The elea Way - Preview

elea’s FOUNDATION AND OPER ATING MODEL

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•• Bangladesh : From 2000 to 2016, the number of people living in extreme poverty declined from 46 million to 24 million (The World Bank, 2019), driven by an economic growth rate of approximately 5% and public-policy measures that supported a balanced distribution of the benefits of growth. Some examples include measures and ini- tiatives to encourage family planning, which empowered women and drove down birth rates; productivity improvements in agriculture; and a thriving civil society. Two civil society initiatives have had a tremendous impact in the field of microfinance; namely, Grameen Bank and BRAC (The Economist, 2012). •• Ethiopia : Extreme poverty fell from 56% in 2000 to 31% in 2011, driven mainly by agricultural growth (The World Bank, 2015). Of the more market-oriented, capitalist-driven strategies to fight poverty, the success story with the longest track record to date is, indeed, micro- finance. One of the microfinance initiators was Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1983 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his life’s work. By supporting entrepre- neurial independence and self-employment through the development and distribution of repayable microcredits (above all among women), Yunus’s organization may possibly have helped some tens of millions of families to escape absolute poverty. Since then, the concept has become mainstream and has inspired thousands of development organizations worldwide. 4 While we appreciate all of the controversies around differences in effectiveness among alternative strategies, distinctive ideological stances, and various perspectives, two things are clear: poverty is no longer an inescapable fate as it was perceived to be until deep into the 20 th century (i.e., it can be successfully defeated), and there is much evidence that entrepreneurially driven market solutions can effectively help to reduce poverty levels. These two insights at the time of creating elea have been continuously reconfirmed with successful examples from our own work and from observing many other initiatives. It has also led to a strong and unwavering commitment to this purpose and, over time, to the percep- tion that impact investing is one of the most effective and sustainable mechanisms for putting this purpose into practice. elea’s purpose, to fight absolute poverty with entrepreneurial means, is intricately interwoven with its underlying ethics. Poor people lack access