5 Impact assessment: Recommendations
Recognizing that donors pay for the majority of impact assessment work, capital providers should:
5.1 Work with donors to find cost-effective ways to improve the quality of the evidence base, which can form a persuasive body of evidence around specific development challenges.
5.2 Share any research they have not published.
Read the report
The development impact of concessional finance to agribusiness: A rapid evidence review [55 pages]
looks at the quality of analysis that impact investors produce to verify and validate the societal changes they claim to have generated from their investments.
Recognizing that donors pay for the majority of impact assessment work, capital providers should also:
5.3 Invest in upfront analysis to manage the complexities of dealing with smallholders and allocate appropriate capital.
5.4 Integrate impact measures into management systems to strengthen the social investment narrative.
5.5 Apply consistent investment categorization and tracking in a way that allows for the aggregation of information to increase intelligence on the levels of investment going to smallholder-facing SMEs.
Read the report
examines how smallholders are viewed by investors, the funding flowing to smallholder-facing businesses and investor perspectives on these enterprises.
Watch the video
5 routes to profitable sourcing from smallholder farmers: Investor perspectives on the deal [59 minutes]
The video covers the need for trust, how to structure a deal using blended finance to de-risk agri-SME investments and insights from CASA TAF.
Or read: the one-page summary of the video.
Recognizing that donors pay for the majority of impact assessment work, capital providers should also:
5.6 Impact investors and investment support stakeholders should develop and promote better definitions and standardized impact measurement for both adaptation and nature-based solutions.
Read the report
Mobilizing climate finance towards agricultural adaptation and nature-based solutions [57 pages]
stresses the need to develop a strong business case to help drive capital to adaptation and nature-based solutions. This may involve the use of subsidies. Improving the quality of impact measurements could also help better engage with impact investors.
Updated March 2023
Summary of recommendations for capital providers