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Chinese investors warming up to impact investing, but regulations slowing progress
Chinese investors are showing increasing interest in start-ups with innovations that tackle energy consumption, social and climate change issues, but the main force behind such so-called impact investing remains foreign firms and supranational agencies, according to fund managers.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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‘The Dumbest Waste of Time Ever’: How the Development Sector is Failing MSMEs
Low-income business owners often keep poor records and don't always keep close tabs on their profits versus expenses – a side effect of by-necessity entrepreneurship. Global development organizations naturally want to help - yet too many programs offer skills development as one-off training. According to business development consultant Donna Rosa, helping entrepreneurs create business plans only to abandon them to fend for themselves is "the dumbest waste of time ever." She explains why in this thought-provoking post.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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Why Startups Focused on Solving Social Problems Are Attracting Investors
Making public commitments to social good without action to back them up sets a dangerous precedent. Failing to follow-through diminishes credibility and significantly increases the risk of customer mistrust.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, startups
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Better Data for Better Products: New Online Resource Aims to Close the $200 Billion Smallholder Finance Gap
The US $200 billion gap in farmer finance is a tremendous opportunity – but it's one that financial service providers are missing, due to the lack of transparent and reliable data. That's why One Acre Fund and MIX, with support from the Mastercard Foundation's RAF Learning Lab, launched the Smallholder Finance Product Explorer. A May 8 webinar will show industry actors how to use some of these new online tools to reach the 450 million smallholders in need of financing.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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Oikocredit invests $1.2 million in Inyenyeri Company to support clean cooking solutions
Inyenyeri’s fuel and stove solution cuts smoke and toxic fumes by more than 90% compared to traditional cooking methods.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Beyond ‘Evil Capitalists vs. Righteous Social Workers’: Innovating Solutions with Integrative Thinking
After working in Silicon Valley and Wall Street – in industries famous for their single-minded pursuit of profit – Alice Mann looked forward to making an impact in the social sector. But she encountered organizations that lacked the funding to be effective on a large scale – and that shared a blind spot when it came to the value of financial sustainability. The author of "Future First," Mann shares three examples of social sector leaders who have shifted their thinking to address global problems in profitable ways.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Understanding China’s foreign agriculture investments in the developing world
Developing countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America were among China’s investment regions, with the investment types and goals differing for each.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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On World Press Freedom Day: Why Investing in Independent Media Supports Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
More than 87 percent of people – about 6 billion – live in countries without a free press, and every five days a media worker is killed for doing their job – including more than 800 in the past decade. Today as we observe the UN's World Press Freedom Day, Peter Whitehead reminds us that independent media businesses not only hold governments accountable and advance progress toward the SDGs – they're also an investable opportunity.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, SDGs
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