Impact assessment of the portfolio of SMEs financed by Backbone
Since its inception in 2016, Backbone has financed 69 SMEs in the sectors of Food supply, Education and Community Services, in addition to 549 Health SMEs (clinics).
13 SMEs – most of them being the first ones to have been financed by BACKBONE among the 69 SMEs – are not included in the report because their selection criteria were not directly in line with the objective to meet the basic needs of the middle-low to low income population.
Social Impact Report / Rapport d'impact social 2016-2022
BACKBONE is looking for the integral development of human being that goes beyond (or rather that should be the pillar of ?) the ESG approach and the SDGs. In the current situation where all values tend to be questioned, BACKBONE is getting back to the roots and attempting to shed light over what is essential for every person. This is just the beginning of a long journey that BACKBONE is pursuing day after day.
BACKBONE s’intéresse au développement intégral de l’homme, qui va au-delà de (ou plutôt qui devrait être le socle de ?) l’approche ESG et des ODD. Dans le contexte actuel où toutes les valeurs ont tendance à être remises en question, BACKBONE fait un retour aux sources pour tenter de mettre en lumière ce qui est essentiel pour chaque personne. Ce n’est que le début d’une longue route, que BACKBONE trace jour après jour.
Access to credit: If not a human right,
an empowerment accelerator
to the benefit of all
Together with Sperling & Star and BZZ Advisory, BLI – Banque de Luxembourg Investments published in 2020 a series of four White Papers, covering Green Bonds, Microfinance, Impact Investing and ESG.
One page 15 of the guide, BACKBONE elaborates the concept of “mesofinance”, the segment of the financial services dedicated to SMEs from the “missing-middle”. This is the gap between microfinance and loans from commercial banks, where the SMEs suffer a lack of access to credit as they are too big for being served by microfinance institutions while being often not large enough to comply with banks’ selection criteria. This is the gap that BACKBONE is addressing.