Our Capabilities

Axum was created to address a critical problem that our founding team saw over our years working in the African development and consulting space—specifically, the lack of truly local and Afrocentric impact-focused organizations dedicated to solving challenges on the continent. While many impact-focused firms are in the market, we have found that they often approach problem-solving with a global lens and consequently apply an implicit global bias unsuitable for development work in Africa.

Philanthropic and development partners face three common problems as they seek to scale impact in Africa and the Middle East

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Local Knowledge

Global teams often lack the local knowledge to serve the needs of a large heterogenous market.

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Local Networks and Influence

Solutions require strong local networks and influence, usually missing in global organizations.

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Local Capacity

Building local teams is expensive and it takes time, hindering the ability to scale up quickly

Sectors

Social Inclusion

Axum supports stakeholders working on critical social inclusion topics such as health & wellness, education, and water and sanitation to improve social outcomes.

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Economic Transformation

We work across key productive sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, and the service industry to support the growth of market actors, strengthen economies, and improve livelihoods.

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Investment Support

In collaboration with Alwyne Investment Partners, we provide full investment advisory services, including due diligence support.

 

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Growth Enablers

We bring deep expertise in areas that are enablers of growth across industries (access to finance, digital and data, energy, and infrastructure, among others) to transform visions into tangible realities.

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Climate Positive Growth

Axum specializes in sectors such as the forest economy, circular economy, and regenerative landscapes, as well as climate finance and carbon/biodiversity markets.

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Technological Innovation and Digital Transformation

We develop solutions that leverage transformative emerging technologies (AI, Machine learning, among others) and advance core digital infrastructure to support economic, environmental, and social impact.

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Our Offerings

Strategy and Policy Advisory

Our strategy advisory service delivers in-depth market intelligence, strategic planning, policy analysis, and business model innovation to help clients adapt and thrive as landscapes evolve.

We offer two staffing models:

  • Full project team for end-to-end research, analysis, reporting, and stakeholder engagement when intensive, time-bound support is needed.
  • Senior advisors who act as thought partners for clients with in-house capacity but seeking experienced, sector-specific insight and networks.

Investment Support

We provide comprehensive investment support services designed to help investors identify opportunities, navigate regulatory processes, and maximize returns.

We offer investment advisory and transaction support across restructuring, corporate finance, and performance improvement. We also design innovative financing solutions, such as blended finance and crowdfunding, and work with investors and fund managers to develop fit-for-purpose investment strategies.

Systems Orchestration

We work with clients who need to galvanize sustained collective action across communities and organizations by developing and implementing initiatives that advance their visionary goals.

Support here includes:

  • Platform incubation and development
  • Investment mobilization
  • Operational expertise (e.g., through secondments, institutional capacity development, grant management, etc.)

We are always looking for creative ways to combine what we know with what doesn’t yet exist, and continue to innovate and collaborate with like-minded partners towards common goals.

Program Implementation and Capacity Development

Bespoke and end-to-end implementation support for programs, from ideation to launch, with locally rooted knowledge, a wide range of capabilities across various sectors, and vast expertise in development.

Varied implementation competencies including:

  • Program management
  • Skills and capacity development
  • Deep public and private sector stakeholder engagement
  • Grant management
  • Monitoring, evaluation, accountability & learning (MEAL)
  • SME development
  • Multi-partner communication
  • Organizational effectiveness support

Values and Commitments

Axum is a carbon- and plastic-neutral company that is committed to reaching net zero by 2025. Axum has pledged to adhere to the Paris Climate Agreement by ensuring we do not contribute to the warming of the planet beyond 1.5 degrees. We have also signed the UN Global Compact Business Ambition for 1.5 degrees to further our firm-wide climate action accountability.

Axum is committed to advancing gender equality and women’s rights. We commit to applying a gender lens as standard practice across every engagement. By this, we mean that our staff have access to tools and resources to support them in developing recommendations that reflect the diverse needs, realities, and aspirations of people with different gender identities.

Axum is committed to diversity and inclusion across all facets of our organization. We are committed to recognizing and addressing sexism, racism, homophobia, and all other forms of discrimination in our work.

Axum is committed to respecting internationally recognized human rights wherever we operate. We commit to honoring the principles of internationally recognized human rights when faced with conflicting requirements, and to treating the risk of causing or contributing to gross human rights abuses as a legal compliance issue wherever we operate, even where national laws or regulations may fall short of internationally recognized human standards.