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The Missing Ingredient in Impact Investment in Africa: A New Financing Model for Business Advisory Service Providers Tackles the ’Lack of Investable Pipeline’ Challenge
Despite the growth of impact investing in Africa, investors still face a commonly cited constraint that could impede future deal flow: the lack of investable pipeline. But according to John Scicchitano at Pangea Africa and Rob Mills at Social Finance International, the main reason for this issue is the fact that African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) often struggle to meet the technical standards that impact investors demand, while lacking the network that could connect them to these investors. They explore how business advisory service providers (BASPs) can help meet these needs for SMEs, and present a new financing mechanism that can help BASPs scale up their investment facilitation support.
- Categories
- Investing
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TechnoServe Launches NOVA EdTech to Scale Effective Business Training for Entrepreneurs
Through asynchronous digital training and personalized learning paths, users can access practical skills at their own pace—anytime, anywhere.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Scaling Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach for Developing Local Ecosystems
Across Africa, governments and development actors are investing in youth entrepreneurship, with funders and international NGOs increasingly partnering with local non-profits to develop better support ecosystems for young entrepreneurs. But as Grégory Valadié and Juan Carlos Thomas at TechnoServe explain, many of these local organizations face limitations in capacity, systems and tools. They explore four ways to maximize these partnerships’ impact by complementing their direct implementation work with systems-level solutions, and leveraging institutions that already reach young people at scale.
- Categories
- Education
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Namibia Will Offer Free University Education Starting in 2026
New Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah announced Thursday that her government will introduce free higher education at state universities and technical colleges starting next year.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- academia, business education, youth
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Rethinking Education to Re-Engage Youth: Why It’s Time to Focus on Practical Skill Building
In 2023, 20% of youth globally were not involved in employment, education or training — and there is a concerning skills gap, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Meanwhile, the supply of educated youth is exceeding the supply of skilled jobs in many LMICs, forcing young workers to seek lower-paying jobs unrelated to their education and skills. Jessica Crist at SDG Academy explores these challenges, and explains why they're driving the need for a new approach to higher education, focused on practical skill-building and non-traditional formats like online courses, short-term programs and professional training.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
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Building Better Business Advisory Programs: Five Lessons from an Inclusive Marketing Bootcamp
Inclusive business models involve integrating low-income communities into the value chain as suppliers, distributors, retailers or consumers. As this approach has gained traction, advisory programs have emerged to help companies adopt and scale these practices. Beryl Oyier, Catherine Mwangi, Eyerusalem Mitiku and Rakib Hasan Rabbi at Bopinc share insights from an inclusive marketing program in Africa, highlighting five key lessons for designing more impactful inclusive business advisory programs.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship Awards Fundación Paraguaya with 2024 Social Impact Excellence Award
Fundación Paraguaya has been a part of the Miller Center social impact community for almost 20 years, participating in 5 programs since 2005.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: Goldman Sachs, IFC Partner With African Banks to Empower Women Entrepreneurs in Africa
Under the partnership, nine financial institutions from across Africa have agreed to join the 10,000 Women initiative.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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