NextBillion - A WDI Publication

NextBillion’s “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest has been an annual tradition since 2012. This year, the contest happens in the midst of our celebration of the site’s 20th anniversary online.

Below, we’ve highlighted 12 of our most-read articles from the past year, on topics that encompass new developments in emerging markets business (e.g., the challenges facing PAYGo solar and the shifting global development funding landscape) to perennial priorities like last-mile distribution and blended finance. FYI: You may notice that one of the articles is from late 2024, not 2025. We’ve come to realize that limiting the contest date range to Jan. 1 – Dec. 31 may exclude guest articles published shortly before we select the 12 competing articles in mid-December, since they don’t have time to acquire enough readership to qualify. So going forward, articles published in December will be eligible for the contest held the subsequent year.

The selected articles are listed alphabetically and linked below: We invite you to read them, if you haven’t already, and to vote for the ones that influenced your thinking the most.

To vote, just scroll to the bottom of this page — or the bottom of any article included in the contest. You can vote up to once per hour between today (Dec. 19) and 11:59 pm EST on Jan. 4.

As always this time of year, NextBillion would like to express our gratitude to our guest writers and readers. As a platform driven by reader-contributed content, your support remains essential to our work. We thank you for your engagement over these past 20 years, and we wish you a happy and prosperous 2026.

Comparing Four Last-Mile Distribution Models: Best Practices and Common Pitfalls in Reaching Rural Customers

Lucie Klarsfeld McGrath is a Partner at Hystra and co-founder of the Global Distributors Collective, Joana Furquim is a consultant at Hystra, and Jeanne Charbit is a Project Manager at Hystra.

Connected Power: Ensuring Africa is Not Left in the Dark — or Offline

Ravi Suchak is Group Head of External Affairs, Sustainability and Public Policy at Helios Towers.

Consultants at a Crossroads in Global Development: New Research Reveals their Challenges — And Highlights Strategies for Navigating the Current Disruption

Alethia Wong is an independent consultant providing advisory services to foundations, impact funds, social enterprises and non-profits; Lorenz Wild is an independent consultant and Professional Certified Coach.

Ending the Vicious Circle in PAYGo Solar: How Companies and Investors Can Move the Sector Toward ‘PAYGo 2.0’

Dan Murphy is the founder and Managing Director of Catalyst Energy Advisors, and a co-founder and Director at PAYGo Lab, and Willem Nolens is the Managing Director of PAYGo Lab.

Revitalizing Off-Grid Solar: Why Africa’s PAYGo Sector is Ready for a New Dawn

Chris Emmott is the Associate Director of Investing in Energy Access at Acumen; Audrey Desiderato is Head of the inclusive transition initiative at Mirova (formerly SunFunder); and Bankole Cardoso is the Managing Director of Delta40 Venture Studio.

Subsidy and Synergy: How Philanthropy Can Complement Impact Investing More Effectively

Asad Mahmood is CEO of Social Investment Managers & Advisors, LLC (SIMA), and Nanno Kleiterp is a renowned leader in development finance.

The Emergence of Tokenisation in Microfinance: How this Blockchain-Based Technology is Driving Faster Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs In Emerging Markets

Michele Mattioda is a Director at Mikro Kapital.

The Gender Aspect of the E-Mobility Transition: An Innovative Collaboration in Kenya Highlights New Ways to Bring Women into the Sector

Dana Gorodetsky is Program Manager at the William Davidson Institute‘s Energy and Mobility team. NextBillion is a publication of the William Davidson Institute.

The Global Aid Industry is Repeating the Mistakes that Caused the 2008 Financial Crisis: A Warning from a Former Leader at Lehman Brothers

David Davies is the Founding CEO of AgUnity.

The Inverse Relationship Between Liquidity and Impact: Results from Toniic’s Groundbreaking 10-Year Study of the Practices of Top Impact Investors

Adam Bendell is President of Toniic.

To Change the World, Change Your Economics: How Degrowth Can Shrink Overconsumption in the Global North While Allowing the Global South to Grow

Matt Orsagh and Steve Rocco are co-founders of the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance.

When AI Gets It Wrong: Lessons from a Women-Centered Design Experiment Highlight the Need for Inclusive GPTs

Koheun Lee is the Human-Centered Program Manager for CARE’s Strive Women Program.

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