Poverty alleviation through the creation of micro, small, and medium enterprises to provide infrastructure services to the poor. Through its Social Merchant Bank Approach, S3IDF provides essential linkages between environmentally friendly technology providers, entrepreneurs/poor communities, and local financing institutions.
Developed an approach to small-scale infrastructure investments that takes technical, financial, and business organizational innovations common in large infrastructure investments and applies them to small-scale, explicitly pro-poor investments. S3IDF focuses on increasing the participation of local private-sector players in all aspects of these investments – planning, implementation, ownership, and operations – as well as developing local sources of financing. In addition to focusing on the viability of small-scale investments, S3IDF’s work addresses capacity building of investment sponsors/owners and local financial institutions.
At surface, approach seems pretty aligned with our thinking (incl this diagram from their ag intro doc on where during the FPC lifecycle they focus):
Reached out to CEO and India team on Aug 8 to learn more