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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2024: Vote for Your Favorites by Jan. 5
As we bid farewell to an eventful year, it's time for NextBillion’s annual tradition: our “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest. Each December since 2012, we've selected 12 of our most-read articles from the past year, inviting readers to vote for the ones that influenced their thinking the most. Check out the articles in this year's contest (if you haven't already), and vote for your favorites: You can vote up to once per hour between Dec. 18 and 11:59 pm EST on Jan. 5.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Making Mini-Grids Work for Everyone: A Tariff Harmonization Pilot in Sierra Leone Reveals the Benefits and Challenges of Lowering Prices
Solar mini-grids offer a promising solution to energy poverty in Africa. But according to Tombo Banda and Lisa Kahuthu at CrossBoundary and Miriam Atuya, this approach has yet to gain sufficient traction, due in part to the challenge of balancing operational sustainability with affordability. If customer tariffs are set too low, operators lack revenue — but if prices are set too high, mini-grid electricity isn’t accessible enough to drive widespread adoption. They share the results of a pilot program in Sierra Leone that tested the impact of lower prices on mini-grid operators and their customers, highlighting the implications for future efforts to implement tariff reduction at scale.
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Subsidy and Synergy: How Philanthropy Can Complement Impact Investing More Effectively
The original goal of impact investing was to build out the funding spectrum between philanthropy and commercial investment. But according to Asad Mahmood at SIMA and Nanno Kleiterp, the arrival of private equity firms — promising scale and market-rate financial returns — has pulled all the sector's energy toward the commercial end of the spectrum. They explore the key role philanthropic subsidy has played in the development of emerging markets business, clarify some misconceptions about its role in impact investing, and propose some ways philanthropists and impact investors can better align their efforts.
- Categories
- Energy, Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Press Release: Rockefeller Foundation Advances African-Led Energy Transition Solutions at COP29
The Rockefeller Foundation announced $US10.9 million for the African Climate Foundation; African School of Regulation; Clean Cooking Alliance, via UN Foundation, in Kenya; GOGLA; SEforALL, via UNOPS, in Zambia.
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: BP, Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies Join Forces to Help Increase Access to Energy
Despite ongoing efforts, progress towards universal energy access has stalled, particularly amidst recent macroeconomic shocks and rising energy prices.
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- Energy, Environment, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: SolarAid and UNSW Launch “State of Repair” Report, Setting the Stage for the Future of Off-Grid Solar Repair Services
Since 2008, SolarAid has worked to repair non-functioning solar products, starting with early projects in Malawi.
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- Energy
- Region
- Global
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d.light to Sell Solar Power, Clean Cooking Solutions in Kenya Under KOSAP
Through this initiative, d.light will provide solar power and clean cooking solutions to over 150,000 people.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: CrossBoundary’s Innovation Lab Finds That Tariff Reduction in Rural Sierra Leone Boosts Usage, but Long-Term Success Requires Broader Support
When electricity tariffs were cut by 41% over a year, energy use surged by 58%.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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