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An African banking model
Following the lessons of the pan-African banking groups' expansion, a number of local commercial banks have successfully expanded regionally. They differ from the international banking groups in a num...
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Fostering financial inclusion with mobile banking
Mobile telephony penetration in Africa has increased exponentially over the last decade. contrary, banking penetration remains low on the continent. This contrast paves the mobile banking's success in...
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The renewal of African banking sector
Banking systems in Africa have undergone major changes in recent decades. The emergence of African groups and increased competition have forced the sector to adopt growth strategies based in particula...
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Recycling and innovation in India: PerPETual Global
Each year, around 500 billion plastic bottles are discarded globally. Incinerating them or sending them to landfill increases the levels of pollution generated by the plastics industry. PerPETual Glob...
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Financing waste projects, a challenging opportunity
Governments increasingly seek to rely on the private sector's involvement and financing for improving municipal solid waste management. But, private companies involved in that sector have difficulties...
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Transforming municipal solid waste into a net carbon reducer
While municipal solid waste contributes relatively little to climate change, the waste management sector offers immediate, cost-effective and fast-acting opportunities to achieve substantial cuts in g...
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Integrating the informal sector for improved waste management
In many cities of the developing countries, the informal sector plays an important role in managing municipal solid waste. The informal recovery of recyclables from the solid waste system reduces ove...
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Linking public and private action for sustainable waste management
When it comes to managing waste in developing countries, the private sector can contribute technical skills, organisational capabilities and flexibility. Yet private sector involvement alone will not...
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Acting sustainably to promote African small business: The challenge facing mission investors
Africa is the new frontier for private equity, yet the region is having trouble channelling the corresponding financial flows to its woefully underfunded small businesses. The continent cannot adequat...
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Social business: the challenge of scaling up
Entrepreneurship can meet the needs of “base-of-the-pyramid” populations, provided the business in question has reached the critical size needed for profitability and sustainability. Examples of “incl...
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Palmis Enèji: from NGO to enterprise - the story of a social business in Haiti
In 2012, the French NGO EDM launched a programme to distribute Palmis Enèji cooking and lighting appliances to meet energy demand among the poorest sections of the Haitian population. Two years ago, t...
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The diversity of social business: the case of Madagascar
Despite a troubled macroeconomic and political environment, Madagascar possesses a fairly diversified, dynamic economic fabric in comparison to other countries with a similar level of development. Thi...
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Access to quality sanitation in kenyan slums: Sanergy's model
Sanergy strives to leverage the entire sanitation value chain to create vibrant micro-businesses in informal settlements and by-products that can be marketed to Kenyan farmers. Hazardous waste is remo...
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The ambitious and challenges of social business - Better definiting and structuring the sector
Social business is a demanding business model: social enterprises pursue social or environmental goals while also seeking long-term profitability and they face many challenges. In the wide- ranging ‘i...
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Sub-Saharan Africa: Growth also depends on the funding of affordable housing
Well-functioning areas are a key issue for Africa’s development. The housing sector, with the construction of millions of affordable homes for the masses in Africa, represents a major challenge but al...
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The Big Bang in Big Data: an opportunity for African urban policies
Each day, our intensive use of information technologies generates trillions of data bytes termed “Big Data”. Some big data has a high socio-behavioural value and may therefore be of use in producing d...
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Teaching teachers: first steps in improving education in Sub-Saharan Africa
Elun is a nonprofit providing free teacher education to schools in the developing world with a number of ongoing projects in Rwanda, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Tanzania. This article presents Elun’s id...
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Encouraging banking sector participation in climate finance, the case of Kenya
The development of energy resources and energy efficiency in Kenya is a current necessity as well as a big challenge. To meet that challenge, Kenya's Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has partnered w...
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Pooling – an innovative way of releasing capital for renewable energy in India
The Indian government's electrification plans offers major opportunities for renewable energies, with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) best placed to meet them. They, however, face challenges...
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Chile, a case of market-driven transition to renewables
Chile has seen an astonishing surge in renewable energy production. Key factors underlying this success: an abundance of natural resources, an open energy market and a robust regulatory framework, com...
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