Capacity Building
The Alliance is developing a range of capacity development interventions to complement its direct investments in enterprises. Capacity building opportunities will be tailored to enterprises at different stages of development and will range from webinars and online materials available to all Alliance partners, to the Boost Program that helps local entrepreneurs with basic business planning and financial management skills, to the Capacity Building Facility (CBF) that funds capacity building services when coupled with committed growth financing.
The Social Enterprise Boost program (Boost) is a training course developed by the Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI). GSBI's high quality accelerator curriculum is condensed into 3 days of support in a classroom setting where entrepreneurs work together and collaborate on a plan for growing their enterprises in a sustainable manner. Entrepreneurs are expected to leave the Boost workshop with the tools to apply for future funding and training programs.
While the Boost workshop is targeted to earlier stage social enterprises, participants receive value from the training whether they are still in the planning stage or have been in business for many years. To date, the Alliance has piloted this program in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Bangladesh and China, and trained over 100 enterprises.
The Alliance’s CBF is designed to fund capacity building for clean cookstoves and fuels companies that are ready to scale and able to obtain long-term capital. The Alliance will utilize the CBF to:
- Partner with impact fund managers to increase investment in the clean cooking sector by providing access to capacity building services such as strategic planning, financial management, etc. to strengthen their underlying investment;
- Finance the cost of capacity building to leverage grant & investment capital;
- Work with Alliance partners to prioritize the sector capacity building needs of clean cookstove and fuel companies, including the incorporation of gender considerations into capacity building delivery;
- Encourage the development and use of local service providers to help create jobs and strengthen indigenous markets for the clean cooking sector.