CEO Bert van der Vaart explains why SEAF focuses its work on what he refers to as “The Missing Middle” - small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). In 1989, the founders of SEAF noticed that while development financial institutions were supporting large-scale projects, but no one...
“The business of business should not be about money,” writes Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop. “It should be about responsibility.” This was how a report in Financial Times began this past week. The article, which discussed the increase in the number of ESG exchange-traded...
The Asian Venture Philanthropy Network Limited (AVPN) recently held its annual conference in Singapore. Now in its seventh year, the AVPN Conference 2019 brings together a diverse group of investors and resource providers from around the globe to take part in the largest gathering of...
The RIIA Hoffman Finance Forum was held last week at Chatham House in London, the UK’s oldest and most well-established think tank, and SEAF Managing Director Jan Cherim participated in the roundtable on Moving from Niche to Mainstream: Finance for Social and Environmental Enterprises. The...
This week, the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network Limited (AVPN) held its annual conference in Singapore. Now in its seventh year, the 2019 AVPN Conference brings together a diverse group of investors and resource providers from around the globe to take part in the largest gathering...
In 2016, I worked in Jordan for an NGO supporting Syrian refugees, where I saw firsthand the limbo in which many refugees live--unable to work, often unable to study, and knowing full well that they are seen as a burden on their host communities. Despite...
At last week’s Women Deliver Conference in Vancouver, Gender-Smart Investing hosted an event titled “The Power of Finance” which SEAF Managing Director Bob Webster was fortunate enough to attend. The event began with Suzanne Biegel, co-producer of Gender-Smart Investing and founder of Catalyst at Large, discussing...
SEAF employs both debt and equity investments, but as CEO Bert van der Vaart explains, there is an excess amount of debt available in the global markets, and there are perils for entrepreneurs in developing countries borrowing in USD. Equity, which can be hard to...
Bob Webster, Managing Director for SEAF, recently spoke on a panel at Women Deliver, entitled “Finding Tools Fit for Purpose: Measuring the Impact of Gender Equality on Investments, Workplaces, and Value-Chains.” The Women Deliver Conference is consistently the world’s largest conference on gender equality and the...
What challenges do organizations face as they attempt to implement a gender perspective in their operations, and what tools and resources can be employed achieve this change? These are some of the questions that SEAF Managing Director Bob Webster will be tackling in next week’s Women...
