Capital Musings

Taffere Tesfachew, a career UN official, explains how the category of Least Developed Countries was created and how the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) works to support the group.

Ashish Patel of Aavishkaar Capital explains how the experience of running multiple private equity funds in India is shaping the company’s investment strategy for East Africa.

Dia Martin, Managing Director of the US Development Finance Corporation, explains how it invests in solutions to some of the developing world’s most critical challenges.

Today, we speak with Henning Ringholz, Senior Executive at the Small Foundation, an Ireland-based foundation working to end extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. Henning speaks about systems change and strengthening business ecosystems for African entrepreneur and how to make a difference while being small.

Democracy expert Marcus Brand talks about his career building democracy from the Balkans to Ukraine to Myanmar, explains why SDG 16 is so critical, and describes the situation in Myanmar.

Authors Meg Massey, writer and social sector strategist and the founder of Sanspeur, and Ben Wrobel, director of communications at Village Capital, discuss how traditional philanthropy entrenches some of the very power dynamics it tries to address, and how involving beneficiaries in decision-making leads to more effective donations and a promising new model of impact investing.

This week we speak with Vicky Lay, Managing Director Artesian Venture Partners, who sold a tech company and then joined the VC firm that funded her. Vicky talks about her passion for gender equality, the financial advantage of investing in women, and why much more than mentoring is needed to get more women and diverse leaders into top roles.

In this episode, we speak with Malin Malmström of Lulea University of Technology in Sweden, who studies investment decision-making, explains how structural bias in the language used and screening processes of asset allocators hurts female founders, and what we can do to break down the barriers. 

In today's episode, Esther Pan Sloane speaks with two UN powerhouses. Ambassador Anna-Karin Enestrom of Sweden and Ambassador Yoka Brandt of the Netherlands discuss what got them into diplomacy, how the UN is critical to SDG achievement, how they handled challenging posts, and what young people considering a career in diplomacy should know. 

Kerry Bannigan, founder of the Conscious Fashion Campaign, talks about the environmental and social damage caused by a culture of constant consumption, and the innovative ways consumers and producers are pushing the fashion industry to help achieve the SDGs.