In December, the ANDE South Asia Convening delivered an impactful exploration of its compelling theme, “Big Ideas for Small Business.” Building on the energy of ANDE’s Global Annual Conference 2024, the event gathered visionary leaders, innovators, and practitioners for three days of meaningful dialogue and collaboration. The event was a testament to the power of collective action, fostering a vibrant exchange of ideas that will continue to drive positive change for entrepreneurs across South Asia.
Co-hosted with NAB Bangladesh and supported by BetterStories Limited, ICIMOD, nVentures, PTH Venture Studio, SAFAL Partners, and World University Service of Canada (WUSC – EUMC), the convening focused on key issues shaping South Asia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Participants engaged in thought-provoking discussions, shared best practices, and explored innovative solutions to empower small businesses in the region. Here’s a glimpse of what was discussed and explored during each of the sessions at #SAC2024.
Day 3: Impact InvesTREND Day. Dive into discussions on how impact investing is advancing sustainable development in Bangladesh. Expect sessions covering regulatory landscapes, investment transparency, and practical tools for maximizing impact.
Session 1: Impact Investment Instruments: Way Forward and Demonstrated Examples
Arastoo Khan (Member Secretary, NAB for Impact Investment in Bangladesh) opened the discussion by expressing gratitude for the ongoing collaboration with impact investment initiatives, highlighting ANDE South Asia Convening’s expansion to other South Asian countries. He emphasized the need to amplify impact stories, standardize due diligence, and promote inclusion. He also acknowledged the progress in Bangladesh’s impact investment sector — in October 2018, NAB Bangladesh was awarded membership as the GSG National Partner from GSG Impact during its annual summit in New Delhi.
Building on this foundation, Corinne Henchoz Pignani, from the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh, highlighted Switzerland’s contributions to impact investing efforts in Bangladesh since 2020. She shared key achievements, including reaching 150,000 low-income beneficiaries, financing scalable enterprises, and introducing impact monitoring systems.
Looking ahead, Corinne emphasized the importance of sharing impact measurement practices, advancing gender-lens investing, and disseminating knowledge to ensure sustainable progress. Reflecting on Bangladesh’s current transition, she remarked:
Chandula Abeywickrema (NAB Sri Lanka) discussed the evolution of entrepreneurship in South Asia, highlighting a shift from debt-based financing to equity investment over the last two decades. He underscored the importance of impact investing, small-ticket investments, and creating an entrepreneur ecosystem to ensure businesses in Sri Lanka were commercially viable, scalable, and sustainable. Speaking about the investor support needed in Sri Lanka, he stressed that significant handholding and mentoring are essential for entrepreneurs, particularly women and youth, to succeed in sectors such as agriculture, education, healthcare, and tourism.
Addressing her transition from mainstream banking to climate finance, Simmi Sareen (Unitus Capital, India) discussed the need for innovative financial structures, such as credit guarantees, social impact bonds, and blended finance, to bridge gaps in climate funding and support startups in India and South Asia. Highlighting their work with these innovative financing instruments, Simmi added, “We have seen the emergence of structures like social impact bonds, green bonds, and blue bonds, and we have issued all of these in the last two or three years. For example, last year, we structured the first-ever waste sector bond in India—a certified green bond issued by a company focused on creating value from plastic and municipal waste through a material recovery facility.”
Nepal, with its growing entrepreneurial ecosystem and vast untapped potential, presents an attractive opportunity for impact investors. Ashutosh Tiwari (Safal Partners, Nepal) spoke about their focus on preparing Nepal’s small businesses and startups for global impact investors. Highlighting the challenges in introducing venture debt, he said “We are working on introducing the venture debt instrument, which hasn’t taken off in Nepal yet due to regulatory hurdles. Traditional bank loans with clear-cut terms dominate the market, but sophisticated financial instruments are needed.” He also mentioned developing case studies among small businesses, startups, and agriculture cooperatives to present to global impact investors, ensuring they have compelling stories that highlight the potential of investing in Nepal.
Bijon Islam (Light Castle Partners, Bangladesh) summarized this session by reiterating the usefulness of experimenting with different financial instruments like venture debt, despite regulatory challenges. He emphasized the opportunity for regional learning and collaboration to identify what works, suggesting that solutions in one part of South Asia could be implemented in other regions as well.
As countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal work towards creating more conducive environments for impact investments, regional collaboration and shared learning are paving the way for sustainable growth and development, especially for small businesses and underserved sectors.
Session 2: Impact Transparency and Scale-Up: Reinforcing Impact Audits, Measurements, Management, and Reporting
As the impact investment landscape evolves, the need for robust impact measurement, management, and transparency has never been more critical. Erad Kawsar (Build Bangladesh) opened this vital discussion by emphasizing the growing importance of impact transparency in investment decisions, highlighting the significant growth of the global impact investment market and its shift towards becoming mainstream.
With a decade of experience in the growing global impact investment market, Tomoya Shiraishi (Phronesis Partners, Japan) introduced the concept of impact management and its critical role in sustainability. Underscoring its significance in tackling persistent sustainability challenges, Tomoya stated, “Impact management is a holistic and systematic approach to managing environmental and social impacts, enabling organizations to operate sustainably while facilitating solutions to environmental and social challenges.” He elaborated on the growth of both global and Japanese impact investment markets. Tomoya highlighted the increasing importance of sustainability in investments and the adoption of standards for transparent impact reporting to address both entity-specific and systemic risks.
TIKA (Turkish Coordination and Cooperation Agency) has 60 overseas offices in developing partner countries, ranging from Africa to the Balkans, Latin America, and South Asia. The Bangladesh office, established in 2014, also oversees projects in Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. Şevki Mert BARIŞ from TIKA joined this discussion and highlighted their global expansion and projects in Bangladesh, including humanitarian aid for Rohingya refugees. He drew attention to the agency’s commitment to sectors like water, sanitation, health, and climate change. When discussing impact measurement, he emphasized that genuine feedback from beneficiaries is far more valuable than abstract figures. As he puts it:
Ahmed Mottaki (Mianz International Group, Maldives) shared his journey of establishing a pioneering early childhood education program in the Maldives. Over time, the program grew into a master’s level course, empowering women and improving the local economy by providing education within the islands. Additionally, Ahmed initiated an agriculture program to promote local farming and self-sustainability. Ahmed’s dedication to education has not only uplifted individual lives but also fostered economic growth and community development in the Maldives.
The panelists also discussed the importance of ESG frameworks, adapting educational curricula to meet evolving demands, and measuring the effectiveness of financial instruments in advancing financial literacy and inclusion for enterprises. By sharing diverse perspectives and actionable strategies, they highlighted how robust impact audits and inclusive approaches can drive meaningful change and reinforce trust in the global impact investment ecosystem.
Session 3: Regulatory Frameworks: Supporting Investors, Investees, Intermediaries, and Untapped Markets
This session delved into the critical role of regulatory frameworks in fostering a conducive environment for impact investments in South Asia. Anita Ghazi Rahman (The Legal Circle, Bangladesh) introduced the discussion by highlighting the rising significance of impact investing, which is expected to reach $6 trillion in the next decade. She emphasized the role of regulatory frameworks in supporting investors, investees, intermediaries, and untapped markets, particularly in South Asia. With the region’s rapid growth and pressing socioeconomic challenges, she posed the critical question of how regulatory frameworks can stimulate impact investment and address these challenges while noting South Asia’s large consumer base and economic participation disparities.
Amrut Joshi (Gamechanger Law, India) led the dialogue by explaining India’s over-regulated landscape, where both profit and non-profit organizations are well-regulated. He highlighted regulations like the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act and the Companies Act, which mandates CSR contributions. Explaining India’s Social Stock Exchange he said, “We have now seen a new form of listing on India’s Stock Exchange—the Social Stock Exchange—where non-profit organizations can list zero-coupon, zero-principal bonds for a range of for-profit investors. The objective is to increase the pool of capital available while ensuring that the organizations listed are subject to compliance requirements, building confidence in both retail and institutional investors to contribute to social impact projects.”
The Malaysia Impact Alliance (MYImpact) was established to coordinate efforts and facilitate a smoother journey for impact investing in the country. Kenny Lee (MyImpact, Malaysia) discussed Malaysia’s growing impact investment landscape, supported by regulatory frameworks like Bank Negara Malaysia’s value-based intermediation (VBI) and the Securities Commission’s Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) taxonomy. The VBI framework enables banks with Islamic finance products to offer lower-rate financial products to social enterprises, encouraging their growth and attracting more impact-focused businesses. The SRI framework supports fundraising for green and social impact projects, helping investors align with ESG objectives.
Raising funds from abroad in Pakistan can be trickier than in other markets, mainly due to strict capital controls and regulations tied to counterterrorism laws. Mubariz Siddiqui (Carbon Law, Pakistan) pointed out that many startups in Pakistan steer clear of labelling themselves as impact enterprises because it could limit their funding options. But the reality is, that these startups, like Kareem and Foodpanda, are making a big difference in the social impact space. They’re empowering gig economy workers and supporting targeted initiatives. Mubariz also explained that impact measurement is a bit of a grey area—it depends on the investor’s perspective. The key is for investors to define how they measure impact for each project, because as the saying goes, ‘you can’t improve what you can’t measure.’ Having clear and objective ways to measure impact is critical if you want to achieve the right outcomes. The panelists also explored blended finance, the distinction between social businesses and impact investments, and the limited use of venture debt in early-stage impact ventures, favouring growth-stage enterprises.
From the discussion, it is clear that while each country faces its own unique challenges, the overall trend points towards a growing recognition of the need for strong regulations that support both investors and investees. The regulatory innovations in India, Malaysia, and Pakistan highlight a move towards more inclusive and sustainable financial systems that not only foster growth but also ensure that impact investments align with societal needs.
The ANDE South Asia Convening 2024 showcased the passion and collaboration driving South Asian entrepreneurship. Through inspiring discussions and forward-thinking sessions, it’s clear that the region is on the path toward a more resilient and sustainable future. The knowledge and ideas shared will no doubt continue to inspire impactful change across South Asia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
With bigger ideas, bolder conversations, and even more passionate changemakers, we can’t wait to see what the future holds for South Asian entrepreneurship. See you in 2025—let’s continue this journey of transformation together!