Welcome to Notes In the Margin, an independent resource on impact and gender lens investing, with a focus on international and emerging markets. I passionately believe that finance can and should be used as a tool for good. I am an impact investment professional and advisor, which provides me insight and perspective on the field, issues, successes, and opportunities that I hope to pass along to you. Through blogs written by me and guests, as well as links to articles and thought pieces written by global experts, my goal is that this blog becomes a credible source of insight around fixed income products for impact and gender lens investing.
What does the name mean? I’m old enough to remember when we used to read books printed on paper in school. Back in those days, we would scribble words in the margins around the printed text —insight from the passage, things to remember, life-changing words, etc. I often relied on used books, and always loved to read these notes written by others before me; these musings in the handwriting of other people often provided me a perspective I hadn’t quite considered. So, these “notes in the margin” have always been a way for me to flag what’s important or insightful, and learn from others, as well. I hope this blog serves a similar purpose, with a bit of irreverence.
Why discuss fixed income for impact and gender lens investing? If I told you it’s because I lost a bet on “what is the world’s most boring blog topic”, would you believe me? In reality, as with most interesting things in life, the answer isn’t very straightforward. I’ve always been a fan of fixed income and debt for supporting development and public benefit goals. I was first exposed to what is now called impact investing about 25 years ago (in the US Peace Corps); it seems to me that finance was corrupted at some point, and it’s time to change the dynamic so that investing for long term impact supersedes investing for short term profit. I’ve been fortunate enough that my career progression has evolved in parallel with impact and gender lens investing, which has allowed me to develop expertise in both fields with a long institutional memory. Not unimportantly, a mentor of mine encouraged me to do it (thanks, Suzanne!). And so, that not very logical or linear path led us here.
To state the obvious, this is a blog. The opinions here are mine or those of my guests. Since we’re all a product of our environment, experiences, biases, and opinions, this blog is a reflection of mine. One of my goals is to provide a platform for as many diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences as possible. My experiences are largely international, thus the global focus of the blog.
Using innovative financial instruments to solve pervasive global development and social challenges is a gnarly problem. It will take a brain trust collective working to find solutions, and I hope this platform can in some small way bring us towards those solutions.
If you have any suggestions for upcoming topics or guest bloggers, please let me know.