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Private Business Alone Can’t Bring Energy to the Last Mile: Why Philanthropy Should Shift its Focus to Scalable Non-Profit Models
Africa is home to countless failed pay-as-you-go energy businesses that couldn't sustain themselves after their grant funding dried up. According to Aneri Pradhan at New Energy Nexus, this highlights the shortcomings of market-led approaches to last-mile energy access across the continent. She argues that philanthropic funding has largely failed to create sustainable energy businesses in these communities, as customers cannot afford clean energy at their current income levels. Instead, she encourages funders to support non-profit models that have proven their ability to reach these communities at scale.
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Mobilizing Capital in the Low-Cost Private School Sector: Key Insights Two Years into an Innovative Partnership
One in five children in sub-Saharan Africa are out of school, and without scalable solutions, the region — like other emerging markets — won’t meet SDG 4’s goal of education for all. Mauricio Rincon and Mathieu Fourn at Opportunity International, and Alvaro Ma at Oikocredit argue that affordable non-state schools can help address this need — but only if they're supported by financial institutions and impact investment. They share learnings from a partnership between Opportunity and Oikocredit that is directing millions of dollars in capital to these schools, along with capacity building and other support.
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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.
- Categories
- 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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Changing the Profitability Paradigm: A Key Report Aims to Rally Global Investors Behind a Sustainable Approach to Finance
As the global economy struggles to navigate financial crises and address shared challenges like climate change, Lucas Magnani at Convergences argues that the need to transform the profit-centric approach of traditional finance is increasingly urgent. He shares insights from Convergences' latest Impact Finance Barometer report, highlighting several ways that impact investors and others are working to put profitability and positive impact on equal footing — and some key areas where more progress is needed.
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- Investing
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Private Sector Engagement: The Missing Ingredient in Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response Plans
At the World Health Assembly's annual meeting in May, delegates will discuss and agree upon a plan to respond to future pandemics. In advance of this crucial meeting, Frida Njogu-Ndongwe and Emily Coppel at IDinsight argue that COVID-19 and other disease outbreaks have highlighted a clear need for the private sector to help finance and implement emergency response plans for future epidemics and pandemics. They explain how engaging the private sector in these plans can enable timely, broad-reaching action that could prevent — or minimize the impact of — future outbreaks.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
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Impact Management Moves Toward Standardization: How Investors are Harmonizing Their Practices — And Where More Progress is Needed
Impact investing and development finance are promising ways to generate positive impacts and healthy financial returns in emerging markets. But as Thelma Brenes Munoz and Mitzi Perez Padilla at FMO, the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank explain, the lack of standardized impact management practices across different investors has become a key obstacle for the industry. They explore the growing movement toward standardization in impact management, discussing key signs of progress — and what investors can do to accelerate it.
- Categories
- Investing
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Africa Must Take Charge of its Own Development Agenda: Here’s How Impact Investors Can Support It
Economies across Africa are facing serious headwinds — but according to Shiluba Mawela at Tshiamo Impact Partners, the continent still offers significant opportunities for impact investors. However, she argues that investment capital will not solve the region's development challenges without better coordination between African governments, private sector players and local communities. She highlights some emerging signs of this cross-sector collaboration, explaining how it can foster a thriving impact investing ecosystem that truly advances Africa's development.
- Categories
- Investing