Fellowship Description
This fellowship is designed to equip impact investing practitioners in Africa with actionable systems thinking methodologies. This fellowship moves beyond conceptual awareness to provide concrete tools and practices for integrating a systemic lens into investment strategy, deal design, and impact measurement and management (IMM). Through interactive application, real-world examples, and participatory exercises, participants will learn to reframe their approaches to foster complexity, collaboration, and long-term transformation, ultimately enabling them to design transactions that contribute to bigger, systemic change across the continent.
Target Audience
Mid-to-senior level professionals within the African impact investing ecosystem who are in a position to influence strategy, investment decisions, and organisational processes.
Why Join?
The fellowship aim to equip participants with:
- Move from Theory to Actionable Tools: Gain concrete frameworks and methodologies—like systems mapping and theories of change—that you can immediately apply to your investments, strategies, and programs.
- Design Investments for Deeper and Lasting Impact: Learn to identify leverage points and structure deals that contribute to transformative system change, not just isolated outcomes.
- Enhance Your Risk Management & Resilience: Anticipate unintended consequences, understand feedback loops, and build adaptive strategies that make your portfolio more robust in volatile markets.
- Join a Pan-African Peer Network: Collaborate with and learn from a curated cohort of mid-to-senior professionals from across the impact ecosystem—foundations, funds, DFIs, and corporates—expanding your professional community.
- Learn from World-Leading Institutions: Benefit from the unique combination of AVPA’s deep on-the-ground African network and expertise and Oxford Saïd’s globally renowned academic rigour and thought leadership.
- Improve Your Impact Communication: Learn to articulate and evidence your contribution to systemic change, creating compelling narratives for boards, investors, and stakeholders.
- Develop a Tailored Action Plan: Graduate with a personalised “Systems-Lens Action Plan” to directly implement learnings in your organisation, ensuring a tangible return on your educational investment.
- Gain a Competitive Edge in the Market: Position yourself and your organisation at the forefront of the next evolution in impact investing, where systems thinking is becoming a key differentiator for leadership and capital allocation.
