Publication database

This roadmap is a step-by-step guide for off-grid clean energy companies to identify and adopt strategies to serve female customers more effectively. The roadmap was developed by the Power Africa Off-grid Project following a pilot with GDC member Simusolar to develop a market-focused gender strategy. By following this roadmap, your company can gain a deeper understanding of female farmers’ demands and challenges—distinct from those of men—in gaining access to productive use of energy (PUE) technology. Power Africa is grateful to Simusolar for its collaboration and willingness to share the lessons and tools in this roadmap.

Across the world, women play key roles as distributors and retailers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), however, the extent of their participation varies. This learning brief introduces how gender equality can be advanced within the distribution activities of the FMCG sector. It presents an emerging business case, the challenges, and recommendations to address these challenges. The brief is based on IFC projects in Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Philippines, and Sri Lanka; desk research; and interviews with market participants. The target audience comprises FMCG sales and distribution teams; FMCG sustainability teams; e-supply chain actors, including business-to business (B2B) distribution platforms; and investors seeking to accelerate gender equality.

The objective of a proposed Transformational AVC Guidelines is to enable small-scale producers to overcome barriers to development through more inclusive AVCs in the food, agriculture, and forestry sectors toward contributing to the attainment of the SDGs. The Transformational AVC Guidelines are voluntary in nature and designed to enhance and complement relevant ASEAN policies, approaches, and other guidelines. 

Based on data from 132 GDC members, as well as evidence and insights gathered by the GDC over the last three years, this report explores four major trends in the LMD sector: digitalisation, access to finance, product diversification and consumer financing. Overall, the report finds that, despite significant challenges – not least Covid-19 – the LMD sector is impactful, resilient and increasingly professional. External support, including access to finance, is key to unlocking LMDs’ full potential for impact at the last mile.

Since 2013, the G4AW programme has been supporting 25 partnerships in 15 countries in Africa and South-East Asia that have taken up the challenge to develop digital solutions, using satellite and geodata to improve food and income security at smallholder food producer level. The major lessons learned from the programme (about 8 years) are summarized in this new lessons learned publication. It focuses on the business-related decisions and the steps taken to move towards a sustainable business model and scale to other services and regions.

The significance of strengthening economic growth and sustainable development through financial inclusion is critical for the Asia-Pacific region. Harnessing the advent of digital technology to enable financial inclusion is one of the most promising opportunities to bring millions of unserved and underserved people across the region into the formal financial sector. This is especially true for people who are living at the base of the economic pyramid (BoEP) and for women, who are disproportionately marginalized.

However, while the promise of digital finance is appealing, the introduction of digital services does not solve many of the root causes of financial exclusion and also creates new challenges for those at the BoEP. This policy guidebook aims to support the region’s policy makers and regulators to capitalize on the opportunity to harness digital technology as an effective means to advance financial inclusion and enhance the wellbeing of those at the BoEP, including women.

Drawing on pooled data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the years 2014-2020 and published reports from two other global research programs, we investigate the pandemic impacts on women entrepreneurs and business owners with particular attention to those in emerging economies. In addition, we explore differences between women entrepreneurs in low-income and middle-income countries compared to those in countries at higher levels of national income.

The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) launched the Advancing Women’s Empowerment Fund (AWEF) in 2019 with support from the Visa Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The overall goal of AWEF-funded projects is to address the gender financing gap for women-owned small and growing businesses (SGBs) in developing economies. The first round of grantmaking, AWEF Asia, funded eight entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) in Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, Pakistan, and India, as well as programs serving the region as a whole. This report summarizes the lessons learned from these grants.

The aim of this report is to document best practices by taking a micro-level deep dive into why women entrepreneurs applying for ‘missing middle’ funding (i.e., in the range of USD 30 000– USD 500 000) more often fail than succeed. This report focuses on the demand and supply issues related to women entrepreneurs access to finance in South Africa and Zambia. The study provides a baseline assessment of a cohort of women who participated in the Graça Machel Trust’s Women Creating Wealth (WCW), a Pan African entrepreneurship development programme whose aim is to grow businesses and transform behaviours, skills and build the confidence of women entrepreneurs.