One of the most revolutionary players shaping philanthropy today, Jacqueline Novogratz has redefined how the society tackles the problems of global poverty. Novogratz is the founder of Acumen. This year, Fast Company named Acumen one of the world's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Not-for-Profit. In 2011, Novogratz was featured on the cover of Forbes for Acumen's work as well as numerous publications including The Economist, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. She has also been featured on Foreign Policy's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers and named one of the Top 50 Thinkers by Bloomberg Markets and one of the 25 Smartest People of the Decade by The Daily Beast.
She also serves on the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council for Social Innovation. She was also appointed by Secretary Clinton to the Department of State's Foreign Affairs Policy Board. She is a frequent speaker at forums including the Clinton Global Initiative, TED, Aspen Ideas Festival, and this year she opened Skoll Forum with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
As a 12-year-old, she donated her favourite blue sweater, which she had outgrown, to Goodwill. Years later, the sweater turned up on a little boy she met in Kigali, Rwanda and inspired her lifelong quest to understand global poverty and find innovative new ways to empower the poor, which is chronicled in her New York Times best-selling memoir The Blue Sweater.
BR Research got the opportunity to meet Novogratz who was visiting Lahore Literary Festival for her book signing and to meet the recent class of fellows. Following is the edited excerpt of what Acumen has been doing in Pakistan.
<B>BR Research: Tell us about your career and journey with Acumen.</B>
<B>Jacqueline Novogratz:</B> I started my career at Chase Manhattan Bank but, after three years, left to figure out how to use the power of markets to create greater choice and opportunity for the poor and marginalized. And this led me to travel throughout Africa as a consultant for the World Bank and UNICEF, and eventually co-found Rwanda's first microfinance institution in the 1980s.
I returned to the U.S., received my MBA from Stanford and joined the Rockefeller Foundation, where I initiated The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership programs.
My journey with Acumen started when I realised that the traditional charity and markets have failed the world's poor. This realisation got me to come up with a new kind of investing now called "patient capital". Rather than handing out grants, Acumen operates like a non-profit global venture fund by investing in entrepreneurs and early stage companies that have the capacity to bring large-scale, sustainable solutions to the world's poor.
<B>BRR: Tell us more about Acumen's current operations globally and in Pakistan.</B>
<B>JN:</B> Acumen is changing way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders and ideas. We invest patient capital in businesses whose products and services are enabling the poor to transform their lives. Since 2001, we have invested more than $97 million in 90 companies working in agriculture, education, energy, health care, housing, and water and sanitation across Africa, Latin America and South Asia. Acumen's markets-based model has impacted the lives of more than 125 million people.
A year after the launch of Acumen, we brought the organisation's presence in Pakistan, making it the first social impact fund in the country. Our goal was to identify and support entrepreneurs who dared to go against the grain to bring solutions to the nation's problems.
Acumen currently has investments in energy, agriculture, education and affordable housing companies, all directed at serving the poor and helping them to improve their own lives. Another major piece of Acumen's work, particularly in Pakistan, is our fellowship program, a leadership development program that equips emerging social leaders in India, Pakistan and East Africa with the skills, knowledge and moral imagination to drive social change in their communities. The point of this program is to help tomorrow's leaders develop the ethical foundation that they'll need to lean on as they carry on with their careers.
<B>BRR: Acumen is the only impact investment fund in the country. How successful have you been in making inroad in Pakistan's impact investment landscape?</B>
<B>JN:</B> Acumen made its first investment in Pakistan in 2002 and set up offices in 2006, becoming the country's first social impact fund. We came to Pakistan despite fears of corruption and terrorism because we recognised the resilience of the county's people and the potential of entrepreneurship to become a great equaliser. Our mission in Pakistan, as it is globally, is to develop sustainable, private sector solutions to widespread, public sector problems. We're targeting sectors that are deeply underserved in Pakistan and proving innovative models works, such as housing, agriculture and energy. For instances, our investments helped to establish Pakistan's first formal low-cost housing company, Ansaar Management Company (AMC), and microfinance bank focused on crop loans for rural communities, NRSP.
Over these last 14 years, we have invested nearly $15 million, built 15 companies, impacted the lives of 4 million people and created more than 3,500 jobs in Pakistan alone. What's more, Acumen's investments have brought credibility to our companies and raised more follow-on capital. This year, we will make our first successful exit from AMC, and Homeless International, an investor in affordable housing globally, and Places for People, a property management company from the United Kingdom, will step in as investors and provide further capital to help AMC grow.
Our presence in Pakistan has helped to pave way for other funds such as Avishkar and Insitor, the latter being run by a former Acumen employee Humza Khan. Because we differentiate ourselves by focusing on social returns and not playing in the accelerator/incubator space, which is where most of Pakistan's entrepreneurship sector currently resides, we are encouraging the entrepreneurship ecosystem to think differently.
We're also making inroads by working across various stakeholder groups-we inform and include the government, multi-lateral organisations, such as USAID and DFID, high net-worth individuals, corporate such as Reckitt Benckiser, Mehwish and Jehangir Siddiqui Foundation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Bank Alfalah, Allied Bank, and social entrepreneurs.
We do all of this in an attempt to bring systemic change and tackle poverty on a macro-level in Pakistan. We want to change the conversation on aid, fostering a culture of independence, and continue to prove that investing in risky and innovative social enterprises in Pakistan is not only possible but it can yield social and financial return for companies, investors and, most importantly, the people of Pakistan.
<B>BRR: What are Acumen's plans for Pakistan in the next five years?</B>
<B>JN:</B> We will continue to invest in social enterprises and leaders tackling the problems of poverty in Pakistan and prove that social and financial returns can work hand in hand, despite inconsistent political and economic conditions.
We are planning to invest more in agriculture, education, health and energy. Our first investment in education, Nasra Public School, which we made in 2015, has already doubled its number of students in one year.
Our another 2015 investment - Nizam Energy, which is creating a pathway out of energy poverty for those living off the grid - is projected to serve more than 820,000 people with its affordable solar home systems by 2020. With companies like Nizam, we aim to leverage the country's booming tech space to identify and invest in tech companies with a social focus.
Our plan is to continue to build our community of Fellows, entrepreneurs and +Acumen course-takers, and grow our network of multiple stakeholders to take the conversation on how to tackle poverty to the next level. We want to change Pakistan's narrative and show the world its potential as an emerging market and long-term investment. And, last but not least, we want to support the future leaders of Pakistan to recognise their own potential and create the change they want to see in this country.
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