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ADB Accelerates Nature Finance at COP17 with New Bond, Incubator, and Tracking Report
The initiatives, announced at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan, seek to expand private investment in protecting ecosystems that support billions of lives.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- Global
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ADB Advances Resilient Agriculture and Women’s Economic Empowerment in Rural Cambodia
The Smallholder Resilient Economic Development Sector Project will upgrade agricultural infrastructure and services across 186 communes in seven provinces, which are severely vulnerable to natural hazards.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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BII and Swedfund Report Reveals over $200 Billion Funding Gap for Black-Owned and -Led Businesses Across Five African Markets
The report, Understanding the investment gaps in Black-owned and -led businesses in sub-Saharan Africa, combines quantitative market analysis with stakeholder consultations to examine where these businesses are represented, the scale of their funding gaps and the factors shaping access to capital.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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World Bank and IFAD to Scale up Co-Investment in Rural Economies and Food Systems
The agreement builds on the two institutions’ partnership across multiple initiatives, including AgriConnect, which aims to help transform agriculture for 300 million smallholder farmers by 2030, and Water Forward, which seeks to improve water security for 1 billion people by 2030.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Global
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Shell Foundation and the UK Government Anchor Lendable Transportation and Energy Fund to Mobilise Private Capital for Climate and Gender Impact
Lendable is a technology-enabled investment firm that provides asset-backed credit to fast-growing businesses in emerging and frontier markets.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology, Transportation
- Region
- Global
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Is the World Bank to Blame for the Cambodian Microfinance Crisis?
For the past five years, Cambodia’s microfinance sector has been experiencing a major over-indebtedness crisis. And as inclusive finance consultant Daniel Rozas explains, despite multiple warnings that the sector was overheating, IFC, the World Bank’s private investment arm, poured fuel on the flames by investing in the largest and fastest-growing of the country's leading microfinance institutions. Making matters worse, after an investigation by IFC’s own ombudsman concluded that clients had been harmed due to its failure to monitor the social risks created by its investments, its board dismissed those findings. He explores how the industry went off the rails in Cambodia, and argues that IFC not only worsened the crisis, it helped undermine the sector’s own efforts to avert it.
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ADB Supports Asia and Pacific’s First Sovereign Nature-Linked Bond in Thailand
Proceeds from the 15-year bond, which was issued on 17 September and raised 25 billion baht (approximately $750 million), will support efforts to achieve two sustainability goals aligned with national priorities and international commitments.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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Proparco Invests US $20 Million in Frogfoot, Vox and Hypa to Expand Affordable Fibre Connectivity in South Africa
A key focus of the companies’ growth strategy is the expansion of fibre networks into lower-income and township communities.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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