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Goodwell Invests in OmniRetail, Fuelling Better Opportunities for Informal Retailers
The firm is proud to be the first to commit, underscoring its desire to support the growth of companies driving financial inclusion in underserved communities.
- Categories
- Investing
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Private Business Alone Can’t Bring Energy to the Last Mile: Why Philanthropy Should Shift its Focus to Scalable Non-Profit Models
Africa is home to countless failed pay-as-you-go energy businesses that couldn't sustain themselves after their grant funding dried up. According to Aneri Pradhan at New Energy Nexus, this highlights the shortcomings of market-led approaches to last-mile energy access across the continent. She argues that philanthropic funding has largely failed to create sustainable energy businesses in these communities, as customers cannot afford clean energy at their current income levels. Instead, she encourages funders to support non-profit models that have proven their ability to reach these communities at scale.
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Mobilizing Capital in the Low-Cost Private School Sector: Key Insights Two Years into an Innovative Partnership
One in five children in sub-Saharan Africa are out of school, and without scalable solutions, the region — like other emerging markets — won’t meet SDG 4’s goal of education for all. Mauricio Rincon and Mathieu Fourn at Opportunity International, and Alvaro Ma at Oikocredit argue that affordable non-state schools can help address this need — but only if they're supported by financial institutions and impact investment. They share learnings from a partnership between Opportunity and Oikocredit that is directing millions of dollars in capital to these schools, along with capacity building and other support.
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Impact Manager Acre Raises $100 Million for African Climate Infrastructure
Typically, export credit agencies guarantee up to 85% of loans and require the rest to be raised privately, yet banks' willingness to fund the remainder has declined as such projects carry a higher capital charge and can be hard to reinsure.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Reshaping Africa’s Food Systems: Three Opportunities to Drive Sustainable, Inclusive and Scalable Impact
Africa's agricultural sector is plagued by low yields, fragmented value chains and a large finance gap, and the region is home to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. As Neil Wood, Oscar Garza and Hanna Dohrenbusch at Open Capital explain, these challenges have brought the sector to a critical juncture. They share three key solutions based on Open Capital's work on 450+ agriculture and food systems projects across Africa, which have the power to help drive the future of agriculture on the continent in the decades to come.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Cancellation of UN Climate Weeks Removes Platform for Worst-Hit Communities
The UNFCCC has said it will not hold regional climate weeks in 2024 due to a funding shortfall – which means less inclusion for developing-country voices.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: Viewpoint: Income Inequality High or Rising in 60 Percent of Countries With Loans From IMF and World Bank
Income inequality is high or increasing in 60 percent of low- and middle-income countries receiving grants or loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Global
- Tags
- global development, SDGs
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World Bank Loans Ethiopia $1.72 Billion for Power, Water Supply Expansion
The bank will allocate $523 million to expand the Horn of Africa nation’s electricity network and boost renewable energy generation, according to the ministry’s statement.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- infrastructure, water
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