Building Bridges

The Last and Final Day of African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) Conference 2025 in Kenya! 🌍 Day 3 - November 5th, kicked off with energy and ambition. The morning began with the Kenya Energy Breakfast, where Stephen Jackson and Eng. Isaac Kiva , PE, FIEK outlined Kenya’s bold plans under the Kenya National Energy Compact and the regional Mission 300 initiative. With 93% of electricity already renewable, they stressed that reaching 100% renewable energy and universal access by #2030 will require catalytic philanthropy, private-sector partnerships, and strong public leadership — in short, a strong commitment of capital, partnership, and urgency. In parallel, our partners FSD Africa and the African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA)—led by Mark Napier, Dorothy Maseke ,CFIRM, and Reshma Shah—hosted a strategic session on nature investment opportunities across Africa. Building directly on conversations sparked at #BuildingBridges25 in Geneva, the discussion highlighted the growing pipeline of nature-based solutions, the need for stronger financial structures, and the pivotal role of catalytic capital in unlocking private investment. The conference wrapped up with hands-on site visits across Nairobi, followed by the AVPA Impact Disco, ending the week on a high note full of energy and inspiration. ✨

Last week, Building Bridges hosted the webinar “Scaling Impact: Private Market Investing in Africa,” bringing together leading experts and investors who are driving sustainable growth across the continent. 🌍 The discussion explored how private markets are unlocking Africa’s potential, from #Innovative investment structures and #BlendedFinance models to empowering local entrepreneurs and scaling social impact. 💡 Swipe through to explore insights from our speakers — Abi Mustapha-Maduakor, MEng, CA, MBA (AVCA - The African Private Capital Association), Catherine Cax (Soros Economic Development Fund), Shruti Chandrasekhar (IFC - International Finance Corporation), and Ann Wyman (AfricInvest Group) — on the impact of private capital in creating inclusive, sustainable economies. 🔗 Learn more and watch the full recording here: https://lnkd.in/eRYy3epy

Day 1 of the 2025 African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) Conference (3 November) ended with a networking cocktail at the Swiss Residence, hosted by Dr. Steve Tharakan and the Swiss Embassy, a wonderful evening that strengthened ties between the Swiss and African impact investment ecosystems. 🌍 Day 2 (4 November) began with the Innovative Finance Initiative Breakfast, where the Building Bridges community joined efforts to make #InnovativeFinance more accessible and mainstream. In the Opening Plenary, Guillaume Bonnel, SDG Impact Finance Initiative and David Albertani, Catalytic Finance Foundation represented Building Bridges alongside global finance leaders to explore how capital can be redesigned to work for Africa’s future. As VIMAL SHAH, Bidco Africa aptly put it, “It’s timely to shift Africa’s growth story from extraction to creation, and from dependence to production.” The Legacy Lens session offered a powerful reminder that legacy is about values as much as assets, while Karen Hitschke brought thoughtful insights to the Catalytic Conversation on private sector engagement in social investment. The day closed with the AVCA - The African Private Capital Association Connect, big thank you to Abi Mustapha-Maduakor, MEng, CA, MBA, Rhoda Mhango, and Philippa Bunkell for the warm hospitality and partnership. 🌿

🎧 Episode 2 is out: Beyond Returns — Fiduciary Duty in the Age of Sustainability 🌿 Fiduciary duty has long meant maximising financial returns, but as #Climate, #Nature, and #Social risks reshape markets, that definition is shifting. In this episode, produced in collaboration with The Geneva Connection, David Blood, Senior Partner at Generation Investment Management, and Emmanuel Jaclot, Executive Vice-President and Head of Infrastructure and Sustainability at La Caisse (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec), join Patrick Odier, Chairman of Building Bridges, to explore what fiduciary duty means in 2025. They discuss how #Sustainability is becoming central to fiduciary responsibility, how investors balance short- and long-term value, and whether ignoring sustainability could now be seen as a breach of duty. 🔗 Tune in to the full episode here - https://lnkd.in/eMtV2a7x

We're pleased to share that Eden CEO Bryan Adkins is participating in an important conversation this week at the 2025 AVPA Conference in Nairobi (African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) ). The exclusive roundtable, "Investing in Nature's Future: Building Investment Pathways for a Nature-Positive Future," brings together CEOs, investors, and development leaders to address how different forms of capital can work together to enable community-centered landscape restoration across Africa. Africa holds extraordinary potential for nature-based climate solutions, from the Miombo woodlands to coastal mangroves to montane forests. Yet mobilizing the capital needed to protect and restore these critical ecosystems at scale remains a persistent challenge. This roundtable, hosted by the African Natural Capital Alliance and FSD Africa in partnership with Building Bridges, creates space for strategic dialogue about practical pathways forward. As a philanthropic grant-making organization, Eden brings a unique perspective to these conversations. Through our strategic partnerships with implementation organizations across Africa, we've seen firsthand that effective landscape restoration requires patient philanthropic capital for community engagement and capacity building, rigorous partner evaluation to ensure comprehensive outcomes, transparent stewardship that builds donor confidence, and strategic collaboration among funders, implementers, governments, and communities. Our 20-year history has taught us that different organizations excel at different roles. By connecting philanthropic capital with best-in-class implementation partners, we can achieve landscape transformation at greater scale. Events like this roundtable are essential for building the partnerships and pathways that will enable Africa's communities to thrive in restored landscapes. We're grateful to ANCA, FSD Africa, and Building Bridges for creating this platform, and we look forward to continuing these important conversations with fellow leaders committed to mobilizing capital for nature. #NatureBasedSolutions #PhilanthropicCapital #LandscapeRestoration #AVPAConference #ANCA #FutureProofingAfrica #NaturePositiveFuture #AfricanNaturalCapital #ClimateAction African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA) FSD Africa Building Bridges African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA)

Thank you to the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) for the warm welcome extended to the 22-member Building Bridges Investor Delegation yesterday, who are proud to join the #2025AVPAConference, where investors, philanthropists, and innovators are uniting to support Africa’s development future. In today’s opening panel, Ambassador Christian Frutiger, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, captured the spirit of our shared mission: “We cannot ODA ourselves to glory which means that we need to rethink how to mobilise domestic and private capital. And for that we have to move from grant financing of programmes to mobilising private capital towards impact.” 💡Stay tuned for more updates from Nairobi this week.