Capital Musings

Charlotte Ronje, Founder and CEO of Jamii.one, describes the business case for providing financial services to poor savers and what she sees as the path to scale.

In today's podcast, Thomas Handler, Partner in Handler Thayer LLC, speaks about the challenges in establishing businesses, stewardship of wealth, work ethics, income inequality in America and how to achieve economic and professional success.

Dingi Chirwa, Founder and CEO of Kombeza Foods in Malawi, explains how her desire to make baby food for her child and her father’s retirement purchase of dairy cows led her to found a dairy processing business; and how support from UNDP and Norway and a concessional loan from UNCDF helped set her on the road to success.

Taiwo Okwor of the Africa Finance Corporation explains how its infrastructure investments can de-risk and attract private sector capital to meet the critical infrastructure needs of the African continent.

Michelle Reddy of the Fiji Women’s Fund explains how the pandemic and climate change are exacerbating the challenges faced by women in Fiji, and how her fund is helping to make change.

Two Swedish development experts, Anders Ronquist of Sida and Anders Berlin of UNCDF, explain how Swedish history and society have shaped the government’s generous and innovative approach to using development assistance to fight poverty worldwide. They explore their own careers and experiences to showcase various ways to pursue a career in international development finance.

Elizabeth Howard of the African Crowdfunding Association explains the potential of crowdfunding to support businesses and accelerate growth on the continent.

Author Janine Firpo discusses her varied career in tech, microfinance and international development and explains how her new book Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World lays out a road map for women to empower themselves about investing and the impact they can have with their resources.

Family office advisor Carol Pepper describes how studying philosophy led her to Wall Street; how the Internet helped create the modern family office; and why high net worth families are increasingly interested in climate change, social justice, and the SDGs.

Impact investing expert Aunnie Patton Power discusses her new book “Adventure Capital: How to Create a Funding Journey That Blends Profit and Purpose” and shares ideas for how venture capital can work better for both funders and social entrepreneurs.

Taffere Tesfachew, a career UN official, explains how the category of Least Developed Countries was created and how the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) works to support the group.

Ashish Patel of Aavishkaar Capital explains how the experience of running multiple private equity funds in India is shaping the company’s investment strategy for East Africa.

Dia Martin, Managing Director of the US Development Finance Corporation, explains how it invests in solutions to some of the developing world’s most critical challenges.

Today, we speak with Henning Ringholz, Senior Executive at the Small Foundation, an Ireland-based foundation working to end extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. Henning speaks about systems change and strengthening business ecosystems for African entrepreneur and how to make a difference while being small.

Democracy expert Marcus Brand talks about his career building democracy from the Balkans to Ukraine to Myanmar, explains why SDG 16 is so critical, and describes the situation in Myanmar.

Authors Meg Massey, writer and social sector strategist and the founder of Sanspeur, and Ben Wrobel, director of communications at Village Capital, discuss how traditional philanthropy entrenches some of the very power dynamics it tries to address, and how involving beneficiaries in decision-making leads to more effective donations and a promising new model of impact investing.

This week we speak with Vicky Lay, Managing Director Artesian Venture Partners, who sold a tech company and then joined the VC firm that funded her. Vicky talks about her passion for gender equality, the financial advantage of investing in women, and why much more than mentoring is needed to get more women and diverse leaders into top roles.

In this episode, we speak with Malin Malmström of Lulea University of Technology in Sweden, who studies investment decision-making, explains how structural bias in the language used and screening processes of asset allocators hurts female founders, and what we can do to break down the barriers. 

In today's episode, Esther Pan Sloane speaks with two UN powerhouses. Ambassador Anna-Karin Enestrom of Sweden and Ambassador Yoka Brandt of the Netherlands discuss what got them into diplomacy, how the UN is critical to SDG achievement, how they handled challenging posts, and what young people considering a career in diplomacy should know. 

Kerry Bannigan, founder of the Conscious Fashion Campaign, talks about the environmental and social damage caused by a culture of constant consumption, and the innovative ways consumers and producers are pushing the fashion industry to help achieve the SDGs. 

Today we are speaking with Rob Tashima, Chief Growth Officer of Village Capital, where he discusses its unique model of giving entrepreneurs have more say in the process of allocating capital. 

In this episode, we speak with Chris Walker, Social Innovations Director at Mercy Corps, who describes how starting a donor-funded venture capital fund has given the nonprofit sector more options to achieve its goals. He shares his wide experience in government, private sector and the non-profit sectors to grow the impact investment space.

Laura Sennett, Policy Specialist at UNCDF, speaks with Esther Pan Sloane about international development finance, blended finance, concessional finance and additionality. She describes her time working in Africa, the benefits of being close to the action, and explains how learning other languages changed her life.

The argument persists that markets are inherently efficient and consistently rational. If investments in women-led businesses and into funds managed by women generate better results, why is there little progress in directing more capital to them? What can investors, advisors, and asset owners do to increase the flow of finance to female entrepreneurs and fund managers? Guests: • Anna Karin Eneströ...

The term "digital economy" will soon become a redundancy, because economies will be largely, if not entirely, digital. But how can we ensure that digital economies are also inclusive and resilient? Three practices leaders in UNCDF's Policy Accelerator Team--Ahmed Dermish, Olivia Kelly-Lonkeu and Amani Itatiro--discuss the importance and complexity behind supporting policy ecosystems that ensure di...