Ep. 332 - Hilary Barry - Founder and CEO LadyAgri Impact Investment Hub

What this episode covers

Hilary Barry is founder and Secretary General of the LadyAgri Impact Investment Hub. She is Irish. Since her first experience in Ghana in 1993, she has dedicated her career to the design and implementation of social impact programs across Africa, Caribbean and Pacific states (public health, agriculture, water, social development, cooperative management, agri-SME support and women entrepreneurship). The LadyAgri approach is unique in that it takes a full 360° holistic approach to supporting women in agri-business through mentoring, tailor made technical assistance combined with B2B agri-business partnerships & gender smart investment in the agri-value chain. Her mindset in setting up ‘LadyAgri’ is that investing in women is simply smart economics! Without access to meso-financing through patient capital, women led agri-businesses cannot grow, cannot create jobs & provide necessary upskilling of their women farmers and workforce. Hilary & her team invest in women so they can move away from a passive beneficiary role to becoming proactive well equipped ‘Agents of Change’ in their agri-businesses and communities. Hilary is a convinced venture philanthropist and believes patient investment in women in agri-supply chains, though challenging, will have a ‘rising tide’ effect and sustainable social impact. Hilary leads a motivated team at LadyAgri both in Brussels and across 30 African and Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean and Pacific.