The Economic Power of Gender Equality
This post by MD Anna Ryott is part of the UN Foundations blog series, “Her Goals: Our Future,” which highlights the connections between girls and women and the Sustainable Development Goals.
This post by MD Anna Ryott is part of the UN Foundations blog series, “Her Goals: Our Future,” which highlights the connections between girls and women and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Swedfund invests MUSD 5 through a loan in Acleda Bank, a bank with strong focus on social and economic development. The loan enables the Bank's continued expansion in rural areas and thus contributes to increased employment and development of domestic production.
Swedfund invests MUSD 5 in Tanzanian National Microfinance Bank (NMB) through a syndicated loan led by the Dutch Development Bank FMO. The funds will primarily be used for on-lending to small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and corporate borrowers, thereby contributing to job creation in Tanzania.
Swedfund, is selling its stake in the Kenyan insurance company UAP. The sale, to Old Mutual, entails a capital gain exceeding SEK 160 million for Swedfund. ”In only three years we have succeeded in achieving Swedfund’s primary targets for the business. We have realized substantial value, created employment opportunities and fair employment conditions,” states Anna Ryott, MD at Swedfund.
Addax Bioenergy has now started its first production of bioethanol and renewable electricity at the plant in Makeni, Sierra Leone. Production is estimated at 85,000 m3 of bioethanol per year by the end of 2016 and the plant is expected to contribute approximately 20% of the country’s current production of electricity.
One of Swedfunds investments in Georgia, TBC Bank, was awarded Best Bank in Georgia and Best CSR in the region in the Europe Banking Awards arranged by EMEA Finance magazine.
On March 13th 2014, Swedfund continued an ongoing stakeholder dialogue that began in the spring of 2013. Among other civil society organizations, representatives of Diakonia, Action Aid and Forum Syd participated in this latest meeting. The dialogue was chaired by Lars-Olle Larsson, Senior Manager of ESG issues at Swedfund.
Addax Bioenergy has become the first in Sierra Leone to be registered as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is also the first sugarcane-based power generation project for ethanol production to be registered as a CDM project in Africa.
Swedfund’s mission is to work in the world’s most difficult environments where economic, as well as political, social and environmental risks are high. Sierra Leone is a country still greatly affected by the civil war of 1991-2002. Youth unemployment is currently 60 percent and is among the highest in West Africa.
Swedfund and 26 international finance institutions issued a joint communique below on the occasion of the launch of IFC’s Jobs Study “Assessing Private Sector Contributions to Job Creation and Poverty Reduction”.
UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) has acknowledged Swedfund’s commitment to integrate the six Principles in our business activity and to submit an annual report of this work.