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KawiSafi Ventures Invests in Orb Energy to Expand Commercial and Industrial Solar Across East Africa
Orb Energy provides rooftop and ground-mounted solar systems, solar plus battery storage and financing solutions for commercial and industrial customers.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Acumen Invests $5 Million in Sun King to Scale Pay-As-You-Go Solar Energy Access in Zambia
Acumen’s equity investment is aimed at catalyzing local currency debt and providing energy access to nearly 5.6 million people.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Dedicating $750 Million to Impact Investments
MacArthur is increasing the pool of capital dedicated to impact investments to extend the reach of our programs, advance our mission, and expand the flow of impact investments globally.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Investing
- Region
- Global
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Global Funding to Tackle Air Pollution Fails to Reach Hardest-Hit Countries
New research from Clean Air Fund shows that the most polluted places in the world are missing out on vital funding to tackle air pollution.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- Global
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Is the World Bank to Blame for the Cambodian Microfinance Crisis?
For the past five years, Cambodia’s microfinance sector has been experiencing a major over-indebtedness crisis. And as inclusive finance consultant Daniel Rozas explains, despite multiple warnings that the sector was overheating, IFC, the World Bank’s private investment arm, poured fuel on the flames by investing in the largest and fastest-growing of the country's leading microfinance institutions. Making matters worse, after an investigation by IFC’s own ombudsman concluded that clients had been harmed due to its failure to monitor the social risks created by its investments, its board dismissed those findings. He explores how the industry went off the rails in Cambodia, and argues that IFC not only worsened the crisis, it helped undermine the sector’s own efforts to avert it.
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Proparco Invests US $20 Million in Frogfoot, Vox and Hypa to Expand Affordable Fibre Connectivity in South Africa
A key focus of the companies’ growth strategy is the expansion of fibre networks into lower-income and township communities.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Africa Go Green Invests in Senior Debt Facility of USD $18 Million in Cold Solutions Rwanda
CS Rwanda will combine cold storage with packhouse, handling and refrigerated logistics services, providing an integrated solution from handling through to distribution. The development also includes a planned 440 kW rooftop solar installation and will target an internationally recognised green-building certification.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Right-Sizing IMM: Five Ways Impact Measurement and Management Can Work for Enterprises — Not Just Investors
Impact measurement and management (IMM) systems too often reward compliance over impact, extracting more than they’ve given back. According to Julia Mensink at Acumen and Heather Esper at the William Davidson Institute, impact data tends to be focused mainly on satisfying investors’ requirements, not informing investees' decisions — and gathering it often ends up consuming enterprises' time and resources and constraining their ability to create the impact they’re expected to measure. They share learnings from a gathering of IMM experts earlier this year, highlighting several ways investors, investees and IMM professionals can right-size these practices, aligning them with enterprises' actual decisions and integrating them into their core operations.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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