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Investing in sustainable global development
David Woods, Managing Director
Victoria, 30 September 2015
Who we are
• Pioneer in ethical investment and private financing for development
• Since 1975, € 2.1 billion invested through 1,670 partner
organizations
• People, planet, profit approach to financing
• Balance sheet today of nearly € 1 billion (approx. CAD 1.5 billion)
• 300 staff in 40 countries
• 53,000 shareholders
• Investment in 792 partner organizations
Microfinance today & in the future
The world today
• Poverty remains a worldwide issue
•
1 billion financially excluded – gap between rich and poor
growing larger each year
• Conflict and political unrest continues to affect many countries
• Food security a global challenge, smallholder farmers feeling it most
• Environmental challenges
•
Fossil fuels
•
Energy shortages and outages
•
Climate change
• Increased interest to tackle these issues and challenges
• Technology is changing the human landscape at rapid speeds
Sustainable development
We contribute to sustainable development in several ways:
•
We invest in various different renewable energy projects – solar, hydro and biogas –
through a specialist unit
•
We’ve taken considerable steps in implementing environmental sustainability into our
business model and implemented an environmental policy in 2013
•
We assess environmental impact as part of our due diligence process with all
prospective partner organizations
•
We are a signatory of the 2014 Global Investor Statement on Climate Change
•
Our Agriculture unit focusses on financing organizations along the agricultural value
chain. This is a way of reaching smallholder farmers.
•
We promote financial inclusion – a focus area of the UN’s Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs)
SDGs
• SDGs were adopted earlier this week by the UN
• 17 goals that break down into 169 targets
• Access to financial services, including microfinance, is included as
targets in goals such as:
o “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”
o “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable
industrialisation, and foster innovation”
• Improving food security also defined as a goal
Financial inclusion in a changing world
The governments of low-income countries are increasingly targeting
financial inclusion. Alternative economies develop to support this:
• Mobile banking
• Self help groups
• Capacity building
• Remittances
• Savings
• Insurance
• Crowdfunding
Finance plus – capacity building
• Oikocredit was one of the first social
investors to provide capacity building for
partner organizations, starting in 2007.
• Oikocredit takes the ‘finance plus’
approach: we provide capacity building and
technical assistance in addition to providing
credit.
• Capacity building is used to train small
cooperatives and their members in the
elements of financial management, and in
governance. More specialised services are
also provided.
Agriculture – the challenges
• Food security: 2050 world population 9.1 billion
• Food production would have to increase by 70% (from 2007 levels)1
• Boosting agricultural output of smallholder famers is important
Their challenges include:
1.Lack of resources to increase output: fertilizers, seeds, techniques
2.Sporadic power supply
3.Climate change
4.No alternatives to generating income
5.No access to finance
1Food
and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)
Food security – tackling new frontiers
Oikocredit invests in initiatives which contribute to food security
• SEKEM, Egypt
• Yalelo, Zambia
• Idepro, Bolivia
Yalelo
The world tomorrow: our 2020 goals
• Our partners will reach 55 million people, 75% women
• Oikocredit’s financing will reach 2.5 million clients
• Four million jobs created
• As a result of direct financing by Oikocredit, 125,000 households will
gain access to clean energy
• Continue to reach more low-income countries
• Double our portfolio outstanding in Africa
• Higher assets and inflow, leading to 50% growth in our portfolio
• Grow our agriculture portfolio to € 200 million (CAD 300 million)
We all have a part to play
Thank you
"Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with
which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same
possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow,
as we would like to be helped ourselves."
- Pope Francis
Disclaimer
This document was produced by Oikocredit, Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society U.A. (Oikocredit International) with the greatest of
care and to the best of its knowledge and belief at the time of writing. The opinions expressed in this document are those of Oikocredit
International at the time of writing and are subject to change at any time without notice. Oikocredit International provides no guarantee with
regard to its content and completeness and does not accept any liability for losses which might arise from making use of this information.
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Oikocredit International is a cooperative society with limited liability (coöperatieve vereniging met uitgesloten aansprakelijkheid) under the laws
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.