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Scaling Climate Finance for Smallholder Agriculture: Lessons Learned from Partnering with Farmer-Allied Businesses
Small-scale agriculture supports the livelihoods of more than 600 million families and generates over 40% of jobs in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Yet as Elizabeth Teague at Root Capital points out, agricultural livelihoods are highly vulnerable to climate change, and smallholder farmers receive just 1.7% of global climate financing. She discusses how Root Capital is working with farmer-allied enterprises to help close this gap, sharing what they’ve learned about how to design and scale climate financing for smallholder communities.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Investing
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Overcoming Barriers to Impact Investment in Africa: Interviews with Fund Managers Reveal Three Promising Solutions to the Continent’s Funding Gap
African-based investment fund managers face an uphill battle to secure the capital they need to invest in home-grown enterprises, particularly when social impact is a key part of their investment strategies. Bernard Chidzero, Nkanyiso Hlongwa and Serena Fu at The Bridgespan Group share highlights from a recent report based on interviews with 25 stakeholders in the continent's impact investing sector, which reveal the obstacles faced by African fund managers — and some potential solutions.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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The Overlapping Impacts of Off-Grid Solar: Four Ways Innovative Funding Can Enable the Sector to Advance Global Climate and Poverty Goals
How can the off-grid solar sector achieve its energy access and climate-related goals? Laura Fortes and Drew Corbyn at GOGLA argue that there’s one clear answer to that question: more and better finance. They discuss four ways innovative funding models can enable the sector to rapidly and radically accelerate progress toward universal energy access and other development goals.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Strengthening the Front Lines in the Fight Against Climate Change: A Call for Investment in Coastal Communities’ Resilience
This week, both the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit and Climate Week NYC are happening in New York, at the end of the hottest summer on record. As Florian Kemmerich at Palladium and Bamboo Capital Partners points out, there are good reasons for the alignment between the two events and the growing urgency of the discussion — particularly in a coastal city like New York. He explores how coastal communities bear the brunt of escalating climate impacts, and how investing in their climate resilience can support progress toward the other SDGs.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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A Pivotal Moment to Invest in Africa: How Impact Investing Can Transform the Continent’s Healthcare Value Chain
The global impact investment market is estimated to be worth US $1.16 trillion, but less than 2% of these investments are channeled to Africa’s health markets. Abiodun Awosusi at the Ivey Business School argues that this should not be the case, as the continent offers uniquely valuable opportunities for health businesses and the investors that support them. He explores the overlapping trends that are driving these opportunities, and shares some ways investors and other stakeholders can get involved.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Insights from 10 Years of Boosting Gender Inclusion in Business: A Pioneering Social Enterprise Explores How the Sector Can Take the Next Steps
Over the past 10 years, gender inclusion has become a growing priority in business and investing. However, as Rebecca Fries and Luis Marquez at Value for Women point out, only $6 billion was raised for gender lens investing in 2021 — a tiny percentage of the $1.2 trillion raised by private markets globally. As Value for Women moves into its second decade, they share insights that will fuel progress toward gender inclusion in business and investment in emerging markets over the coming years.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Rethinking Scale in Agribusiness: An Impact Investor Explores the Massive Benefits of Being Small
Many impact investors have adopted the mindset of traditional venture capital, seeking out companies with the potential to reach millions of customers. But Chris Wayne and Coco Lim at Acumen argue that this single-minded focus on scale ignores the realities of agribusinesses in emerging markets, and overlooks small businesses' potential to make a deeper impact. They explore why impact investors should focus on more than just the number of "lives impacted” by their agriculture investments, moving toward a more nuanced understanding of scale in this crucial sector.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Social Enterprise
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The Global Digital Health Monitor: A New Resource Advances the Digital Transformation of Global Health Systems
COVID-19 catalyzed the scaling of a variety of digital health interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). But as Patricia Mechael at HealthEnabled points out, this has not translated into the sustained digital transformation of healthcare in many of these markets. As broader technological advancements create a strong enabling environment for digital health in LMICs, she explores how a new resource, the Global Digital Health Monitor, can help these countries strategically advance their digital health transformation.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing, Technology, Telecommunications
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