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Decentralizing Data Management Across ESG and Impact Investing: How Blockchain Innovation Can Address the Data Gap – And the Ratings Controversy
ESG and impact investing have gone mainstream, with US $53 trillion – one-third of global assets under management – projected to be classified as ESG investments by 2025. But as Miriam Davidovic at RAZ Finance points out, investors can't direct their capital toward sustainable businesses without reliable data – and there are growing questions about whether current ESG data and ratings practices are capturing real impact. She argues that a decentralized approach to ESG and impact data management is needed, and explores several blockchain-based innovations that empower individuals to provide trustworthy, transparent, anonymous impact data.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
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Resolving the Core Tension of Impact-Focused Fintech: A Viable Model for Reaching Rural Women with Digital Financial Services
Reaching last-mile communities is challenging for a business that also has to attend to its own bottom line. Claudia Sosa Lazo at IDEO.org discusses a partnership between IDEO.org, BRAC, bKash and the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics that is seeking profitable ways to bring digital financial services to rural women in Bangladesh. She explains how the partnership provides a model for other businesses and NGOs that hope to unlock both profit and social impact, while bringing beneficial products to the world’s most excluded communities.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Technology
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How Global Corporations Can Boost Local Renewable Energy Production: The Transformative Potential of D-RECs in Emerging Markets
If the world hopes to address climate change, large corporations must transition away from fossil fuels for their power needs. To that end, corporations can buy renewable energy certificates, allowing them to claim renewable energy use and meet their climate commitments, while providing needed funding to renewable projects. But as Beatrice Kennedy at Powertrust points out, emerging markets generally lack access to this solution. She explores how distributed renewable energy certificates (D-RECs) can address this gap, leveraging blockchain and open-source technology to create a global marketplace for renewable energy generated in emerging countries.
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- Energy, Technology
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Implementing Effective Innovation Challenges: Three Lessons from the Last Mile Distribution Sector
Last mile distributors (LMDs) are key to bringing life-changing products to hard-to-reach consumers, and innovation is essential to their work. But as Emma Colenbrander and Charlotte Taylor at the Global Distributors Collective and Gerwin Jansen at Bopinc explain, these innovations are often not replicated, leading LMDs to spend time and resources reinventing the wheel. They explore how innovation challenges can foster greater replicability and inclusivity, and share three key insights for LMDs and other businesses and organizations working to support innovation at the last mile.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
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India’s Blanket Approach to Financial Inclusion Is Leaving Women Behind: Here Are Four Ways to Close the Gender Gap
India's Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana program has been a game-changer for financial inclusion in the country. But according to Akhand Jyoti Tiwari, Sonal Jaitly and Saloni Tandon at MSC, the campaign faces considerable challenges, as evidenced by India's substantial gender gap in account ownership and usage. They argue that the program's blanket approach has contributed to these gaps, by overlooking women’s unique needs while targeting the population at large. They explore four things the country can do to better enhance the financial inclusion of women.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Building a Transformative Gender Approach into Graduation Programs: Lessons Learned from a Three-Year Initiative in Latin America
Latin America is home to 86 million people living in extreme poverty – and women in the region are particularly impacted. Graduation programs have shown their effectiveness at addressing the multi-dimensional challenges of poverty, but Laura Morínigo and Carolina de Miranda at Fundación Capital argue that these programs must do more to address gender inequalities. They discuss the results of an initiative that integrated a transformative gender approach into poverty graduation, and explore how this approach can amplify these programs' impact on women.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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On the Edge of Edge: Why Advancements in Edge Computing Could Shift the Paradigm for Remote Connectivity, Internet of Things and Digital Development
Edge computing brings both computation and data storage closer to internet users: It uses servers installed on cell towers to deliver content directly to consumers’ devices, instead of transmitting it from distant hubs across a cellular network. As digital development expert Troy Etulain explains, edge computing offers compelling benefits for remote internet users, and for the development projects and businesses that hope to reach them. He explores the momentum behind this technology – and how it can be leveraged to boost rural internet connectivity and accomplish other goals.
- Categories
- Technology
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Supporting Financial Health Startups: Four Lessons for Impact Investors, Foundations and Governments
Over the past few years, Village Capital has run Finance Forward, a global coalition to support early-stage entrepreneurs building tech-enabled solutions around financial health. Village Capital CEO Allie Burns shares highlights from a new report that analyzed data from the 1,000+ companies that applied to the program around the world. The report paints a picture of the global state of financial health startups, and offers lessons for impact investors, foundations and government leaders who hope to grow the ecosystem for financial health innovation.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
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