Hivos Impact Investments invests in early stage SME’s primarily in Southern Africa with innovative solutions in the food and lifestyle sector. Through their investments Hivos aims to generate a financial return, as well as a positive impact on a range of issues.

Impact investments for early-stage SMEs in Southern Africa

Issues such as preventing food waste, improving diets, reducing soil degradation, and creating fair and sustainable jobs, thus improving the livelihoods in the regions. Hivos approached Impact House in order to gain insight in the way their investments contribute to their impact-goals, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Monitoring and reporting on impact

We supported Hivos in developing a Theory of Change (ToC) for their Fund. This ToC describes how their investments contribute to both their envisioned impacts, as well as the SDGs. We developed an indicator framework which can be used to monitor their impact at portfolio-level. We then implemented this framework in our tool. In doing so, we enabled Hivos to monitor each of their investments individually, as well as the aggregated impact of their portfolio as a whole.

Steering towards impact

To this day, Hivos uses the indicator framework and our tool to monitor the impact of their investments. The aggregated results provide useful management information and shows whether the envisioned impacts are realised, and in what ways it can be improved. Supported by our consultants, Hivos presents the results in quarterly impact reports, which are shared with several of their stakeholders.