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Africa Needs to Regain Momentum on Electrification Effort, Says IEA
COVID-19 pandemic knocked the continent off its course of extending access to reliable energy to over half of the world's population that still lack access to electricity.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: Bangladesh-Based Clean Energy Firm SOLshare Successfully Closes US$1.1 Million Financing Round With Support From IIX Impact Partners
IIX Impact Partners – the world’s most successful debt and equity crowdfunding platform for impact investing – has supported Bangladesh-based off-grid solar energy firm SOLshare in closing a US$1.1 million financing round. Investors include innogy New Ventures LLC – the venture capital investment arm of the German utility firm innogy SE— the investment arm of Portuguese utility firm EDP Ventures, as well as new angel investors from around the world. Funding will be used to bring smart solar microgrids to off-grid, underserved communities in Bangladesh, putting SOLshare on track to positively impact 2.5 million people by 2023.
- Categories
- Energy, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Viewpoint: South African Banks Need to Do More to Ensure Financial Inclusion
An analysis of financial inclusion in South Africa shows that affordability limits poor households’ access to formal financial services. In our study, which looked at people’s use of financial goods and services between 2008 and 2015, we found that there was a general increase in use. But this was severely skewed to households with higher incomes.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Low Internet Access Is Driving Inequality
Covid-19 and the great lockdown triggered a mass migration from analog to digital and highlighted that access to the Internet is crucial for socioeconomic inclusion.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
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Press Release: Developing Countries Could Lose Out as Automation Competes With Low-Cost Labour
The COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the rise of industrial automation and enable manufacturers in developed countries to compete with low-cost labour in the developing world; multinational corporations are already considering repatriating some manufacturing production as a result of the unprecedented disruption the pandemic has caused to global value chains; developing countries must respond by developing local industrial capabilities with new technologies and skills that will allow them to become more integrated into world trade.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
- Tags
- supply chains
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Viewpoint: The Real Impact of COVID-19 on Emerging Markets
When COVID-19 began to spread uncontrollably, numbers of confirmed cases initially grew most quickly in developed economies across China, Europe and then the US. It took some time to reach the door of some of the world’s most prominent emerging markets but, now it has, the impact is set to be much longer-lasting.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Press Release: Gateway Academy Merges with Digital Frontiers to Strengthen Capacity Building Initiatives
Gateway Academy, the digital learning platform for financial inclusion incubated by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), is merging with Digital Frontiers, a globally recognized non-profit that focuses on capacity building for the development community.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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India Bans 59 Chinese Apps Including TikTok, Helo, WeChat
The government said the applications are engaged in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.”
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- public policy
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