Top Devex Impact stories of 2015

Top Devex Impact stories of 2015

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  TOP STORIES OF2015
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  Devex Impact kickedoff the year talking about what’s new with public-private partnerships. This article explored how partnerships are changing global development.
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  As collaboration becomesmore complex, international nongovernmental organizations must ensure that their staff, standards and guidelines can keep up. Devex Impact took a look at how some of the world’s major INGOs approach, evaluate and create partnerships.
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  Development organizations fromthe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the U.S. Agency for International Development have been trying to spur innovation through grand challenges. Devex Impact looked at how the model is working and if it’s here to stay.
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  It was clearat many events this year from the Skoll World Forum to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and SOCAP that social entrepreneurship is clearly making its mark on global development. This year the Devex Impact series “The #SocEnt Revolution: How entrepreneurship is changing global development” explored the entrepreneurship ecosystem, from the role of different actors, to donor support, financing and incubators.
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  The Global Fundis one of the largest partnerships and a leading example of the type of platform organization that has been popping up to tackle any number of development challenges. Devex Impact interviewed Mark Dybul, the Global Fund’s executive director, about some of the organization’s ups and downs and what they’ve learned.
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  Devex Impact spenttime in Uganda this year and had the opportunity to meet with Muhammad Yunus and his team to talk about social businesses and why he believes market-based solutions are critical to tackling development challenges.
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  Devex Impact wason hand at many of the high-level events this year, including the United Nations General Assembly meeting and the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in September. The week made clear that the private sector is now seen as a partner in development and left open questions about whether it will step up.
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  Devex Impact traveledwith the team behind the new Akon Lighting Africa initiative and analyzed — at times with a critical eye — what the celebrity-driven endeavor is all about. It turns out celebrity drives traffic, because this was also the most read article of the year.
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  Devex Impact rampedup its coverage of trade this year. Here’s one of the articles that takes a look at how trade is being used as a tool for economic development.
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  Devex Impact satdown with Michael Porter, who coined the increasingly popular term shared value, to get his take on what’s next for the movement.
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  Businesses may needhelp breaking down and grappling with the long list of SDGs and accompanying targets and indicators. So Devex Impact reviewed some of the tools available.
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  Billionaire Mo Ibrahimsat down with Devex Impact for a wide-ranging interview in which he discussed what needs to be done to tackle some of Africa’s greatest challenges, including addressing corruption and ensuring good governance.
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  Major events, includingthe Fifth Global Review of Aid for Trade, and announcements of some major trade deals led to Devex Impact analysis about trade policy and what it can mean for development and LDCs.
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  One thing thisyear’s Financing for Development conference made clear was that financial innovation would be necessary to cover the costs of the SDGs. Devex Impact took a look at some of the emerging financial products and strategies that may help fill that gap.
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  Looking back, 2015seems to be the year that the off-grid solar power industry made a splash as a combination of cheaper products and innovative business models are resulting in lower costs and making it a viable alternative in Africa.
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  Stay tuned formore coverage in 2016 and follow @deveximpact