SilverStreet's Julia Wakeling on agricultural investments in Africa
Head of Impact and ESG at impact investor Silverstreet Capital, Julia Wakeling speaks with Uxolo about the company’s work on improving the lives of smallholder farmers, optimising land use through better seed technology in African countries, and generating attractive returns for their investors.
Julia introduces SilverStreet Capital’s funds (00:39), the company’s strategy to fix value chains (1:23), the various meanings and risks of impact investing and ESG (3:20), challenges in standardising and measuring the impact of different funds and the existence of differing frameworks used by DFIs (6:40), importance of reporting the risks associated with the impact created and how they are being managed (8:30), SilverStreet Capital’s work on the intersection of meeting the needs of smallholder farmers and generating attractive returns for investors (10:10), their focus on optimising land use through technology and combating deforestation to slow down climate change (12:45), investors’ increasing desire to find key investments in creating social and climate impact (21:00), the dissonance between the developing and developed world in tackling climate change (22:40), and the lack of comprehension of the lived realities of environmental hardships in the developing world (23:36).
