RENEW Strategies

Working with local partners, RENEW successfully launched a new workshop series entitled The Unwritten Rules of U.S. Investment. The three-country pilot attracted more than 30 local businesses looking for information on how to engage investors from the West. The workshop aimed to offer business owners a unique advantage when interacting with American investors. The workshop discussions focused on understanding the expectations of American investors and where African businesses traditionally under perform. Based on interviews with U.S.

Ed Cropley and Ben Hirschler of Reuters filed a special report on Africa from Davos last week. I've included a brief excerpt below. Note that the long-term "buy" recommendation, that analysts gave before the financial crisis, persists.

When I returned week before last from a trip to Nairobi and Kigali, my brain felt like it had eaten a huge meal and needed to digest. I've had a chance over the past two weeks to review the many conversations I had with business owners and public and private sector leaders. (I think I doubled the weekly revenues of a few coffee shops in Nairobi and Kigali.) After some reflection, three themes have bubbled to the surface:

We are excited to announce the launch of our new website. Assisted by the professionals at Development Seed, the RENEW team has worked hard over the past few months to offer a number of new services and features that we believe will add value to investors, developing world businesses and others in the social investment community. Here is a brief overview of what you will find as you navigate through our new site: