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Proparco Grants Wema Bank a First €5 Million Guarantee to Finance Impact-Driven MSMEs in Nigeria
Proparco is granting a NGN 9 billion ARIZ portfolio guarantee (equivalent to €5 million) to Wema Bank in Nigeria. This marks the first collaboration between the two institutions.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: The Broken Narrative About Nonprofit Sustainability at Scale
The dominant narratives about sustainable financing at scale can leave nonprofits questioning many of their foundational decisions.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, Telecommunications, Transportation, WASH
- Region
- Global
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Storytelling for Velocity, Not Visibility: Why African Development Organizations Need a New Communications Playbook
Something subtle yet profound is changing in how global development organizations in Africa communicate about their work and impact. According to Chrisphine Omondi, a communications specialist with experience across the continent, these organizations have often relied on external communications consultants who produce reports, recommendations and strategies, then exit before those plans are fully implemented. He argues that this model no longer fits the pace and complexity of Africa’s evolving development ecosystem, and explores how African organizations can create a more holistic, systems-based communications model that aligns with the broader changes that are reshaping global development.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Upaya Social Ventures Invests In ScrapUncle to Formalize India’s Circular Economy And Create Green Livelihoods
ScrapUncle runs a vertically integrated system where collectors are provided with electric pickup trucks and all collected material is routed to ScrapUncle warehouses.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Rethinking What it Means to Start a Business: Why Systemic Venture Building Matters for Africa’s Food Future
Africa’s entrepreneurs are often seen as risky investments not due to any limitations of their own businesses, but because of the risks in the systems around them. As a result, as Dieuwertje Nelissen, Eveline Jansen and Rachael Kirui at Enviu argue, it's important for development stakeholders to move beyond de-risking individual businesses and to put greater effort into strengthening and de-risking the systems that support them. They explore this systemic approach in the context of African agriculture, sharing a venture-building model that can help entrepreneurs reduce early-stage risk and scale sustainable impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Scaling Through Consortiums: Five Lessons We’ve Learned About Growing Impact Collectively
For impact-focused organizations, consortiums are rarely the easy path to scale. They tend to be slower, more complex and harder to manage than working with a single partner. But according to Emma Colenbrander at Spring Impact, consortiums can also produce solutions that are broader in perspective, stronger in legitimacy and more resilient in practice. She explores these benefits and shares five lessons for maximizing the impact of this sort of collaborative effort.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Post-USAID Survey of Consultants Finds Many Questioning the Path
When his expected work with USAID dried up, one independent consultant went looking for data.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Analysis: When USAID Shut Down, Its Lessons Nearly Vanished. AI Helped Recover Them
A final sweep of 60 years of evidence reveals durable truths about how development succeeds and fails.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Region
- Global
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