It was a 2023 of learning and growth
Twenty-twenty-three marks the end of a 3-year strategic plan the team co-created as I was transitioning to CEO of Agora in late 2020. This kind of milestone in an organization’s trajectory always begs reflection and allows one to take stock of what was done well and what can be improved. A full summary of our wins, challenges, and learnings between 2021-2023 will be published early next year, but specifically in 2023, we’ve progressed towards some very ambitious goals.
Over the last 12 months we’ve:
- Welcomed 16 new team members to Agora from Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, and Guatemala. We are delighted to have these new talented individuals on board. Admittedly, 73% personnel growth in one year (close to 200% growth over the last two years) also brings challenges such as cultural organizational shifts, the marriage of historical and new ways of doing things, and fluid remote collaboration.
- Launched Juntas Contamos with the IDB Lab in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This year we supported 263 women-led enterprises in these target countries to improve their business performance and connect with private sector financial and commercial partners. We weren’t quite able to meet our goal of 470 enterprises this year, which means next year we will need to ‘double up’ to reach 1800 women-led enterprises. It will be a challenge, but I am confident the team will reach the ambitious goal with creativity, capitalizing on the collective strengths of our communications, program design, program execution, and technology departments.
- Our Train-the-Trainer program Formando Catalizadores was as popular as ever this year. We received more than 430 applications and elected 113 Catalizadores to join the program. Interest in this program has historically been very high, however, sustained participation and direct implementation of tools with their community of entrepreneurs remain challenges that we will be tackling in 2024.
- This year we piloted our EcoChallenge and Ecoinnovation initiative to support more traditional small and growing businesses to integrate environmentally positive practices into their business models. Twenty-two women-led enterprises selected ecoinnovations to implement in their businesses, and 11 enterprises received nonreimbursable funding to implement their ecoinnovations. Next year, a key challenge is to fully integrate environmental positivity within our core programming.
- To advance towards our strategic pillar of massification of impact, Agora acquired a Benefit Corporation with registered entities in Colombia and Peru. The official announcement (with more details) is forthcoming in 2024 so stay tuned!
- We ended the year with an all-staff retreat in Santa Marta, Colombia where 48 team members (44 staff, 3 board members, 1 Red de Impacto staff) participated in a week-long team building and planning event. We were able to form closer bonds during the retreat, while we learned much about what we must do in 2024 to reach our ambitious goals. It won’t be an easy road ahead, but with the proper planning and teamwork, we will be well-positioned to reach our targets.
All of these achievements and documented challenges are important, and they help us move towards our vision of a world in which business is genuinely guided by social and environmental impact. They are however just a drop in the proverbial bucket. This year the world has seen extreme violence pervade Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Sudan, and other countries; global temperatures are the hottest recorded ever, making it almost certain we will surpass the 2-degree Celsius limit established in the 2015 Paris Agreement. In Latin America, we’ve seen several electoral upsets, sociopolitical unrest, runaway inflation, macroeconomic slowdown, and multiple extreme weather events that left behind paths of destruction.
It’s difficult to keep going in the face of all these challenges and to prevent feelings of helplessness from overwhelming us. Maybe some days we do succumb to those feelings, and that’s ok. But most days, it is our responsibility as the most powerful and impactful species on the planet to keep trying to make things better for at least a portion of our fellow humans, other species, and the surrounding environment. This is why at Agora, we wake up every day ready (or as ready as we can be) to take on new challenges to support women-led enterprises, encourage the integration of environmental positivity in small businesses, and work with private sector actors to practice inclusivity and sustainability. It’s not a golden ticket to rapid reversal, but it is our contribution as an organization and as professionals to creating positive change across Latin America. As always, please join us by making your own commitment to positive change in the region.
May 2024 bring lessons, opportunities, and surprises that allow us to massify our positive impact.
All the best,
Cecilia
