Monthly Sector Scan

Key Happenings, Insights, Reports,
and Latest Events carefully selected for you!

February 2023

Dear Partner,

We are back with our monthly inclusive growth sector scan!

Our recent secondary research guided us to this insightful article by Google which highlights how AI is improving agriculture sustainability in India.

In this edition, we have handpicked 29 such latest blogs, articles, and news from a range of sectors viz. Impact Investment, Climate Action, Financial Services, Sustainable Agriculture, Healthcare, and Livelihood. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did.

You can download three additional thought-provoking reports from this edition. The Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) in report Making Finance Work for Women and the Underserved in the Global South looks at the incentives of listening to communities, especially women on the ground, to shape better development solutions and to create meaningful impact. The joint compendium, Igniting SDG Progress Through Digital Financial Inclusion by UNSGSA, Better Than Cash Alliance, CGAP, and World Bank lists extensive evidence-based examples for each of the 13 SDGs relevant to the wide benefits of inclusive digital financial services, and purposed to inspire and inform policies. Fairfood report Who owns farmer data? Fairfood’s principles on data governance explains why building trust in data should go hand in hand with greater calls for transparency.

Do not forget to mark your calendars for the upcoming events by Impact Entrepreneur and Business Fights Poverty. You can find the registration details below.

We are always looking for your feedback which can help us serve you better. Write us at dialogue@re-emergingworld.com.

See you next month!

Best Regards,
Team Re-emerging World

New Reports Launched

Read and get inspired from the latest Sector Reports

Making Finance Work for Women and the Underserved in the Global South

- Impact Investment Exchange (IIX)

The report looks at the incentives of listening to communities, especially women on the ground, to shape better development solutions and to create meaningful impact.

Download Report

Who owns farmer data? Fairfood’s principles on data governance

- Fairfood

The report explains why building trust in data should go hand in hand with greater calls for transparency, and shares Fairfood Principles for Fair Data Governance

Download Report

Igniting SDG Progress Through Digital Financial Inclusion

- UNSGSA, Better Than Cash Alliance, CGAP, World Bank

The compendium lists extensive evidence-based examples for each of the 13 SDGs relevant to the wide benefits of inclusive digital financial services, and purposed to inspire and inform policies

Download Report

Sector News

Impact Investment

Impact Measurement and Management Across Stakeholders

There are many good resources and frameworks to identify target areas of impact (United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals), classification of the impact strategy (Impact classes per the IMP framework)....

Designing an Impact Measurement Strategy: What’s Your North Star?

As impact investing evolves, it is exciting to witness the growing demand for impact measurement by investors and the ecosystem at large. But while the momentum and seriousness behind measuring impact is laudable, as a practitioner at a fund....

How Foreign Aid Can Innovate Itself Out of Existence: Exploring the Potential of Market-Creating Innovation for Sustainable Development

Waste, inefficiency, short-term thinking and a lack of focus were some of the problems identified in a New York Times article about the future of foreign aid. That may seem unremarkable — it’s a common enough critique.....

Lessons in Resilience: What an Impact Investor Learned from an Entrepreneur Who Refused to Give Up

Entrepreneurship is a long game, and identifying the right product, service, model or market is just the beginning of the process. Even if you have a great product and a promising market, success is never guaranteed.....

Just Useful… Or Truly Catalytic? How Entrepreneurs Really View Catalytic Capital — And What Impact Investors Can Do About It

In recent years, much of the attention in the impact finance sector has gone to the stewards of capital — investors, foundations and other funders — with stakeholders across the industry wondering what drives them most and which approaches work best.....

How Storytelling Can Paint a Full Picture of Impact for Businesses

Across the globe, inclusive businesses are making differences in the lives of the world’s most vulnerable – from empowering rural women to improving access to education. However, plain numbers struggle to capture the breadth of important work they are doing to investors....

Five Lessons from Ten Corporate-Charity Partnerships

At CARE Laurie Lee worked with ten of the UK’s largest FTSE100 companies, here he reflects on all of those experiences and distils the key lessons for companies to have a positive impact on poverty and the environment....

How the Dollar-A-Day Poverty Line Changed International Development

Over three decades ago, economic researcher Martin Ravallion and his colleagues found a way to identify and quantify the world’s poorest people with an international poverty line that continues to guide policies to this day.....

Climate Action

Can folklore play a role in environmental conservation?

Conservation policies must be more inclusive of indigenous narratives, as their belief systems have protected the environment for centuries.....

Recent forest legislation compromises India’s climate goals

Forest Conservation Rules 2022 remove gram sabhas' consent as a requirement for forest land use. This hurts both forests and indigenous communities....

Effective Partnerships: Key to Supporting Climate Vulnerable Communities

Practical Action’s purpose for almost 60 years has been to work with people living in poverty so that they can transform their lives and influence wider systems change so that the changes can be sustained and scaled....

Mangroves protect coastal communities, accountability in governance is need of the hour

Efforts should be directed towards addressing a lack of accountability in governing mangrove marine protection areas (MPA), experts said at the ongoing fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress in Canada....

How philanthropy can unlock action on climate and nature this decade

It was the American scientist Eunice Newton Foote who in 1856 first documented in a short scientific paper the extraordinary power of carbon dioxide to absorb heat....

Financial Services

Fintech for Good: Surviving Financial Emergencies

Limited access to affordable financial services for many Americans is deepening the wealth divide across the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve....

Delivering on Mass Market Insurance in Africa: Debunking the Myth of Low Demand

Africa’s insurance penetration rate in 2019 was only 2.78%, significantly lower than the global average insurance rate of 7.23%. Insurance penetration in Africa is concentrated among the urban elite....

Microfinance Survived the Pandemic but Challenges Lie Ahead

The right actions by microfinance institutions and governments can ensure a promising outlook for microfinance in Asia this year.....

Sustainable Agriculture

How AI is improving agriculture sustainability in India

For India, agriculture is critical. Roughly half of its population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, and the country has the second largest arable land area in the world....

Pastoralism can prevent a biodiversity crisis

The world is losing its biodiversity. Here’s why it’s time to include pastoralists as partners in biodiversity conservation....

To Build Thriving Cocoa Communities, Educate the Children

In cocoa-growing communities, advancing education pays dividends far beyond the classroom. Because the forces affecting the industry are so deeply intertwined, when children go to school and adults get training, the surrounding communities benefit in myriad ways....

Seafood’s Social Justice Problem: How to Better Share the Benefits of Aquatic Foods

The pursuit of profit has left the global fish and seafood sector - the world's fastest growing food-producing industry - in disarray. Facing unsustainable growth and undermined social justice....

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) signs MOU for developing a National Interactive Digital Platform to strengthen extension system

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding in New Delhi today with Digital Green under public private partnership framework to build a national level digital extension platform....

Healthcare

ASHAs: Informal workers in the formal sector

ASHA workers are a crucial part of the public health system. Despite this, they experience precarious working conditions in the form of long hours, low wages, and a lack of social security.....

Six Business Plan Pitfalls to Avoid When Approaching Funders: Lessons from Healthcare Enterprises in Emerging Markets

Entrepreneurs in emerging markets looking to start or grow their business often rely on outside capital. To attract this capital, they must show funders that they have a good understanding of both the opportunities and the challenges they will face....

Livelihood

MGNREGA: All you need to know

Does MGNREGA still have an impact? Learn about the scheme's funding, state-wise performance, role during the pandemic, and benefits to women and migrant workers.....

Indian artisans are still missing from e-commerce platforms

High logistical costs and a lack of digital know-how are some factors keeping Indian artisans out of e-commerce. How can the recently launched Open Network for Digital Commerce change this?....

To Support Global Supply Chains, We Need to Help Small Businesses

The lack of credit for small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in global trade stifles growth and makes supply chains more vulnerable.....

How Did Bancolombia Create a Successful Rural Agent Network at Scale?

Rural agent business models can play a critical role in expanding financial inclusion. As part of CGAP's Agent Networks at the Last Mile initiative, we’ve identified providers across the world that have been successful in developing such models at scale....

Other

Budget 2023: Capital expenditure grows at the cost of social welfare

Social sector spending falls below 20 percent for the first time since 2009 while capital expenditure increases for the third consecutive year....

Understanding Consumer Satisfaction in Low-Income Markets: The Factors that Turn Customers into Brand Promoters – or Detractors

Many companies are addressing social needs ranging from nutrition to reproductive health by selling affordable food, hygiene and other beneficial products in developing countries. But in order to produce positive impacts ....

Join Upcoming Events

Webinars, Virtual Events, Conferences and more

Building an Entrepreneur-centric Impact Ecosystem

Hosted by Impact Entrepreneur

Date: Thursday, March 16, 2023,
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET

Gender Summit by Business Fights Poverty

Hosted by Business Fights Poverty

Date: 8th March and 9th March 2023,
Time: 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM IST