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Do-Good Investors: Watch Out For What These Funds Hold
If you listen to the marketing hype, assets devoted to ESG—industry jargon for investments sensitive to environmental, social and governance issues—account for some $8.7 trillion, double the amount just five years ago. That's great news for the planet, right? Not so fast. Much of the growth is a matter of semantics. What were once run-of-the-mill value or growth funds are being reclassified as sustainable or ESG-friendly.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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USADF, All On partner to invest in off-grid energy in Nigeria
UNited States African Development Foundation (USADF) and All On have announced a three-year partnership that will see both parties provide a $3million-fund to expand access to energy for underserved and unserved markets in Nigeria and boost operations of Nigerian owned off-grid energy companies.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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MediaTek partners with Google to reach into emerging markets
Mediatek, the world's second largest mobile chip maker, has teamed up with U.S. tech group Google to offer cheaper, faster smartphones in emerging markets as early as next year amid sluggish demand from mainland China.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Safaricom adds voice control to m-Pesa
In what the company hailed as a world-first, its customers will be able to check balances before and after making transactions by dialling a number from the handset connected to their account and entering a code.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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USAID Announces A New Development Impact Bond
Launched Thursday, the Utkrisht Impact Bond, named for the Hindi expression for excellence, will fund maternal and newborn health in the Indian state of Rajasthan. DIBs are results-based contracts, in which investors — in this case UBS Optimus Foundation, a grantmaking organization focused on improving the lives of children — provide financing for social programs upfront.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- impact investing
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Report: Mobile offers potential to drive progress in Bangladesh
In a report entitled Bangladesh: Driving Mobile-enabled Digital Transformation, the association noted the mobile industry can play “a critical role” in the country, helping to realise the government’s Vision 2021 initiative and driving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- global development, SDGs
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Press release: IPA and J-PAL announce US$16 million grant from UK government to fund new research on solutions to challenges in governance, crime and conflict, and peace and recovery
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), two research centers working to support evidence-informed policymaking, were jointly awarded a grant of GBP£12 million (US$16 million) from the UK Department for International Development to generate new research on effective policies to promote peace and good governance, reduce crime, and support individuals and communities recovering from conflict.
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What We’ve Learned from 101 Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets
Harvard Business School’s project exploring the evolution of business leadership in emerging economies has reached an important milestone. Project leaders Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna discuss what's been learned from the Creating Emerging Markets study so far.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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