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Energy Poverty is Not Gender Blind: How Companies, Funders and Policymakers Can Empower Female Energy Consumers Across Africa
While both men and women in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity and clean energy technologies, women pay a bigger price for this lack of access in nearly every imaginable way. Mutale Ngaba, Katie Brauer, Nathalie Gogue-Ebo and Duda Slawek at Open Capital argue that this crucial aspect of the energy access conversation is often overlooked. They explore the gender inequities in energy poverty, and share learnings from Open Capital's work that can guide the efforts of energy companies, funders and policymakers to put women’s needs at the center of energy access efforts in the region.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Village Capital, Standard Chartered Bank Invest in Women-Led Startups
With a primary focus on early-stage, impact-focused startups led by women founders, the initiative seeks to address the gender financing gap that persists in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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WIC Capital Gets $1 Million to Provide Funding for Female-Led SMEs in Francophone Africa
This funding will enable the collective to invest in more businesses led by women in Francophone Africa.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: IIX’s Women’s Livelihood Bond™ 6 Breaks New Ground with US$100 Million Issuance as the Largest Orange Bond in the Market, Expected to Empower Over 880,000 Women and Girls in the Global South
WLB6 sets a new industry standard as the largest Orange and Sustainability labeled Bond in the market, doubling in size compared to its predecessor.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Financing Women- Owned or -Led SMEs for Sustainable Growth: Navigating Capital Supply Side Challenges in Africa
One in four African women owns or manages a business, and in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the rates of entrepreneurial activity among women rise to 30-50%. But as Nathalie Gogue-Ebo and Katharina Weber at Open Capital point out, just 6% of funding in the region goes to women- owned or -led small and medium enterprises (WSMEs), limiting these businesses' growth potential. They discuss the factors that are preventing investors from supporting WSMEs, and share some potential solutions.
- Categories
- Investing
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A Hidden Risk — And Opportunity — in Clean Energy: Why the Energy Transition Cannot Happen Unless it Addresses Women’s Unpaid Care Work
In advance of the first-ever International Day of Care and Support, Kate Grantham at FemDev Consulting and Carolina Robino and Flaubert Mbiekop at the International Development Research Centre highlight the interconnections between unpaid care work and the global transition to clean energy. They argue that this transition will falter unless it addresses women's heavy and unequal responsibility for unpaid care work — reducing women’s clean energy contributions, and possibly reinforcing existing gender inequalities in the process.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Press Release: MCE Social Capital Announces the Final Close of Its Mesa Fund to Target Gender-Inclusive Agri-Businesses in Africa and Latin America
The investment rationale: expanding the potential of early-stage entrepreneurs and rural financial services providers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: The World Is Failing Girls and Women, According to New UN Report
New figures point to the need of an additional USD 360 billion in investment per year to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Global
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