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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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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.
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- Environment, Investing
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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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Trash Talk: Five Lessons for Reducing Plastic Pollution by Establishing Sachet Recycling Loops
Sachet waste — i.e., packaging for small, single-use quantities of consumer goods — is a growing environmental threat. With increasing demand for sachet-packaged products, particularly in emerging economies, the world now produces a staggering 855 billion pieces of this waste each year. Rolph Droste at Bopinc discusses the environmental impact of sachet waste, and shares learnings from a consortium of businesses and nonprofits that is establishing a large-scale, market-driven solution for recycling this waste in Bangladesh.
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- Environment, WASH
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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.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology, Transportation