Women in African Investments

lelapa.co/women-in-african-investments

PRACTICE AREA

Impact networks

REGION

Pan-African

INVESTMENT YEARS

2022-2024

IN 2022

• 66% of WAI members agreed that WAI reduced the time and cost of growing their network
• 53% used WAI to build relationships outside of fundraising conversations
• 34% used the network to identify business partners, board members or job candidates

Women in African Investments (WAI) is a network of over 220 senior women investment professionals focused on Africa. WAI’s mission is to support its members through networking, knowledge-sharing and awareness-building to catalyse gender-equitable economic growth in Africa. By supporting the professional development and coordination of its members, the WAI network aims to transform and accelerate individual efforts into change that is meaningful at industry level. In 2022, Small Foundation supported WAI to produce its first annual impact report.

WAI members at the Collaborative for Frontier Finance’s Early Stage Capital Providers network annual convening. Dar Es Salaam, June 2022.

Systems lens

One of the central planks of our systems strategy is the formation of connected, transparent and learning ecosystems. Supporting these ecosystems with the use of accurate, reliable and relevant data, we believe, allows stakeholders make more informed decisions. Building on an impact report released in 2020, the 2022 WAI Impact Report demonstrated the value of a network approach to the African investment ecosystem – through the learning, access and relationships created across the network – whilst also scoping the size and scale of its members’ reach. By working with Briter Bridges to contextualise funding to female-founded start-ups, the impact report identified a pathway for change.