09.09.11 - GEXSI attends annual meeting of business and conservation leaders
GEXSI attends annual meeting of business and conservation leaders
Friday, 9th September 2011 / For Immediate Release
Berlin, Germany – Senior GEXSI team members contributed to the success of the annual Council Meeting held from 26-28 August 2011 at Ithala Lodge in KwaZulu Natal Province in South Africa by the Leadership for Conservation in Africa (LCA). The 2011 Meeting attracted some 80 people drawn from across the realms of philanthropy, conservation, business, academia and government from Africa, Europe and North America, and discussed how business and industry leaders might effectively contribute to nature conservation and livelihood improvement.
David Diallo, Marc von Krosigk, Dr. Andreas Renner, and Florian Winkler journeyed to South Africa connect with other like-minded guests as well as tell the gathering about the positive developments that have taken place in both the Republic of Congo and Madagascar within the LCA development space. Moreover, the GEXSI quartet also assisted with running some of the key workshops that were run as part of developing the future strategy of the LCA.
Commenting on the LCA Council Meeting, David Diallo observed that, “Over the past year, GEXSI, through our strategic partnership with the LCA, has really developed a clear focus on and expertise in building conservation-led business schemes in low-income regions.”
Mr. Diallo added, “This focus has enabled GEXSI to provide a meaningful and ongoing contribution to the building of a local economy in the Odzala region of Congo. Here we are assembling an alliance of project partners to help educate and enfranchise local residents so that they may take full advantage of this ambitious yet achievable project." Mr. Diallo further commented, “Our Madagascar work has also benefitted from this strategic re-alignment - here we have just finalised the first step of developing a comprehensive regional participatory land use master plan to protect nature, rehabilitate degraded soils, educate and employ local inhabitants. This project is ongoing, but we are very excited by the progress to date.”
The LCA was established by South African National Parks (SANParks), Gold Fields Ltd, and the IUCN in 2006. Its membership includes the Heads of Conservation of the 16 member countries, including Burkina Faso, Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The LCA has one vision: To harness the collective will and capacity of business and conservation leaders for sustainable conservation-led socio-economic development in Africa.
About GEXSI
GEXSI, the Global Exchange for Social Investment, was launched at the World Economic Forum in 2001 to pioneer entrepreneurial solutions to end poverty. We organisation works at the interface of venture philanthropy and social impact investing; it works through a UK registered charity and a project development and advisory firm. The original goal of GEXSI was to set up an exchange for social investments in low-income regions around the world. The original aim of the organisation was to identify outstanding social enterprises and match investment proposals with mainly US- and Europe-based impact investors. GEXSI revised its focus to concentrate on providing social entrepreneurs with financial and advisory support for early-stage development while providing social investors with strategic guidance on how best to deploy their money to achieve the maximum positive social and environmental benefits. Based on our vision of working towards a world where new entrepreneurial ideas to fight poverty, flourish, we have developed two entities united under the GEXSI banner to advance our work: the GEXSI Charity, our not-for-profit organisation, and GEXSI Capital Partners, our project development and advisory services organisation.
For further information, please contact:
Dr Darrin Lee Long
Phone: +49 30 2888 3310
Email: leelong@gexsi.org
