Paul Asquith

AFFORD Policy Brief: Blended Finance Summary July 2019

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Attracting private capital to emerging or frontier markets in Africa poses significant challenges for governments, development Finance Institutions (DFIs), philanthropists, and private impact investors. It also opens up opportunities, given the increasing shift by investors towards funds that help meet Environmental, Social Responsibility, and Governance (ESG) concerns. Drawing in such private capital flows to unlock the estimated USD $331 billion needed for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth in Africa, will be critical in meeting targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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AFFORD Policy Brief: Blended Finance and Diaspora Investment 2019

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Attracting private capital to emerging or frontier markets in Africa poses significant challenges for governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), philanthropists, and private impact investors. It also opens up opportunities, given the increasing shift by investors towards funds that help meet environmental, social responsibility, and governance (ESG) concerns. Drawing in such private capital flows to unlock the estimated USD 331 billion needed for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth in Africa, will be critical in meeting targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Blended finance and the role of Diaspora investment

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Attracting private capital to emerging or frontier markets in Africa poses significant challenges for governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), philanthropists, and private impact investors. It also opens up opportunities, given the increasing shift by investors towards funds that help meet environmental, social responsibility, and governance (ESG) concerns. Drawing in such private capital flows to unlock the estimated USD 331 billion needed for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth in Africa, will be critical in meeting targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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APPG July 2019 Report on visa problems for African visitors to the UK

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The difficulties faced by many Africans wishing to visit Britain in obtaining a visa has been a growing problem for a number of years. It has been raised with many MPs directly, including many of the members of our three APPGs. We therefore wished to find out the true scale and nature of the problem so that something can be done about it. This report is the result of our investigation, though we should emphasise that evidence continues to pour in of the problems we highlight and will be included in the online Appendix . Annex found in the Appendix also provides some informal guidelines and advice to follow when applying for visit visas.

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Africans in the world

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Building on the findings of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s (MIF) 2019 Ibrahim Forum Report on African migrations, this joint research paper, co-authored with the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) and Welcoming Diasporas, complements the migration discussion with that on the African diaspora. While 2019 was declared by Ghana as the ‘Year of Return’ of African diaspora, the economy of many countries on the continent is and has been heavily reliant on diaspora contributions from all over the world – remittances and beyond. The paper intends to shed light on the challenges of measuring the diaspora, and on the composition of African diaspora, while assessing its contribution to the development of the continent and its impact on destination countries. The paper then reviews current initiatives supporting the diaspora and aiming at retaining Africa’s human capital on the continent, including the recent Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

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