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NextBillion’s 2022 Reader and Guest Writer Survey: Share Your Views and Help Shape Our Coverage
As an open forum for the development through enterprise sector, almost all of NextBillion's content is guest written. That's why it's important for us to check in periodically with our writers and readers, to get a better sense of how well our coverage is suiting your needs – and what we could do better. To that end, we've put together a brief, six-question survey, and we invite both writers and readers to share your views. Your input will be highly valuable as we work to highlight the businesses, innovations, debates and leaders that are shaping the sector.
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- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
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Risky Business: How an Innovative Partnership is Addressing Growing Threats to the Coffee Supply Chain
For smallholder farmers, growing coffee has become a risky business. Plagued by low profitability and the effects of climate change, many struggle to earn a livable income. And with smallholders accounting for 80% of global coffee production, their struggles put the entire coffee industry at risk. Carolin Ehrensperger at Neumann Gruppe GmBH and Laura Harwig at Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation discuss a partnership that aims to build a sustainable coffee supply chain by providing farmers with critical opportunities and resources to grow and adapt.
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- Agriculture, Environment
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The Battle for the Planet: How Climate Change Investments Can – And Must – Save the World
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted the grim trendlines of global warming – a problem that, if left unchecked, will have a catastrophic impact on the planet. But as Bonnie Foley-Wong at Pique Ventures explains, the financial impacts of climate change have already begun, and investors – whether as individuals or institutions – can play a key role in developing and scaling solutions. She highlights seven areas and themes that investors can focus on to help build a planet where future generations can thrive.
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- Environment, Investing
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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.
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- Agriculture, Environment
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Beyond Energy Efficiency: Key Trends and Pathways to Scale in the Solar Appliance Market
Solar appliance uptake is a key element of global energy access efforts. But according to Yasemin Erboy Ruff and Lauren Boucher at CLASP, no appliance is close to reaching market saturation, despite considerable gains in recent years. They share highlights from Efficiency for Access' 2021 Solar Appliance Technology Briefs, which characterize the market, trends and pathways to scale for 11 off-grid-appropriate solar appliances and enabling technologies, and explore what these findings mean for the solar appliance market and the customers it serves.
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- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Impact Reporting for All: Developing an Approach That Works for Both SMEs and Their Funders
In 2020, nearly $2.3 trillion was invested with the intention of generating positive social or environmental impact – but impact measurement was only used across 28% of that total amount. What is stopping the managers of the other 72% of impact capital from measuring their investments’ impact – and how can those obstacles be addressed? Kevin Horgan, Geoff Kendall and Joanna Robertson at Future-Fit Foundation explain why the difficulty of impact reporting is at the heart of this issue, and present a solution that they believe could revolutionize the impact investment landscape.
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- Environment, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Digital Finance for Climate Resilience: An Urgent Opportunity for Startups and Stakeholders in Emerging Markets
The consequences of climate change are no longer hypothetical scenarios or predictions – they are a global reality, and they’re getting worse, especially for the poor and vulnerable. But according to Malika Anand at BFA Global's Catalyst Fund, this crisis presents an opportunity for digital finance to power greater climate resilience. She explores several types of climate resilience solutions, and shares a framework to help both digital finance and climate stakeholders begin allocating more resources toward these solutions in emerging markets.
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- Environment, Finance, Telecommunications
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Bringing Cooking Poverty off the SDG Sidelines: A New Study Takes a Fresh Look at the Clean Cooking Challenge
Dirty cooking negatively affects almost four billion people and kills over 4 million each year – more than tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-AIDS combined. As Phil LaRocco at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs argues, the issue is one of the largest unsolved public health and equality crises humanity has ever faced – and failing to address it will put the Sustainable Development Goals out of reach. He explores why previous and ongoing clean cooking efforts have failed, and outlines some potential solutions that could finally turn things around, based on a recent study out of Columbia University.
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- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment
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