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The report finds that investment in electricity access and clean cooking remains significantly below the levels required to achieve universal energy access by 2030. While USD 36 billion was committed to electricity access in high-impact countries, only USD 12.6 billion benefited residential customers, far short of the USD 51 billion annual need. Clean cooking investment is even more critical, with only USD 32 million tracked against an annual requirement of USD 4.4 billion. The report highlights a severe lack of investment in Sub-Saharan Africa and warns that continued financing of fossil fuel power plants is incompatible with the Paris Agreement and the SDGs.

The report identifies significant funding gaps for universal energy access, noting that 2017 electricity access finance for new households reached only a quarter of the required annual investment. It highlights critically low investment in Sub-Saharan Africa and a severe shortfall in clean cooking finance, which represents less than 1% of the needed amount. Additionally, it argues that continued investment in fossil fuel power plants is incompatible with the Paris Agreement and the SDGs.

The report finds that insurance markets in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda are underdeveloped, with low penetration and significant 'risk-protection gaps' for households and SMEs. While government-led health insurance has increased overall uptake, private insurance remains focused on large corporate risks and compulsory lines, which often lead to irrational price competition and poor consumer value. The authors argue that the sector's role as an institutional investor is limited by short-term balance sheets and a lack of long-term investment instruments. To unlock the potential of insurance for development, the report proposes six imperatives: proactive policy leadership, a transition to risk-based supervision, driving innovation through better data and regulatory tools, re-engineering compulsory products, improving risk management for SMEs, and incentivising long-term savings to support capital market development.

The report argues that austerity—defined as fiscal policy aimed at solving debt and growth problems through spending cuts and regressive taxes—leads to economic deterioration, rising unemployment, and increased inequality. It highlights that South Africa is deepening its implementation of austerity despite moderate debt levels compared to international norms. The author contends that these policies undermine constitutionally enshrined rights to health and education and proposes a shift toward a stimulus-based fiscal plan focused on progressive taxation and structural transformation.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) used the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) system and the Open Source Energy Modeling System (OSeMOSYS) to model climate change impacts on seven strategic river basins in Sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis found that all basins face significant economic risks, with the Niger River potentially facing costs up to $200 billion and the Zambezi River showing the highest uncertainty with impacts between $50 billion and $125 billion. To mitigate these risks, SEI recommends that policy-makers integrate climate change expertise into infrastructure planning through technical guidelines, open-data repositories, and professional training programs.

Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited (FBGL), supported by FSD Africa, launched 'Project 5x5x5' to open 5 million accounts in 5 years via 5,000 agents. The initiative introduced the 'Smart Account', which uses simplified KYC requirements (National ID) and a mobile app to target unbanked and underserved rural populations. As of the report date, the project has enrolled 2,600 agents and opened over 790,000 accounts, achieving a gender split of 51% female and 49% male. The project has evolved from a standalone inclusion initiative into a mainstreamed business process, incorporating digital savings and credit products developed with telecommunications companies. The initiative has influenced the broader Ghanaian market, leading two other banks to launch their own agency banking networks.

The analysis argues that while Justin Trudeau has positioned Canada as a reliable, progressive partner for the EU and a defender of the rules-based international order, his actual record is marked by contradictions. Key discrepancies include a gap between international climate leadership and domestic support for extractive industries, a failure to meet UN peacekeeping pledges, and continued arms exports to Middle Eastern states despite human rights rhetoric. The document also contrasts Trudeau's approach with the more hawkish, US-aligned foreign policy proposed by Conservative leader Andrew Scheer.

The document examines the design, selection, implementation, and scaling of Challenge Funds (CFs) specifically for resilience building. It compares GRP's operational experience with a broader literature review of various international CFs, such as the African Enterprise Challenge Fund and the Global Innovation Fund. Key findings emphasize the need for clear definitions of resilience, the value of multi-stage application processes to support local innovators, and the necessity of long-term strategies to move innovations beyond the 'valley of death' toward sustainable scale. The report concludes with specific recommendations for future resilience-focused challenges, highlighting the importance of adaptive management and robust, long-term impact evaluations.

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) Water Window Challenge supported over 500,000 people across eight countries through 12 projects focused on flood resilience. The synthesis identifies that success was driven by 'layering' interventions—combining livelihood support, early warning systems (EWS), and infrastructure—and by deep stakeholder engagement. Key achievements include the establishment of 347 women-led community-based organizations in Sri Lanka, the support of 265,000 individuals in Indonesia through transboundary coordination, and the deployment of EWS reaching over 84,000 households in the India-Nepal border region. The report emphasizes that flexible, adaptive management and strong partnerships are essential for innovating and scaling resilience efforts in volatile climatic contexts.

The report identifies five key intervention areas for building resilience: nature-based solutions, empowering marginalized groups, information and technology, inclusive financial services, and low-cost infrastructure. It argues that effective resilience programming must be systemic by design, utilize layered and linked interventions, create agile networks, promote equity and inclusion, and prioritize iterative learning and scaling. Evidence from GRP's USAID and Z Zurich Foundation challenges, as well as 42 partner programs, demonstrates that these approaches can protect development gains and improve well-being in the face of climate and economic shocks.

The document analyzes how human land use drives climate change and how climate change, in turn, degrades land. It highlights that while land currently acts as a net carbon sink, it could become a source of emissions. The brief emphasizes the role of agriculture and deforestation in land degradation and warns that current policy trajectories could significantly expand drylands and threaten global food security. It argues that sustainable land management, incorporating indigenous knowledge and gender-sensitive policies, is essential for limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C.

The document assesses the multifaceted threats climate change poses to global food security, highlighting that while some high-latitude regions may see productivity gains, the global South—especially sub-Saharan Africa—faces severe risks of yield losses and increased hunger. It argues for a systemic approach to adaptation, moving beyond autonomous adjustments to planned strategies. Key priorities include increasing public investment in agricultural research, adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), expanding irrigation, and improving the resilience of food value chains. The authors emphasize that adaptation must be balanced with greenhouse gas mitigation and social equity, particularly regarding gender and youth in agriculture.

The report examines how cell captive insurance—a model where a licensed insurer creates ring-fenced cells for other organisations—can be used in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to bridge gaps in specialised risk cover, drive retail innovation, and facilitate market participation. It identifies four primary use cases: specialised risk management, retail innovation, insurance market participation, and the development of offshore financial centres. The document details three main regulatory models—Protected Cell Companies (PCC), Incorporated Cell Companies (ICC), and Shareholder Participation Agreements (SPA)—and provides a decision tree for regulators to determine the appropriate structure based on their policy objectives, risk transfer needs, and requirements for asset separation, capital, and governance.

The document argues that standard quantitative and qualitative methods often fail to capture the non-linear, asymmetric, and multi-layered nature of the migration-development nexus. It presents QCA as a solution that identifies 'necessary and sufficient conditions' and 'equifinality' (multiple paths to the same outcome). The authors provide a guide to QCA implementation—covering calibration, consistency, and coverage—and review three case studies at the macro (EU sanctions in Africa), meso (agricultural change in China), and micro (internet penetration in Ghana) levels to demonstrate the method's utility. It concludes that QCA should be triangulated with other methods to provide robust evidence for policy.

The document examines the material risks climate change poses to global supply chains and the current state of private sector adaptation. It argues that while companies recognize climate risks, they often misdiagnose them by focusing on exposure rather than underlying vulnerability. Using the cotton industry as a detailed example, the paper proposes a resilience framework based on six capital assets—natural, human, social, physical, financial, and political—and provides recommendations for companies to commit to science-based resilience strategies and gender-transformative empowerment of women workers.

Nigeria is Africa's largest recipient of remittances, with 2018 inflows reaching USD 24.2 billion, yet the market is characterized by high informality and significant barriers to formal service expansion. While the country possesses a sophisticated national payment system and high internet penetration, formal remittance growth is hindered by tight foreign exchange controls, high licensing requirements, and a lack of financial access points in rural areas. The report highlights a stark contrast in costs between corridors, with USA and UK transfers being competitive while the Cameroon corridor remains exorbitant. Key recommendations include incentivizing mobile network operator participation through Payment Service Bank licenses, revising capital outflow limits, and harmonizing biometric identity systems to reduce onboarding friction.

The document introduces Integrated Electrification Pathways (IEP) as a systemic approach to planning electricity access. It argues that relying on a single technology is insufficient and advocates for a complementary mix of centralized grids and decentralized solutions (mini-grids and off-grid systems) tailored to human needs and socio-economic development. The guide outlines four key characteristics of IEPs—focus on sustainable development, technological inclusivity, high-level political coordination, and market-enabling support—and provides a five-step planning process involving coordination bodies, expert engagement, geospatial data modeling, regulatory reform, and financial mobilization.

The document argues that achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 requires a shift from fragmented electrification efforts to Integrated Electrification Pathways (IEPs). IEPs are defined as inclusive planning approaches that leverage a mix of grid, mini-grid, and off-grid technologies based on human needs and sustainable development goals. The guide outlines four key features of IEPs—contextualizing access within human needs, considering all technological delivery models, securing high-level political commitment, and implementing market-enabling policies—and provides a five-step planning process. This process includes establishing a coordinating body, engaging experts, utilizing geospatial data and modeling tools, developing supportive regulations, and mobilizing diverse finance to support both developers and consumers.

The paper argues that traditional Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) often fail to accurately capture the complexities of biomass energy and land cover, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. By linking the TIAM-ECN economic model with the MoFuSS geospatial model, the author demonstrates that projected woodfuel demand in Kenya exceeds the sustainable supply of woody biomass. The study highlights a gap in current modelling where economic optimization does not account for physical landscape constraints, suggesting that future models must better integrate market responses, such as price increases and fuel substitution, with spatial biomass availability.

The Tandem framework addresses the 'usability gap' in climate services by shifting from provider-led to collaborative, transdisciplinary co-design. It outlines a seven-step iterative process—ranging from identifying adaptation challenges to maintaining the service—supported by cross-cutting components like sustainable financing and capacity building. The framework is illustrated through an urban water security case study in Lusaka, Zambia, where co-produced hydrological models helped stakeholders assess water demand against climate scenarios.