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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.
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- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Nine Business Models for Productive Use of Electricity in Africa: A Framework for Generating Profit and Impact in Off-Grid Energy
Improving energy access in rural Africa is crucial for poverty reduction, but grid electricity is often inaccessible or unaffordable — and off-grid alternatives present similar challenges. Olowo Aminu, Bodunde Akinola, Nneka Chime and Mosorire Aiyeyemi at CrossBoundary argue that Productive Use of Electricity (PUE) has the potential to solve these issues, boosting household income and economic growth, while increasing profitability for energy providers. They share a framework CrossBoundary has developed to help off-grid companies and other stakeholders plan for effective PUE implementation.
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- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Technology
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Energy Poverty is Not Gender Blind: How Companies, Funders and Policymakers Can Empower Female Energy Consumers Across Africa
While both men and women in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity and clean energy technologies, women pay a bigger price for this lack of access in nearly every imaginable way. Mutale Ngaba, Katie Brauer, Nathalie Gogue-Ebo and Duda Slawek at Open Capital argue that this crucial aspect of the energy access conversation is often overlooked. They explore the gender inequities in energy poverty, and share learnings from Open Capital's work that can guide the efforts of energy companies, funders and policymakers to put women’s needs at the center of energy access efforts in the region.
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- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Making ICT4D Green: Three Focus Areas for Improving the Environmental Impact of the Information and Communication Technology for Development Sector
The global digital transformation is generating many positive impacts, and digital technologies have become essential tools for climate and environmental action. But according to Nora Lindström at Catholic Relief Services, the growing use of digital technology is also causing some significant environmental challenges — and the “Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)” sector must address them. She discusses several ways to increase the tech industry's sustainability, focusing on three key elements of ICT: generative AI, broadband access and electronic equipment.
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- Energy, Environment, Technology, Telecommunications, WASH
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Reimagining Enterprise Support and Advisory Services for Energy SMEs: Five Principles for Boosting their Impact in the Global South
Over 675 million people still lack access to electricity (as of 2021) — over 80% of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. As Godfrey Simiyu Katiambo at Mercy Corps Energy4Impact explains, bridging this energy gap in an equitable, sustainable manner will require not only a massive increase in funding, but also targeted support for the small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) that are advancing clean energy access in underserved communities. He explores the growing need for enterprise support and technical and business advisory services that cater to these SMEs' unique challenges, and proposes five ways to boost the impact of these services.
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- Energy, Environment
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Beyond Illumination: An Off-Grid Energy Provider in Indonesia Innovates to Maximize the Impact of Solar Home Systems
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 18,000 scattered islands, faces unique energy access challenges. Hanko Scheffers at All Solar World discusses the obstacles to rural electrification in the country, and explores how All Solar World has addressed them through its unique take on solar home systems (SHS). He explains how the company has innovated on the technology itself (through features like Wi-Fi integration), while also optimizing its dissemination network and financing options, in an effort to maximize the reach and impact of SHS in rural communities.
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- Energy, Technology
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Driving the EV Transition in LMICs: How Low- and Middle-Income Countries Can Accelerate the Adoption of Electric Vehicles
Amid mounting climate concerns, public health issues and economic challenges, the case for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is compelling. Based on the strategies adopted by numerous countries, including many pioneer LMICs, Daphnée Benayoun, Kiran Willmot and Debashish Roychoudhury at Dalberg share four priority drivers that governments should consider to accelerate and manage their EV transition.
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- Energy, Environment, Technology, Transportation
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NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2023: Announcing the Three Winners of our Annual Contest
As 2024 gets underway, we'd like to announce the results of NextBillion’s annual “Most Influential Article of the Year” contest. This year's contest featured a strong slate of articles, covering a diverse array of topics ranging from systems change to decarbonization, in sectors that included energy, agriculture, finance and more. We've highlighted the three winners, as selected by our readers, in this article.
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- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH