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Can Pay-As-You-Go Help Clean Up Clean Cooking?
Since 2015, the global focus on clean cooking has grown substantially, bringing more funding, research and attention from policymakers to the sector. But according to Tash Perros at the University of Liverpool, Iwona Bisaga at Loughborough University and Julia Tomei at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, progress remains slow, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. They examine some of the reasons behind the inertia that is plaguing clean cooking access, and explore whether pay-as-you-go business models could catalyze progress.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Microsoft Begins Wave of African Layoffs in Kenya
While the layoffs have mostly been concentrated in Seattle, Washington, where Microsoft’s operations are based, other countries have not been spared—Kenya being the first in Africa.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Oxfam Novib and Goodwell Target East African Startups With €20 Million Pepea Fund
The fund will provide financing to early-stage startups in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Technology, Transportation
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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JP Morgan Has Opened an Office in Kenya, Making It Present in All Four of Africa’s Biggest Technological Hubs
JP Morgan, the biggest bank in the United States and the world based on market capitalization, now had a regional office in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Outgrowing the Flower Pot: Why Just Selling Productive Equipment to Smallholder Farmers is Not Enough
A new wave of companies are bringing equipment powered by renewable, decentralized energy to smallholders, and these devices can significantly boost farmers' yields and product quality. But as Daniel Waldron, Christopher Emmott, Priyanka Dudeja, Paraag Sabhlok and Chris Wayne at Acumen explain, just like a tree growing in a flower pot, this new growth can become a burden if it has nowhere to go. They argue that productive equipment must be combined with market access interventions to truly benefit smallholders, and highlight two innovative companies that are demonstrating the impact of this approach.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Switzerland Pledges 15 Million Francs to the Bamboo-UNCDF Initiative for the Least Developed Fund
The BUILD Fund is a unique investment fund in support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in least developed and lower middle income countries (LDCs and LMICs).
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Global
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Understanding Deglobalization: What the Backlash to Trade Liberalization Means for Business Growth and Global Inequality
Extensive trade liberalization, often referred to as globalization, was one of the most transformative economic events of the last century — and also one of the most controversial. As political support for protectionist policies grows, Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan at Yale Economic Growth Center and Bomi Okuyiga at Yale's Jackson School of Global Affairs share research insights that help illuminate the impact globalization has had on businesses and workers in low- and middle-income countries, with the goal of understanding how they may be affected by the current backlash.
- Categories
- Technology
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Press Release: African Development Bank’s SEFA Approves $5 Million in Grants to Set up Super Energy Service Companies in Three Countries
The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) of the African Development Bank has approved a technical assistance grant of $5.03 million.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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