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Chile, a case of market-driven transition to renewables
Chile has seen an astonishing surge in renewable energy production. Key factors underlying this success: an abundance of natural resources, an open energy market and a robust regulatory framework, com...
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Towards carbon risk and climate performance recognition in the financial sector
Despite the clear need for their involvement, finance-industry players currently remain largely disengaged from the investment needs of the low-carbon economy. ‘Carbon risk' and ‘climate performance'...
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Green bonds – a promising tool for climate finance
The green bonds market is booming – boosting the growing flows of private capital being channelled towards energy transition and with the potential, ultimately, to encourage the direct financing of gr...
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Adapting to climate-change: the private sector can contribute
Adapting to climate change is one of the greatest challenges of this century – its effects are already evident and widespread, and the developing world is particularly vulnerable. Multilateral develop...
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Tomorrow's Africa: secondary and tertiary education, the catalyst for change
Africa countries have made huge strides in providing universal access to primary schooling, but secondary and tertiary educational opportunities lag far behind – creating enormous development challeng...
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$ 40 billion needed to reduce global deforestation
Private financing for sustainable forest management is far greater than public financing, but still falls far short of what is needed to halve global deforestation by 2020. There is a serious informat...
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Meeting the challenge of funding the transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient societies
Current funding levels are insufficient to limit global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, despite resources such as some of the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms. For a successful transition to a lo...
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Towards an intercultural approach to CSR in Africa
By virtue of their specific cultural imperatives and practices, African businesses are invested with a social mission, extending beyond their exclusively economic role. At a time when a more corporate...
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An agribusiness group pioneering CSR practice in Africa
The example of the Côte d'Ivoire group SIFCA demonstrates that CSR is a guarantee of sustainability and functions as a performance lever for companies. Since 2007, SIFCA has been committed to sustaina...
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Boosting CSR in African SMEs: the experience of an impact investor
African SMEs often lack the funding to put formal CSR policies in place, but doing so could help them to achieve greater economic success and boost their impact on development. As well as providing fu...
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From aid to partnership: Lafarge's CSR programme in sub-Saharan Africa
Industrial ecology is a major component of Lafarge's corporate social responsibility programme in sub- Saharan Africa – alongside initiatives promoting safety at work, healthcare and education. The gr...
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Can private investment finance clean energy in Southeast Asia?
Demand, policy support and supply-chain development have together created a compelling opportunity for private finance to invest in renewable energy in Southeast Asia – private equity funds, as well a...
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Persuading businesses to commit: the WWF approach
For an NGO such as WWF, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an effective lever for influencing the practices of the private sector and for challenging its economic models. WWF therefore develops...
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Africa: on the way to CSR
Nowadays the concept of CSR is becoming increasingly widespread and is endorsed by a growing number of economic actors. Yet awareness levels in sub-Saharan Africa remain low, and few businesses implem...
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The role of development finance institutions in promoting CSR
Development finance institutions such as Proparco help the companies they finance to improve their environmental and social (E&S) practices. Their role is not limited to E&S risk management: they also...
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Building long term agricultural partnerships in Africa: four lessons from the Olam experience
Focus Emerging Africa offers increasing opportunities, both as a growing consumer market and a vibrant production centre. Of course there are challenges and risks, but these are surmountable with the...
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The role of private equity funding in the development of Africa's agriculture
Ensuring that Africa can feed itself by 2050 and contribute to the increasing global demand for food will require well-targeted coordination and collaboration between governments, donors, entrepreneur...
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Democratising access to higher education: a story from Brazil
Anhanguera is part of a new generation of private companies that have flourished during the last decade in Brazil catering to the demand from a growing middle class for higher education. Thanks to con...
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Education for all: the private sector can contribute
Education is a human right, which states have the responsibility to ensure. But they need not be the sole provider. Private involvement can increase financial resources committed to education and supp...
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How can development finance institutions help to build an effective African banking sector?
Limited, fragmented, inefficient and characterised by strong regional disparities, Sub-Saharan Africa's banking sectors lack the capability to meet the private sector's financing needs. Development fi...
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