Impact reporting is a narrative of change; a story that shows how your organisation is making a tangible difference to those it supports.
By investing in infrastructure, Africa50 aims to promote sustainable economic growth and job creation and to improve the lives of people on the African continent. Africa50 asked for Arete’s expertise to tell investors and potential supporters about this impact; along with the scale and complexity of its projects, by turning them into human interest stories.
Photo: Africa50 / Arete
Africa50 was established by African governments and the African Development Bank to help bridge Africa’s infrastructure funding gap by facilitating project development, mobilising public and private sector finance, and investing in infrastructure. Africa50 focuses on medium-to large-scale projects that have a significant development impact and provide an appropriate risk-adjusted return to investors.
Arete has worked alongside Africa50 on a variety of projects — providing photography, social media content, videography, drone footage, film edits and support with report design.
Following the success of their first Impact Series — a series of films which highlighted Africa50’s mission to drive sustainable development through innovative investments and strategic partnerships — Africa50 approached Arete to co-create a second edition. The Second Edition takes a consciously more human-centred approach — drawing on the voices of community members directly impacted by projects, along with partners, project team members, and other stakeholders.
The Nachtigal Hydro Power Dam is a 420 MW plant under construction on the Sanaga River. The plant is expected to increase Cameroon’s generation capacity by more than 25%, improving access to electricity for consumers. It is expected to help raise the share of renewables in Cameroon’s energy mix to 75% and avoid the emission of one million tons of CO2 annually. Thousands of jobs have been created during the construction period and affected people within communities in the catchment have also benefited from various support schemes.
Photo: Africa50 / Arete
A broad range of projects was covered; but Arete storytellers worked to instil a consistent tone, look, and feel across the films — reinforcing Africa50’s brand identity and overarching mission.
Individual stories are pieced together in each film to narrate the overall transformation taking place. Showcasing transformation is often framed in before-and-after or problem-and-solution narratives, but Arete adopts a strongly solutions-oriented approach, so that the films focus on the immediate impact and possibilities for further development. Creative choices, like music, dynamic editing, camera movement and engaging graphics, ensure that a bright, positive atmosphere reinforces this sense of hope and possibility.
Each film tells the success story of an innovative project in a specific region or country, while highlighting its potential for wider ramifications across the continent in the future. This idea is conveyed both explicitly — through statistics and interviewee insights — and more subtly through filmic techniques. Each film opens with a six-way split-screen, offering a snapshot of the diverse projects supported by Africa50, before delving into specific detail about the project it explores:
The closing sequence is also common to all the films. Zooming out from a final drone shot of the project, it transitions to an animation of the globe, with the African continent at its centre. This powerful image is accompanied by a different line of text in each film — turning to the future, and reinforcing Africa50’s mission to pursue key objectives across the continent:
While working with Africa50, Arete has mobilised teams of storytellers in America, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, The Gambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Madagascar.
Asset Recycling: The Senegambia Bridge, The Gambia
Exploring innovative financing models, like Asset Recycling, in an engaging way presents a distinct challenge for storytellers. However, through this film, Arete had a fantastic opportunity to explore this financial concept through the successful case study of the Senegambia Bridge.
The film tells the stories of individuals involved at every level: zooming in from decision makers, like the President of The Gambia, to the businesspeople who are benefitting on the ground; shifting between the concept of Asset Recycling to the tangible benefits of the bridge e.g. ‘Cutting travel time from hours to less than 5 minutes.’
Africa Healthcare Network (AHN): Tanzania
Drawing on key statistics and a wide range of interviews, including with doctors, nurses, Africa50 officials, and patients, this film explores the benefits of AHN from every angle. Beyond the headline benefit of improved health outcomes, it also highlights economic impacts, such as increased employment in local communities and greater gender equality.
The film moves swiftly through short interview extracts to maintain a dynamic, engaging pace — relying on quality interviews and authentic responses to tell the story. Arete uses local storytellers wherever possible — one reason being their ability to build rapport with interviewees more easily and to better understand cultural nuances at play. Working closely with Africa50 and conducting in-depth research led to well-constructed interview questions and a powerful final story.
Poa! Internet: Kenya
Internet access is no longer a luxury, it is essential for socio-economic growth and for so many aspects of work and life. Affordable internet access has the power to change anyone’s life. This point is emphasised through the film by the breadth of Poa! clients covered — from education to content creation, to hairdressing.
The closing interview, of hairdresser Lucky Elnia, is a powerful example of regional impact sparking international reach. Explaining how Poa! has empowered her to make international sales, mostly in Tanzania, Lucky opens the story up to the potentially limitless, borderless economic potential of accessible internet.
Nachtigal Hydropower Plant: Cameroon
The film covers some similar themes to others in the series, such as workforce diversity, health, social investment, and gender equality. But, with faster transitions, uppercase text overlays, and punchier, less emotive music, it adopts a more corporate style which impactfully conveys the economic power of energy transition. Energy efficiency and financial returns take centre stage, with plenty of statistics to illustrate.
Impact storytelling is always a challenge — especially when the impact is complex, wide-ranging, and at scale. Distilling this down to an individual level is the most powerful way to make stories engaging and relatable. Using in-depth interviews to do this makes the story authentic and relatable.
Through the Africa50 Impact Series, Second Edition, Arete and Africa50 gave key stakeholders a platform to tell their own parts of the story. Thoughtful stylised footage choices, and precise editing make the subject matter memorable, informative, and engaging — inspiring an emotional response and instilling a sense of organisational identity.
Learn more in this case study.
