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Funding the Fight Against the World’s Oldest Fuel Source: How New Financing Mechanisms in Clean Cooking Can Succeed Where Grants Have Failed
The use of biomass fuel for cooking has remained consistent over the centuries, despite the development sector's efforts to scale global access to clean cookstoves. As Paul Ronalds at Save the Children Global Ventures argues, a key reason for this failure is the estimated $5.5 billion annual funding gap facing clean cooking initiatives — a gap that traditional sources of finance, like private donations and government grants, have been unable to fill. He discusses several funding solutions, including carbon credits, that could help the clean cooking sector finally end the era of biomass fuel.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Press Release: Study Unveiled at UNGA79 Shows Energy Goals on the Brink; Lower Income Countries Dangerously at Risk of Being Left Behind
With just five years to 2030, The SDG7 Backsliding study raises the alarm on the global energy goals under UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7).
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: IFC and Airtel Africa Partner to Increase Access to High-Speed Mobile Connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Despite this connectivity gap, up to 86 percent of firms on the continent use mobile phones for business operations, according to IFC's recent report on digital connectivity in Africa.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: A First-Of-A-Kind Approach to Building Resilience of Coastal Communities Unveiled to Coincide With UNGA and Climate Week 2024
Reshore360 presents a comprehensive blueprint for protecting at-risk populations living in coastal regions and islands.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Global
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Putting Communities at the Center of Impact Measurement: Why Locally Led Evaluations are Key to Measuring Project Success
Development organizations and donors often measure impact by asking if their target population was lifted, to some degree, out of poverty. But as Henok Begashaw at iDE argues, traditional impact measurement approaches centered around poverty reduction — like household surveys designed by outside technical experts — can fail to capture the key outcomes of an initiative. He explores the benefits of a locally led measurement approach that allows organizations to develop a rich picture of project outcomes, based on what beneficiaries themselves say is important.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Measuring Systems Change: Three Tools for Understanding Your System-Level Impact
There's a growing realization that traditional solutions to individual global challenges often fail to address the interconnected causes at the root of these issues. As a result, impact-focused organizations are increasingly viewing these problems as part of a broader system, and developing solutions that aim to make positive systemic change. But as Gaurav Gupta and Bianca Samson at Dalberg and Saloni Atal at Artha Global explain, measuring system-level impact presents some unique difficulties. They explore these challenges and share some measurement tools that can allow organizations to separate the signal from the noise.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
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Africa’s Debt Crisis Has ‘Catastrophic Implications’ for the World
Crushing obligations to foreign creditors that have few precedents have sapped numerous African nations of growth and stoked social instability.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Waza Secures $8 Million for B2B Payments Innovation in Emerging Markets
Waza, a B2B emerging markets payment platform, has successfully closed an $8 million funding round comprising both equity and debt.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa