.   They promised the customer that they would provide quality treatment on the ambulance with a 20-minute response time, and they delivered.  They slowly scaled their own model to around 100 ambulances but it was not until the government of India awarded them contracts to scale across multiple states in India, leveraging the government’s capital and infrastructure, were they truly able to scale.  Scale is developing a model that, from the outset, can be plugged into a government infrastructure.  Despite what people may think, government is looking for more effective and efficient solutions to deliver services.

In my current role working with a group of former and current private equity players at the MDG Health Alliance, I have learned some great lessons about what it might take to scale.  For example, unlike venture capital, which is looking for a new innovative model, private equity is seeking high leverage opportunities that often mean restructuring assets to make an entity more efficient.  For example, if there is a company that is no longer adding value there is an opportunity to reassess that company and convert their assets to something of value in the market place.  This is very different from the mentality of the non-profit world.  When most  non-profits are struggling, they do not look for someone to merge with or to buy them out.  Nor, when they are expanding, do they look to buy out other non-profits.  They should. This model will allow us to create greater value, let failing organizations fail, and let the most successful organizations scale their work. If we were able to consolidate more in the social enterprise/non-profit sector we would be able to more effectively collaborate with some of the larger development institutions to merge and blend our models.

One interesting model to watch is social impact bonds.  For example an multi-sector group is developing a malaria bond in Mozambique.  The bond is being spearheaded by the government of Mozambique, Dalberg, Nandos, and Anglo American.  The government of Mozambique is investing $20M and impact investors are investing around $10M.  The concept leverages a successful program in Ghana developed by Anglo Gold Ashanti, combined with new initiatives developed by the government of Mozambique and leading NGOs.  The idea is they will be able to pay back impact investors based on their more efficient and effective model.  This model will rely on the private and public sector working in collaboration with local non-profits to better deliver malaria control services.  This model is a true test of non-profits and government working with and understanding the performance-based metrics of the private sector. If this works it could unlock a tremendous amount of capital to help scale the non-profits that are providing the most value in the marketplace.

In conclusion, as the development world shifts and changes and the non-profit, for-profit, and governmental sectors merge, I believe there is a tremendous opportunity for non-profits to ask some critical questions about scale:

• What unique value am I adding to the market place?
• Is there another organization doing this better than me?
• How do I measure my performance?
• What is my path to scale?
• What is my exit strategy?

Perhaps questions like these and some of the models I mention above could lead us to a place where innovation meets scale.

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This was the beginning of SunShine, an educational initiative I started as a response to the dire need for education in my home town. We initiated our first “school within a school” concept with a selection of twenty students. Today we have 800 students in two villages and we continue to grow.

Starting my career in the private sector and moving into the development sector, I eventually created my own path in social entrepreneurship. Along the way, I have seen some success and plenty of failure.  I have learned that success is directly proportional to the attempts made for it. In the face of failure, hope is a wonderfully powerful emotion. It puts you back on track whenever you lose the sight of your goal. I have had a recent series of failures in my project’s implementation and financing. However one thing has kept me going. I have seen that belief and conviction is the key to success. Despite these recent issues, I have come to realize that I am happy for what I am doing even when the setbacks get me down.

History is filled with examples of people, from Thomas Edison to Oprah Winfrey, who failed miserably and repeatedly before finding success. Michael Jordan, who was cut from his high school basketball, but refused to give up on his dream, once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Life is full of successes and failures, but in my experience, the worst failures are still better than the regret of not even trying for what you hope to accomplish. Today as I work to reconfigure my organization and my strategies for bringing better education to Pakistani schoolchildren, I am uncertain about which path is best to take. Yet one thing that is clear is that I will try my best to make it work and will not lose hope.

So to all my friends out there, don’t let failure hold you back. Get up, strike back and fail better; for success is sometimes wrapped in your passion and belief and above all your unalterable conviction that it is possible. Don’t fear failures; they are the first step to success.

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The very first loan of PKR 10,000 ($100) was given to a widow named Sakina Bibi, who was living in one of the slum areas of Lahore and striving to earn a decent living through honorable means. She was neither a beggar nor was she looking for charity; she was only seeking a helping hand. By dispensing and receiving repayment on that loan within a period of six months, the group of friends became convinced of the viability of their venture into interest-free microfinance and named it “Akhuwat,” which literally means brotherhood. The concept that started with Sakina Bibi has now reached more than 400,000 families in Pakistan, with PKR 4 billion in loans.

Since that day, I made up my mind to be an integral part of this organization and that is why I am still engaged with Akhuwat as a Chief Coordinator, where I develop its fundraising policies, establish bonds between donors and the organization, and spread Akhuwat’s unique concept to the entire world.

One of Akhuwat’s primary deviations from conventional microfinance is that it charges no interest rates. Akhuwat has sought to base its movement on the principles of Qarz-e-Hassn found in the Islamic tradition, which entails helping someone in need with interest-free loans, a practice favored over charity and aid. While drawing on the tradition of Qarz-e-Hassn, Akhuwat has incorporated many of the best practices and lessons learned from conventional microfinance movements from across the globe as well.

My journey with Akhuwat has been enhanced through Acumen’s Pakistan Regional Fellows program. The program allowed me to improve my leadership qualities and explore new opportunities that would benefit Akhuwat. The seminars and network of other social entrepreneurs and change-makers have provided me the courage and determination to tackle the tough issues facing Pakistan without any fear of losing hope.

I really feel honored and proud to be a Fellow at Acumen. I’m confident that this experience will improve my ability to deliver social impact through interest-free microfinance at Akhuwat.

The post Interest-free microfinance in Pakistan appeared first on Acumen.

I spend time as one of the leaders of the London+Acumen chapter, and having recently completed the Acumen Leadership Essentials course, I could resonate with Jacqueline’s call for leadership. It is vital to understand the importance of using adaptive leadership to think beyond moulds and misconceptions generated by the influence of single stories we often fall victim to. Tools such as design thinking are absolutely essential in standing with the poor to understand their needs and design solutions to problems that, over time, become accepted as “normal”. It was promising to see this theme being reiterated in many of the Oxford Jam sessions such as those discussing gender metrics, innovations in fundraising and talks on matching global talent and skills between social entrepreneurs and agencies that support them.

Acumen hosted an informal dinner in Oxford on one of the evenings at the Chiang Mai restaurant, with the support of our generous advisors, where the service and food set the stage for a memorable evening. The guests, comprising of Acumen Partners, Investees, Friends, Connectors and Staff, shared their admiration and respect for Acumen’s achievements in its 12 years since inception, its humility to talk about what has not worked and its audacity to continue to build a learning community globally.

In a nutshell, the overall experience continued to be “fantastic, inspiring and brilliant”, in the words of my colleague Vinay Nair who attended the Skoll Forum and Oxford Jam in 2012. My internship at Acumen’s London office has not only opened a whole new realm of possibilities for making a difference, but taught me values that are fundamental in standing for others. I recently came across a quote that sums up my reflections on this experience:

“May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership… Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The post Reflections on Skoll Forum: A call for leadership appeared first on Acumen.

Pakistan is a country that seems to be in constant transition with respect to the freedom of expression of its citizens. In the 1980s, at the time of General Zia-Ul-Haq’s military regime, a number of writers and artists left their homeland to live in self-imposed exile to avoid persecution. Media was heavily censored; material regarded as immoral or opposed to the regime was prohibited. Then, starting from the military regime of General Parvez Musharraf, new liberal media laws broke the State’s monopoly on the press. The media became omnipresent and freedom of speech a ‘right’ of every citizen.

Like Pakistan, its citizens have been undergoing their own transition, in an attempt to formulate their personal identities. My own journey took me from living in Kenya, as a 2011 Acumen Fellow, to going back to Lahore, my hometown, to surround myself by the rich artistic heritage of the city. After spending ten years living abroad, I was looking to reconnect with the place where I was born before moving to London for a new job. I was going through what some would call an existential crisis. I went looking for new ideas in a familiar place, hoping that my past could provide answers to who I wanted to be in the future.

But Pakistan had changed. Strolling through Lahore’s art galleries, I saw paintings, sculptures and modernist installation pieces, with strong political undertones. Representing the aftermath of the US war on terror, most artists had rendered images of violence and destruction. Others had moved from politics and terrorism to address the social contradictions of modern Pakistani culture. Yet, most of these pieces failed to communicate why they mattered, why art matters to the life of its audience. Exploring terrorism and the country’s myriad social tensions seemed to be the easiest way to gain recognition. Hence I often left art shows wondering: what did that mean? How is this piece of art adding to my understanding of the world?

Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one asking these questions. I found my wanderings taking me to the world of the National College of Arts (NCA), Pakistan’s leading arts college based in Lahore. The place was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was a melting pot of students of all social classes, and from all parts of Pakistan where both genders interacted freely. In the studios I saw calligraphy and nudes, works by students with purely aesthetic concerns, and by others for whom art was the road to find greater meaning. The place was a microcosm of Pakistan, but of a creative Pakistan, an alternative to the rigid sociopolitical interpretations of established contemporary art I had heard from art critics. I was inspired. I became friends with a group of NCA students and graduates who were experimenting with creating a new humanist sensibility within art. And together, we set out on a journey to create art that carried meaning for us individually. Art that was not bound to its country of origin by conceptual basis or visual references but instead something that was contemporary and universal due to its humanistic elements.

Our journey has enabled me to reaffirm that art is one of the most important metaphorical tools we have for making sense of the world.  The title “In Transit” refers to the individual’s reaction to a world that seems to be in constant flux, a struggle that those living in Pakistan share with the rest of the world. It reflects the human journey through life, as we begin from the innocence of birth, moving forward to discover the complexity of relationships, need for absolute truths and the desire to integrate life and death. “In Transit” is a rational attempt to visualize the world we don’t see by tracing the path of human consciousness over time.

Once again, Pakistan is moving, perhaps more backwards than forwards, with space for free speech shrinking. Since August 2012, the Supreme Court has been pressuring the media regulatory authority to define “obscenity” more narrowly to better censor offensive content. YouTube has been blocked throughout the country since September for hosting “blasphemous” content. And now legal proceedings against the NCA are threatening the vibrancy of Pakistani art. Last summer, the college’s contemporary arts journal dismissed its editorial board and retracted all copies of the journal after receiving death threats for publishing homoerotic paintings. The institution is undergoing a transition of its own.

If artists are shamans telling us truths about ourselves, through intuitive, tactile, nonverbal means, then my role as curator has been that of a storyteller – to shed light on the creative act, by weaving the artworks and the thought process of those who forged them into a compelling narrative. Developing this ability, the art of storytelling, has been the most important gift of the Acumen Fellowship. It has helped me embody a spirit of generosity by learning that self-reconciliation and discovery can only come about by the mediation of those around me, with their respect, and in their service. In the process, I have tried to step outside my comfort zone. To serve means to step outside ourselves: to step outside ourselves holds the promise of self-renewal.

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 2nd 2013, 6-8pm
Location: chashama, 303 Tenth Avenue between 27th & 28th Street
Please RSVP at: rsvp@ilhamart.org

On View: May 2nd – May 18th 2013
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11am-6pm
Website: http://ilhamart.org/
Supported by: Rockefeller Brothers Fund

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With experience living and working across Europe and South America, Carlyle brings energy, flexibility and interest in exploring the geographies in which Acumen operates. In close collaboration with the Management Committee, Carlyle is overseeing our overall strategic direction and has direct responsibility for Acumen’s core operating activities, supporting our ambitious 2013 goals and the next chapter in our history.

We are delighted to welcome her to the Acumen team.

The post Welcoming our new COO, Carlyle Singer appeared first on Acumen.

Sanergy builds a network of high-quality “Fresh Life” branded toilets and franchises them to local micro-entrepreneurs. Sanergy employees collect waste from the toilets daily and deliver it to a central processing facility where the waste is converted into organic fertilizer for farmers. Sanergy’s model ensures increased access to improved sanitation facilities in slums while also providing a safe way to treat human waste and capitalize on its inherent value. It also creates income and jobs for local residents.

Since their pilot phase in November 2011, Sanergy has scaled to 175 franchised toilets in three of Nairobi’s slum areas, which average over 50 uses per toilet per day. The company has over 8,500 users daily. With the investment of Acumen, Eleos, and SpringHill, Sanergy is building the infrastructure to serve over 50,000 low-income customers every day. Sanergy is converting the waste it collects into a variety of useful by-products, including a nutrient-rich, organic fertilizer.

“We are thrilled to receive this support as it will enable us to invest in the infrastructure to rapidly scale our operations – particularly our waste processing and management technologies,” said Sanergy co-founder Ani Vallabhaneni.

Andy Lower, Executive Director of Eleos, said, “It’s been a pleasure to work with Sanergy since the beginning, when they were a great idea backed by a great team. In the last 18 months, they have developed into a high-performing organization with impressive results, and we are excited for their future prospects.”

Steve Beck, MD of SpringHill, said, “We are impressed by Sanergy’s entrepreneurial leaders who have developed an innovative triple-win business model. As the business grows, it addresses the sanitation issue in the slums, expands business ownership and incomes for toilet franchisees, and improves soil endurance and agricultural productivity through organic fertilizer. We look forward to working with the team to accelerate the growth of the business and its impact.”

“Sanergy is impactful because it is a new approach to tackling the sanitation crisis across Kenya,” said Duncan Onyango, East Africa Country Leader, Acumen Fund, a pioneering nonprofit global venture firm addressing poverty across Africa and in South Asia. “Not merely a company that is building toilets, it is an innovation that has the potential to dramatically alter communities and the way in which people live because it offers an end to end solution from provision of sanitation services to waste collection and processing.”

For additional information on Acumen, contact Elizabeth Patella at epatella@acumen.org. For Eleos, contact Cayla Hill at caylahill@theeleosfoundation.com. For SpringHill, contact Steve Beck at sbeck@springhillequity.com  For Sanergy, contact David Auerbach at david@saner.gy.

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About Acumen

Acumen is working to change the way the world tackles poverty by investing in businesses, leaders and ideas. We invest patient capital in business models that deliver critical goods and services to the world’s poor, improving the lives of millions. Since 2001, Acumen has globally invested more than $83 million in 73 companies. We are also working to build a global community of emerging leaders that believe in creating a more inclusive world through the tools of both business and philanthropy. Please visit www.acumen.org for more information.

About Eleos

Eleos and Eleos Investment Management LLC, invest in and partner with social entrepreneurs who effectively implement high impact, early stage, pioneering market based solutions in the fight to eradicate extreme poverty. Please visit www.theeleosfoundation.com for more information.

About SpringHill Equity Partners

SpringHill Equity Partners is private investor circle providing venture capital and support to early-stage, fast-growing businesses serving base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) markets in East Africa. The entrepreneurs and businesses we back are addressing proven demand for basic goods and services with innovative business models that widen access, improve quality and lower cost to BoP consumers. Based on the success of the companies in its portfolio, SpringHill’s partners are now forming a new venture fund – Novastar Ventures – that will expand and accelerate the existing investment program. Please visit www.springhillequity.com for more information.

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We’ve been asked how we might better communicate not only what we do, but as important, what we are learning.  To this end, we wrote a manifesto as a covenant of sorts, our moral compass to ground us as the kinds of leaders we hope to be. It is an aspirational document, one to inspire us to do better, be better. We wrote it for ourselves and as a reflection of the kind of leadership we believe the world needs. I hope you find it of use.

It starts by standing with the poor, listening to voices unheard, and recognizing potential where others see despair.

It demands investing as a means, not an end, daring to go where markets have failed and aid has fallen short. It makes capital work for us, not control us.

It thrives on moral imagination: the humility to see the world as it is, and the audacity to imagine the world as it could be. It’s having the ambition to learn at the edge, the wisdom to admit failure, and the courage to start again.

It requires patience and kindness, resilience and grit: a hard-edged hope. It’s leadership that rejects complacency, breaks through bureaucracy, and challenges corruption. Doing what’s right, not what’s easy.

Acumen: it’s the radical idea of creating hope in a cynical world. Changing the way the world tackles poverty and building a world based on dignity.

To reflect that we started Acumen to change the way the world tackles poverty and not simply invest, we also are changing our name from Acumen Fund to simply Acumen. Our investment portfolio will continue to be the crucible of our work, generating impact on the ground and insights that drive our work in leadership and the spread of ideas. “Acumen” can hold all of our work and give us more flexibility to drive change in different ways.

Finally, we’ve refreshed our identity to mark this new chapter. Core to this is an “unfinished A,” to communicate that our work is never finished, that we don’t have all the answers, that we can’t do this work alone. Take a look around our new website to have a look. We hope you find the site more functional, more useful, and a better reflection of both our work and our spirit.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Acumen team. In the meantime, may we remember what is most important to us as a single world, and move together to build that vision – for it will take all of us.

Here’s to the future – with gratitude and excitement,

Jacqueline

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