Small reflections on the year

As 2021 comes to a close we are pleased to share some of our reflections on the year. In doing so we wish to express gratitude to our partners, who have shown leadership, innovation, and resilience as they continue to build businesses, networks, knowledge, and impact across sub-Saharan Africa and in Ireland. We feel privileged to work with and learn from them.

10 highlights from 2021

1. We joined forces with Founders Factory Africa to build and scale 18+ agtech start-ups across sub-Saharan Africa over the coming years.
2. We continued to support cutting-edge SGB ecosystem-level learning, such as research by Endeavor Insight and Invest in Africa Kenya.
3. Together with Forum for the Future we applied a systems-level analysis to review and refresh our strategy (we look forward to sharing more about this journey in the new year).
4. We shared our network evaluation toolkit, developed with the Converge network to support impact networks to evaluate their network health, value, connection and collaboration.
5. We developed new partnerships with Bobab and African Leadership Academy, two impact networks working to transform agribusiness in Africa.
6. We supported Emerging Leaders in their consultancy with Spring Impact to establish a scalable model for delivery of their leadership training programme.
7. We entered into new phases of partnership with Capria Ventures, Invest in Africa Kenya, the Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN), AFRACA and The Good Summit.
8. We further developed our impact network practice through a West African expansion of Creative Metier’s action research and support of a new iteration of Converge’s Network Leadership Series.
9. We worked to achieve full compliance with the core standards of Ireland’s Charities Governance Code.
10. We supported the launches of two books: Aunnie Power Patton’s Adventure Finance and David Ehrlichman’s Impact Networks.

Thank you to all who have engaged with Small Foundation over the year. We are looking forward to seeing what innovation and opportunities the new year will bring.