Norfund’s Business Support facility aims to enhance the sustainability and development effects of our investments.
By leveraging Business Support, we can exercise responsible ownership and create value additionality for our investments in high-risk sectors and segments.
Following the Norfund strategy, Business Support projects actively target human rights, anti-corruption, climate and environment, and gender equality. These cross-cutting issues are an integral part of Norfund’s investment strategy.
Business Support projects in 2022
In 2022, Norfund received 15 million NOK from the Norwegian MFA to provide technical assistance to our portfolio companies.
The Business Support portfolio consisted of 54 active projects with a committed amount of NOK 69 million, including 19 new projects. During 2022, 27.4 million NOK in new projects was committed.
We saw an increase in Business Support projects focusing on diversity and gender equality and continued to support the Technical Assistance Facilities of some of our fund managers.
Check out our case studies (below) for more details.
Our work in 2022
In September 2022, Norfund organized the EDFI Technical Assistance working group meeting with a focus on climate. The discussions allowed for knowledge exchange on how to support investees in their alignment with the Paris Agreement objectives, their journey towards Net Zero, and their climate adaptation and resilience needs.
To gain a clearer understanding of the impact of our Business Support projects, we designed a Theory of Change and Monitoring and Evaluation framework, which we plan to employ in future projects.
Business Support project per region
In 2022, a significant number of new projects were approved in Sub-Saharan Africa, making it the region with the largest share of support.
Our focus in Latin America is to provide assistance to MFIs and SMEs through Technical Assistance Facilities, which is the second largest region receiving support.
For more information about the outcome of this kind of support, please refer to the 2022 Business Support annual report.
