 and I've been in big corporate most of my life, but let me tell you that when we get down to the ground, big corporates, God bless us, try and make a difference, but actually it's entrepreneurs that make the difference. So thank you for that. Now, what I'd like to very quickly talk about is why impact is so terribly important now and all of us that have lived through COVID, of course it's been a crazy couple of years, but if we have a look at what's come out after these crazy couple of years, we have even more of a division between I guess the haves and the have-nots. Most of the people that have lost their jobs, their livelihoods and are experiencing the pull out, whether it's economically or socially or indeed health-wise are people that we serve and there's grand aid going all over the world around vaccines, but it's not reaching the most underserved in many cases. So the conversation around impact and where we can have the biggest impact has never been more important. And then secondly, the conversation about women and why women make some of the very best impact leaders also needs to continue. And interestingly, some of you may be aware of a report that I was involved in, which was women leading for the global goals, which is around why women are so critical for us to achieve the sustainable development goals and not women only, but women incredibly important. And those of you that might want to go and have a look at it can have a look at us, but it's something that I truly believe that we need women to lead for many reasons, but not least because in many cases, they're all in their communities is so triggering to make such a world of difference. So yes, absolutely wonderful. So let me talk to you, Sushma, as one of the key partners of Ishka. This is your first impact report. What led you to do it? So actually Gail, Aavishkar has been at the forefront of coming out with impact reports for over a decade now. However, in the past, we only used to come out with the impact report for Aavishkar Capital, which is one arm of Aavishkar Group. Aavishkar Group has four arms actually. One is a micro lending company, Aarohan. The other is the MSME lender, Ash. Third is IntelliCap, who is the brain behind the Aavishkar Group. And then there is Aavishkar Capital. For the first time, we have come with a very holistic way of reporting impact. And it's a very interesting take in which this report has been prepared. It's radically different from what people have been seeing in the past. And I think what makes this very special for all of us is it's a very relatable report there are real life stories, there are real life people behind this report. And that's what makes this so interesting. And a very important insight that came out when we went back to our drawing board is that while Aavishkar has been around for over a decade, it's been 55 million women who actually got Aavishkar Group to where we are today. And we managed close to $1.1 billion of impact assets. And they've got us a long way here and we have a lot more to go forward. So to women, it is the same thing. 55 million women, that's quite remarkable. Tell me more about your learnings over the last couple of decades with regard to impact. No, absolutely. So we've had some very key critical learnings. Some very interesting learnings have been that impact is not static, but very, very dynamic. Also, it's very important to understand that impact is contextual in nature. So what is impact to you, Gail? Could be very different for Muslim who's sitting in Africa and looking at the context there versus someone like me who's in Asia and India. The India impact story is very different. So one is getting the context right and not just the big picture context, but also the small community context is very important to understand. And the other important part of our learnings has been is why we were all very focused on measuring and outcomes. We very quickly realized that impact is not about that one-end beneficiary or the one-end metric that you're tracking, but it goes far beyond that. It impacts communities. It impacts ecosystems. And sometimes those softer aspects cannot be boxed into a number. And so that understanding of impact is a very important understanding and learning for all of us. That's brilliant. It's interesting because I'm often involved in discussions about what is systemic change and what is systemic change. Very often people are talking about it at a big global level and we have all of these wonderful systemic change diagrams. But then when you go down to the ground, right? For people like Musa Lem and nothing's changed. And so a lot of what you're doing is to basically close that gap, which is absolutely wonderful. One last question for you and you can perhaps link that to gender diversity. You're featured in the report, right? And you've got a long history. Tell us a little bit about you and then link it to what you want to do around gender diversity in the organization. Sure. No, I'm quite grateful that they considered me important enough to be featured in this report. In fact, I see a lot of my fellow colleagues, some very inspiring entrepreneurs like Musa Lemma herself, Swati Rai, who is the brain behind the Aavishkar group who seed money actually got us to where we are today. And all the millions of women beneficiaries, employees who have all been part of our journey. So we've picked some of, only some of these because unfortunately we could only pick a few of them. But I'll speak for myself to begin with. My journey has been a fabulous journey at Aavishkar. It started about 10 years back when I just chanced upon a report which talked about, and it was Vinit Rai's face on the report which talked of men investing in the other India. And I was like, why is it always men investing in the other whatever? Why can't it be women? And that's when I approached him and I said, I want to be part of your growth story. And he was gracious enough for me to be there. And I'm quite proud of what we have collectively achieved in getting us here. And I see the multiple gender biases that are around. We recognize that it is not something that can change overnight. I think that is the biggest learning to begin with is to first recognize where we are at fault and then slowly start putting things in place to fix the problem. And so we right now where I am at Aavishkar I probably have the position to try and influence people for a positive change when it comes to gender matters. And I'm seeing that across with my colleagues as well. There are some fantastic women who are doing grass root level changes. The women beneficiaries of our Rohan the kind of impact they're creating in their communities. And I found that women tend to be selfish in some sense because what they look out for is what is good for my family? What is good for my community? And when people start thinking that way it creates a huge positive impact. And that's why we are so special. Oh, yes we are. Just on the, you know thinking about what's good for my family and what's good for my community. That is the start of systemic change. As you know, right? Because actually we take care of what we can impact or all the very best. So that's really great. So with that, let us talk to Musalema who of course is a wonderful example of someone I've been talking about you all morning, Musalema. So that's one, tell us a little bit about your story. Hi Gail, such a pleasure to be here and thank you so much for having and allowing me to be in this space. So my story started when I was pregnant with my first child four years ago and I realized the challenges that women faced in seeking quality healthcare. Up to that point, I'm a civil engineer. I was trained in Zambia, the US, China. So I thought that by now we really women had quality healthcare in Zambia because I saw my sisters, my siblings, the community giving, having children. But then when I was asked by the hospital to provide my own birth materials, my own scalpel blade, my own delivery mat, my own gloves, I was shocked that women had to go through this. And I was told that the alternatives I had if I didn't have these would be either to be made to wait or to be sent back to wherever I came from to give birth from. And the more I asked questions, the more I was horrified of the answers because 63% of all women in Zambia actually have home births. So this is how Safe Mother Alliance story started. Frozen for now. I think so too. So I mean, I can talk a little bit about what our journey's been like until she comes on. So, you know. Yes, Ms. Lima, please do and do tell us what got you here and what's your vision forward. So I found out that... I was going to tell you too well. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No problem. So in Zambia, as in most parts of Africa, 63% of women give birth from home. Globally, that's almost a million mothers and babies dying annually because of complications due to childbirth. Over 93% of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries and many of them are preventable because the place that of delivery and assistance during childbirth are important factors that influence the birth and outcome of both mother and child. So when women are forced to give birth from outside of a health facility, they turn to what is called a traditional birth attendant. These are community midwives, village midwives who assist women to give birth but they lack the adequate tools and training. So literally they use the sharpest tool in the kitchen and whatever they can find in the home to assist the mother to give birth from. And this is the journey of safe motherhood alliance. We were established to reduce maternal and infant mortality through improved quality of care at the time of childbirth. Our vision is to prevent deadly infections for over 20 million pregnant women across the Southern African region with no access to maternal health care by giving them increased access to clean safe delivery with a healthy start for their newborns. We have developed an innovative baby delivery kit which contains all the essential items that are recommended by WHO for a home birth or a facility birth. This ensures safe and sterile conditions at the time of childbirth. To date with support from organizations such as UNICEF and USAID we have distributed over 20,000 kits to 20,000 pregnant women in Zambia. We've also recognized the role that traditional birth attendance play and in a bit to be culturally sensitive we've trained over a hundred of them and we've trained them on the safe use of the kits and they then become our distribution agents earning a commission of every kit that they sell economically empowering them. So I'm determined to spend the rest of my days advocating for safe childbirth for pregnant women and for government to also improve their policies around pregnancy for women in Zambia and in the region as well. That's fantastic. I'm sorry that my Wi-Fi went a little strange. I'm also in the wild west of the African outback so I understand perfectly some of the challenges. Miss Alema what is the one key message you would like to share I guess with the audience and with other women entrepreneurs around what you've learned and how to go forward? I think one key message I, you know of what I've learned really is collaborative impact. I think I would not have, you know done all that I've done on my own. Really I have been standing on the shoulders of women who've come before me women like you Gail women like Shushma who have literally broken the glass ceiling for us enabling us to carry out the work that we're doing ensuring that for me maternal health care is something that's very important because I know women's health survival is something that's very urgent but something that needs to be done now and of the statistics that show Africa is leading Africa and Asia are leading in the high mortality rates around the world. So what I'll message I'd like to leave people with is to know that women go through a lot of issues during childbirth when it's the most vulnerable time and often face significant challenges because of this but ultimately with improved health women in marginalized communities have more time money and opportunities to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. As we've seen from the group impact report 55 million women have been impacted by the work that a Visca group has done and this excites me and lets me know that we are definitely moving the needle in the right direction. Absolutely wonderful, Musalima. First of all, congratulations. Secondly, thank you. Thank you, thank you because the work that you're doing actually interestingly helps all of us. So thank you very much for that. Thank you so much. All right, now one of the questions people have been asking me is impact the new mainstream or they've asked how could gender smart investing encourage more women to become entrepreneurs? And my response to that is first of all, yes, impact investing is much more mainstream. I mean, we see that when we see almost a six fold increase in the ESG investing that's flowing from big capital. Those of you that are interested in the major capital markets will understand the importance of Larry Fink's letter that says all big companies must do such and such. We also see a lot of the rhetoric that's out there around how we need to focus on the just transition for climate change for reducing inequality. The issue is that a lot of that stays at the conversation level. A lot of that stays and forgive me if I'm offending anyone but a lot of that stays in the World Economic Forum at Davos as opposed to getting down to the ground where things actually need to change. And for those I know Sushma, you do, I know Musalema, you do and I know many of the people that are on the school do get out to where real life is looked. And so the importance of impact investing being able to not only put finances in the right direction but secondly, encourage entrepreneurs like yourself, Musalema to almost move from being a social enterprise to being a highly viable social enterprise and ideally at some point it employs loads and loads of people. This is what we really need to happen in the world other than just create more corporate jobs. So that's my perspective on that. But I see we're getting in quite a few questions. So should we take any questions? That is one question. Thank you. One question from Mira Shiba who's asking what is the support needed by women who need pioneering innovative work to scale in the impact space? Oh, Musalema, this sounds like you're a question for you. What is the support needed by women who need pioneering innovative work to scale? Well, in fact, both of you I think could answer this. So I'll speak for my experience when I was starting out and really did not understand what a social enterprise was and I was fortunate enough to work with IntelliCap which helped me in the critical moments to be able to come up with a viable business proposal as well as meet with investors. So I think the support needed by women is to create an ecosystem where we are supported with both funding as well as tools to enable us to scale up our enterprises. As you said, Gail, without that, how do we move into the impact space? When we started in 2019, we had only done about 5,000 kits. Last year we did more than 20,000 kits and all of this was made possible because of the support I had from both IntelliCap and other organizations who believed in our work and believed in our mission. So it's very critical to support entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs who are in the impact space. And if I might just add there, Mozaelima and Gail, is I think what is important is to have more women-centric products similar to the IntelliCap of the world, maybe equity investors who understand the women problems and women businesses, better debt products required to support women entrepreneurs like Mozaelima to take these further. And most importantly, what Mozaelima mentioned was the ecosystem. I think providing a enabling ecosystem, well-networked where we all support each other is what is very, very important. And that's the least we can do to help each other. Fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. You know, I would add one thing entrepreneurs in the energy and mobility space are people from outside of the communities, outside of the local environment. You know, so I don't know, people from Columbia who get a really great idea and come to save Africa and India. I think it's really important for us to start looking for local entrepreneurs who really understand the context and to help a lot of our local entrepreneurs to achieve success. Right. And so I think because it is almost time for a grand hurrah, I think it is time for us to launch the report. And, you know, I've just been looking at, you've mentioned some of the statistics, right? You've mentioned the 55 million women. You've mentioned the fact that currently, you know, we have 1.1 billion of funds and the management for Avishka with 2.1 billion capital dispersed. But that is not actually the point because, you know, everyone can, it's in fact, if we go down to the sectors and the impact and in fact, the women entrepreneurs with, I think it's 1,500 women led medium, small enterprises that you've actually invested in, which is quite remarkable. So I think what we are supposed to do is we are supposed to say, now we launch the report. So shall we say that together? Now we launch the report. That's the report. Now we launch the report. Well, that's great. I couldn't hear anything I will tell you, but I could see some wonderful pictures and I've had a look at the report. Somya, can I hand over to you to talk a little? Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Gil, Shishma, Muzelema for a very insightful and candid conversation. I would also like to thank Socap Global, our outreach partner. And of course to each and everyone who took time out to be part of this conversation, you can download the Aavishkar Group Impact Report 2020 from www.avishkargroup.com, which is our new website that we've launched for the group. We will also be sending the link to download the report to all participants. We hope you enjoy reading this report. Thank you once again and happy Women's Day. Great, thank you very much. And thank you to all the women in the report, everyone on the line who is actually, I know, really committed to doing something great with our world. Thank you, Avishkar. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Gil. Thanks, Muzelema. Good. I think we are offline now. I don't think we are offline. Are we still online? Okay. I wonder if there is the time for us to take any further questions? We're receiving a lot of congratulations. I see them, one, two, three, four, five, six. It says, yes, we have time for a few questions. All right. So if there are any questions, let them flow. I bet you everyone's quickly downloading the impact report to awesome questions. Sushma, while we're waiting to see if there are any questions, I'm going to ask you one more. And that is very often for people investing in SME enterprises, it's difficult to keep raising capital because there's only a certain amount of capital that's willing to flow to places where you don't get a superior return. What has been your experience with Avishka? So, Gil, you're absolutely right. I mean, the capitalistic economy has always taught us that greed is good and maximized returns at all costs. But a post-COVID world is very different from what we had always learned. What we have learned now is, yes, greed is good, but not at the cost of impact, right? Not at the cost of your environment, not at the cost of your communities. So, and that's why when you said impact is a new mainstream, it becomes that much more relevant that while we focus on returns, it's important, it's also very, very important to continue the focus on impact as well. And so, that is what is going to take things forward. I'm just really quickly looking at a very important question that has come. Do you think gender, is there any specific goals that Avishkar has set on gender impact? And that's something that's very close to us. And yes, we have set a very, very big goal for ourselves. We are publicly saying that we are going to achieve gender parity across the various group companies, the four companies that I mentioned, across the group at every level from the board, leadership, employees, and try and achieve the same for our women beneficiaries as well. So that's quite a big goal for us by 2030. And I see another one that's asking about, how do you think men can do a better job to support female entrepreneurs? I think men being our champions, being our co-creators in projects really would help women entrepreneurs, especially because for a very long time, we've been held back by structural inequalities. And the only way we can be able to achieve equality and equity as women is with the support of men. So definitely, I would encourage in communities and villages that we've seen our own projects. Fathers come to Safe Motherhood Alliance meetings to support their wives. And from that, we also see that it helps with, in terms of reducing maternal mortalities and increasing health outcomes for mothers and children because they then realize the dangers that are involved. So we are able to also help women in our communities get the support from men, just as women entrepreneurs need that vital support, especially in the early days. We believe in an equal 50-50 shareholding at Safe Motherhood Alliance. And this truly has helped us diversify and reach where we are right now. So definitely. Probably we'll take one more question and wrap up the session. Do you think gender participation in business is helped by quotas? That's the question we've received. Yeah, so, Swami, I could just go with this. While quotas have always been seen as a protectionist kind of system, I think there are other ways to ensure gender participation and to promote gender participation. It's a good foot in the door to have quotas, but beyond that, you require cultural shifts in thought processes to ensure something this structural to change. And so that's why I believe what Aviskar Group is setting out for itself of achieving the gender parity by 2030, very clearly talks of a generational shift in thinking that they're trying to bring about. And so probably quotas won't help. It is having a very different outlook that would help. Thank you, Shishma. Thanks a lot. I think we can wrap up the session right now. And if you don't mind, we could play the video one more time because I think last time there was a sound issue. I'm gonna play it one more time and we wrap up the session if that's okay. Thanks, Samya. Thanks, everyone. So I'm back, guys, for anyone that was worried about whether I really know what it's like to work in these kind of environments. I promise you I do. All right, thank you. I think you were probably discussing some really great conversations about quotas, right? And so, I mean, I can just give my perspective from the businesses that I've been involved in through my life. Change doesn't happen automatically even when you appeal to people's very best, right? And so to change from an old order to a new order needs every possible trigger you can. So targets, balance, slates, encouragement for people to understand why the shift's not happening. And the one other thing that I would say because I have been speaking to a number of women's international women's day events. For women in particular, please remember that we are not dealing with us against men, right? Actually, we're all part of trying to change the world in many ways. And when people ask me, what's the best advice you could give me? I always go, don't treat people as groups, treat people as individuals even when you're trying to drive change. So thank you. I think perhaps that's the end of the questions and I think perhaps that might be the end of our conference because I haven't seen too many more questions. Samia, can I hand back to you? Thank you so much, Gail. We do have a few questions, but I'll take them down and I will send it to you separately so we can answer them. Thanks a lot, everyone. Again, once again, Shishma, Gail, Muzelema and to all the participants who've taken time to listen to this conversation. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, Gail. Thank you, Shishma. Pleasure to be here. Thank you so much. Have a great Women's Day. Yes, to all of us. Thank you.