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British International Investment and Laxmi Sunrise Bank Partner to Unlock Finance for Nepal’s Small Businesses and Women Entrepreneurs
By providing long-term capital to underserved businesses, the partnership is expected to support jobs, entrepreneurship and the growth of a more inclusive private sector across Nepal.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Analysis: A Nigerian Teen Is Turning Agricultural Waste Into Biodegradable Sanitary Pads
Auwal-Panti’s project was selected in a shortlist of 35 global teams for the 2026 Earth Prize, organized by the Earth Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit that empowers, educates and inspires young people to tackle environmental challenges.
- Categories
- Agriculture, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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inDrive Backs Aurora Ventures to Fund Emerging Market Female Tech Founders
Aurora Ventures is structured to capitalize on a persistent market inefficiency identified over five years of managing the Aurora Tech Award.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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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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How to Support Rural Social Enterprises: Three Key Learnings from a Field Visit in Malaysia
While global media coverage of the social enterprise sector often focuses on countries like India and Kenya, Malaysia remains relatively underrepresented in these conversations. Yet as Sreevas Sahasranamam at the University of Glasgow explains, the country has developed rich models of social innovation deeply rooted in indigenous knowledge systems, ecological stewardship and local resilience. He shares three key learnings from five community-led ventures, each of which demonstrates how practitioners and policymakers can best support rural social enterprises — not only in Malaysia, but globally.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Ecobank, Proparco Partner to Mobilise €300 Million for Agriculture, Women-Led Businesses in Africa
Under the arrangement, Proparco Groupe AFD will provide financial instruments, including partial portfolio guarantees, co-financing, and trade finance support, to help Ecobank Group increase lending to agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises across 33 African countries.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Shell Foundation, Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship, and Amazon India Announces New Programme to Empower Women Micro Entrepreneurs through Market Connect and Clean Energy Access
his collaboration addresses these challenges by connecting women-led businesses to new customers through Amazon’s Saheli program, which offers lower selling fees and specialized support, including account management and training.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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GAFSP Announces $38 Million in Grants to Support Smallholder Farmers Across Africa, Asia, and the Americas
The latest allocation by GAFSP places a strong emphasis on strengthening the capacities and financial sustainability of producer organizations, while scaling up tested innovations for smallholder agriculture.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Global
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