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Business Solutions to a Humanitarian Crisis: Nine Things Companies Must Understand to Support Refugees from Ukraine – And Around the World
As war rages in Ukraine, humanitarian efforts have struggled to keep pace with the needs of the refugees displaced by the conflict. According to Betsy Alley, an independent researcher and analyst with expertise in refugee business investment, the private sector can help. But how can businesses best contribute to something that has traditionally been a humanitarian affair? She shares nine learnings from the refugee crises of recent years, which show how enterprises and their employees can serve and empower refugees while also benefiting host communities – and their own businesses.
- Categories
- Investing
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Redefining ‘Business as Usual’: Three Ways to Overcome Barriers to ESG and Climate Finance
Climate change imposes significant costs on the economy, and addressing the crisis is key to businesses’ long-term success and viability. But as Roger-Mark De Souza at Pact explains, despite the growing urgency of the need, the business case for moving toward sustainability – and the fact that up to 80-90% of investors want to invest in socially and environmentally friendly ways – actual green investing hovers at just 10%. He explores the reasons for the gap between investor interest and action, and proposes three ways to address it.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing
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Strengthening the ‘Environment’ Component of ESG: How Financial Institutions Can Bring Green Financing into the Mainstream in India
Environment, social and governance (ESG) reporting is a critical enabler for many companies that hope to leverage business for social good. But according to Aryasilpa Adhikari and Priyank Sharma at the Inclusive Finance India Initiative and Srishty Anand at Fair Finance India, though Indian financial institutions have shown an increased focus on the social and governance components of the ESG framework, the environment component has generally been less of a priority. They explore several ways India can change this dynamic and bring green finance into the mainstream.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance, Investing
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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, Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
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Using Blended Finance to Navigate the Pandemic: How an Innovative Funding Vehicle is Helping SMEs Survive COVID-19 and Advance the SDGs
Emerging economies' progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is behind schedule, and COVID-19 has set their efforts back even further. Margi Goelz at Georgetown University and Bridget Bradley at Tetra Tech discuss the value of blended finance in closing these countries' estimated $2.5 trillion annual SDG funding gap. They explore how an innovative blended finance facility has helped a Kenya-based energy company navigate the pandemic and contribute to the SDGs, and how this approach can support other small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets.
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- Coronavirus, Energy, Investing
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Changing the Gatekeepers: Why Female Fund Managers Are the Key to Unlocking More Inclusive Capital
Greater access to capital could boost the financial empowerment of women entrepreneurs. Yet as Melanie de Nysschen at SAVCA and Yeabsira Zewdie at MiDA Advisors point out, women comprise just 11% of senior investment professionals in emerging markets – the people who serve as gatekeepers to capital. Since women investors are significantly more likely to support female entrepreneurs, they explore the impact of increasing women's presence among investment professionals, and share insights from interviews with female fund managers in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana that highlight their biggest challenges.
- Categories
- Investing
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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.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
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Moving the Clean Cookstoves Sector Forward: Six Principles for Investors
Around 3 billion people rely on solid fuels for their daily cooking needs, causing adverse health, environmental and socioeconomic impacts – especially among women. Clean cookstoves promise a solution to these issues, but according to Mitzi Perez Padilla at FMO and Fabrizio Valenti at KSAR & Associates, the sector's effectiveness depends highly on how investment decisions are made. They share insights from a recent study that identifies six principles investors should follow to ensure that clean cookstove investments yield the greatest possible impact.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing
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