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Press Release: World’s First $10 Million Sanitation Development Impact Bond Launches
A groundbreaking initiative to bring safe sanitation to some of the poorest and most vulnerable households in Cambodia launches today. The Cambodia Rural Sanitation DIB is the world’s first Development Impact Bond for sanitation and aims to eradicate the high rates of open defecation in the country and accelerate the Cambodian government’s efforts to reach universal sanitation.
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- rural development, SDGs
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Press Release: VisionFund International Raises AUD20M Through Its First Bond in Australia to Help Fund Global Financial Inclusion Initiatives
Offered in Australia to eligible institutional and high net worth investors, the bond is known as a ‘Kangaroo bond’ as it is issued in Australia in Australian dollars by a non-Australian entity. The five-year bond is unsecured and unsubordinated and offers a fixed rate of five per cent per annum, paid semi-annually.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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What Will Last Mile Distribution Look Like in 2025? Six Predictions for an Emerging Sector
From water purifiers to solar lights, the impact-oriented products can’t further development goals if they can't make it to last mile customers. Emma Colenbrader and Charlie Miller of the Global Distributors Collective explain how the organization's 140 member distributors have defied tough odds to get 13 million products and counting into the hands of last mile households. They share a first-of-its-kind report that aims to better understand the markets for these products, the customers being reached – and the business models that can reach them.
- Categories
- Energy, Telecommunications, Transportation
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Development Impact Bond Targets Sanitation in Cambodia
WASH issues are underfunded globally, according to the World Bank, which estimates that $1.7 trillion will be needed to achieve the related Sustainable Development Goal 6. Most countries need to dramatically increase spending and to meet the significant needs, people working in the WASH sector are also looking to other sources.
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- global development, SDGs
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Five Ways the Private Sector Can Align with the Sustainable Development Goals
How can the private sector advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and what’s the best way to measure the success of these efforts? Those questions were among the topics explored at the recent Sustainability and Development Conference at the University of Michigan. Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi and Dana Gorodetsky at the William Davidson Institute attended the event, and they share some essential insights on the private sector’s role in supporting the SDGs.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Impact Assessment
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Viewpoint: Should the Ease of Doing Business Really Be Our Top Priority?
Once the “ease of doing business” has been naturalised, a community will forget how this ease was achieved in the first instance – what did we lose, modify, erase, corrode as a community to facilitate the making and progress of this object called “business”?
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- SDGs
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Too Risky for the Crowd? Assessing the Potential of Crowdfunding for Energy Access
Crowdfunding raised $77 million for energy access between 2015 and the end of June 2019 – and the industry is on pace to generate over $200 million in crowdsourced financing by 2020. But despite this growth, Davinia Cogan at Energy 4 Impact points out that crowdfunding remains on the periphery of discussions about energy access finance. With the sector's estimated $33 billion in commercial capital needs, she explores whether – and how – the crowd can be part of the financing mix.
- Tags
- crowdfunding, energy access, SDGs
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A Spectrum of Solutions: How Impact Investors Are Funding the SDGs
Toniic recently released a report showing how impact investors are aligning their work with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Kristin Siegel, director of Toniic's 100% Network, discusses the findings – which include data from 76 Toniic member portfolios totaling $2.8 billion in committed capital. She points out that the data show how impact investors are "going beyond current media darlings" to include a variety of SDG-related focuses in their portfolios.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, SDGs