Epidemiologists are worriers. We like to think of ourselves as warriors, of course, but if you spend your professional time counting illness and deaths you worry a lot about diseases like COVID-19. Head of the Health practice Saul Johnson outline the six steps we need to take.

Any doubts as to the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic ended when South Africa went into a full-scale lockdown. Manager of Digital Economy team Mark Schoeman writes that none will feel it more than our country’s poor who do not have access to the digital coping strategies that are being put forward.

Genesis is working with the National Orientation Agency in Nigeria and the Ministry of Health in Kenya to provide daily nudges on how, through social media, to avoid COVID-19.

Genesis Analytics is pleased to announce that Sarah Magni has been promoted to partner in our Health practice. Sarah has worked at Genesis for four years. Prior to that she has held leadership positions in the health sector for over a decade.

Genesis has been awarded a grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a South to South learning network for HIV prevention. The project aims to help heavily affected countries reduce the number of new HIV infections, which currently stands at over 1.7 million infections a year.

South Africa can create 500,000 new jobs over 10 years through globally traded services. This was one of the key findings of the South Africa in the Digital Age (SADA) process. SADA is an urgent multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a forward-looking digital economy strategy for the country. It is convened by Genesis Analytics in partnership with the Gordon Institute of Business Science and the Pathways for Prosperity Commission at Oxford university.

At times of extreme crisis and unpredictability, bank leaders do well to rely on trusted tools such as scenario planning. Scenario planning has an advantage over other “tools” as it allows leaders to think forward through different scenarios, establish indicators to determine when circumstances are moving from one scenario to another, and to plan accordingly. At Genesis we have been leveraging our combined expertise to work with clients to implement scenario planning processes during the COVID-19 crisis.

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, Genesis is monitoring the evolving situation closely. Our teams have run various scenarios of the effects of the epidemic on the economies in which we operate our business. Genesis chair Stephan Malherbe outlines the position of the firm.

The World Health Organisation’s advisory that cash can carry the virus for several days doesn’t bode well for a continent whose main mode of payment is cash. East Africa seems better placed to curb the spread of the virus thanks to the proliferation of mobile money - and because mobile money users can pay each other without physical contact.

The rise of fintech start-ups is disrupting long-established incumbents in the banking industry. Genesis estimates that there are at least 224 active fintech startups operating within eight market segments in South Africa alone.

As Genesis grows we have sought to ensure that we integrate into a community of ethical development practitioners through becoming a voluntary signatory to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact. These are highlights of our annual Communication on Progress (COP) to the UN Global Compact.

Cloud banking has been hailed as a technological innovation that will enable financial services providers (FSPs) in Africa to extend banking services to approximately 717 million people on the continent who are either underserved or unserved.

Genesis Analytics is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and supports the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact with respect to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Download our 2020 report.

Genesis Analytics was proud to work with the Pathways for Prosperity Commission at Oxford university on the Digital Manifesto, which offers a roadmap to put developing countries in the driving seat of their own economic development. It offers an evidence-based guide to navigate the digital age to cultivate shared prosperity for all.

The Digital Roadmap puts developing countries in the driving seat of their own economic development. It offers an evidence-based guide to navigate the digital age to cultivate shared prosperity for all.

The Digital Economy Kit provides a framework for countries to get digitally ready. It is not about ICT sector strategy, instead it is about holistic growth strategies that harness digital technologies across the economy. It is built on work piloted in Ethiopia, Mongolia, and South Africa.

Will the provision of good quality and affordable rental housing opportunities in well-located areas of cities redress spatial inequalities? The Development team at Genesis used a case study approach to establish if SHRA's Social Housing Programme has delivered on its objectives, as well as identify the impact it has on household.

Women continue to face a number of key barriers which perpetuate the gender gap in financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa. In a chapter (Beyond Access: Gender-Transformative Financial Inclusion in Agriculture and Entrepreneurship), co-authored by Genesis, we recommend a new gender-transformative approach to financial inclusion that is explicitly directed toward creating gender-equal financial systems.