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China Moves to Standardize Fragmented ESG Reporting Landscape
China has offered guidance for companies as they strive to craft ESG initiatives that will assess risk for investors while leaning heavily toward government priorities.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- ESG, governance, impact measurement
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Press Release: The Solar Lighting and Appliances Sector May Be Leaving Marginalised Groups Behind, New Efficiency for Access Study Reveals
This seminal report is a first step towards establishing a baseline to understand how well the sector is performing across different facets of inclusivity.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment
- Region
- Global
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Mastercard Lighthouse Massiv and UNDP Announce Partnership and Strengthen Their Commitment on Impact Measurement and Management for Startups
Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV and UNDP contribute to amplifying the private sector’s role in creating a significant positive impact on people and ensuring we leave a better planet for future generations.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Global
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Interview: Bill Gates Says Rich Countries Are Tackling Hunger in Africa All Wrong
Bill Gates suggests how backward rich countries' approach to tackling global hunger is a band-aid approach.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Global
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Bringing a Gender Lens to Technical Assistance: New Research Reveals the Benefits and Costs of Gender-Smart TA to SMEs and Investors
There’s growing momentum behind gender lens strategies in impact investing. But according to Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi at the William Davidson Institute and Lisa Willems and Ladé Araba at the AlphaMundi Foundation, investors tend to apply a gender lens to their investing and pipeline development activities – but not to technical assistance and other types of post-investment support. They share findings from a recent study from the Gender-Smart Enterprise Assistance Research Coalition (G-SEARCh) consortium, which explores the business case for gender-smart technical assistance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Designing an Impact Measurement Strategy: What’s Your North Star?
As impact investing evolves, there are a growing number of impact measurement solutions available to investors and the ecosystem at large. But as Shruti Goel at Upaya Social Ventures and Sachi Shenoy at Calidris explain, the deluge of impact measurement data, frameworks and methods can be confusing. They share some key lessons Upaya has learned in its 11 years of supporting impactful entrepreneurs, and explore how investors can develop a robust measurement strategy that helps them understand the breadth and depth of their impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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From Impact Investing to ‘Impact-First’ Investing: Seven Ways Investors Can Take a Holistic Lifecycle Approach to Impact
Impact investing is playing a growing role in addressing many complex societal problems. But as Varad Pande and Twinkle Malhan at Omidyar Network India point out, one of the critiques of the sector is that its approach to impact is not holistic – i.e., many investors' focus on impact stops after a fund's strategy has been set and its deals have been vetted. To address this issue, they propose a more holistic approach to creating impact across the lifecycle of each investment – from sourcing higher-impact deals, to supporting investees' efforts to sustain and increase their impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Why Social Enterprises Struggle to Measure Impact – And What Impact Investors Can Do About It
Impact investors typically rely on output measurements, such as total capital invested or number of people served, to assess their impact. But it's harder for investors and their investees to sustainably capture outcome data that assesses actual improvements in customers' lives. Spencer MacColl at Kiva shares data from Kiva's annual impact measurement survey, which reflects the current measurement practices and challenges of the microfinance institutions and other social enterprises Kiva supports. He explores the lessons these findings offer to impact investors and others who are working to design more effective measurement practices.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise