On July 7, 2026, on the NextBillion platform, Katie Turner, a Senior Associate with Jackson and Associates, and Jenny Holden published “What Drives Positive Outcomes in Gender-Lens Investing? DFI Portfolio Evaluations Reveal Four Key Factors.” Examining 81 investments across four development finance institutions, the authors found that the best gender outcomes were generated by investments…(Read more)
Tag: impact investment
Unlocking Pension Capital for SMEs in West Africa
Working with Impact Investing Ghana and Savannah Impact Advisors, the Ci Gaba (Progress) Fund of Funds in West Africa has published a learning report on how to mobilize domestic pension-fund capital for small and medium-sized businesses. Enabled by Ci Gaba’s catalytic first loss provision, capacity building and technical assistance, Ghanaian pension funds invested USD 30…(Read more)
Strengthening the Voices of Women Small Business Owners in the Caribbean
Authored by Jackson and Associates Senior Associate Kizzann Sammy, two significant reports on strengthening the voices of women owners of micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the programs intended to help them were recently published by the Multi-Country Office of UN Women in the Caribbean. One study focuses on Antigua and Barbuda and…(Read more)
Continued Growth of Canadian Impact Investment
In its new State of the Sector report, the Canada Forum on Impact Investment in Development found that Canadian impact investors—banks, credit unions, funds, foundations and NGOs—managed CAD 4.6 billion in assets in emerging and developing economies. This capital was placed in financial services, agriculture, clean energy and consumer services, with 46% going to Latin…(Read more)
Relaunching Development Financing from Seville
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)
Applying a Gender Lens to Infrastructure Projects
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)
$3B for Women’s Small Businesses
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)
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)