Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) acts as a guide to help stakeholders ask and answer questions about the outcomes of their interventions. Data alone is not enough to convey complex narratives and data visualisation turns mundane spreadsheets and numbers into dynamic graphics, charts, and interactive dashboards to bridge the gap between data and decision-making.

Have you ever felt sceptical about a claim that a company, programme or policy creates hundreds of thousands of jobs or contributes several percent to GDP? You’re not alone.

As economic impact assessment specialists, we spend a lot of time rigorously calculating past or future economic impact, and addressing inevitable questions that arise from economic claims. Below we’ll break down (i) why we use economic impact assessment, (ii) why economic impact assessment may rightly elicit a healthy dose of scepticism, and (iii) how we can address that scepticism by making economic impact assessments as transparent and effective as possible.

South Africa published the National Cloud and Data Policy on 30 May. This follows the controversial 2021 Draft Policy and written submissions from a range of stakeholders that criticised the conflation of infrastructure, data and digital economy issues and the implications of the regulatory recommendations.

I remember the first time someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Without hesitation, and unlike most classmates who cited more realistic aspirations such as being a doctor, I said I wanted to be the first female president of my home country.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, education stands as a beacon of hope and a catalyst for social and economic transformation, with the power to emancipate individuals, strengthen communities, and fuel sustainable development. However, challenges such as limited resources, the legacy of colonialism, infrastructure gaps, and socio-economic disparities pose significant barriers to education quality and access in the region.

In my experience of designing and evaluating development projects, I keep returning to one question: how effectively do these initiatives and investments reach their target communities? There seems to be a trade-off between the ease and predictability of solutions and their actual impact.

Looking ahead to 2024, the stage is set for a competitive and engaging year in Nigeria’s financial inclusion and digital financial services sector.

This follows an eventful 2023, which saw several factors shaping the sector: a persistent and widening gender gap in the access to and usage of financial services, a fast-evolving and highly competitive environment among payments players, and the increased uptake of digital lending products.

Every January, the Shared Value and Impact (SVI) team at Genesis Analytics predicts ESG and public policy trends for the coming year. These predictions are based on what we see in global trends as they are relevant to African businesses and governments in the year ahead. Here are our predictions for 2024 ...

The landmark COP28 agreement to set up the $700 million Loss and Damage Fund is a clear (if belated and insufficient) acknowledgment of the catastrophic physical and social risks facing developing countries. CFE has been working for years to help governments and partners quantify risks, cost solutions, weave these challenges into policy, prioritise interventions and mobilise resources to fund the most essential activities. 

Current global efforts to alleviate the climate crisis are way off track, and no one faces more risk than vulnerable communities in developing countries who bear the brunt of rising global temperatures. Enhancing climate action efforts has never been more important.

One of the key goals at COP28 is to assess how much headway has been made in combating the climate crisis and to determine what more can be done to accelerate climate action.

Current global efforts to alleviate the climate crisis are way off track, and no one faces more risk than vulnerable communities in developing countries who bear the brunt of rising global temperatures.

COP28 is happening right now in Dubai, bringing the world together to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change. The Conference of the Parties (COP) that are signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is where governments and partners gather to negotiate and collaborate on climate policies, strategies and actions such as their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).