In July 2025, in the wake of major aid cuts by the United States and Europe, the United Nations hosted the fourth conference on financing for development in Seville, Spain. The meeting produced an outcome document, the Seville Commitment, that called for a pause on the debt of developing countries, a debt swap hub, a…(Read more)
The Unesco Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education held jointly by Budd Hall at the University of Victoria, Canada, and Rajesh Tandon at PRIA in New Delhi, has published its annual report for 2024-2025. Through its DECODE project, the Chair and its partners produced six case studies “exploring how communities are…(Read more)
On June 15, 2025, PIDG—the Private Infrastructure Development Group owned by Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom—published its new Gender Lens Investing Policy. Making the business case for investing in women in infrastructure projects, and bolstered by a clear theory of change, the new policy directs PIDG to integrate gender lens analysis into…(Read more)
Impact strategists Rosemary Addis and Laurie Spengler write in Forbes that, in this moment of turbulence and partisanship, corporate boards should put substance over signaling on issues of sustainability and equity. The key questions Board members should ask themselves include: “
E. T. Jackson and Associates President Ted Jackson, with Teddy Samy and Katie Turner, argue in Next Billion that in uncertain times, it is essential to double down on what works. And we know that gender incentives in climate finance work. Even a small reduction in the interest rates on loans to companies building large-scale…(Read more)
Late last year, Dr. Denise Beaulieu, President of Consultation M. D. Beaulieu and longstanding Senior Associate of E. T. Jackson and Associates, visited the city of Tamale in northern Ghana to seek the advice of another valued Senior Associate, Mr. Coleman Agyeyomah. One of Ghana’s most accomplished community development experts, Coleman teaches a development studies…(Read more)
The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), a global campaign with multilateral development banks and bilateral donors to mobilize financing for women’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, raised USD 5.3M in 2024, exceeding by a factor of five its goal for the year, and in the process reaching 400,000 women’s MSMEs worldwide. Also in 2024, the…(Read more)
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)
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)
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)
