Author: MBC Strategic

Impact Investing & ESG
 

Leveraging Impact Investing to Achieve the SDGs

All the aid and philanthropy in the world combined leaves a $2.5 trillion a year gap in the money needed to finance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Engaging Local Communities to Unlock Investment in the Blue Economy

Better fisheries management, cooperative ownership and ocean restoration could reverse an $83 billion annual loss.

Mini-Grid Developers Get Ready for Debt Capital Scale Up Access to Clean Energy

Microgrid Investment Accelerator plans to crowd in $115 million to connect 1 million people by 2036.

Millennials Love ESG, Just Not As Much As Their Grandparents

Sustainable and socially responsible investing isn’t just for the kids, according to a recent Allianz Global Investors study.

George Soros’ $18 Billion Gift to Open Society Foundations Could Boost Impact Investments

The hedge-fund billionaire and a global advocate have transferred $18 billion in assets to his long-time philanthropy.

United States & Europe
 

Who Has the World’s No.1 Economy? Not the U.S.

By the most measures, China has passed the U.S. and is pulling away.

Impact Investors Ask Government to Plough £2bn More into ‘Inclusive Economy’

A national body including some of the key figures in impact investment has called on the government to put £2bn into a fund to promote an “inclusive economy.”

Developing Economies
 

The IMF Has a Message for Emerging Markets: Take Advantage of Easy Money While It Lasts

Emerging markets should get their fiscal houses in order while monetary conditions remain loose, the International Monetary Fund warned.

Emerging-Market Currencies Are Bound for Turbulence in the Fourth Quarter

Emerging-market currencies, which have enjoyed solid gains to date, could face intense pressure in the last three months of 2017.

Brazil Minister: Amazon Deforestation ‘Drops by 16%’

Amazon deforestation is down by 16% in the year to July 2017 compared to the previous 12 months, the Brazilian government says.

Chile Presidential Hopeful Pinera Vows to Double Economic Growth

Chile’s conservative presidential candidate Sebastian Pinera on Wednesday promised to double economic growth and by 2025 make the country the first in Latin American to achieve “developed nation” status.

Localizing SDGs Event Showcase Colombia’s SDG Implementation Planning

The event began with an overview of Colombia’s efforts to integrate SDG targets into its National Development Plan and Peace Agreement as well as to meet their international commitments, including the Paris Agreement on climate change, their bid for OECD accession and the SDGs.

Islamic Development Bank Pledges $800M to Boost Economies of 7 Developing Countries

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has signed agreements worth $804 million with seven countries in Africa and Latin America in order to help boost their economies.

Namibia: Farmworkers’ Minimum Wage Up By 25 Percent

Successful wage negotiations between the Agricultural Employers Association, Namibia National Farmers Union, Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers Union and Namibia Farm Workers Union last week resulted in the previous farmworkers’ minimum wage of 2014 being increased by 25%.

Namibia Adopts Plan to End Discrimination Against Women

Windhoek-Namibia is in the process to implement the plan of action of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women 2017-2020.

Impact Investing & ESG
 

The 2017 Best for the World Funds

Best for the World Funds have made a deep commitment to measuring impact using a holistic, third-party standard: The GIIRS Impact Rating system, developed by B Lab.

Impact Investing and SOCAP Turn 10

There’s a birthday party this week in San Francisco. SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) and impact investing are both celebrating their tenth birthday.

The Impact Investment Strategies that Helped Make These Funds among the ‘Best for the World’

B Lab’s annual list of top-ranked impact funds includes some you may not have heard of — yet.

ESG Funds Outperform Active Rivals

For the second straight year, ESG funds outperformed conventional active funds in Barron’s annual survey of sustainable funds in Morningstar’s database.

Goldman Says ESG Investing Has Gone Mainstream

Goldman Sachs Asset Management officials say ESG investing, along with impact investing, are no longer specialty niches, but are taking a prominent place on the investment menu.

United States & Europe
 

US Withdrawal from Paris Agreement will Impact Developing Nations, Says ECA’s Murombedzi

The withdrawal of the US from Paris Agreement will have massive implications on US support to the financing of climate actions in the developing world, says James Murombedzi, Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre at the Economic Commission for Africa.

House Approves $36.5 Billion Hurricane and Wildfire Aid Package

The House, dismissing concern for the rising cost, approved a $36.5 billion aid package on Thursday that would provide hurricane and wildfire relief funding while bailing out the financially troubled National Flood Insurance Program.

IMF Tells Rich Nations that Greater Urgency Needed on Climate Change

The IMF warned the world’s richest nations to have a greater sense of urgency about climate change, a day after Tony Abbott delivered a bizarre speech claiming climate change was “probably doing good”.

European Council Calls for Mobilization of Public and Private Finance for Climate-resilient Development

The European Council has emphasized the importance of making progress on the Paris Agreement’s “transformational objective” of making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development.

Developing Economies
 

Global Unemployment Passes 200 million in 2017, UN Labor Agency Reports

More than 200 million people are out of work around the world – an increase of 3.4 million since last year, the United Nations labor agency said Monday, calling for policies that can recharge “sluggish” growth of small and medium-sized businesses.

Investor Uncertainty Looms Over Sustainable Development Goals

A changing investment policy landscape has investors feeling uncertain at a stage when the world’s most vulnerable economies desperately need foreign cash, UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi has told an international meeting on investment convening this week in Geneva.

Economic Diversification Even More Crucial as the Fight against Climate Change Revs Up

The need for developing countries to diversify the portfolio of goods and services they produce has become even more pressing as governments move to act on the promises of the Paris climate agreement, UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant has told an international meeting in Geneva.

Colombia Peace Deal Cannot be Modified for 12 Years, Court Rules

Colombia’s next three governments must comply with a 2016 peace deal signed with the Marxist FARC rebel group, the Constitutional Court said in a ruling late on Wednesday, shielding the accord from potential changes should the opposition win next year’s elections.

Liberia Goes to Polls to Find Successor to Africa’s First Female President

Candidates to replace Ellen Johnson Sirleaf include Prince Johnson, a former rebel leader who ordered the killing of the ex-president.

Zambia Happy with Africa’s 9 Trillion Dollars Expenditure Towards Infrastructure Development

Zambia has expressed happiness with Africa’s annual expenditure of nine trillion dollars towards infrastructure development Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Mr. Emmanuel Mwamba.

China’s Secret Aid Empire Uncovered

Not very long ago, China was a foreign aid recipient. Now, it rivals the United States as one of the world’s largest donors, through traditional development aid or through financial loans.

Global Firms Join to Bet on Indonesia as Next Start-Up Frontier

Big-name investors including Expedia and Alibaba are pumping billions of dollars into Indonesian tech start-ups in a bid to capitalize on the country´s burgeoning digital economy and potential as Southeast Asia´s largest online market.

Impact Investing & ESG
 

Major Asset Managers Moving Slowly but Surely Toward Impact Investing

Nine of ten of the largest U.S. asset managers have launched or are exploring strategies.

TPG Seals Record $2 Billion for Fund Co-Led by Bono

Private equity firm TPG collected $2 billion for The Rise Fund, tapping growing demand for impact investing to create the largest pool of its kind.

Filling the Education Funding Gap in India

Impact investors are missing key opportunities in India’s education sector.

Bain, Alts Peers Chase ‘Holy Grail’ of Rating Impact Results

A new challenge looms for the impact investing market, which across its first decade has labored to prove that fund managers and strategies can produce competitive financial returns alongside a measurable social benefit.

United States & Europe
 

Labor Case before Supreme Court and Jobs Number for September

The Supreme Court will open its new term by hearing arguments about whether companies can require workers to forfeit their rights to join together in lawsuits or arbitration proceedings against their employers.

U.S. Lost 33,000 Jobs in September as Hurricanes Roared Through

The Labor Department released its official hiring and unemployment figures for September on Friday morning, providing the latest snapshot of the American economy.

Developing Economies
 

The Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018

Ten years on from the global financial crisis, the prospects for a sustained economic recovery remain at risk due to a widespread failure on the part of leaders and policy-makers to put in place reforms necessary to underpin competitiveness and bring about much-needed increases in productivity.

Stanford Launches Research Center Focused on Global Poverty and Development

The Center on Global Poverty and Development joins students and faculty from across the university and connects them with policymakers and business leaders committed to fighting poverty.

Historic Milestone Reached in Global Fight Against Mercury Pollution

In a landmark display of international cooperation, more than 160 countries committed to tackling one of the world’s greatest chemical health threats at the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Startup Accelerators Have Become More Popular in Emerging Markets – and They’re Working

For decades, we have heard that emerging markets are poised for huge growth that will yield even greater prosperity. But a long list of obstacles always seems to be getting in the way of realizing this potential. Startup accelerator programs have been touted as one path to faster progress.

Emerging Markets Lag in Software

Despite the huge size of emerging economies they have yet to produce global leaders in software.

Peru Targets 100% Rural Electrification by 2021 with Transmission Upgrades, Natural Gas and Solar

Head of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Cayetana Aljovín, ratified the electrification commitment of the government of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, at the 6th International Energy Day Congress.

New Marine Parks Protect 290000 Square Miles of Ocean

The parks protect a combined area in the Pacific Ocean more than twice the size of Germany.

Puerto Rico’s Agony Makes the Case for Climate-Resilience Investing

As risks rise, so does the value of mitigating them.

Southeast Asia Banks Urged to Strengthen Environment Policies

Banks and regulators in Southeast Asia should strengthen financial-sector rules and guidelines to promote funding for environment-friendly projects in a region threatened by deforestation and climate change.

World Bank says 64% of People Who Live in Slums are in Asia

Around 64% of people who live in urban slums are in Asia, as the region experienced rapid rural-to-urban migration that has left millions of urban dwellers in poverty, according to the World Bank.

Nigeria Recovers $3 Billion in Large-Scale Energy Sector Reform

The government of the West African country, the biggest oil producer on the continent, is currently carrying out a large-scale reform in the energy sector aimed at improving transparency and revenues, after years of graft in the national petroleum company and other local entities that have cost the state coffers billions.

World Food Programme Cuts Rations for Refugees in Kenya

The U.N. World Food Programme is cutting food rations by 30 percent for more than 400,000 refugees living in camps in Kenya due to insufficient funding.

Impact Investing & ESG
 

Credit Suisse Looks to Make an Impact with New Investment Wing

Credit Suisse has set up a new department to nurture socially conscious investing, the latest effort by a major bank to cater for growing demand for impact investing.

Barclays Launches Impact Investment Fund of Funds

Barclays has launched a fund of funds that invests in a global range of multi-asset ‘impact’ investment strategies.

Impax Acquires Pax to Create $14B Impact Investing Firm

Two impact investing leaders have combined to create a $13.9 billion investment management firm that will also have expanded research and client services capabilities.

United States & Europe
 

U.S. Governors at U.N. Assembly: ‘You Have Allies’ on Climate Change

The governor of California huddled on Sunday night with European, Brazilian and small-island leaders and pledged to work with them on climate change.

At Climate Week NYC, Business Leaders Charge Forward

From seminar rooms to soundstages to the crowded U.N. Plaza, one theme emerged from Climate Week NYC: Decarbonizing has become big business and will stay that way.

Theresa May Urges EU to Retain Trade Terms for Two Years after Brexit

PM Theresa May has said there should be a transition period of “about” two years after Brexit, during which trade should continue on current terms.

Developing Economies
 

Less Foreign Borrowing, Longer Bonds Offset Rise in Emerging Debt Levels

A large-scale shift towards domestically issued and longer-dated bonds in emerging markets has helped build resilience to external shocks despite the increase in overall debt levels.

Brazil Set for Largest Amazon Restoration Project Ever – Aiming to Recover 30,000 hectares by 2023

A major initiative has been announced that will seek to reclaim 30,000 hectares of degraded area within the Brazilian Amazon over the next six years.

Peru Loses Its Prime Minister. What Next?

The president has suffered a blow, but may recover from it.

Peru’s PM: New Cabinet to Revive Slumping Public Investments

Peru’s prime minister said on Monday that the country’s new Cabinet will focus on reviving public investments as it seeks to mend fences with the opposition party that forced President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to form a new government.

Chile’s Electricity Should Be 100% Renewable by 2040, Says Conservative Presidential Candidate

The goal is that by 2040, Chile has a 100 percent clean and renewable electricity grid and a 100 percent electric public transit system.

Mexico Earthquake Kills Hundreds, Trapping Many under Rubble

A powerful earthquake struck Mexico on Tuesday, toppling buildings, killing children in a school that collapsed, rattling the capital and sending people flooding into the streets for the second time in just two weeks.

Emerging Markets – Emerging Stocks at 3-yr Highs as Tech Surge Lifts Asian Bourses

A surge in technology stocks helped lift Asian bourses to decade highs and emerging market shares to three-year highs on Monday.

South Africa Sees No Hurry for New Coal and Gas Projects

South African programs to add coal and gas power generation from independent providers should wait until policies are updated and the nation’s future needs are clearer.

How Colombia’s 2018 Elections are Going to Seriously Affect Governability

Almost all Colombia’s presidential candidates announced to run without the support of political parties, making it unclear how the incoming leader will govern the country. In total, 29 candidates have announced to be running without the support of a political party.

South Africa Economy Bruised but Not Broken Amid Political Turmoil and Downgrade

South Africa extricated itself from a ‘technical’ recession, despite being slapped with a credit downgrade.

Tanzania: State Injects 85bn/ – in Rural Communication, Benefits 3,000 Villages

Tanzania’s government has so far spent over 85 billion to provide rural dwellers in 3,000 villages with communication services.

Zambia to Resume Talks with IMF in October over Possible Aid Program

Zambia will resume talks with the International Monetary Fund on an aid program in October and hopes to get IMF board approval by the end of the year.

Presidents of Zambia, Uganda and Malawi Renew Efforts to End Child Marriage

President Edgar Lungu of Zambia, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President Peter Mutharika of Malawi have pledged to support efforts in ending child marriage in Africa by 2030.

Kenyan Election May Be Delayed Over Results System, Nation Says

Kenya may have to delay a rerun of its presidential election scheduled for next month if the Supreme Court requires the country to host the results-transmission system.