The Catch-22 in Global Health Finance: Why Medical Oxygen is the Test Case for Turning Aid into Investment

A recent study reveals business models that can enable medical oxygen SMEs to scale, and ways catalytic capital can better support them.

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When ‘Patient Capital’ isn’t Patient Enough: How Mismatched Funder Timelines in PAYGo Solar are Holding Back Energy Access in Africa

Even 'patient' capital is often not patient enough to wait for PAYGo solar assets to be repaid: Here are some solutions for better alignment.

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Taking First-Loss Guarantees Further: Four Problems That Keep Social Enterprises Stuck, and How Entrepreneurship Support Organizations Can Address Them

Villgro explores how first-loss guarantees can more effectively empower social enterprises if they're combined with other types of support.

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The Flawed Assumptions Behind AI for Agriculture: What Artificial Intelligence Can — And Can’t — Do for African Farmers

Learnings from an AI chatbot for African farmers reveal the importance of bringing a human connection to AI advisory programs in agriculture.

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Making Waste Pay: The Keys to Sustaining Paying Customers in Solid Waste Management

Analysis in India reveals key insights for how to retain paying customers in solid waste management in low- and middle-income countries.

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The Three Ingredients of Impact AI: Research from India Offers Guidance for AI for Social Good in Emerging Markets

Analysis in India highlights three key ingredients that can enable the successful deployment of impact AI in emerging markets.

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What Drives Positive Outcomes in Gender-Lens Investing? DFI Portfolio Evaluations Reveal Four Key Factors

Research on gender-lens investments at development finance institutions reveals why some investments achieve more gender impact than others.

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Designing Credit Systems for Informal Economies: Why More Data Alone Is Not Enough

How lenders can build an integrated approach that leverages alternative data to extend credit access to MSMEs and other informal borrowers.

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After the Grant Ends: Why Rural Water Utilities Fail — And What We Learned from Building One

The former leader of a rural water utility shares what he has learned about how to sustain operations beyond the grant period.

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Courageous Capital: How Africa Built its Own Tech Ecosystem

A pioneering investor explores how African innovators have built a tech ecosystem that's driving business development and economic growth.

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Understanding Africa’s Broken Climate Finance System: How the Missing Layers in the Capital Stack are Holding the Market Back

Analysts explore how the missing layers in Africa's climate finance capital stack are preventing the emergence of a more balanced market.

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Financing the Future: How Off-Balance-Sheet Special Purpose Vehicles Could Fund Africa’s Cleantech Transition

How off-balance-sheet financing via special-purpose vehicles could provide upfront liquidity to finance Africa’s cleantech transition.

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Flipping the Script on Investor Feedback: A New Survey Gives Entrepreneurs a Platform to Assess — And Influence — Their Impact Investors’ Practices

A new research initiative aims to explore social entrepreneurs' actual experiences with impact investors — both the good and the bad.

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Grant Dependency is Undermining Global Development: Here’s a Fundamentally New Architecture for Funding NGOs

Why the global development sector needs a funding model that treats self-reliance as a mandatory financial milestone for NGOs.

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The Keys to Successful Blue Bonds: How Peru's Strong Local Lending Systems Are Expanding Water and Sanitation Access

How lessons from Peru’s two successful blue bond issuances can be applied to bring affordable water and sanitation services to other markets.

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‘Deep Pockets’ vs. ‘Long Pockets’ in DPI: What Instant Payments and Open Finance Tell Us About Sustainable Funding for Digital Public Infrastructure

Analysts argue that sustainable funding for digital public infrastructure requires credible pricing policies, and explore some workable models.

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Selling the Outcome, Not Just the Appliance: What the Clean Cooling Sector Can Learn from Clean Cooking

A new report explores what the clean cooling sector can learn from the successes and flawed assumptions of clean cooking and off-grid solar.

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Moving Forward in a Post-USAID World: Why Women Must Be at the Center of Financial Inclusion

Analysts call on the financial inclusion sector to sustain the progress it has made toward gender equality, despite the demise of USAID.

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How to Support Rural Social Enterprises: Three Key Learnings from a Field Visit in Malaysia

Three key learnings from rural ventures in Malaysia demonstrate how practitioners and policymakers can best support rural social enterprises.

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High Expectations Require New Approaches: What Africa’s Social Innovators Need to Scale — And Why Support Systems Must Evolve

Analysts share insights from a needs assessment aimed at understanding where entrepreneur support models in Africa are falling short.

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Turning Silos into Synergy: An Inclusive Finance Pilot Provides Lessons for Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration

Analysts at FINCA and FLUID explore how their partnership has aligned incentives, learning and execution to overcome organizational silos.

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Africa’s Energy Future Needs More Than ‘Trickle-Down Electronomics’: Why the Debate Around False Trade-Offs Risks Leaving Millions Behind

Analysts push back on the concept of “trickle-down electronomics” in Africa: the assumption that industrial electrification will also benefit households.

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When Competitors Collaborate: How Eight Impact-First Investors Came Together to Confront the Valley of Death

A collaborative study involving eight leading impact investors aims to identify the true cost of closing the "Valley of Death."

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Getting the Most out of Monitoring Data: An Impact Investor Explores the Value of a Unified Approach

Analysts explore how Root Capital has standardized its monitoring system across its global programs, and discuss the value of this approach.

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The Missing Ingredient in Impact Investment in Africa: A New Financing Model for Business Advisory Service Providers Tackles the ’Lack of Investable Pipeline’ Challenge

Analysts explore how business advisory service providers (BASPs) can facilitate investment in African SMEs, and share a new BASP financing model.

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Farming Under Solar: How Agriphotovoltaics Can Transform Rural Livelihoods in India

Analysts explore how agriphotovoltaics (Agri-PV) can enable solar energy generation on Indian farmland while also benefitting farmers.

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The Hidden Filters: How to Fix the Biases that Skew Investment Pipelines Away from Women Founders

Practical recommendations on how investors can boost the inclusion of women founders at each stage of the investing process.

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