A new ecosystem platform, Impact Investing Ghana (IIGh), was launched in Accra on June 18, 2019. Addressed by Ghana’s Minister of Finance, the Hon. Ken Ofori Atta, the launch event focused on the theme of ‘Leveraging Private Capital to Close the SDG Funding Gap for a Prosperous Ghana.’ (Read more)
Category: News
Equality Fund Launched with $300M Contribution from the Government of Canada
An innovative new mechanism for supporting women’s rights organizations, the Equality Fund, was launched on June 2, 2019, on the eve of the Women Deliver conference in Vancouver. Maryam Monsef, Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality, announced a multi-year, $300 million commitment by the Government of Canada toward the fund, which has already raised an additional $100 million.
Seminar on Feminist and Gender-Transformative Financial Inclusion
On May 23, 2019, McGill University’s WED Lab on women’s empowerment in development hosted a seminar at the International Development Research Centre on feminist and gender-transformative financial inclusion. With more than 120 participants attending in the room and on line, the seminar was led by Dr. Kate Grantham, WED Lab Research Associate, and panelists Martha…(Read more)
New Podcast on Evaluating Impact Investing
In the first of a series of podcasts by Wider Sense, a Berlin-based philanthropy and CSR think-and-do tank, Ted Jackson is interviewed by Michael Alberg-Seberich on trends and issues in evaluating impact investing, including theory of change, participation, unintended consequences, ecosystem development and gender lens investing.
Universities and Social Enterprise: Scaling for Greater Impact
Canadian development NGO World University Service of Canada (WUSC) has published a new report entitled “Social Enterprise and Post-Secondary Institutions: Optimizing for Development Impact.” From the Antigonish and Desjardins cooperative movements to the current crop of social-purpose tech start-ups,
Gender Lens Investing Primer for College and University Endowments
A new US network, Intentional Endowments, has launched a primer on gender lens investing (GLI) for college and university endowments. Written by Julia Enyart, with the advice of a working group chaired by Suzanne Beigel and including, among others, Julie Gorte, Kristin Hull, Jackie Rotman and Jackie VanderBrug, the primer focuses mainly on screening and engagement strategies for public markets.
Are Development NGOs AI Ready?
In their new blog, Ted Jackson and Brian Rowe ask whether non-governmental organizations are ready for the economic and social changes already being triggered by new applications of artificial intelligence, especially the prospects of large scale job loss over the next 20 years. (Read the blog)
Maendeleo Diamond Standards Launched
On April 24, 2019, the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) launched the Maendeleo Diamond Standards, which establish best practices in consent, legality, community engagement, workers’ rights, environmental protection, and health and safety for artisanal and small-scale diamond mining in Africa and the Americas.
Reality Check Needed for Blended Finance
A new report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) calls for a reality check on efforts to mobilize, structure and deploy blended capital—from the private, public and philanthropic sectors—to accelerate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “The current approach is not leveraging significant amounts of private investment overall and very little for low-income countries,”…(Read more)
Learning-Oriented Real-Time Impact Assessment
On April 15-17, 2019, the Independent Evaluation Unit (IEU) of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) held its most annual Learning-Oriented Real-Time Impact Assessment (LORTA) workshop, this time at the University of Mannheim in Mannheim, Germany. Serving a growing number of approved GCF projects, LORTA technical assistance services provided by the Unit (Read more)