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Africa’s Firms are Not Growing—New Data Reveal a Jobs Challenge
Across 48 Sub-Saharan African economies, a firm that has operated for nearly three decades employs barely twice the workers it had at birth. The gap relative to high-income economies is large, structural, and costly.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Finance, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, Telecommunications, Transportation, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Impact Investing’s New Discipline
Impact investors are not asking for less impact — they are asking for more discipline. Drawing on conversations with investors across Miller Center’s network, Brigit Helms explores why execution, unit economics, additionality, and impact-revenue alignment are becoming central to the next phase of social enterprise finance.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Analysis: Does Everything in the Social Sector Need to Scale?
In a world that no longer behaves like a scalable system, success must be something other than growth.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Switzerland and Malawi Authorise the First Article 6.2 Activity in Malawi: Malawi Dairy Biogas Program
The greenhouse gas mitigation activity is authorised under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, marking the first authorisation of its kind under the bilateral climate agreement between Malawi and Switzerland. It was developed in close partnership with Sistema.bio, EcoGen, ACT Group, and the KliK Foundation.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: The Economy That Remembers: Institutional Amnesia and the Regenerative Correction
Modern capitalism has perfected a hidden discipline: the systematic design of economic systems that forget. What we call “externalities” are not costs that disappear — they are consequences displaced. The regenerative economy, at its core, is not simply greener or more inclusive. It is an effort to build systems that remember.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Analysis: Innovation Under Constraint in the Global South
For the impact economy, the central challenge is not replication but responsibility. If scale reshapes power, then impact-aligned capital must take responsibility for how that power is structured and where value ultimately accrues.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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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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