Some 65% of African land is considered degraded. Climate-driven droughts and floods are exacerbating the impacts on local farmers and communities. Barka Fund, an early stage venture fund, was launched in 2020 to support African-led enterprises that help communities mitigate and adapt to climate change.
The New York-based fund works with incubators and accelerators to identify high-impact startups and provides investment-readiness training. “Barka Fund, as a fund led by and for African women, exemplifies the leadership and innovation needed to restore degraded landscapes on the continent,” said Rebekah Shirley of World Resources Institute Africa, the African arm of the global nonprofit, which invested $4 million in the first-time fund manager.
That complements $8 million from the US International Development Finance Corp. towards Barka’s $20 million funding target. WRI hopes to alert more funders to “the low-risk, high-reward potential of investing in emerging African institutions driving sustainable development.”
Land restoration
Barka Fund has collaborated with WRI Africa on its TerraFund, a grant and loan program for African nonprofits working to restore lands and uplift communities (see, “Social co-benefits and ecosystem restoration begin to make climate adaptation investable”). The fund supports AFR100, a pan-African effort to restore 100 million hectares of degraded African land by 2030.
TerraFund has invested $17.8 million in 92 organizations, including Addax, which is restoring degraded lands in Niger and generating revenue from gum arabic, and Association Mines Sans Pauvreté in Guinea, which restores the wooded habitats of endangered chimpanzees while supporting sustainable development and livelihoods. Barka’s Rekia Foudel said the TerraFund partnership with WRI has helped “build a strong track record and establish its credibility in the ecosystem.”
Barka is earmarking one-third of its new fund’s investments for restoration, alongside sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. The fund received a $4 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund in late 2023.