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Report: The State of Food and Agriculture 2017 – Leveraging food systems for inclusive rural transformation
Rural areas, too long seen as poverty traps, key to economic growth in developing countries. But sweeping transformations needed to unlock their potential to help feed and employ a younger, more crowded planet, says a new report.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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New development impact bond brings in big donors, provides biggest test of model to date
Gwokajja’s story is one of several thousand supported through Village Enterprise, a nongovernmental organization working to eliminate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation. The organization’s network of entrepreneurs is set to grow significantly through a new development impact bond that is trailblazing many firsts — the first in the world to focus specifically on poverty alleviation, the first in sub-Saharan Africa, and the first to bring on major donors, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.K. Department for International Development.
- Categories
- Investing
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Startup Accelerators Have Become More Popular in Emerging Markets — and They’re Working
Business environments in most emerging markets are complex and can be difficult for even the most experienced entrepreneur to navigate. So while running any startup is tough, we assumed that launching a new business in Mombasa would be much more difficult than running one in Menlo Park. However, we were surprised to find far fewer differences in the effects of acceleration than we had expected.
- Categories
- Investing
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The First MicroFinance Bank Afghanistan; Mibanco of Peru; and Cooperative Tosepantomin of Mexico Announced as Finalists for European Microfinance Award on Microfinance for Housing
This year, the Award highlights the role of microfinance in supporting access to better quality residential housing for vulnerable, low income and financially excluded groups with no or limited access to housing finance in the mainstream sector. This problem is multi-dimensional: sub-standard housing is not just an identifier of poverty, but rather it is the cause of a host of developmental problems.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Can a UN social impact fund spark further reform at the organization?
A new fund to boost smart affordable housing options in Bangladesh is one of the first major announcements from the UNDP’s SDG Impact Finance initiative — an enterprise that took UNDP’s David Galipeau four years to convince the U.N. it needed.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Stanford launches research center focused on global poverty and development
The center’s mission is threefold: to support path-breaking research on global poverty and development within Stanford and beyond; to inspire students through hands-on research opportunities, fellowships and events; and to inform policies and practices through strategic partnerships with global policymakers and thought leaders as well as on-campus events that foster new ideas and university-wide collaborations.
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- Education
- Region
- North America
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Flirting with disaster? World Bank’s push for climate insurance questioned
The program marks one example of the Bank’s promotion of climate insurance over the past decade, as part of a wider approach focused on leveraging private insurance and investor markets to increase ‘pre-arranged’ disaster risk financing.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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Linking renewables to economic growth: The case for climate-centered SDGs
Presenting research findings during a panel session on how we can all profit from the low carbon transition, Argyriou highlighted findings from Southeast Asia and the Pacific that demonstrate the decoupling of economic growth and emissions growth is both achievable and beneficial.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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