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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.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance
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Charting a Pathway to Scale Through Government: Adapting a Girls’ Empowerment Program to a Public School Setting
BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program supports vulnerable young women through group training focused on education and social/economic empowerment. But despite its longevity and impact, the program has lacked a path to self-sufficiency and scale. Esau Tugume and Jenna Grzeslo at BRAC discuss a solution to this challenge: adapting ELA to an after-school setting in Uganda, allowing it to be scaled through public schools. They explore this model, and share how they've navigated the issues that can arise when leveraging government involvement in pursuit of scale.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- education, gender equality, gender gap, government, scale, social impact, Women, youth
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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.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment
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The Time is Now: How to Build an Inclusive Financial System For All
As global finance leaders gather for this year’s World Bank and IMF meetings, they're meeting against a backdrop of existential crises, from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change and widening inequalities. Dan Barker at Mastercard's Center for Inclusive Growth and Mackenzie Wallace at the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program explore why these crises raise the need – and the opportunity – to build an inclusive financial system for all. They share four principles to guide this process, and discuss the crucial roles policymakers, financial services providers, academia, community groups and NGOs can play.
- Categories
- Finance
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India’s Social Stock Exchange is Coming: Key Considerations to Maximize its Impact
India faces an estimated annual financing gap of US $565 billion in achieving its SDG targets. But while impact investment in the country is growing, it is still nowhere near those levels – and Indian social enterprises face substantial financing gaps of their own. Manali Jain at MSC and Mohit Saini at Tufts University Investment Office explore how a social stock exchange could help address this need, discussing India’s ongoing efforts to establish such an exchange, how it can benefit both social enterprises and impact investors – and how the government can maximize its success.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Made in Africa, Sold Around the World: An African E-Commerce Innovator Connects Women Creators with Global Customers
Sub-Saharan Africa is currently one of the world’s smallest e-commerce regions, but as Moulaye Taboure at Afrikrea points out, it has seen 42% year-on-year growth from 2019-2020, and its leading markets are starting to mature, providing a foundation for continued growth. He explores how several factors are aligning to support the e-commerce industry’s continued momentum in Africa, and discusses Afrikrea's efforts to build a platform that enables local sellers – particularly women – to grow their businesses and sell their products worldwide.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Optimizing Results-Based Financing for Off-Grid Energy: Why Localization Can Provide a Pathway to More Effective Investment
Leading investors across the energy access sector have embraced results-based financing (RBF) as a key mechanism to unlock private capital for small-scale solar and mini-grid businesses, and to advance the world toward universal electrification. But according to Audrey Desiderato at SunFunder and Martijn Veen at SNV, the remote design and management of RBF programs increases the risk that these funds will exclude local actors and innovation. They share findings from a recent white paper exploring the need for more localization in results-based financing for off-grid energy.
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Developing Social Entrepreneurs into Sales Leaders: Effective Practices to Adopt – And Common Mistakes to Avoid
Succeeding in social business requires entrepreneurs to exert strong executive leadership in multiple business functions. As Scott A. Roy at Whitten & Roy Partnership argues, one such area is sales, which is often a weak point for social entrepreneurs, even though it's the revenue generator for their companies. He shares some essential sales development practices – and common mistakes – that social entrepreneurs in emerging markets need to understand to optimize their own sales efforts and maximize their business success.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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@NextBillion (link opens in a new window)
Given the success of #Digital (link opens in a new window) #FinancialServices (link opens in a new window) in reaching last-mile populations, Malika Anand at @CF_BFA (link opens in a new window)… https://t.co/wsG7NomhmK (link opens in a new window) -
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ATTN #JobSeekers (link opens in a new window): The Fargo Group seeks a Group Chief Financial Officer. Apply by 11/12: https://t.co/IX1iSQEQq1 (link opens in a new window)… https://t.co/TzMMzmSXSZ (link opens in a new window) -
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Heads-up #ImpactMeasurement (link opens in a new window) folks: Check out this #SOCAP21 (link opens in a new window) session coming up on Wed., 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM EDT / 8:… https://t.co/56guk3667q (link opens in a new window)
