Joris Totté’s Post

❓ How does investing in PE funds help us to achieve meaningful impact on the ground, especially when the ambition of BIO - the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries is to invest 45% of our capital in #Africa and 30% in #LDCs?   💡 By investing 5M EUR in a fund of Inside, a pioneering #privateequity firm specializing in supporting the growth of promising and impactful #SMEs across the South East Africa region (primarily Zambia, Madagascar, Mauritius, but also Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi), Together with the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, IFC - International Finance Corporation, and Swedfund International, we are supporting #sustainabledevelopment that ticks a lot of our priority boxes : ✅ 100% in Africa ✅ 85% in LDCs ✅ Clear SME focus ✅ Climate & gender angles ✅ important sector focus  such as renewable energy, agri value chains and waste management BIO’s participation signals strong support to attract private sector investors and is instrumental for the Fund towards achieving an optimal fund size. Funds likes this one allow us to reach more companies with a single investment, relying on the expertise of local fund managers with dedicated expertise, effectively targeting the ambitions set out in the management contract, and spreading our risk in very challenging investment environments. 👏 Congratulations to team manager Grégory Behin and Guillaume A. for closing this deal.

Investing in a #sustainable future! Our two organizations, Enabel and BIO - the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, have been working alongside for many years, but never took the time to formalize our collaboration. It was done yesterday! Bringing together #Enabel's network, technical capacity and ability to create enabling environment for the private sector and #BIO's investment capacity and #developmentfinance knowledge will provide additional added value for our partners and the possibility for more businesses to develop. We will: ✅ work together to create #ecosystemdevelopment through BIO investments and Enabel support of the ecosystem around, ✅ co-develop new #climatefinance initiatives ✅ create opportunities for our colleagues to exchange on a more regular basis, creating synergies where possible and strengthening both organizations Thank you Jean Van Wetter and the whole team of Enabel for your trust and collaboration. I am looking forward to working with you all! #enablingchange #developmentfinance #investments #impactinvestment #sustainabledevelopment Heidy Rombouts, PhD, Caroline Gennez, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Belgium, Danny Verspreet, Sabine Soetens, Tine Vlietinck, Carole Maman, Lucie Stramare, Pierre Harkay

Happy to share my personal journey into sustainable business yesterday during the #Fairtrade Frontrunner Awards, organized by Fairtrade Belgium . During my career across fairtrade, #foreignaffairs, #developmentcooperation and #impactinvestment, I learned to recognize three powers that drive development through sustainable business models: 🎯 The power of business: market based models of #development make change scalable and resistant to shocks. 🎯 The power of the law: voluntary initiatives only go so far, real change needs legal action to make sure everybody is accountable and we all play by the same rules. 🎯 The power of the people: volunteers and customers of fairtrade, people working for sustainability organisations and the local communities that benefit from impact investment, they are change. Congratulations Philippe Weiler for organizing a great event, and contrulations to the winners of the 🏆.

BIO - the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries is looking for a new #CFO for the #finance and #ict department. Sharing is caring... #developmentfinance #dfi #sustainablefinance

#SMEs dominate the business enterprise landscape in #Belgium, accounting for 99.85% of all firms. They are the backbone of our vibrant economy. SMEs in #Ukraine play a crucial role in the economic stability and recovery of the country, while dealing with war-related challenges, including supply chain disruptions, economic and market instability, labour shortages, limited access to financing and security risks. It is logical therefore that SMEs take centre stage at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin (#URC2024). Today, upon the initiative of Svenja Schulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and  Yulia Svyrydenko, Minister of Economic Development of Ukraine, BIO - the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries joined the SME Resilience Alliance. BIO will be providing 18M EUR in access to finance to Ukrainian companies through equity and loans. 🇺🇦🤝🏻🇧🇪   Jan De Pauw Ministry of Foreign Affairs Belgium Caroline Gennez Volodymyr Kuzyo Heidy Rombouts, PhD  

#greatplacetowork

BIO - the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries has the ambition to dedicate 30% of its new investments into #LDCs, doing it’s part to support #sustainabledevelopment in those places where it is most needed, and working together with the #DFI community to convince our stakeholders to allow us to do so and reduce the risks involved. The #OxfordFragilityForum, organized by Sir Paul Collier and the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, again provided many valuable insights and discussions : 🎯 Paul Collier and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom David Cameron spurred DFIs to put fragility at the core of their mandate and to create markets in countries that don’t have them, especially in a changing #development environment in which some donors are less wiling to give and recipient countries want to receive less, looking for #beyondaid investment. 🎯 Stefan Dercon cautioned us about analyzing well which countries to invest in, because you need buy-in of local elites. DFI money is better spent in countries where a genuine vision and effort exist favoring development. 🎯 IFC - International Finance Corporation gave us an insight in the planned review of the IFC performance standards, and questions to be answered in the process, such as whether fragility needs to be included as a separate PS, and how to include remedy and responsible exit principles? 🎯 Several interlocutors pleaded for more flexibility in the DFI mandate, seeing ESG standards more as principles than as compliance rules.

❤️ healthy minds in a healthy company