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.

In the past, financial service providers designed products with the hope of changing human behaviour to fit into these products. With the arrival of fintech there has been a shift in focus from trying to understand consumer habits to designing products that match the way people are already behaving. Our Applied Behavioural Economics team looks at how fintech platforms successfully incorporate behavioural economic insights into their design.

2021 has been a year of growth for the Shared Value and Impact practice at Genesis. In the corporate world, too. When we asked companies five years ago what impact they had on society, they’d point us to the CSI department. Now we get pointed to the board and CEO’s office. Impact has become a strategy; strategy is guided by impact.

Across the continent, emerging evidence shows that as many as 80% of neonatal deaths across Africa are preventable through access to appropriate technology, equipment, and skill.  Reducing the gap between pervasive and persistent challenges and improved well-being necessitates all of us to do things differently - to innovate.

Expropriation without compensation evokes strong opinions and emotions in South Africa. Despite the dominant legal opinion that the Constitution implicitly permits the state to expropriate land with nil compensation, Parliament has spent three years debating an amendment to Section 25 to make expropriation with nil compensation explicit.