Supporting Education in Africa: Key Takeaways from the Feasibility Study Conducted by FERDI, in Partnership with I&P and Monaco

In January 2019, Investisseurs & Partenaires and the Government of Monaco signed a partnership agreement to create the first impact fund dedicated to education in Africa.

A key component of the partnership consisted in carrying out a feasibility study, conducted by the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (FERDI). Its main observations and conclusions opened the discussions to elaborate the impact program implemented by Investisseurs & Partenaires, I&P Education to Employment.

Objectives and Key Insights of the Feasibility Study

The feasibility study was conducted by the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (FERDI) between September 2018 and May 2019. The study followed several objectives:

• Gaining a better understanding of African challenges in regard to education

• Identifying good practice in education that could be developed and disseminated more widely by the private sector

• Analysing the economic models of private operators in education

As key deliverables, the study provides a mapping of investments in private education, a robust literature review highlighting impactful practices in education. It also defines a new typology of education businesses and their expected financial and impact returns.

An Executive Summary, released on July 10, 2019, presents the main conclusions and recommendations of the feasibility study. It notably outlines several impact strategies that impact investors may follow to address education challenges in a given region, from early childhood development programs to tertiary education and graduate professional integration.

Next Step for the program I&P Education to Employment

As the operator of the project, Investisseurs & Partenaires as defined the program’s investment and impact strategy, drawing from the main takeaways of the feasibility study. The fund I&P Education to Employment will focus on empowering the African youth, through skills training and increased access to jobs.

The fund will rely on an innovative blended finance approach, combining an impact fund, based on equity and debt fund, and a social fund, based on grant funding.

The fund is now entering a phase of active development, which will run until the end of 2020:

• Starting the fundraising process to complete a first closing of the impact fund and to identify grant support opportunities

• Structuring the fund and recruiting the investment and impact team

• Building the pipeline by identifying a range of investment opportunities

About

Investisseurs & Partenaires is an impact investing group fully dedicated to small and medium enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the firm conviction that these enterprises actively contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth on the continent. Since its launch in 2002, I&P has supported more than 100 small and medium enterprises based in 16 Sub-Saharan African countries. These companies create local value and sustainable jobs, but also generate significant social, environmental and governance impacts. www.ietp.com

The Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (FERDI), was created in 2003 on the initiative of the CERDI (University of Auvergne and CNRS), a research on international development established in 1976. FERDI’s purpose is to promote a fuller understanding of international economic development and the factors that influence it.

The Government of the Principality’s international development policy, which prioritizes combatting poverty, supports more than 130 projects each year in 11 countries, primarily Least Developed Countries (Madagascar, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal and Burundi). It focuses on four key areas of intervention to develop human capital - health, education, socio-economic inclusion and since 2018 food security - and targets the most vulnerable people (women, children, refugees, people with disabilities) as a priority. https://cooperation-monaco.gouv.mc/en