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Turning Failure into Fuel: An Emerging Learning Platform Aims to Bring the Hidden Challenges in Humanitarian Energy to Light
The humanitarian energy sector is eager to learn from success. But according to clean cooking and energy access researchers Nazifa Rafa, Tash Perros, Iwona Bisaga and Ronan Ferguson, its failures are usually buried in reports or quietly brushed aside, and there's often a disconnect between what’s documented in impact reports and what practitioners experience on the ground. They argue that this dynamic is unsustainable in a sector with high risks, urgent needs and shrinking funding. In response, they share an emerging solution: the Humanitarian Energy Learning Platform, a centralized, inter-donor learning system designed to highlight what’s going wrong in humanitarian energy access, and how practitioners can systematically learn from it.
- Categories
- Energy
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IRC and GiveWell Partner to Deliver Safe Water to 1.7 Million People in Chad, Nigeria, and Somalia With Cost-Effective Approach
This 18-month pilot will introduce a cost-effective approach to water treatment across refugee camps, displacement settlements, and vulnerable host communities.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Malengo Secures $12.9 Million from The Shapiro Foundation to Expand International Education Pathways & Financial Security
Malengo is a non-profit organization enabling international educational migration and economic empowerment for young people from East Africa.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Right Decision, Wrong Reasons: The Way Forward from the Attack on Global Aid
The global aid system is fracturing, with profound implications for the roughly 4 billion people who live on less than $7 a day — and especially for the 120+ million who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. But as Simon Marot Touloung, Elana Banin and Jakob Øster argue, while recent attacks on the system may be overly simplistic, they point to a real issue: Humanitarian aid had failed to evolve, and it is structurally incapable of catalyzing the long-term economic transformation displaced communities need. They explore some market-based alternatives to traditional aid, and propose five principles to guide the transition from the failing aid model toward new approaches that can actually deliver resilience and dignity.
- Categories
- Investing
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As U.S. Foreign Aid Drops, United Nations Agencies That Provide Aid Worldwide Slash Jobs or Cut Costs
One WFP official called the cuts “the most massive” seen by the agency in the past 25 years, and that as a result, operations will disappear or be downsized.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Global
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Shifting from Aid to Entrepreneurship: A Better Response to Forced Displacement
In 2024, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide reached nearly 123 million. According to Mary Mwangi at Inkomoko, this growing reality, coupled with shrinking humanitarian aid, demands a new response. Instead of seeing forcibly displaced people as passive recipients of aid living in costly refugee camps, she urges the global development sector to view them as individuals with entrepreneurial drive and economic potential. She explores how Inkomoko is working to empower displaced entrepreneurs in Africa through financing, skill development and access to markets.
- Categories
- Investing
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The Impact Has Been Devastating’: How USAID Freeze Sent Shockwaves Through Ethiopia
Ethiopia was the largest recipient of US aid assistance in sub-Saharan Africa before Donald Trump froze funding last month.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Displaced Again: People Forced to Flee Fear Hunger as Violence Grips the East of DRC
World Food Programme calls for urgent diplomatic interventions as the second largest city in east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo falls to M23.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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