President Obama, along with 182 heads of state, will sign the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) today at the United Nations General Assembly. But earlier this week, the Obama Administration’s Treasury Department announced two major regulatory changes that could unlock significant amounts of capital, innovation and entrepreneurial energy for development worldwide. The seventeen SDG’s create a […]
Shifting Capital Flows
How would the finance boffins do global development?
I spent an afternoon with a bunch of NGO finance directors this week. It was more interesting than you might think; money is the lifeblood of the aid business, and financial directors have the best overview of how that blood circulates, from one end (fundraising) to the other (programmes and advocacy). Not only that but […]
Vietnam Plans to Turn to Private Sector to Develop Infrastructure
Vietnam will need around $48 billion from 2016 through 2020 to improve the country’s weak transportation infrastructure, the country’s government says. The government said in a statement on its website that the country will have to seek funding from new sources, including from the private sector, due to constraints on the state budget. Wall […]
Donors and social entrepreneurs: An evolving partnership
The options of where to turn are only increasing as types of innovative finance from crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and venture capital, to angel investors and foundation funding continue to grow. Development donors, too, are increasingly exploring how to put their money to work in supporting entrepreneurs — sometimes that offers a great opportunity to test […]
NSF and USAID announce latest round of awards to address global development challenges
Building sustainable fisheries, monitoring landslide risk, studying the emerging bio-economy: these are some of the research projects announced today in the newest round of an inter-agency partnership to foster collaborative global research. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awards will advance the scientific and technical capacity of the U.S. […]
General Motors Bets $5 Billion on Emerging Markets Future
General Motors has seen the future. And it ain’t here. Not exactly, anyway. The nation’s largest automaker still is bullish on the U.S. and other “mature” markets, but the company is announcing today it will invest $5 billion to develop a new, wide-ranging vehicle architecture to enhance the competitiveness of its mainstream Chevrolet brand in […]
Business Sees International Development As Both Duty And Opportunity
Many who work in the field of international development think of governments and large multilateral development institutions like the IMF and World Bank along with other large NGOs as the real players in that space. Increasingly, however, business is playing a role as more people in the commercial world recognize both the responsibility and the opportunities […]