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The UBI Debate: What We Know – and Don’t Know – About Universal Basic Income
Policymakers from Nairobi to Silicon Valley have lately been considering the same approach to reducing poverty: universal basic income (UBI). Evidence from ongoing randomized evaluations will be key to understanding the impact of UBI, and how this disruptive concept might fit into a broader portfolio of social policies. In the meantime, there is much we already know from impact evaluations of related interventions that can help make sense of the debate. Alison Fahey at J-PAL provides an overview.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
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First Impact Report on Economic, Environmental and Social Performance of Clean Technology Companies Released by Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
"Measurement of social and environmental impact beyond financial metrics provides investors with a broader understanding of the true risks, costs and opportunities involved, thus enabling more informed investment decisions," states UBS Managing Director, Andrew Lee, Head of Impact Investing.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment, Impact Assessment
- Region
- North America
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Energy Solutions Shouldn’t Just Tick Boxes, They Should Transform Communities
Simple electrification around the world, without the existence of a suitable ecosystem, has not led to transformation, writes Sarah Alexander of the SELCO Foundation. That ecosystem needs to be created and strengthened by a host of local stakeholders to complement efforts of last-mile energy enterprises to transform the lives of the poor – and understanding the demand for the solution is critical.
- Categories
- Energy, Financial Inclusion, Impact Assessment
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Building Tools to Measure How, and How Much, Consumers Benefit from Financial Inclusion
It's easy to affirm that financial inclusion is increasing. It's more difficult – because of a lack of reliable and actionable tools – to determine how adults derive value from financial inclusion. To address that need, insight2impact recently developed and tested a needs measurement framework concept that takes users’ actual usage patterns into consideration.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
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Seeking the Anti-Poverty Holy Grail: Can a ‘Trust Mark’ Boost Microfinance’s Social Impact?
In an effort to find which microfinance practitioners are most successfully alleviating poverty, Truelift – with the help of other microfinance rating agencies and technical experts – designed an assessment tool and beta-tested it on nine institutions around the world. The result, essentially, is a global “trust mark” for anti-poverty action. Organizers are looking for opportunities to use the tool to support assessment of a variety of service providers.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
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Four Ways to Bring Evidence into Education Policy: Lessons from IPA’s Work in Emerging Markets
Evidence-based policymaking makes sense, but can be hard to achieve. To help better understand the issues involved, IPA has compiled summaries of evidence highlighting education policy lessons. Here, Heidi McAnnally-Linz and Bridget Konadu Gyamfi detail four strategies the organization is pursuing in different contexts, all of which are leading to a greater understanding of evidence – to varying degrees of impact so far.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Dear Critics: Here’s Why the Off-grid Energy Industry Needs Impact Investment
Off-grid lighting trade organization GOGLA responds to a recent post from Ceniarth critical of "hype" in the energy access sector. Consider the off-grid market within the context of the wider world and economy around it, say John Keane and Laura Sundblad, and remember that millions of households around the globe live with unreliable, dangerous, inadequate and ultimately extremely expensive means of lighting and basic energy.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
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Hype in the Energy Access Sector (Finally!)
Leaders at Persistent Energy, an impact investor focused on the renewable sector primarily in West Africa, push back against a recent NextBillion post by Ceniarth positing the industry has become overhyped. While there has been some hype about a handful of established companies, they argue, the bigger concern is that not enough capital is flowing into the sector to give it the opportunity to prove itself.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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