"The Impact Investing Landscape in Latin America is a joint report by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and the The Association for Private Capital in Latin America (LAVCA). The 2018 edition of the report provides an updated, comprehensive look on the state of impact investing across Latin America. Using survey data from over 60 investors in the region, the report outlines trends in investment activity in 2016 and 2017, examines challenges for investors, and evaluates the future of impact investing in Latin America - where investors plan to deploy an additional US$2b in capital over the next two years."

"The Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Framework is a practical manual and toolkit for assessing gender equality, and identifying, implementing and measuring gender equality mainstreaming strategies within companies. The framework builds upon the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment standard by mainstreaming gender across ESG criteria. Designed for organizations seeking financial and impact returns through investing or providing support to companies, the manual is applicable to a wide range of investors (e.g. private equity funds, government donors, foundations) and capacity builders (e.g. accelerators, technical assistance providers, NGOs). The ultimate aim of the framework is to transform companies to be more gender equitable while supporting business growth and impact."

"There is good news: there are many, many promising climate finance solutions emerging on the scene to close key market gaps. The bad news? Interested investors of all shapes and sizes, and emerging innovators of every stripe, often struggle to find each other-and often talk past each other. Different investor expectations, lexicons and geographies need to be clarified-fast-and then linked to action.

We in the climate finance tribe-"we" being institutional investors, public sector officials, international development experts and so on-need to raise our game. With the help of our great advisory team, a dash of humor, a few cartoons and support from the Rockefeller Foundation, let the era of accelerated climate finance clarity and investment begin."

"The DCED Standard is a practical framework for private sector development programmes to monitor progress towards their objectives. It comprises seven elements, listed in the box to the right, which are the minimum required for a credible results measurement process. By adopting these elements, programme managers can understand what is working and why, and use monitoring information to improve the effectiveness of their work."

"This collaboration between Yunus Social Business and Boston Consulting Group looks at how Venture Philanthropists (VPs) have a unique opportunity to shape the future of social business. The report outlines a methodology to help VPs maximize the social impact of their investments at two levels. First, to understand and optimize the fund's impact on the social business to build stronger and more resilient companies, and second, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how the social businesses can optimize services and products to deliver better outcomes for beneficiaries."

"The mobilization of social resources for addressing urgent societal needs under market assumptions is a major component of the strategy for development. Social enterprises as an alternative source of public goods and services attract the attention of academics, practitioners and policy-makers to the efficient use of entrepreneurial resources. Initially this study aims to provide a more systematic understanding about the factors that affect the probabilities of success of socially oriented undertakings and contributes to the literature by answering the call for more empirical research about such effects over their performance. Using a logistic regression model on data from a sample of socially oriented ventures in 148 countries participating in the 2013-2016 Entrepreneurship Database Program at Emory University, the positive effects of such factors were first validated. At a later stage, this quest attempted to find differential behaviors of these effects by comparing operations in OECD and developing countries. No conclusive evidence for dissimilarities between groups was found. This result could be partially attributed to the accelerator´s selection processes favoring companies with a proven record. Important global policy implications are drawn in support of harmonized social-entrepreneurship promotion programs and the adoption of standardized impact measurement criteria. This argument raises ample academic and practical possibilities for investigating the impact of socio-economic and cultural influences on the efficacy of social enterprise´s interventions. After controlling for the efficient use of entrepreneurial resources, teams made-up of civil society organizations, businesses and government institutions can allocate their attention to those country-specific situations affecting the efficacy of development programs such as the problems to be solved, the particularity of the eco-systems and the adequacy of the organizational arrays adopted."

"This document presents ENERGIA’s four-year journey to create and upscale womencentric energy enterprises that sell safe, reliable and affordable energy solutions to low-income consumers in underserved areas. ENERGIA works with partner organizations in seven countries in an effort to develop and test new, disruptive business models and approaches that promote women as energy entrepreneurs. This document is a self-reflection, undertaken collectively by the WEE programme coordinator, the partner organizations and the ENERGIA International Secretariat. As a learning document, it seeks to analyse the various strategies with which we have worked in different contexts. It draws out common features of the most promising ones, as well as lessons from efforts that did not go so well, or even failed completely. Since documentation on women’s energy entrepreneurship is only beginning to emerge, wherever relevant, we have crosschecked our lessons with those from women’s entrepreneurship in other sectors."

"This research is unique as it is one of few studies that looks at women entrepreneurs from a regional perspective, to assess similarities and differences in how women entrepreneurs are coping with financial and non-financial barriers to growth in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda respectively. The study also establishes how these women currently fund their businesses, explores attitudes to different types of financing to expand their enterprises and reveals the funding gaps and capacity building needs."

"Esse relatório se concentra nas especificidades dos investimentos de impacto no setor de conservação da biodiversidade. Começamos apresentando um panorama local do contexto ambiental, social e econômico, seguido de dados sobre operações de investimentos de impacto no setor, extraídos da segunda edição do relatório "Panorama do Setor de Investimento de Impacto na América Latina", publicado recentemente pela ANDE e LAVCA. Por fim, apresentamos um caso de uma operação, antes de concluir com perspectivas e recomendações para o setor."

"Novo spotlight conta com o panorama local do setor. Analisamos os dados sobre o investimento de impacto no setor, extraídos da segunda edição do relatório "Panorama do Setor de Investimento de Impacto na América Latina", publicado pela ANDE e LAVCA. Por fim, apresentamos o caso de um negócio do setor que recebeu investimento, concluindo com perspectivas e recomendações para o futuro.

Relatório mostra que as oportunidades para melhorar a inclusão financeira são abundantes no Brasil, considerando as necessidades da população de menor renda e as possibilidades oferecidas pelos avanços tecnológicos. Além disso, no lado dos investidores, sugere a necessidade de investigar maneiras de oferecer capital com tickets menores, uma vez que a ampliação do tamanho dos investimentos ajudaria a fortalecer o pipeline de futuros investimentos. Assim como, os empreendedores precisam ficar atentos às necessidades e atitudes da população de menor renda para contemplar as três dimensões da inclusão financeira: o acesso, o uso e a qualidade."