-
A Roadmap for Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Island Nations: Three Success Factors for the Eastern Caribbean’s Transition from Fossil Fuels
The Eastern Caribbean has struggled in recent years, as natural disasters – combined with the COVID-19 pandemic – have caused a precipitous drop in the tourism revenues it depends on. But as Pepukaye Bardouille at the IFC explains, transitioning to renewable energy could help address this challenge, reducing the region’s cost of electricity, supporting its climate resilience, limiting its dependence on imported fossil fuels, and producing jobs outside the tourism sector. She presents three success factors for achieving this transition – insights that could also be applicable to other island nations.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
-
Supporting Financial Health Startups: Four Lessons for Impact Investors, Foundations and Governments
Over the past few years, Village Capital has run Finance Forward, a global coalition to support early-stage entrepreneurs building tech-enabled solutions around financial health. Village Capital CEO Allie Burns shares highlights from a new report that analyzed data from the 1,000+ companies that applied to the program around the world. The report paints a picture of the global state of financial health startups, and offers lessons for impact investors, foundations and government leaders who hope to grow the ecosystem for financial health innovation.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
-
Viewpoint: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: What Does It Mean for Africa?
The invasion has done profound damage to Russia’s relations with the West, which will be difficult to reverse as long as Putin and like-minded people around him are in power. Africa should brace itself for the challenging years ahead.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Environment, Finance, Health Care, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
-
Charting a Pathway to Scale Through Government: Adapting a Girls’ Empowerment Program to a Public School Setting
BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program supports vulnerable young women through group training focused on education and social/economic empowerment. But despite its longevity and impact, the program has lacked a path to self-sufficiency and scale. Esau Tugume and Jenna Grzeslo at BRAC discuss a solution to this challenge: adapting ELA to an after-school setting in Uganda, allowing it to be scaled through public schools. They explore this model, and share how they've navigated the issues that can arise when leveraging government involvement in pursuit of scale.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- education, gender equality, gender gap, government, scale, social impact, Women, youth
-
Renewed U.S.-India Climate Cooperation
Mobilizing Foreign Capital for a Green Transition in India
- Categories
- Energy
-
The Public Option: How Smart Tariff Subsidies Can Boost Minigrids and Solve Africa’s Rural Energy Access Dilemma
The World Bank estimates that minigrids can provide electricity for up to 500 million people by 2030, and that the cost of minigrid electricity per kilowatt hour will decrease by two thirds in the same period. But as Daniel Kitwa at the Africa Minigrid Developers Association points out, these goals can only be realized through effective public policy, scale and innovation. He explains why a smartly designed subsidy program to reduce the cost of minigrid power for rural customers is the critical missing piece in these efforts.
- Categories
- Energy
-
2020 MOST INFLUENTIAL ARTICLE CANDIDATE: COVID-19’s Impact on Indian Agriculture: How Data Should Drive Future Policies
The Indian agricultural economy is made up of complex market linkages connecting approximately 263 million agricultural workers to over 1 billion consumers. When COVID-19 locked down the economy, many feared the sector would be crippled, yet these networks seemed remarkably robust – at least at first. However, analysts at IDinsight share data suggesting that agricultural markets may not be as healthy as market figures suggest, and explore policy prescriptions that could strengthen the sector in the long term.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus
-
A Sector in Transition: How Data and Evidence Can Set India’s Agricultural Markets on the Path Toward a Successful Future
Farmer protests in New Delhi have dominated headlines in India in recent weeks. They come in response to a series of farm bills that were passed into law in September, with the goal of shifting the agriculture sector away from traditional state-regulated markets and toward a more open system. Rupika Singh, Praachi Khera and Tony Senanayake at IDinsight discuss the pros and cons of these new laws, the underlying challenges facing India’s agricultural systems, and the ways that data and evidence can help leaders set these markets up for success.
- Categories
- Agriculture
Parent Organization
