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NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2023: Announcing the Three Winners of our Annual Contest
As 2024 gets underway, we'd like to announce the results of NextBillion’s annual “Most Influential Article of the Year” contest. This year's contest featured a strong slate of articles, covering a diverse array of topics ranging from systems change to decarbonization, in sectors that included energy, agriculture, finance and more. We've highlighted the three winners, as selected by our readers, in this article.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2023: Cast Your Vote in our Annual Contest by Jan. 7!
As 2023 draws to a close, it’s time for NextBillion’s annual tradition: our “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest. As we've done since 2012, we've selected 12 of our most-read articles from the past year, inviting readers to vote for the ones that influenced their thinking the most. You can vote multiple times — up to once per hour — during the voting period, which will run from Dec. 22 to 11:59 pm on Jan. 7. Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year!
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
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Is Latin America and the Caribbean Really Just 1% Circular?: A New Report Highlights the Hidden Role of Informal Workers in the Circular Economy
Latin America and the Caribbean is 1% circular — far below the global average of 7.2% — according to a recent Circle Economy Foundation report. That means just 1% of all the materials flowing through the region’s economy get a second life through repair, recycling or other means. But Ana Birliga Sutherland and Esther Goodwin Brown at Circle Economy Foundation explain that this number doesn't reflect the contributions of informal workers. They discuss the key role these workers play in the circular economy, and the need for more data and other efforts to support them.
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- Environment, WASH
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The Graduation Approach isn’t Just for Extreme Poverty: An Innovative Project Leverages it to Rebuild Livelihoods After Forced Relocation
The Graduation Approach is a proven way to sustainably build the livelihoods of people living in extreme poverty. But as Anton Simanowitz at Social Performance Solutions explains, it is also being leveraged in contexts that go beyond poverty alleviation. He discusses one such application, exploring a pilot program that used the Graduation Approach to rebuild livelihoods in a community that experienced forced relocation due to mining activities.
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- Energy, Environment
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Achieving the SDGs in the World’s Most Vulnerable Countries: Why the Private Sector Must Recommit to Financing Sustainable Development in Small Island Developing States
It's widely recognized that the world is not on track to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. And as Isabella Massa and Samory Toure at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network explain, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are facing unique obstacles to their SDG agendas. They explore the economic, geophysical and environmental vulnerabilities that SIDS face, and call for the private sector to step up its commitment to financing SDG progress in these countries.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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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.
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- Agriculture, Environment, Investing
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From Trash Barriers to ‘Sky Latrines’: Leveraging Entrepreneurship to Address WASH-Related Challenges in Cambodia’s Floating Villages
Cambodia faces a number of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)-related challenges — particularly in the floating villages and dense lakeside communities around the Mekong River. As Simon Crittle at iDE explains, these waterways are heavily contaminated, causing residents to suffer from waterborne diseases. He explores how iDE is addressing these issues by helping local community members create and monetize waste-management solutions — providing livelihoods for women entrepreneurs in the process.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
- Tags
- hygiene, recycling, sanitation, waste, water, women entrepreneurs
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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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