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The scoping study examines gender bonds—debt instruments supporting women's empowerment—noting a lack of official guidance and eligibility criteria. It identifies three types of gender bonds: corporate behaviour, financial inclusion, and multilateral/DFI social bonds. While 13 gender-labelled bonds existed as of March 2020, the report finds that sub-Saharan Africa has not yet issued any, with varying levels of feasibility in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya based on investor appetite and market maturity.

The report analyzes the cost of credit for seven financial institutions in Ghana and Zambia, identifying that operational costs are the primary driver of high credit costs. It finds that economies of scale and product portfolio composition significantly influence efficiency, while external factors like regulatory reforms in Ghana and economic slowdowns in Zambia impact the cost of risk. The study concludes that high input costs often make lending loss-making, pushing institutions toward safer government securities.

The report examines how COVID-19 disrupted the sub-Saharan African insurance value chain, forcing rapid digitalisation and straining balance sheets due to reduced premium income and investment returns. While household life and health policies generally covered the pandemic, business interruption insurance largely did not due to global reinsurance exclusions. The document highlights opportunities for insurers to adopt remote onboarding and for regulators to remove barriers to digital sales and manage potential market consolidation.

The briefing analyzes Green Climate Fund (GCF) funding proposals from 2015 to July 2018, finding that interventions for energy access receive significantly less funding than other energy projects and largely neglect low-income and 'high-impact' countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The policy brief argues that African governments should leverage the urgency of the COVID-19 crisis to implement lasting reforms that protect the continent's long-term growth trajectory. It outlines ten priorities divided into resource mobilization, governance, business environment, and digital innovation. Key recommendations include closing tax loopholes, streamlining government bureaucracy, improving the ease of doing business, and crowding in venture capital to support a tech-driven innovation ecosystem.

The report details a study in rural Kenya where community members imagined a future of fully electric cooking and worked backward to identify the necessary steps to achieve it. Participants linked electric cooking to broader development goals, including improved health, gender equality, and infrastructure. The proposed pathway involves a gradual transition from fuelwood to improved stoves and LPG before reaching full electrification, driven by community savings, civic engagement, and government support.

The document argues that COVID-19 recovery should be leveraged to advance climate neutrality through international solidarity that goes beyond simple cooperation to include reparations and loss and damage. It highlights the tension between short-term survival needs in developing countries and long-term climate mitigation, suggesting that multilateral regimes for conditional debt relief and bottom-up innovation financing in energy and water sectors could bridge this gap. The paper calls for a critical reassessment of globalisation and the use of the Paris Agreement's Article 6 to implement non-market approaches, such as bulk procurement of low-carbon technologies for least developed countries.

The document examines barriers to climate finance in sub-Saharan Africa, arguing that while recipient capacity is often blamed, donor-centric processes and a lack of standardized definitions are root causes. It recommends that donors undertake internal reviews to streamline access, provide better needs-assessment guidance, and establish consolidated platforms for funding information.

The report finds that global adaptation finance is dominated by public development finance, with a heavy concentration in water and wastewater management. While finance often aligns with the most vulnerable sectors in specific countries like Pakistan, Zambia, and Niger, significant funding gaps remain relative to Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets. The authors highlight critical data gaps in private sector and domestic public finance and recommend the use of new datasets from the Climate Bonds Initiative and CDP to improve tracking accuracy.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the most expensive region globally for remittances, with an average cost of 8.9% of transaction value. The report identifies critical supply-side barriers including onerous KYC requirements, lack of digital ecosystems, and fragmented payment infrastructure. It recommends a shift toward risk-proportional AML-CFT regulation, the adoption of digital identity systems, and the integration of regional payment rails to reduce informality and costs.

The Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) warns that the COVID-19 pandemic threatens the survival of the decentralized renewable energy (DRE) sector, which serves over 420 million people globally. To prevent the collapse of rural electricity supply and the failure of Sustainable Development Goal 7, the ARE proposes the creation of a 'Global DRE Support Fund' providing low-interest loans and grants, a 'Rural Electrification Stimulus Plan' to mobilize long-term investment, and the official recognition of DRE as an 'essential service' to allow personnel movement during lockdowns. The report also calls for urgent technical assistance in risk mitigation and health training for field staff.

The Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) warns that the COVID-19 pandemic threatens the survival of the decentralised renewable energy (DRE) sector, with many companies facing liquidity crises and only 3-6 months of survival capacity. To mitigate this, the report proposes the creation of a 'Global DRE Relief Fund' providing grants and low-interest loans (up to 3%), the implementation of a 'Rural Electrification Stimulus Plan' to close the investment gap for SDG7, and the official recognition of DRE as an 'essential service' to allow staff movement during lockdowns. It also calls for the reform of fossil fuel subsidies to fund these transitions and the provision of technical assistance for crisis management and risk analysis.

The guide provides a structured framework for electrifying health facilities, moving from stakeholder consultation and national mapping to energy needs assessments, technical analysis, costing, and the development of an implementation strategy. It emphasizes the use of standardized system specifications to achieve economies of scale and suggests integrating health facility power solutions into community mini-grids for long-term sustainability. The approach is designed to be flexible, allowing steps to be expedited or run in parallel during emergencies.

The analysis reveals that the Green Climate Fund (GCF) significantly underfunds energy access compared to large-scale renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, with only 9% of its total portfolio and 14% of its energy-related funding dedicated to energy access. Furthermore, the GCF largely neglects 'high-impact' countries—those with the greatest energy deficits—allocating them only 15% of energy intervention dollars, which represents less than 1% of the annual funding required to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 by 2030. The report argues that GCF's prioritization of greenhouse gas mitigation over social benefits creates institutional barriers for small-scale, decentralized projects in low-emission, low-income regions.

The document argues that off-grid solar (OGS) is a critical tool for achieving universal energy access and climate mitigation, particularly by replacing kerosene lamps and reducing black carbon emissions. Despite this, multilateral climate finance institutions have invested only a small fraction of the total capital deployed in the sector. The briefing identifies barriers such as the complexity of projects that combine mitigation, adaptation, and development, as well as a focus on large-scale projects. It recommends strategies including increased concessional financing for early-stage businesses, expanded use of blended finance to attract commercial equity, and the development of a uniform methodology to quantify the climate benefits of OGS, specifically regarding black carbon.

The document identifies significant barriers to financing sustainable cooling, including the diversity of needs across human comfort, agriculture, and health sectors, and a lack of global tracking for cooling-specific investments. It argues that while private capital is abundant, it is often too risk-averse for the innovative or low-income contexts where cooling is most needed. The brief highlights the role of the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP) and suggests leveraging blended finance, national cooling action plans, and bulk procurement to scale solutions. It specifically emphasizes the need to coordinate funding for refrigerant replacement (via the Montreal Protocol) with energy efficiency improvements to maximize climate benefits.

The document asserts that off-grid renewable energy, such as solar home systems and mini-grids, outperforms grid extension in cost, emissions, and deployment speed. It provides quantitative evidence showing that off-grid solutions can reduce investment costs by up to 30% and save 500 to 800 Mt of CO2 by 2030. The paper recommends integrating off-grid renewables into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), implementing financial de-risking mechanisms, fostering digital and storage innovations, and enforcing technology and consumer protection standards.

The policy brief examines the conflict between the boom in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and the sustainability of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Burkina Faso. While ASM provides immediate income and employment, it often displaces farmers, contaminates water sources with mercury and cyanide, and draws young labor away from agriculture. The document highlights that ASM is frequently an unsustainable tool for poverty reduction due to the non-renewable nature of minerals and the shift toward capital-intensive operations funded by external investors. It recommends strengthening institutional capacity, implementing rigorous land-use mapping, and dismantling patronage structures to ensure the coexistence of mining and farming.

The paper advocates for a systemic shift in peacebuilding and development, moving away from linear causal models toward resilience thinking to address the interconnected risks of the Anthropocene. It highlights how climate change acts as a risk multiplier, potentially triggering violent conflict through forced migration and resource competition. The authors emphasize that systemic risks, such as hydrological teleconnections and global food system dependencies, require anticipatory management tools and a focus on social capital to sustain peace and prevent system collapse.

The report finds that while renewable energy investment reached USD 322 billion in 2018, it must almost triple to USD 800 billion by 2050 to meet climate goals. Investment is heavily concentrated in China, the US, and Western Europe, with a dominance of solar PV and onshore wind. The private sector provides 86% of capital, primarily through project developers. Off-grid renewables, though growing, represent less than 1% of total energy access finance, with Sub-Saharan Africa as the primary destination.