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Vote for NextBillion’s Most Influential Article of 2021
As an open forum for emerging markets business, NextBillion publishes around 150 original, guest-written articles per year, covering enterprises, innovations, challenges and opportunities across multiple sectors and geographies. Each December we select the 12 most-read articles of the past year to include in our "Most Influential Article of the Year" contest. We invite you to vote for the article that impacted you the most in 2021. You can vote up to one time per hour during the two-week voting period, which runs from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2.
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Supporting Women Farmers in the Age of Climate Change: Why It’s Time To Look at Agriculture Solutions Through Both a Gender and Climate Lens
In sub-Saharan Africa, women smallholder farmers face a number of significant barriers, from lower access to resources, to entrenched sociocultural norms that limit their mobility, time and decision-making power. And these obstacles are exacerbated by climate change, which also places unique burdens on women. In response to these overlapping challenges, Bianca Samson, Flavia Howard and Charlie Habershon at Dalberg argue that agricultural support efforts must combine a gender and climate lens. They discuss ways to align these three priorities to drive catalytic impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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A Business Opportunity With Exponential Benefits: Linking Agriculture and Energy to Improve Livelihoods in Africa
Agriculture contributes around 23% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, and energy access can help drive agricultural development. However, Scarlett Santana at RMI points out that the region has few businesses enabling productive energy uses in agriculture, and the lack of electricity for mechanization is limiting growth in rural communities. She explores the opportunities that exist for agribusinesses that link their investment and other business decisions to energy considerations – and for energy businesses that link their efforts to agriculture.
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- Agriculture, Energy, Entrepreneurship
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The Pandemic is Not Over for Social Enterprises: Here’s How Impact Investors and Other Funders Can Help Them Survive COVID-19
Social enterprises are developing innovative, sustainable and scalable solutions to the world's deepest economic and social issues, but many of these businesses are at risk of disappearing due to COVID-19. According to Alethia Kang at Acceso and Luke Seidle at Kiva, impact investors and other funders must step up to keep the social enterprise field afloat. They share five steps funders can take to bolster these businesses, and discuss how the partnership between their two organizations illustrates the value of flexible funding support during a crisis.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Supporting Farmers and Food Systems: How Crowdfunding Can Address Funding Challenges for Agricultural SMEs in Africa
Agriculture employs over 70% of the working population in Africa, making it a cornerstone of the continent's economic progress and livelihood development. But as Esther Mweru and Jerry Sellanga at 2SCALE explain, the financial strain of COVID-19 — combined with previously existing market inefficiencies — is putting many vulnerable farmers and agricultural small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at risk. They explore how crowdfunding can provide a financial lifeline to these smallholders and businesses, and discuss how 2SCALE is using it to support agribusinesses in Mali, Nigeria and Kenya.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Technology
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Healthy Animals Make a Healthier World: How Expanding Animal Care Can Advance the SDGs and Support Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa
Smallholder farming is the main source of livelihood for many families facing extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, and livestock provides up to 45% of their income. Jeannette Ferran Astorga at the Zoetis Foundation explains why access to quality animal healthcare is critical to protecting those farmers' livelihoods. She discusses how the organization is championing healthier, more sustainable animal care practices, and how improving livestock care can make a major impact on the region's progress toward the SDGs.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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Scaling Biodigesters: How Appropriate Financing Can Help This Undervalued Technology Deliver Social and Environmental Impact
Biodigesters break down organic material to produce biogas for cooking and heating, along with fertilizer. But though these applications are extremely useful for farming households, uptake remains limited: In Africa alone, the technology could be adopted by almost 33 million households, but market penetration is less than 1% of that. Tanya Kothari of the Catalysing Agriculture by Scaling Energy Ecosystems program shares a recent study from the Shell Foundation exploring the impact biodigesters can make, while identifying the kinds of financing that could support growth in the market.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
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Below the Tip of the Iceberg: Why Systems Change is the Key to Scaling Innovations and Solving Development Challenges
In recent years there has been an increased focus on systems change in the development sector, in response to growing awareness of how underlying systemic causes are perpetuating many global challenges. María Boa-Alvarado at CIMMYT, Lennart Woltering at One CGIAR and Marcos Sanjuán at CRS-El Salvador discuss the benefits of this approach, as applied to the issue of land degradation in Central America. They explore how their organizations are using a systems thinking tool, the iceberg model, to better understand the root causes of this problem – and to provide lasting solutions.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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