TOWARD A THRIVING AND SUSTAINABLE WORLD

Dear friends and valued supporters,

Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) works everyday with bold determination and impatience to challenge the status quo of extreme poverty. Throughout the past 15 years, we have worked to create lasting change in the communities we work with in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the pages that follow, I am proud to showcase some of the bold and innovative social enterprises we support across the continent. We nurture and accelerate their success with our most valuable resources: our people and the flexible seed funding they need to succeed. Their impact changes the lives of millions in a durable and scalable way. This would not be possible without the generosity of our community of donors.

Our track record is proven. It takes three to five years of EWB’s support for a social enterprise to go from being a single entrepreneur’s bold idea to self-sustaining growth and impact. I’ve had the privilege of meeting smallholder farmers who have doubled their family’s daily income thanks to services they received from social enterprises supported by EWB. This is the difference between vulnerability and prosperity.

I write this letter with deep excitement for the potential impact ahead of us. There are 17.7 million small and medium-sized businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. They employ a quarter of the workforce. The sector is poised for growth and brimming with innovative potential. That’s why we’re focusing on breaking down the barriers to their success.

Frustratingly, entrepreneurs are often overlooked in the quest for social change. Only a tiny portion of international development funds go directly to support entrepreneurs. With the generous support of our donors, we are focusing our efforts on bridging that gap by investing in social enterprises

that enable small businesses to thrive. We’re calling this group of ventures our Small & Growing Businesses portfolio, and we’ve launched the Accelerate campaign to enable them to thrive.

Over the years, our mission has brought together thousands of leaders and supporters across Canada. Their passion is contagious, and with your support, our potential for impact is endless. I hope the people, stories and ideas shared in these pages inspire you. Your support makes our impact possible and is an incredible investment in a bright economic future for communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Boris Martin | CEO

LETTER FROM THE CEO

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EWB supports innovations that create dignity and opportunity for millions of

people. We are working to foster an enabling environment where great ideas

that serve the poor can come to life.

EWB leaders are trained to be exceptional problem-solvers and ambitious

innovators. We invest in the entrepreneurial and creative capacity of these

leaders, enabling them to design and execute game-changing innovations.

EWB supports what we call ventures—innovative ideas that have the

potential to transform entire systems that perpetuate poverty by improving

the wellbeing and livelihoods of millions of families. To support these

ventures to succeed and scale, we take a four-pronged approach:

OUR UNIQUE INNOVATION MODEL

1. Early-stage capital investment

We take the risks other investors aren’t willing to take. We

provide patient, philanthropic capital investments between

$10,000 and $100,000 annually for three to five years to social

businesses with a high potential for social impact. We seek innovators

focused on social change, ready to iterate on good ideas to land on the truly

transformative ones.

2. Exceptional volunteers

The most in-demand resource for early-stage social businesses is exceptional, highly

committed talent—the people that will grow the enterprise to financial viability while

providing social value. EWB has a tested and proven model of recruiting, training, motivating

and enabling highly effective volunteers to place within our ventures.

3. Whole system approach

EWB takes a whole-of-system approach to creating change. This means that we connect

businesses to mentors and investors and create a collaborative learning environment

between ventures, sector peers, and institutional partners. In doing so, we seek to

maximize their opportunities for growth and synergy. The result will be a system-wide

change that will enable social businesses to thrive across sub-Saharan Africa.

4. Patient support

There are many organizations that offer intensive support to startups for short periods of

time, often only a few weeks. EWB works with a venture over several years. We offer steady

resources and strategic support over a longer period to enable ongoing innovation,

progressive iteration and the consistency they need to remain focused on social

impact. In the meantime, we focus on building their internal capacity,

independence and ability to grow beyond our support.

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Smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya generate 3% of Kenya’s GDP, but their path out

of poverty is blocked by inadequate access to low-cost, high-quality feed for their

cattle. LishaBora is developing hydroponic systems to produce nutritious fodder

quickly, using very little space, water and fertilizers to serve these smallholder

farmers. This feed is enabling dairy farmers to access consistent, affordable, high-

quality feed for their cattle. Customers are seeing substantial benefits: increasing

yields by up to 25%; lower land usage; and lower feed costs compared to other

readily available commercial products. This means that these farmers, mostly

women, are able to grow their businesses (more cows, increased yields) and bring

greater economic prosperity to their families and communities.

Our Impactu Increases of 20-25% in milk yield while still providing a low cost input for farmers.

u Winner of Kenya Climate Innovation Center $20,000 grant to expand

capacity and test new products.

LISHABORA HYDROPONICS | KENYA Portfolio | Small & Growing Business

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Thousands of smallholder farmers and shop owners in Zambia are unable to grow

their businesses because they don’t have access to affordable and appropriate

productive assets (like water pumps or deep freezer units). Others can gain access,

but lack the skills and information they need to select the right equipment or

technology to help their business grow. Rent-to-Own works to provide these

entrepreneurs with productive assets and a holistic set of services that allow them to

increase their productivity and margins—leading to higher income and increased

employment in their community as their business grows.

Our Impactu Sold over 1,400 income-generating assets to date; since 2013 has supported

business growth for 1,000 clients, impacting the lives of 5,200 people in rural

Zambia.

u Increased income for clients by $1.4 million. On average clients receive

benefits for three years, with an increase in income of $683/year.

u Achieved an overall repayment rate of 96%.

Rent to Own Africa is supported by EWB and other partners,

including AECF/AGRA.

RENT-TO-OWN | ZAMBIA Portfolio | Small & Growing Business

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Uganda’s estimated 450,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)

generate 90% of the country’s private sector production and are its top job

creators; but, without financing, they operate far below their potential. Since

MSMEs are unable to convey their creditworthiness due to their lack of financial

records, financial institutions spend significant time and money assessing

prospective borrowers. They then pass on these costs to the borrowers in the

form of high interest rates while also requiring high collateral. Loans become

prohibitively expensive and inaccessible, depriving even creditworthy small

businesses of the capital they need to grow.

Numida has developed TrackApp, a mobile application aimed at unlocking

financing for the millions of African small businesses who need it. TrackApp

helps entrepreneurs build reliable financial records to improve their business

decisions and demonstrate their creditworthiness to formal lenders.

It makes financial record-keeping easy to share with lenders,

decreasing barriers to getting a loan. It also helps financial

institutions lower their risk and costs, ultimately leading to

improved lending terms for their clients. TrackApp is

currently being piloted in Kampala, Uganda.

NUMIDA TECHNOLOGIES | UGANDA Portfolio | Small & Growing Business

Our Impactu Partnered with two financial institutions in Kampala that

have agreed to incorporate TrackApp data into their lending

processes.

u Connected with over 1,000 entrepreneurs who have downloaded TrackApp,

converting about 7% of them to active users.

PHOTO CREDIT: ALANNA HOWELL10

As of June 2016, EWB is supporting FarmDrive, a financial technology company

in Kenya making strides to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers

through innovative technology. FarmDrive harnesses the power of data

analytics and mobile technology to aggregate and analyze information about

smallholder farmers from traditional and alternative data points, including

produce buyers, agricultural input dealers and the farmers themselves. Using

this data, FarmDrive builds comprehensive, dynamic credit profiles that allow

financial institutions to provide financial services, such as loans, to smallholder

farmers.

This tool will help bridge the $450-billion financing gap for smallholder farmers,

whose businesses stagnate without access to credit, preventing them from

offering more economic opportunities to their communities. For financial

service providers, FarmDrive’s method minimizes the risk of lending to

farmers. For farmers, it offers access to affordable credit through their

mobile phones when they need it.

FARMDRIVE | KENYA Portfolio | Small & Growing Business

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VOTO Mobile’s mission is to increase participation, transparency and accountability

in the services delivered to citizens in the developing world and to empower

communities to drive positive social change. Using voice and text services through

mobile phone technology, VOTO is overcoming traditional barriers of distance,

language, literacy, access to infrastructure, bureaucracy, social roles, and power

dynamics between the development sector and its beneficiaries.

VOTO’s platform has allowed journalists to conduct surveys of government

corruption, rural clinics to distribute maternal health education, policymakers to

study vaccine supply chains, economic development organizations to reach out

to farmers, urban planners to monitor water distribution access, and academics to

research the effects of public health interventions.

VOTO MOBILE | GLOBAL Portfolio | Small & Growing Business

Our Impactu In January 2016, VOTO surpassed 3 million unique users

across 29 countries who have successfully interacted with their

platform for initiatives related to health, education, governance,

investigative journalism, agriculture and urban planning.

u Used by 500+ organizations, with 100% retention rate among major clients,

including a 4x increase in work with the World Bank and three repeat

contracts with UNICEF.

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According to UN-Habitat, there are as many as 200 million people living in informal

settlements in sub-Saharan Africa, growing by as much as five million people per

year. Kwangu-Kwako builds safer homes for families in these informal settlements.

This initiative manufactures pre-cast concrete panels locally and uses them to

construct homes and community structures for informal settlements in Nairobi.

These reinforced buildings improve the quality of life within these communities by

staying cooler in the equatorial sun, being more secure, and, importantly, reducing

the spread of fire, which helps to keep families and their possessions, investments

and businesses safe. By using locally made materials, they also create economic

opportunities for the residents of these settlements.

Our Impactu Leveraged our support for an additional $88,000 in funding from

FSD Africa and individual donors.

KWANGU-KWAKO | KENYA Portfolio | Small & Growing Business

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EWB has invested in and worked with partners in Malawi’s water and sanitation

sector since 2006. WASH Catalysts aims to shift the rural water and sanitation

sector from projectized approaches to a service-delivery model, where services are

delivered by permanent institutions, such as local government.

WASH Catalysts provides opportunities for district water officers to innovate and

improve on how they provide water and sanitation services to communities. For

instance, through a new District Fellowship program, WASH Catalysts provides

technical support to district offices to enable better service delivery, foster an open

forum to share innovative approaches, and coordinate efforts of district-level and

national stakeholders to improve water and sanitation services across the country.

Our Impactu Since 2014, supported 11 of 28 district government water development offices

and established a local network of sector innovators.

u Launched a joint national advocacy initiative between UNICEF

and the Water and Environmental Sanitation Network to

convene politicians, NGOs and bureaucrats at both

the national and district levels to determine how

resources for WASH service delivery can

be funnelled more directly to local

government offices.

WASH CATALYSTS | MALAWI Portfolio | Governance & Sustainable Services

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Mining Shared Value’s (MSV) mission is to increase the local procurement of

goods and services related to global mining operations so that host countries

gain more economic and social benefits. Local procurement epitomizes the

positive role that the private sector can play in development. Purchases of local

goods and services, like those supplied by local construction workers in Burkina

Faso, create local jobs and income, transfer skills and technology, and help to

create vital domestic business networks.

MSV aims to accomplish its mission by acting as a resource, hub, and champion.

MSV creates and compiles resources to help the mining sector develop and

operationalize local procurement policies and procedures. It connects industry

personnel and development practitioners to create a thriving community of

practice. It also advocates for the inclusion of local procurement in company

frameworks, industry standards, and government policies and programming

both in Canada and abroad.

Our Impactu In 2015, MSV became a founding member of the World

Bank’s Extractives for Local Content Development

Community of Practice, which connects the world’s

leading experts and practitioners on local

procurement and centralizes existing

research and guidance on this issue.

MINING SHARED VALUE | GLOBALPortfolio | Governance & Sustainable Services

PHOTO CREDIT: JEFF GEIPEL

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In order to succeed, our ventures need exceptional, highly committed talent.

EWB has a tested and proven model of recruiting, training and enabling

passionate, committed and effective volunteers to meet this need.

Every year, we recruit 20-25 volunteers for 12-month fellowships with our

ventures. Fellows bring the skills, knowledge and capacity our ventures need to

scale and become sustainable social enterprises. They work alongside ventures

and other sector leaders to develop and execute initiatives that will contribute to

a more thriving and sustainable world.

I don’t have the words to describe just how critical Pierre’s support has been to Numida.

Pierre’s accounting expertise has been a blessing... Numida wouldn’t be anywhere

close to where it is without the three Fellows that EWB invested.

- Catherine Denis, Numida Technologies speaking about Pierre-Gabriel Grégoire,

EWB Fellow

My greatest achievement to date has been the construction of our second

system, which is now feeding 30 cows.

- David Lipinski, EWB Fellow, LishaBora Hydroponics

EWB FELLOWSHIPS

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ACCELERATEOver the next three years, EWB will raise $15 million to enable small and growing businesses across

sub-Saharan Africa to thrive. To make this possible, we launched the Accelerate Campaign, an

unprecedented fundraising effort to fuel our impact.

30 Social Impact Ventures

Investing in individuals and their ideas will drive sustainable impact. Our portfolio managers

support a set of ventures that together create important changes in agriculture,

health and income generation through improved services and policy change.

100 Fellowships

Volunteer placements provide much-needed human capital to

enable ventures to scale their operations and accelerate

their impact.

A community of innovators in Africa

EWB will identify and support local innovators by

building a community of leaders in sub-Saharan

Africa who are committed to promoting

innovation and social change in

their communities.

ACTIVITIES

ACCELERATE CAMPAIGNGOAL: $15,000,000

$1,775,000$2,675,000$4,550,000$6,000,000

40% 30% 18% 12%

Portfolio Management, Fundraising and Operations

Technical Assistance, Strategic Support,

and Sector Influence

Embedded Volunteer Fellowships

Venture Seed Fund

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Shayne Smith, Chair

Vice President - Government

and International Relations

TetraTech

Mary Lynne ForestellSenior Director, IT Finance

Bell Canada

Catherine KarakatsanisChief Operating Officer

Morrison Hershfield

Tim Brodhead Senior Advisor

Social Innovation Generation

Frances Westley JW McConnell Chair

in Social Innovation

University of Waterloo

Louis DorvalCo-founder &

Chief Programs Officer

VOTO Mobile

Robert IronsideEnvironmental Engineer

Ian FroudePast Venture Leader

Citizen Attaché

Miriam Hird-YoungerPast Venture Leader, AgEx

Anita LazurkoFormer University of Calgary

chapter president, former

Junior Fellow

WASH Catalysts, Malawi

Rasheeda YehuzaFounder, Tech Needs Girls

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Rupert DuchesneGlobal Chief Executive

AIMIA

Catherine KarakatsanisChief Operating Officer

Morrison Hershfield

Don McMurtryPhilanthropist & Entrepreneur

George RoterHead of Core Contributor

Participation, Mozilla

Co-Founder, EWB

Don ThurstonPhilanthropist & Past Chair,

EWB Board of Directors

David WilkinsonProvost and Vice-

President (Academic)

McMaster University

You can be part of the EWB story. Our community of supporters makes our impact possible.

Your support is an investment in the people and ideas driving game-changing solutions to

global development challenges.

Make a gift to EWB today! Invest in people who can create a thriving and sustainable world. Contact our Partnerships team at (416) 642-9165 to learn more.

AMBASSADORS

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CONTACT USEngineers Without Borders Canada365 Bloor Street East, Suite 2000, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4TF 1 (866) 481-3696 x242 | T (416) 642-9165 | www.ewb.ca | partner@ewb.ca