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AI in African Healthcare: The Good, the Bad and the RECKLESS
Artificial intelligence (AI) can have a major positive impact on the cost and quality of healthcare in emerging economies. But as AI gains traction in Africa's healthcare market, Mark Wien at PocketPatientMD calls out an alarming trend: New AI solutions are being introduced into actual practice without the proper safeguards, standards and scrutiny. And even worse, these solutions are often being developed by non-medical professionals and technologists, who rush to roll out new tools without caution — and without acknowledging or perhaps even understanding the risks they pose to vulnerable patients and health systems. He urges Africa's healthcare industry — including doctors themselves — to address this issue with the seriousness it deserves.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Private Business Alone Can’t Bring Energy to the Last Mile: Why Philanthropy Should Shift its Focus to Scalable Non-Profit Models
Africa is home to countless failed pay-as-you-go energy businesses that couldn't sustain themselves after their grant funding dried up. According to Aneri Pradhan at New Energy Nexus, this highlights the shortcomings of market-led approaches to last-mile energy access across the continent. She argues that philanthropic funding has largely failed to create sustainable energy businesses in these communities, as customers cannot afford clean energy at their current income levels. Instead, she encourages funders to support non-profit models that have proven their ability to reach these communities at scale.
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Mobilizing Capital in the Low-Cost Private School Sector: Key Insights Two Years into an Innovative Partnership
One in five children in sub-Saharan Africa are out of school, and without scalable solutions, the region — like other emerging markets — won’t meet SDG 4’s goal of education for all. Mauricio Rincon and Mathieu Fourn at Opportunity International, and Alvaro Ma at Oikocredit argue that affordable non-state schools can help address this need — but only if they're supported by financial institutions and impact investment. They share learnings from a partnership between Opportunity and Oikocredit that is directing millions of dollars in capital to these schools, along with capacity building and other support.
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Reshaping Africa’s Food Systems: Three Opportunities to Drive Sustainable, Inclusive and Scalable Impact
Africa's agricultural sector is plagued by low yields, fragmented value chains and a large finance gap, and the region is home to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. As Neil Wood, Oscar Garza and Hanna Dohrenbusch at Open Capital explain, these challenges have brought the sector to a critical juncture. They share three key solutions based on Open Capital's work on 450+ agriculture and food systems projects across Africa, which have the power to help drive the future of agriculture on the continent in the decades to come.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Global Poverty Measurement is A Mess, And it’s Holding Back the World’s Anti-Poverty Efforts
A recent Stanford University study on the impact of poverty measurement found vast differences between four common approaches, affecting both how anti-poverty programs define and measure poverty — and who qualifies for assistance. As Martin Burt at Fundación Paraguaya argues, this lack of coordination is hindering global poverty alleviation efforts. He proposes a different approach to poverty measurement: one based on listening to the perspectives of the people who are experiencing poverty, and providing them with customized strategies to address the specific challenges they face.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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The Emergence of ‘Resilience Credits’: How a New Asset Class Can Unlock Investment in Climate Resilience — And Why Impact Measurement Will be Key to its Success
Investments in building climate resilience in vulnerable communities are falling woefully short — and the private sector is almost entirely absent. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation, Jyotsna Puri at IFAD and Jonathan Phillips at Duke University explore an innovative solution to this finance gap: “resilience credits.” They explain how this new asset class aims to align public and private capital to build and measure climate resilience — and discuss the pros and cons of different impact measurement approaches for resilience-focused projects and businesses.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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Changing the Profitability Paradigm: A Key Report Aims to Rally Global Investors Behind a Sustainable Approach to Finance
As the global economy struggles to navigate financial crises and address shared challenges like climate change, Lucas Magnani at Convergences argues that the need to transform the profit-centric approach of traditional finance is increasingly urgent. He shares insights from Convergences' latest Impact Finance Barometer report, highlighting several ways that impact investors and others are working to put profitability and positive impact on equal footing — and some key areas where more progress is needed.
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- Investing
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Accelerating Africa’s E-Commerce Revolution: A SaaS Solution Leverages Payment and Logistics Innovation to Unleash the Continent’s Entrepreneurial Potential
Africa’s e-commerce landscape is in the midst of an ongoing revolution, as the growth in internet access has enabled businesses across the continent to sell their products locally, regionally and globally. Moulaye Taboure at ANKA explains how his company is leveraging “Software as a Service” (SaaS) innovation to connect these businesses with consumers, while providing payments and logistics services geared toward their unique needs. He shares highlights from a recent ANKA whitepaper that outlines key trends and developments in African e-commerce.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology