Gender Lens Investing (GLI) is an approach to investing that has an explicit intention of promoting the economic and social empowerment of women while also achieving financial returns. There has been an increase in GLI based on a greater body of evidence demonstrating that when women are economically empowered, they re-invest in their families and communities, producing a multiplier effect that contributes towards inclusive economic growth.

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), a type of short-term financing that allows consumers to split purchases into equal, often interest-free payments, is quickly gaining prominence among consumers. BNPL providers are disrupting traditional lending business models such as credit cards by leveraging innovative technology and offering fast and seamless finance to consumers at the point of sale.

Closing the huge MSME credit gap in Africa has been the focus of many development and private sector initiatives in recent years. Despite these efforts, MSMEs continue to face unique challenges compared with their larger counterparts.

What does the abolition of #roevwade reveal about how personal data is used? And how might we respond with a more democratic and participatory paradigm for data storage, access and usage? Tao Platt of our Centre of Digital Excellence unpacks the issues

At least 12% of people on earth are members of the 3 million cooperatives that exist worldwide. These cooperatives play an important role in addressing the needs of their members and communities and in the process, they contribute towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, fostering economic participation and keep financial capital within local communities.  

Insurance penetration in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is very low. In 2020 it stood at 2% on average across the continent, as compared to the global average of 7%. (1) The reasons for this low penetration have traditionally been attributed to the lack of awareness of the benefits of insurance, the high cost of insurance products, traditional distribution channels limiting access, failure to embrace digital technology, among others.

Half of Africa’s population will be under the age of 25 by 2050. This presents a rare opportunity for the continent to harness the youth dividend, allowing the continent to accelerate the realisation of some of its core aspirations, such as enhancing economic development. This possibility excites me, writes Catherine Namwezi of our Evaluation for Development practice.

It was believed that digital platforms would dissolve longstanding physical and economic barriers, launching a plethora of new products and even whole markets. And they have revolutionised our world. Yet, somewhere along the line that hopeful narrative seems to have gotten lost.  Increasingly, governments, pressure groups and regulators around the world view platforms as nodes of unparalleled, and currently untrammelled, market and social power.

Genesis Analytics, as a key partner on World  Environment Day 2022, is pleased to showcase the work we are doing with the USAID Resilient Waters Program in Namibia. Through this programme, the Namibian Nature Foundation is leading the way in community-based natural resource management which puts the community at the centre of the equation to ensure that environmental change is transformative and sustainable. #OnlyOneEarth

With less than a decade left to achieve the 17 ambitious SDGs, the gap in development financing aimed at achieving SDG targets is still large, continues to widen and has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Result-based financing (RBF) provides potential to fill this gap.

Climate change creates risk for companies, financial institutions and assets because of greater and more frequent extreme weather events (physical risk), and changes in technology, regulation and consumer sentiment (transition risk) accompanying the transition.

Warehouse receipt financing has long been seen as an important agricultural financing instrument, but in Kenya it has failed to live up to its promise. This is not for a lack of trying. Part of the problem was that there were few credible warehouses. Poor management and facilities have led to commodities rotting in warehouses or being released before loans were paid back. As a result, commodities in warehouses used as collateral could not be recovered by lenders.