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Analysis: Why the World’s Most Ambitious Coal Phase‑Out Deal Has Failed – And What It Means for Climate Finance
The failure to decommission Cirebon-1 matters beyond Indonesia. It suggests the world’s flagship model for financing the end of fossil fuels isn’t working. And the longer it takes to admit that, the harder the transition becomes – for Indonesia, and for everyone.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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Grant Dependency is Undermining Global Development: Here’s a Fundamentally New Architecture for Funding NGOs
Across the Global South, NGOs often function as the default conduits for addressing key development challenges in remote and marginalized populations. But as long-time development sector advisor Rajat Ray argues, these systemic problems cannot be solved by organizations that are perpetually teetering on the edge of financial suffocation, propped up by short-term, project-based grants. He explains how the survival tactics NGOs adopt to navigate this funding dilemma end up warping their operations and perpetuating some of the sector's biggest shortcomings. In response, he proposes an entirely new funding model — the “Diminishing Grant Framework” — that treats self-reliance not as an aspiration, but as a mandatory financial milestone.
- Categories
- Investing
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Moving Forward in a Post-USAID World: Why Women Must Be at the Center of Financial Inclusion
The demise of USAID has profound implications for the movement toward gender equality in financial inclusion and other development priorities. According to Julia Arnold and Sara Seavey, consultants specializing in women’s financial inclusion, the agency played a central role in funding, researching and coordinating global gender equality work — and without that anchor, these efforts are at risk of fragmentation and regression. They argue that this moment places responsibility on the sector itself to preserve the values, evidence and accountability structures that made progress toward gender-inclusive finance possible.
- Categories
- Finance
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SIDBI and Shell Foundation Launch US $3.1 Million Initiative to Expand Access to Green Finance for Nano-Entrepreneurs
Backed by a $3.1 million grant from Shell Foundation, the EN-Trans RSF provides a second-loss risk coverage to Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), including SIDBI as a lender, for loans extended to low-income communities.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Press Release: Ant International, IFC, GCash Pioneer First-Of-Its-Kind Sustainability Impact Scorecard to Expand MSME Access to Sustainable Financing
The Scorecard provides Filipino MSMEs with trusted, clear, and accessible pathways to measure sustainability performance, strengthen credibility, and unlock opportunities aligned with global environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Getting the Most out of Monitoring Data: An Impact Investor Explores the Value of a Unified Approach
Monitoring data is a source of frustration for many impact-focused organizations, as many see it as another line item in their budgets, a task required for funder compliance, or a backward-looking tool that isn’t necessarily relevant to future programming. But as Juan Taborda Burgos, Scott Caple and Jorge Bouchot at Root Capital argue, this paradigm fails to recognize the power of monitoring data to inform strategy and insights. They explore how Root Capital has standardized its monitoring system across its global programs, and highlight the value of taking a unified approach to collecting and utilizing this data.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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WDI Partners with Villgro Africa and Haskè Ventures to Scale R&D Impact Voucher Model Across Seven African Countries
R&D impact vouchers connect small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) with public research organizations through affiliated researchers, enabling businesses that might otherwise lack resources to access cutting-edge scientific expertise while providing African researchers with access to SMEs that they normally would not be exposed to.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Hidden Filters: How to Fix the Biases that Skew Investment Pipelines Away from Women Founders
Over the past decade, gender lens investing has moved from the fringes of impact investing into a more mainstream priority for many investors. But as Michal Januszewski at LeFil Consulting argues, while the overall gender-lens thesis has gained traction, the actual representation of women-led businesses remains stubbornly low within investor portfolios, with women-only founding teams capturing just 2.3% of global VC funding in 2024. He explores the structural and behavioral biases that can exclude women founders in each stage of the investment funnel, and shares practical recommendations on how investors can address them.
- Categories
- Investing
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