News
Open skies - Recommendations for enhanced African air connectivity
Poor connectivity not only results in onerous travel schedules, it also holds economies back by hampering the development of air transport in general. Past initiatives to open up Africa’s skies, such...
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Development of wind and solar power in sub-Saharan Africa: how can the obstacles be removed?
Sub-Saharan Africa possesses considerable solar and wind energy resources and demand for electricity is growing steadily. Despite this favourable scenario however the realisation of projects based on...
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A few lessons from the DFID impact fund experience
While poor people in developing countries are more than willing to pay for basic goods and services, the existing private sector solutions in place so far do not allow them to meet such needs effectiv...
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The point of view of an impact investor - redefining the concepts of risk and retour
The notion of a trade-off between financial, social and environmental returns has dominated the impact investing debateuptonow.
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Low-cost private schools scalable solution to a massive gap?
To provide low-cost nursery and primary school education in poor neighbourhoods, Bridge International Academies has developed a vertically-integrated system. It includes operational tools and systems,...
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Improving air transport efficiency in Africa
The opportunities presented by air transport are particularly relevant to Africa, however the sector is hampered by lingering over-dependence on governments, supervisory bodies that are often ineffici...
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Tourism in Africa: a priceless resource with untapped potential
Although there has been a significant increase in tourism in Africa, the sector’s abundant potential remains largely untapped on the continent. Mossadeck Bally gives an overview of the challenges and...
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Financial sector in Africa: training the next generation of managers
For investors in financial institutions in Africa and other developing economies, a lack of managerial capacity is particularly evident in the “post-expatriate” phase – the moment when local capacity...
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Acting sustainably to promote African small business: The challenge facing mission investors
Africa is the new frontier for private equity, yet the region is having trouble channelling the corresponding financial flows to its woefully underfunded small businesses. The continent cannot adequat...
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Social business: the challenge of scaling up
Entrepreneurship can meet the needs of “base-of-the-pyramid” populations, provided the business in question has reached the critical size needed for profitability and sustainability. Examples of “incl...
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Palmis Enèji: from NGO to enterprise - the story of a social business in Haiti
In 2012, the French NGO EDM launched a programme to distribute Palmis Enèji cooking and lighting appliances to meet energy demand among the poorest sections of the Haitian population. Two years ago, t...
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The diversity of social business: the case of Madagascar
Despite a troubled macroeconomic and political environment, Madagascar possesses a fairly diversified, dynamic economic fabric in comparison to other countries with a similar level of development. Thi...
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Using measurement to enhance and share social business practices
To achieve credibility, social entrepreneurship must spell out the basic principles underlying its practices and objectively measure its outcomes. Measuring social performance – particularly by analys...
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Access to quality sanitation in kenyan slums: Sanergy's model
Sanergy strives to leverage the entire sanitation value chain to create vibrant micro-businesses in informal settlements and by-products that can be marketed to Kenyan farmers. Hazardous waste is remo...
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The ambitious and challenges of social business - Better definiting and structuring the sector
Social business is a demanding business model: social enterprises pursue social or environmental goals while also seeking long-term profitability and they face many challenges. In the wide- ranging ‘i...
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Sub-Saharan Africa: Growth also depends on the funding of affordable housing
Well-functioning areas are a key issue for Africa’s development. The housing sector, with the construction of millions of affordable homes for the masses in Africa, represents a major challenge but al...
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The Big Bang in Big Data: an opportunity for African urban policies
Each day, our intensive use of information technologies generates trillions of data bytes termed “Big Data”. Some big data has a high socio-behavioural value and may therefore be of use in producing d...
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Teaching teachers: first steps in improving education in Sub-Saharan Africa
Elun is a nonprofit providing free teacher education to schools in the developing world with a number of ongoing projects in Rwanda, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Tanzania. This article presents Elun’s id...
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Encouraging banking sector participation in climate finance, the case of Kenya
The development of energy resources and energy efficiency in Kenya is a current necessity as well as a big challenge. To meet that challenge, Kenya's Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has partnered w...
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Pooling – an innovative way of releasing capital for renewable energy in India
The Indian government's electrification plans offers major opportunities for renewable energies, with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) best placed to meet them. They, however, face challenges...
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