Georgetown University’s Professor Ken Opalo has published a blog arguing that the trend of rich countries, notably but not only the US, could be an opportunity for African countries. “Everyone must be clear-eyed about the fact that this might be the end of the long-established aid model. And it’s imperative to prepare for what comes…(Read more)
Category: News
Ghana to Host 2025 Africa Impact Summit
Impact Investing Ghana (IIG) along with sister platforms in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria, will host the 2025 Africa Impact Summit in Accra on June 11-12, 2025. The meeting will feature deal rooms to match investors and funds and companies seeking impact capital and a pre-conference study tour to Nigeria. For more information on the…(Read more)
Big Renewables Potential in Vietnam Needs Investment: New Report
A new report on renewable energy in Vietnam by researchers at Imperial College London and Singapore Management University found that “Given Vietnam’s strong resource potential, domestic and international investors have shown strong interest in various renewable energy projects, including solar, wind, and hydropower.” The Vietnamese government has instituted supportive policies to grow renewables, including feed-in…(Read more)
Global Energy Transition Investment Surpasses $2 Trillion
US-based Canary Media reports that, in 2024, global investment in the energy transition for the first time passed the $2 trillion mark. The main components of this aggregate number were $757 billion for electrified transportation, $728 billion for renewable energy projects, and $390 billion for power grids, based on Bloomberg data. To read the article,…(Read more)
The Dismantling of USAID: Five Things to Watch For
The new US administration sent shockwaves through the Global South by abruptly and brutally dismantling the world’s largest aid donor, USAID, firing 95% of its staff, and leaving partners and life-saving projects scrambling to exit while trying to protect the interests of their stakeholders, especially poor women and children. University of Ottawa professor Lauchlan Munro…(Read more)
Gender Lens Investing and Women’s Green Businesses
On November 11, 2024 in Dhaka, impact investment fund Truvalu and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation hosted a roundtable for bankers, impact investors and women entrepreneurs to explore ways and means of increasing access to capital for women-owned businesses addressing climate change through energy efficiency, clean energy, recycling or other green products and…(Read more)
A University-Based Non-Profit that Builds Affordable Rental Housing at Scale
Through successive replications of its mixed-income, mixed-use residential tower model, the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation has become Winnipeg’s leading social real estate developer. Featuring green construction and generous common spaces, 40% to 51% of each tower’s units are affordable while the rest are rented at market or premium rates. With the completion of…(Read more)
Labour-Absorbing Services: Four Strategies
Economists Dani Rodrik and Rohan Sandhu recently published their latest paper on strategies for increasing the labour-absorbing capacities of the services sector in developing economies, where large numbers of young people are entering the workforce every year. As their abstract says: “Manufacturing generates very little employment in the developing world. Urban jobs are predominantly informal,…(Read more)
Special Issue of the African Evaluation Journal Honours Dr. Sulley Gariba
The African Evaluation Journal has published a special issue in honour of one of the continent’s prime leaders in the field, the late Sulley Gariba, Ghanaian diplomat, policy advisor, and evaluation strategist and practitioner. Dr, Gariba constructed new pathways for African-developed and -owned evaluation by governments and civil society, and promoted youth engagement in the…(Read more)
US State Department TIP Report Praises Fair Food Program
The 2024 Trafficking in Persons report of the United States State Department praises the human rights protections for migrant workers of the Fair Food Program and other worker-driven social responsibility models: “Over the last several years, government and private sector attention has become focused on resilient supply chains, and there are increasing supply chain transparency…(Read more)