Publication database

This report summarises the findings of a survey with key stakeholders in impact investment including almost 200 existing and aspiring impact investments as well as funds and organisations. The authors suggest concrete steps that will help the market mature and grow, with separate and specific recommendations for practitioners, development finance institutions, and regulators.

This report depicts the landscape of development organisations that fund and support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. It focuses on 1) multilateral development banks, 2) bilateral government donor agencies, and 3) development finance institutions (DFIs).

This report reviews the models, tools and approaches used by industry leaders in all parts of the developing world in value chain finance for agriculture , using examples in order to demonstrate how they work and to extract lessons and applications for others to adapt.

This report provides a summary of a two-year research engagement project with the investment community on their role in contributing to poverty reduction and sustainable development. It identifies a series of obstacles that limit the extent to which development and poverty issues are considered as an integral part of investors’ analysis, decisions and engagement.

This comprehensive report examines practices in financing higher education in sub-Saharan Africa 'SSA', and examines the range of policy options in tackling the financing issues faced by higher education under the combined pressure of a rapidly growing demand and the scarcity of public resources.

This report employs a case study approach, mapping examples of impact investments on a traditional asset allocation framework. It illustrates the diversity of products that are being developed, where they reside within a traditional asset allocation framework and the types of opportunities that are available to date. It also demonstrates how impact investing can be integrated across asset classes and equips investors with the tools to frame their investment decisions from strategy to implementation and evaluation.

This report examines the financial needs for closing the gaps in achievement of the Millennium Development Goals 'MDG' targets in Asia and the Pacific. It identifies potential sources for the funds at national, regional and international levels and discusses challenges including technology and finance for promoting growth that is both inclusive and sustainable, in order for the region to achieve the MDG goals.

This case study introduces MAP International. MAP International is a New York-based financial services provider with local headquarters in Kampala, Uganda. It seeks to improve access to financial services to the under-banked population. The motivation to increase access to financial services was based on MAP’s appreciation of the life-changing impact that giving financial access to the unbanked and under-banked can have, including: economic empowerment, employment generation and enterprise creation thereby addressing one of the root causes of poverty.

This comprehensive report explores a range of business models that can be used to structure agricultural investments in lower and middle-income countries, and that provide an alternative to large-scale land acquisitions. It discusses the business models - often collaborative arrangements between investors and local smallholders and communities - under six broad categories: contract farming, management contracts, tenant farming and sharecropping, joint ventures, farmer-owned business and upstream/downstream business links.