Argidius Annual Report 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for action regarding inequality and climate change, and the necessity of recognising the role of SMEs in developing human lives and the transition out of poverty."

It’s been a turbulent year. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for action regarding inequality and climate change, and the necessity of recognising the role of SMEs in developing human lives and the transition out of poverty.

I’m enormously proud of the hard work of all our partners and entrepreneurs, and I’m humbled and impressed by their resilience and creativity over the last 12 months. Everyone has shown a determination to see this crisis as an opportunity to create more robust outcomes in the future.

We continue to live in highly uncertain, turbulent and harrowing times. At Argidius, we’ve worked hard to enable our partners and entrepreneurs to thrive because they know we’re still there to support them, whatever happens. By providing this security and peace of mind, we’re certain that excellent work can continue.

We’re providing more core support, and switching to a more digital partnership, with less bureaucracy. This allows us to be there for many thousands of entrepreneurs, bringing out the best in our partners, and allowing them to address urgent needs in the short term. Going forward, we at Argidius have seen what digital can do. We can still create that crucial connection virtually, even if we aren’t able to be there on the ground.

In the background, we continue to develop our new website – which will help us engage with partners and fellow donors to create impact and scale. Argidius continues to learn on the ground, and we’re at a place now where we can share our learnings and disseminate them to other regions of the world.

We are focused on deepening insight into how we, as an industry, can grow in developing countries. For example, what type of financial instruments help or hinder SMEs to be sustainable or successful? Helping entrepreneurs to navigate finance and understanding how business development sectors can help is another area we’d like to understand. SMEs can’t yet afford these services, so we want to understand different alternatives.

We’re not changing our vision. We’re still focused on four core countries, but we’re using those four countries to go deep and test hypotheses of learning, then scale that across the globe. For example, many developing countries have not received vaccination and support. Reduction in foreign aid budgets is still something that is deeply concerning. This makes us want to double our efforts.

The best way to help is to support SMEs, generating income, dignity and a route out of hardship, because SMEs really do impact the economy by generating sustainable, lasting employment. Having people engaged in work together promotes social cohesion and the ability to share and support each other in difficult times - the social glue, if you like, that businesses can provide as a way forward.

Overall, it’s an exciting time for Argidius. I feel honoured to be part of the Argidius mission, and I look ahead knowing that we will harness entrepreneurial spirit to address change. If there’s one thing to come out of this year, it’s the knowledge that Argidius does stay the course.

Decision-making processes of development agencies can be ponderous and risk-averse. We need to be able to respond more quickly in a crisis and have a greater appetite for risk."

I’ve been struck this pandemic year by the committed and competent way in which our partners have moved online and continued to serve entrepreneurs in challenging circumstances. The solidarity they have shown – keeping in touch regularly, offering practical guidance and emotional support – has been extraordinary.

Many enterprises have been resilient. Many have seen a reduction in sales but are still in business, able to adapt and take tough decisions. The results have been more encouraging than we expected.

Take Sylvia Kuria, an organic farmer in the semi-arid area of Ndeiya, Kiambu County in Kenya. As if coronavirus wasn’t enough, this past year saw the rains fail completely. Sylvia, however, was prepared for the erratic weather patterns and, along with other crops, planted millet and sorghun, which can cope with extended periods of hot weather. She had also planted three types of drought resistant tree, which continued to produce indigenous fruit, and feed livestock.

Throughout the pandemic, Sylvia was supported by our partner Wylde International. Sylvia took her business online, reaching her loyal following of customers via WhatsApp, selling not only her own fruit and vegetables but produce by other organic farmers from all over Kenya. She also continued to share her valuable learnings on Instagram. 

Lina Khalifeh, the visionary founder of SheFighter, a martial arts movement for women and girls in Jordan, is also an inspiration. From an early age, she was determined to change the system of domestic violence against women and girls. After setting up her own martial arts studio, Lina was attacked not only by family members but by women who threatened her on social media. She pressed on regardless. “If you want to make a social change, you have to be a fighter by nature,” she told us. Through the support Lina has received from our partner, Vital Voices, she has been able to expand SheFighter to more than 35 countries, training over 18,000 women and girls around the world. “The pandemic was an opportunity to reach more women and girls online, not a deterrent,” she explains.

It’s encouraging to hear stories of resilience and success from people like Sylvia and Lina. The access to support and encouragement they receive from our partners reinforces the importance of what we do. It also underlines the need to do things differently. Decision-making processes of development agencies can be ponderous and risk-averse. We need to be able to respond more quickly in a crisis and have a greater appetite for risk.

Agora is one of our partner organisations in Latin America. It works to empower entrepreneurs to create positive social and environmental change in the region. “Other funders can be more milestone based,” said Maria Denise Duarte from Agora. “Flexible funding, which is what Argidius has done with us during the pandemic, can be catalytic.”

This has been a year in which many of us faced deep personal challenges and lost loved ones.
I hope that 2022 will be the year in which we can move beyond this unprecedented pandemic and look forward to brighter times.