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).

As an emerging evaluator who works on financial education (or financial literacy) programme evaluations, Bonga Khoza has often been left with a question mark about whether or not a programme has been effective

2023 has been a momentous year for Genesis. We celebrated our 25th birthday, now employ 280 staff and have people based in more than 25 countries. We also achieved the milestone of having worked in more than 100 countries, including the Middle East and Central Asia.

2023 has been a year of fours for the Shared Value and Impact practice. We hired four new team members, embraced hybrid working across four cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi and London) and built out our four service lines: corporate impact and strategy, public policy for corporates, the just energy transition* and government policy and advisory.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” seems to have been relegated to the backseat and the prevailing narrative is to “get young people into employment, any employment as long as they are employed”. This approach disregards the dreams and aspirations of young people, pushing them into jobs that may not align with what gives them personal fulfilment.

Read Genesis’ highly anticipated economic impact report on Airbnb’s operations in South Africa. Led by our teams in Shared Value and Impact and the Centre of Digital Excellence, this independent report estimates Airbnb's significant contribution to the economy and describes the ongoing achievement of more inclusive tourism.

Now more than ever we are witnessing the power of digital solutions to enrich our work, and I for one am leaning into these exciting new times! As a fully remote worker, I rely heavily on digital tools to interact with my team daily. I have come to appreciate the value of digital tools and solutions, firstly, for making me a better monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practitioner, and secondly, for the value-add they bring to the Evaluation for Development (E4D) team at Genesis.