Evidence has shown that safeguarding risks dramatically increase during an epidemic. During the current period of uncertainty caused by Covid-19, it is vital that our partners are mindful of these increased risks and are equipped to prevent or deal with any incidents should they arise. We are supporting all our partners in ensuring safeguarding remains…
SF and UK Government partner CreditEnable, have come up with several new initiatives to support SMEs during the Covid-19 pandemic. SMEs in emerging markets are particularly vulnerable due to their often having little credit history, collateral or track record, and relying on capital from the informal sector. CreditEnable, which uses a global technology platform to…
Redavia’s Covid-19 Resilience Lease is providing free solar to businesses in Ghana and Kenya. Reliable, cost-effective, and clean solar power remains a vital necessity for businesses, especially during this difficult time of economic uncertainty. Redavia, who we supported between 2014-2019 with co-funding from the UK government, designs, manufactures, deploys and maintains mobile solar farms, enabling…
SF partner GroFin in the SME sector recently released its 2019 Annual Report. In 2019, GroFin invested in 25 new businesses by deploying US$21m of growth capital to increase the number of jobs they have helped to sustain since inception to 89,450 and the Report provides an overview of the following: How GroFin uses different…
Koen Peters, executive director of the Global Off-grid Lighting Association (GOGLA) has written a blog on the GOGLA website detailing how they are addressing the Covid-19 pandemic for its 180+ members. “We concentrated first on understanding the size and nature of the impact, and what kind of help is needed,” said Koen. “Companies are seriously…
In these testing times, it will require a coordinated effort to ensure energy services continue to reach the low-income consumers who need it most. SF partner Energy Private Developers (EPD), who we have supported since 2016 with co-funding from the UK Government and USAID, to address local market barriers to energy access in Rwanda, have…
As part of the SF support offering to social enterprises and institutions, we fund innovative marketing activity that has the potential to deliver business results and be rolled out across the wider sector. In 2019 we co-funded two projects with Bboxx, a UK-headquartered solar utility, testing a new application of WiFi technology in the DRC…
As the world adapts to a different operating environment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, at Shell Foundation we have been working to formalise our response strategy to help our portfolio of social enterprises and institutions continue delivering energy and transport solutions to low-income consumers in Africa and Asia, and that the sector response is aligned…
For smallholder farmers in emerging markets, access to products, finance and information is vital to improving their yields and income, allowing them to climb the energy ladder. Apollo Agriculture, who we have supported since 2018 with co-funding from the UK government, uses remote sensing, data science, and agronomic machine learning to help Kenyan farmers, backed…
The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of renewable energy as a vital resource, helping governments to protect their citizens and reduce the spread of the virus. Nayo Tropical Technology has showcased a timely and innovative response to Covid-19. Working with Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Nayo provided three off-grid solutions: A 10kw hybrid solar…