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Andrii Tiurenkov explains the importance of Microfinance and the results of the latest regulatory changes. He discusses the development on the market and speaks about the expectations of investors.
Dr. Andrij Fetsun talks about the evaluation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Agents for Impact rating model.
Dr. Agyeya Trippathi is a certified Social Auditor (SAN-UK & India), Sustainability Expert and Qualified Research Professional instrumental in end-to-end strategy management for organizations aligning with global sustainable standards. He has more than 15 years of experience working in India, Africa and Asia Pacific countries in development projects funded by SDC, UNCDF, UNDP, IFC and World Bank. Large part of his professional engagement was with Government, Donors, INGOs and Private organisations working towards achieving sustainability and inclusivity outcomes.
He is passionate and competent to analyse how businesses can play a more direct role in achieving environment and social sustainability, to create value for stakeholders and shareholders. His competency lies in the transformation and alignment of business/project goals with social, environmental and economic sustainability. He had handled multi-country and multi-disciplinary team size ranging from 5 to 25 including field teams, managers and researchers.
Bharat Hari Dhakalia is a lawyer with a passion for writing. In his previous roles with law firms, Bharat Hari primarily worked on general corporate matters, intellectual property rights, and media law. His work experience includes drafting, reviewing and negotiating agreements, conducting due diligence, and offering advice to clients. He has also served as a Judicial Clerk to Justice Swatanter Kumar at the National Green Tribunal, Delhi.
Bharat Hari graduated with honours from RML National Law University, Lucknow. In addition to law, he has studied screenwriting at the Film and Television Institute of India.
Ankita is a seasoned business analyst in the Building Materials Industry in India with over 5 years of experience. She has a strong background in data analytics and business development, and she joined Agents for Impact in December 2022 as a data analyst. Ankita is passionate about working in the finance domain and has a deep interest in promoting equality and women’s empowerment. Ankita earned her B.E. from Savitribai Phule Pune University in India, where she developed a strong foundation in engineering and technology. With her extensive experience and expertise in data analytics, Ankita brings a unique skill set to Agents for Impact. She is committed to making a positive impact through her work and is excited to be a part of an organization that shares her values.
Oleg brings experience gained working in Eastern Europe, South Asia and Sub-Saharah Africa. He worked in audit in banking (Ukraine), Nigeria (fintech) and Bangladesh (legaltech, fintech and private equity companies).
Before joining Agents for Impact, he worked as an Investment Officer at a tech fund focusing on early stage, tech-platform companies in emerging markets of South Asia.
Oleg holds an MBA degree from HEC Paris and Masters in Banking (Kyiv National Economic University). He passed CFA I level and was also an ACCA member (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the United Kingdom).
Claus Huth verfügt über 15 Jahre Erfahrung in der Finanzindustrie, davon über 12 Jahre in den Bereichen Compliance und Risk Management. In dieser Zeit hat Claus als Mitarbeiter und Berater mit renommierten Kredit- und Finanzdienstleistungsinstituten zusammengearbeitet. Seine Karriere begann er mit einem Traineeprogramm und im Risk Controlling der UBS Deutschland GmbH. Im Anschluss hat er als Head of Organisation ein Finanzdienstleistungs-Startup mit aufgebaut und verantwortete intern die Implementierung der Compliance- und Risikomanagementprozesse.
Bei Agents for Impact steht Claus zum Thema nachhaltigkeitsbezogene regulatorische Anforderungen zur Verfügung.
Seit 2012 als selbständiger Berater tätig, wurde Claus mehrfach beauftragt, als Chief Compliance Officer in Auslagerung die Verantwortung für die Compliance-Abteilungen von Kredit- und Finanzdienstleistungsinstituten zu übernehmen. Umfangreiche Erfahrungen bei der Prüfungsbegleitung und -durchführung sowohl von WpHG- und Jahresabschlussprüfungen als auch von Sonderprüfungen durch die Aufsichtsbehörden (Schwerpunkt: Risk Management) runden sein Profil ab.
Zuletzt erarbeitete der studierte Jurist, der neben Deutsch fließend Englisch und Französisch spricht, unter anderem eine neue Geschäftsstrategie für ein mittelständisches Institut, bei der das Thema Nachhaltigkeit und Sustainable Finance im Zentrum stand. Überzeugt davon, dass die Lenkung von Kapitalströme in nachhaltig wirksame Projekte vorangetrieben werden muss, ist Claus neben seiner Tätigkeit als Consultant außerdem Initiator für die Gründung einer nachhaltigen Finanzbewegung und ehrenamtlich für sozial-ökologische Genossenschaftsprojekte tätig.
Joy verfügt über mehr als 10 Jahre Erfahrung im Finanzsektor in den afrikanischen Ländern südlich der Sahara. Bevor sie zu AFI kam, arbeitete sie beim African Guarantee Fund, wo sie die Positionen des Business Development Officer – Southern Africa und des Credit Officer innehatte.
In dieser Funktion verwaltete sie den Garantiezyklus von Finanzinstituten, die Kredite an kleine und mittlere Unternehmen vergeben. Zu ihren Fachgebieten gehören die Strukturierung von Geschäften, die Analyse von Kreditrisiken und das Portfoliomanagement.
Joy setzt sich leidenschaftlich für die Förderung einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung ein, indem sie den Zugang zu Finanzmitteln erleichtert und Organisationen bei ihrer Investitionsstrategie unterstützt.
Sie ist bestrebt, die weitere Entwicklung der Finanzmärkte zu unterstützen und absolviert zu diesem Zweck einen Masterstudiengang in Development Finance an der Strathmore University.
Nigina has more than 10 years of experience in mass media and mass communications. She also has experience in public relations at the National Association of Small and Medium Business. During her professional career, Nigina worked on the issues of girls’ access to education and unequal treatment of women in Tajik society.
She is a graduate of the Women’s Leadership course at the Institute for the Study of the United States in the United States of America. She actively promotes the idea of equality in her community, as well as gender equality, issues of girls’ access to education in traditional Tajik society, and issues of poverty.
She is also the Сo-founder of the Women’s Voice Tajikistan project, which aims to educate Tajik girls about women’s rights, domestic violence, equality, education, etc. She won the competition “Best Media Project and Photos” in Kyrgyzstan, showing the problem of poverty in the region. Her pictures were shown in several exhibitions in the city of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Nigina was awarded the National Prize in 2016 for her contribution to the development of Tajik society. Initiator of several actions on environmental protection and informative clubs for students from rural areas, thematic months on the prevention of violence against women, on the most prominent female leaders in the world, Black History Month, Ecology Month, etc.
She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in International Journalism from Russian Tajik Slavic University, Tajikistan. Doctoral student in the field of journalism. Author of a number of scientific articles and publications.
Memona Mateen joined AFI in September 2020. Prior to that she worked for GIZ in the projects „Support to Municipalities in Libya“ and „Energising Development“. There she gained on-hands experience in the fields of Communication, Finance & Administration, and Monitoring & Evaluation.
She has been working for the Center of Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) in Göttingen where she has been involved in reserach tasks and managing the website. In Spring 2017 she was part of a research team which conducted an endline survey of the project „Safe Childbirth Checklist“ in the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.
Memona holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Cologne and a MSc in Development Economics from the Georg-August-University Göttingen. Memona is fluent in Englisch, German, Hindi, and Urdu. Additionally she speaks French on conversational level.
Memona is a member of the Federal Association of German Economists and Business Academics and the Rhetoric Club Frankfurt.
With more than 15 years of experience in the financial sector Claus Huth brings forth proven expertise, particularly in the areas of (sustainability) compliance and risk management.
Claus studied law before starting his career as a trainee at UBS Germany’s risk controlling department and holding several positions in renowned financial institutions. As a freelance consultant, he headed compliance departments, assisted regular and special audits by supervisory authorities, and assumed the responsibility as Chief Compliance Officer in various financial institutions.
At Agents for Impact, Claus advises on general regulatory requirements for the financial services sector as well as special, sustainability-related regulatory requirements.
Claus is a committed advocate of sustainability. He initiated a sustainable finance movement and volunteers for associations with a social and ecological mission.
Joy has over 10 years’ experience in the financial sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Before joining AFI, she worked at African Guarantee Fund where she held the positions of Business Development Officer – Southern Africa and Credit Officer.
Her role involved managing the guarantee cycle of financial institutions providing loans to small and medium enterprises. Her areas of expertise include deal structuring, credit risk analysis and portfolio management.
Joy is passionate about promoting sustainable development by facilitating access to finance and aiding organizations in their investment strategy
She seeks to support the continued development of financial markets and to this end is pursuing an Msc. in Development Finance from Strathmore University.
Harining developed significant network and knowledge on civil society strengthening and movement through various engagement in democracy building and governance reform in Indonesia. While in the aftermath of earthquake in Yogyakarta and Central Java on 2006, as Team Leader, she managed emergency and recovery work with CARE International Indonesia.
Her visionary work continues in social entrepreneurship development while pursuing impact and growth for social economic improvement for the household and community she works with. She founded Daughter of Klaten and promoted Sisterhood LAWE Initiative in Yogyakarta, on 2010, as a hub for creativity and innovation from women artisans, women entrepreneurship and cooperative across the country.
Advocating originality and value creation for greater social conscious market as her goals nowadays in the robust consumption of digital market era in Southeast Asia region. She is also conducting research on social innovation and indigenous entrepreneurship.
Graduated from University of Indonesia, Faculty of Law and Asian Institute of Management, Makati, Philippine for Master of Development Management. She is Fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), international sustainable development program sponsored by Rockefeller Foundation, and part of Global Women in Management (GWIM), worldwide women network and development organized by WomenLead Institute and ExxonMobil.
Hailing from India, Pratibha Singh is passionate about issues such as gender equality, climate change, migration and conflict management. She loves to build bridges between theory and practice and has worked with institutions (NGOs, think tanks, associations) both as a researcher as well as a project manager in countries such as India, Thailand and Germany.
Adept in content creation as well as storytelling, she has published around 40 articles, book chapters, policy briefs and research papers. She holds two Master degrees in Gender & Development Studies as well as Public Policy.
She believes that sustainability is still falling short when it comes to financial investments. Therefore, as a SDG Rating Analyst, she aims to maximise positive impact of institutions across the world in consonance with the Agenda 2030. She considers Agents for Impact, as a beacon — a source of hope – for people and the planet.
In order to make meaningful connections in the area of SDGs and sustainable finance within the research community, she is currently pursuing her PhD from EBS Universität für Wirstschaft und Recht.
When not juggling between her job and her thesis, you will find her sifting through books or taking a stroll in the woods.
Prior to Agents for Impact, Andrij was Senior Portfolio Manager at Invest in Visions. He set up the Portfolio Management for the company from scratch. Within four years Andrij managed to increase the portfolio of the IIV Microfinance Fund from €98 Million to more than €661 Million without any defaults. He has ten years of professional experience in the field of Impact Finance, among others through the cooperation with KfW and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in promoting SME Finance and Microfinance. Andrij started his career in the Private Banking department´s Portfolio Management of BHF-Bank, Frankfurt.
Andrij has published articles on quantitative approaches in Portfolio Management and in particular on ESG integration in portfolio management.
Andrij holds a Master in Finance from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Germany and a PhD in Engineering from National Aviation University, Ukraine.
Manuela brings forth more than a decade of international work experience in sustainable finance, international development, and project management. She started her professional career as a financial officer at the international organization World Vision. Subsequently, Manuela held several positions at KfW Bankengruppe where she gained comprehensive expertise in sustainable finance, sovereign debt and the project management of international development projects with a variety of public and private stakeholders, especially in Africa and Eastern Europe.
Prior to joining Agents for Impact, Manuela worked as a freelance sustainability strategy consultant and project manager.
She holds a double-degree in International Business Studies from the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (HTW) Dresden and Hogeschool INHOLLAND Diemen. She is fluent in German, English and French.
Manuela became an Agent for Impact due to her love for people and the planet, which is at the core of her passion for sustainability throughout her professional career.
Andrii Tiurenkov joined Agents for Impact in January 2020 as Director Debt Investments.
He is currently responsible for debt investment portfolio development and debt investment operations.
Before joining Agents for Impact, Andrii worked for 4 years at Incofin Investment Management in Belgium as Senior Investment Management responsible for investment portfolio in several Southeast Europe and Eastern Europe / Central Asia countries.
Prior to that Andrii worked for around 10 years in the Ukrainian banking sector where he received a great deal of experience in microlending and SME banking.
Andrii graduated from Ternopil National Economic University (Master in Management) and holds an International Master in Microfinance from Autonomy Madrid University.
He has also completed certificate programs from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in Risk Management and SME Finance.
He is native Ukrainian and fluently speaks Russian and English.
Juliane builds on 6+ years of international work experience in finance, impact measurement, sustainable development and project management. She started her professional career in financial services at Commerzbank, then worked at KPMG Germany and Spain in the Audit Financial Services Department, in her last position as Senior Associate. Juliane gained first impact finance experience at an MFI in Guatemala, providing hands-on consulting and conducting an impact measurement of microfinance. Subsequentely, she became a researcher at the German Institute for Development Cooperation (DIE) in Bonn, Germany.
Prior to joining Agents for Impact, Juliane was a Project Manager at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management implementing large-scale advisory and trainings projects in development finance globally, lately focusing on microfinance and support programmes for women-led MSMEs. She holds a BSc in Business Administration from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, an MSc in Global Development from the University of Copenhagen, and is a Certified Expert in Agricultural Finance and Microfinance. She is fluent in German, English and Spanish.
Juliane became an Agent for Impact building on her passion for multidimensional sustainability and the achievement thereof, in her professional career and beyond.
Shreya has gained extensive experience in banking, finance and corporate laws from her previous job with ICICI Bank Limited, a leading private bank in India. For the past four years, Shreya handled legal issues pertaining to the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises lending operations of ICICI Bank in South India as well as the International Banking operations in the South East Asia region.
Her areas of expertise are commercial contract structuring, drafting and negotiation.
Shreya obtained her BA LLB with Honours from National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi/India.
Shreya strongly believes that working with Agents for Impact fulfils both her passion for law and social responsibility.
Rico joined Agents for Impact in May 2021 as Investment Officer for South and Southeast Asia. He is responsible for debt investment portfolio development and operations in the region. His tasks include providing support in assessing new opportunities in impact investment, market research, investment portfolio and financial analysis of financial institutions.
Before joining AFI, Rico established and manage an impact and ethical lending company in Philippines focusing in lending to small and medium enterprises, helping them create positive impact to people and communities.
He previously worked with Oikocredit, EDCS as Country Manager for the Philippines then as Deputy Regional Director for Southeast Asia. Earlier in his career, he worked with the Philippine leading wholesaler of microfinance, People’s Credit and Finance Corporation, before resigning as Assistance Vice President for Visayas Operations.
Rico holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Santo Tomas. He also completed a certificate course in Bank Management from the University of Asia and the Pacific.
Gennadiy has over 20 years of risk management experience, primarily in the banking sector. In his last position he is risk manager at the German-Ukrainian Investment Fund. His experience encompasses aspects of corporate governance, corporate and SME lending operations, risk management, asset and liability management, and compliance. His expertise was complemented by various international banking consulting assignments funded by World Bank, IFC and EBRD.
Gennadiy has published extensively on financial sustainability and risk related topics.
Gennadiy holds a PhD in Economics from the State University of Kiev, is a Certified Financial Analyst (London Securities Institute) and SME Credit risk expert (Frankfurt School of Finance and Management)
Harsh is a Development Finance Specialist with more than 15 years of experience in Inclusive Finance, Digital Finance, Micro- and SME Finance and risk management practices. He has worked with financial institutions across Asia (India, Nepal, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia) and Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia) in the areas of Risk Management, Operations, Strategic and Business Planning. Harsh has extensive experience in the Indian microfinance market, has worked as Risk Manager in several of the larger Indian MFIs and as the Practice Lead for Capital Advisory Services of MicroSave has conducted various institutional assessments and due diligences for potential equity investors.
Harsh has published articles on risk management, internal control and audit.
Harsh holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIFM, India
Siddharth Arur joined Agents for Impact in August 2020 as Senior Investment Officer, South East Asia and India.
He is responsible for debt investment portfolio development and operations in the region.
Prior to joining AFI, Siddharth worked with DWM as the Regional Representative for Asia covering microfinance institution debt portfolio across India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and China.
Prior to DWM, Siddharth worked for almost 10 years in the Indian banking industry covering Microfinance, SME Finance and Agri finance. Siddharth worked with ING, HDFC Bank, Ananya Finance and Standard Chartered Bank. He has a total of 17 years across Microfinance, SME Finance and Agri-finance.
Siddharth Arur is an alumnus of Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley. He has also completed an Applied Finance course from IIM Calcutta. He is an MBA in Agribusiness and Plantation Management from Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore. Siddharth is a graduate of UAS Bangalore in Agriculture Marketing.
Saloni Kochar joined Agents for Impact in February 2021 as a Key Account Manager covering South East Asia and India. In her role as a, she is responsible for debt investment portfolio development and operations in the region.
Saloni worked for over 7 years in the Indian financial services industry across various sectors including infra-finance private banking, Fintech, and advisory at Big 4. Saloni completed her CFA level III exam and pursued her masters in Accountancy and wishes to pursue her career in sustainable development finance.
Memona Mateen joined AFI in September 2020. Prior to that she worked for GIZ in the projects „Support to Municipalities in Libya“ and „Energising Development“. There she gained on-hands experience in the fields of Communication, Finance & Administration, and Monitoring & Evaluation.
She has been working for the Center of Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) in Göttingen where she has been involved in reserach tasks and managing the website. In Spring 2017 she was part of a research team which conducted an endline survey of the project „Safe Childbirth Checklist“ in the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.
Memona holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Cologne and a MSc in Development Economics from the Georg-August-University Göttingen. Memona is fluent in Englisch, German, Hindi, and Urdu. Additionally she speaks French on conversational level.
Memona is a member of the Federal Association of German Economists and Business Academics and the Rhetoric Club Frankfurt.
Yannick holds a BSc in International Management from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE), Spain and from ESB Business School Reutlingen, Germany. After completing his studies, Yannick gained initial experience in the field of impact investing at GEXSI Capital Partners in Berlin, before deepening his knowledge of the sector at Deutsche Bank and Invest in Visions in Frankfurt.
From May 2019 to August 2020, Yannick was Director SDG Scoring at Agents for Impact, where he developed the Agents for Impact Sustainability Alignment Rating (AFISAR©) to assess the sustainability performance, especially of microfinance institutions, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Yannick also developed and applied a method for plausibility checks of ESG ratings.
As Sustainability & Rating Advisor, Yannick advises financial service providers on sustainability-related regulatory requirements, performs plausibility checks of ESG ratings and contributes to the further development of the AFISAR© Tool.
With more than 15 years of experience in the financial sector Claus Huth brings forth proven expertise, particularly in the areas of (sustainability) compliance and risk management.
Claus studied law before starting his career as a trainee at UBS Germany’s risk controlling department and holding several positions in renowned financial institutions. As a freelance consultant, he headed compliance departments, assisted regular and special audits by supervisory authorities, and assumed the responsibility as Chief Compliance Officer in various financial institutions.
At Agents for Impact, Claus advises on general regulatory requirements for the financial services sector as well as special, sustainability-related regulatory requirements.
Claus is a committed advocate of sustainability. He initiated a sustainable finance movement and volunteers for associations with a social and ecological mission.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement (both adopted in 2015) as well as the European Green Deal call for a deep transformation towards an inclusive, socially just, carbon-neutral and regenerative economy.
The UN estimates that annually $2.5 trillion need to be mobilised to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And yet, the COVID-19 pandemic
creates a massive setback in the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Amidst the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic, financing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) remains an important vehicle to stimulate growth and socio-economic development. Among other effects, the COVID-19 crisis has caused a slowdown in microfinance activities and thereby threatens the financial inclusion of low-income populations. In this context, Impact Investing can significantly contribute to the solution of societal issues. In response to the effects of pandemic, at Agents for Impact we focus on exploring new opportunities and identifying strategic partners around the globe to support local entrepreneurship, encourage women empowerment and contribute to sustainable development.
The 2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) estimates the impact investing market to cover USD 715 billion. In fact, globally more and more investors are shifting their capital into impact investing, i.e. investments pursuing not only a financial return, but also a positive environmental and/or social impact. Evidence-based impact measurement is not only of the core characteristics of impact investing, but also serves as a starting point for impact management. Yet, due to its multidimensionality and complexity impact measurement poses a challenge to investors and investees.
As impact investors have to demonstrate the social and/or environmental impact of their investments (especially financial institutions subject to the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, SFDR), they also need an enhanced sustainability measurement, which is clear, reliable, quantifiable & comparable. Consequently, the financial sector is increasingly seeking data and evidence from their investees. In order to source funding from international impact-oriented investors, investees (such as microfinance institutions/MFIs) are well advised to provide evidence regarding their sustainability performance. Besides a roadmap towards a more prosperous and sustainable world by 2030, the SDGs are also offering a positive, common language advocating for social and environmental issues. This is where impact measurement comes into play to assess the status quo and pave the way to create even more positive impact.
As mentioned above, further capital needs to be mobilised to address the prevalent global challenges (such as climate change, persisting inequalities and a
sustainable COVID-19 recovery) and finance the SDGs. In order to further strengthen the German Impact Investing ecosystem, we joined the Federal (German) Initiative Impact Investing (https://bundesinitiative-impact-investing.de/) as member and are co-leading its initiative “Impact Measurement & Management” (together with PHINEO) as a platform for impact practitioners to facilitate discussions about impact measurement approaches as enabler towards an impact-oriented economy and exchange of best practices.
In response to an increased demand for impact measurement, we have been developing the Agents for Impact Sustainability Alignment Rating (AFISAR©) Tool since 2017 to assesses an MFI’s sustainability performance based on the SDGs. Our Rating Tool analyses an MFI’s operations (at institutional and portfolio level) based on a comprehensive set of social, environmental and governance indicators. AFISAR© helps MFIs to leverage the increased importance of a strong sustainability performance for raising capital from international investors and, particularly, impact investors.
Furthermore, the results of our AFISAR© Tool serve as a starting point for guidance and active dialogue with the rated institution in order to further strengthen the sustainability performance (impact management). Within our operations we aim to integrate sustainability expertise with regulation. Launched in 2019, we have already rated a series of microfinance and MSME finance institutions in India, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
Key characteristics of our Tool – We make impact:
How our partners benefit:
Target group:
To obtain further information about AFISAR© and packages available, please feel free to get in touch with us at rating@agentsforimpact.com.
For whom?
Users of ESG ratings (ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance)
Why is a plausibility check necessary?
The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority´s (BaFin) recommendation based on not yet defined standards for the assessment of sustainability
Plausibility check of sustainability criteria
Agents for Impact offers plausibility checks for sustainability criteria for German capital management companies.
In the information sheet on dealing with sustainability risks dated September 20, 2019, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) recommends investors special ESG ratings to determine the sustainability of their investments. At the same time, it advises all users of ESG ratings that due to not yet been defined standards, it is necessary to carry out an appropriate plausibility check. Agents for Impact offers this service for its customers.
