NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

One Asia, One Future

As AVPN counts down to the 11th edition of the Annual Global Conference, which will take place against the backdrop of a world in great flux, it is imperative that we provide the social investment community with the most extensive opportunity yet, to learn, connect, and unite in action for Asia.

Join us for the first time in West Asia, in Abu Dhabi, UAE on 23 – 25 April 2024 in a gathering guided by the theme “One Asia, One Future”.

If you could significantly increase staff productivity and improve community engagement and impact, what kind of impact would that have on your cause?

Geared toward nonprofits, this free one-hour webinar provides demonstrations on how to use Al-driven tools to enhance donor engagement, optimize campaign targeting, and personalize communication strategies.

Time: 1:00 PM ET

Following the great success of the 2023 Energy transition workshop in Cape Town, the ICSC, in collaboration with Eskom are delighted to announce that the event will be returning to the same stunning venue – Cape Town on 24 – 25 April 2024.

The energy transition is raising issues thick and fast the world over. One of the most pressing is to identify the most practical routes to achieve net zero – this is the focus of the ICSC workshop and makes attendance at this international event more important than ever. The event will improve your understanding of the policies being pursued by various countries to achieve net zero, the technologies that are being developed and deployed, and how they interact.

The 3rd energy transition workshop is a fantastic opportunity to discuss the energy transition with experts from all over the world, and to gain insights into what strategies and technologies are likely to work and the ones that may be less successful.

Topics that will be discussed include:

• Developments in carbon capture, utilisation and storage
• Emissions reduction from power plants
• The role of variable renewable energy
• How to maintain a stable electricity grid during the transition
• How to improve the flexibility of power plants so they can cope with VRE
• The potential to reduce emissions from hard to abate industries
• The role of coal in a circular economy – for example as a viable source of rare earth elements, critical for the energy transition.

Join our Finance for Resilience team on April 24th for a dynamic webinar that explores security, resilience, and profitability for finance in Sahel’s agricultural sector.

This webinar will explore CATALYZE’s flexible project design, robust partnerships, and steadfast commitment to addressing multifaceted challenges in regions affected by food crises, conflicts, and economic downturns. We explore the critical intersection of security, resilience, and financial access, sharing strategies to ensure access to finance and increase the profitability of MFIs in the agricultural sector. Speakers will discuss how incentives have played a pivotal role in expanding value chains, specifically lending to the small ruminant value chain, and how organizations have successfully expanded their zones of operation despite security challenges.

We will also share how CATALYZE’s innovative use of financial instruments, including guarantees, insurance, capital injections, and debt restructuring, manages risks, lowers required loan amounts and extends support to micro-enterprises and solidarity groups.

Time: 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM EDT

In this webinar, RMI is releasing the Flaring Risk Map, a new feature on the Oil Climate Index plus Gas (OCI+) web platform that assesses the negative environmental justice impact of oil and gas flares on nearby communities.  

The webinar includes three parts:  

1. An RMI presentation introducing the data analysis methodology, with a walk through of the new feature and an outline of the next steps in analysis and outreach.
2. A panel discussion featuring use cases of the tool. Panelists include Jill Johnston, Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences from University of Southern California, and Kayla Lucero-Matteucci, Just Transition Advisor of Economic Development Department of the State of New Mexico, as well as the RMI data analytics team.
3. A Q&A session where experts address questions from the audience.

Time: 12:30 – 2:00

SurveyCTO now makes it convenient and simple to conduct conjoint analysis on our platform with the addition of a conjoint analysis plug-in and workflow.

In this webinar, we will learn from Mofya Phiri, Research Advisor for SurveyCTO’s Customer Success Team. Mofya has over 8 years of experience in ICT4D in Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Zambia applying ICT across various sectors. Today, Mofya supports users in learning to use SurveyCTO to its full potential.

Mofya will take attendees on a deeper dive into conjoint analysis. He’ll explain how SurveyCTO’s conjoint analysis plug-in can be used to implement this sophisticated statistical technique across multiple use cases, and how to get started with this plug-in by deploying and building off of the conjoint analysis Workflow in the Hub, SurveyCTO’s data collection template gallery.

If you want to up your data collection game by learning how to use a new SurveyCTO plug-in for high-quality research, this webinar is for you! Already familiar with conjoint analysis through experience with other tools? This webinar will guide you in getting conjoint analysis up and running for your SurveyCTO-based projects.

Time: 9 AM ET/ 1 PM UTC

The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), a joint initiative of the African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), will bring together key public and private sector change makers from Central Africa for a two-day training session on the effective implementation and scale up of digital climate advisory services (DCAS). The invited representatives include Bio Agro-Business SAS (BAB)(link is external) and GreenHouse Ventures(link is external) Limited of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, respectively.

The training will be delivered by FOKABS(link is external), a social enterprise that offers innovative technologies and advisory services for climate change mitigation, adaptation, finance, capacity building, and technology transfer in developed and developing countries. Participants will explore new knowledge, best practices and the latest innovations and approaches to promoting the adoption of digital climate advisory services in the region. The training will feature design and implementation of DCAS projects that reach the last mile and enable farmers to improve food security and climate resilience.

Climate change, including flooding, drought and extreme weather, continues to impact traditional farming methods, making it harder for farmers worldwide to secure livelihoods. However, modern technology – from smartphones to satellites, drones and special sensors – and innovative digital tools are revolutionizing farming practices.  By providing accurate weather forecasts, recommendations for adapting to climate variations, and optimized crop management strategies, technology can play a key role in enhancing sustainable agriculture.

Time: 8:00 – 16:30 (GMT+1) / 4:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST

PV manufacturing capacity is rapidly expanding in China, US and elsewhere as different regions look to establish localized supply chains. And with demand in many regions suppressed by a lack of grid capacity as well as other, often political, reasons, PV module oversupply may be with us for some time.

This situation may have the positive effect of weeding lower quality suppliers out of the market, and leading to better negotiation power for the buyer. But there are also challenges. For instance, the industry is in the midst of a technology transition from PERC to TOPCon and HJT, and there are questions around how to negotiate a flexible supply agreement. Furthermore, there are quality risks associated with leaving modules in a warehouse for a long period between manufacturing and installation.

In this pv magazine webinar, produced in partnership with Clean Energy Associates (CEA), we take a closer look at the situation that has led to this oversupply situation. We’ll examine the various risks that this situation presents to module buyers and offer advice on the most effective strategies to manage them.

We’ll be joined first of all by Christian Roselund, senior policy analyst at CEA, who will provide some background on the differing conditions in U.S. and global markets and the U.S. trade and industrial policies that create the specific conditions in the U.S. market. Engilla Draper, Senior Manager, Supply Chain Management with CEA will follow up with a look at the risks and opportunities that this situation presents for the industry. And finally, CEA Engineering Manager Claire Kearns-McCoy, will take us through some of the specific risks to module quality and performance that oversupply and low prices can present.

pv magazine Webinar content
• Overview of the current oversupply situation in the PV module industry and how we got here
• Industry risks and benefits that this situation presents for buyers
• Opportunities and challenges related to supplier contract terms that buyers should be aware of
• Module quality and performance concerns as a result of the oversupply
• Q&A

Questions can be submitted beforehand or during the webinar through a chat window. Mark Hutchins, magazine director at pv magazine, will be moderating this webinar.

Registration for this pv magazine Webinar is free of charge.

Time: 11:00 AM ET