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BUILD Act passage signals new era for U.S. development finance
Using blended finance, the Federal government will look to attract impact investors and other private capital to projects that advance development and diplomatic goals.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North America
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Twice as many African presidents made it to China’s Africa summit than to the UN general assembly
A Quartz analysis of the African principals who spoke at the general debate using the country list published by the UN shows fewer African presidents attended the general assembly in New York than were at the third summit of the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation that took place in Beijing two weeks earlier in September.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Giving poor people cash is a good idea. Giving entrepreneurs cash might be a great one
As the country’s population continues to grow—the median age of in the country is only 18—the economy is struggling to create jobs at a sufficiently fast pace.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: How India Could Transform Africa
An Aadhaar-like digital ID system would boost growth as much as Chinese-built roads.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Least Sexy Approach to Development: Why We Need to Focus on Systems Change
Even within the systems-change sector, people joke that it is one of the least “sexy” facets of development work. Focused on addressing the faults in social, economic and political systems that lead to problems like poverty, the approach can be overwhelmingly complex, which has limited its widespread implementation. But as Lexi Doolittle at S3IDF explains, a market-based approach that nudges these systems towards greater inclusivity and productivity is a vital tool to catalyze social change – one that we cannot afford to overlook.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise, Uncategorized
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How Do We Define ‘Farmer’?: Why Outdated Perceptions are Complicating Data-Driven Agriculture
Who qualifies as a ‘farmer’? This sounds like a simple question for any agricultural intervention, but it is fraught with complexity. Sometimes farm owners live in the city, hiring caretakers to farm their land. Other times, women do most of the actual farming, but their husbands collect the income. Even the definition of ‘smallholder’ is often ambiguous. As efforts to digitize farming data gather momentum, Bobbi Gray at Grameen Foundation explores some ways to clarify this picture – and the challenges this will involve.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Sierra Leone, United Nations to Develop Blockchain Digital ID System
The UN Capital Development Fund (UNDCF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have entered into a partnership with Kiva, a technology nonprofit. Kiva will lend its institutional protocol of the same name to implement the “Credit Bureau Of The Future.”
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Perspective: A global tipping point: Half the world is now middle class or wealthier
So September 2018 marks a global tipping point. After this, for the first time ever, the poor and vulnerable will no longer be a majority in the world. Barring some unfortunate global economic setback, this marks the start of a new era of a middle-class majority.
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