On the Frontiers of Finance: Scaling Up Investment in Sustainable Small and Medium Enterprises in Developing Countries

Outlines the economic, social, and environmental benefits of investing in sustainable small and medium enterprises; the lending practices of financial intermediaries; and barriers. Includes case summaries and recommendations for sectoral growth

Sustainable Investing and the Cross-Section of Maximum Drawdown

We use supervised learning to identify factors that predict the cross-section of maximum drawdown for stocks in the US equity market. Our data run from January 1980 to June 2018 and our analysis includes ordinary least squares, penalized linear regressions, tree-based models, and neural networks. We find that the most important predictors tended to be consistent across models, and that non-linear models had better predictive power than linear models. Predictive power was higher in calm periods than stressed periods, and environmental, social, and governance indicators augmented predictive power for non-linear models

Impact Investing and Inclusive Business Development in Africa: A research agenda

Impact investing aims to create sustainable social and environmental impacts for investee enterprises and communities as well as adequate financial returns. As an attractive emerging market investment strategy, it involves development finance institutions and philanthropic foundations partnering with mainstream private venture capital to create impact funds with the goal of catalysing inclusive market-based enterprise development in low income countries. In this paper, we present findings from a scoping study discussing the nature and operations of impact funds in African economies and the associated research opportunities on this topic. To facilitate the assessment, we reviewed the existing literature on impact investing, considering this along three interrelated perspectives, namely 1) impact investing as development finance policy for economic development, 2) impact investing as a development in socially responsible investing, and 3) impact investing as capacity-building for inclusive business development in African economies. The interplay of these perspectives shapes the constitution and operational strategies of specific impact funds and provide a conceptual context for understanding impact investing at country level. Drawing on interviews, email exchanges and roundtable discussions with representative global and country-specific (Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Kenya) stakeholders our analysis makes three contributions to the impact investing debate. First we explore a model for understanding the ways in which impact funds are being channeled into inclusive businesses in Africa and the associated catalytic effects on poverty alleviation, social and economic development. Second we identified and tested access to, a range of impact funds and associated sector-specific inclusive businesses for future case writing – hopefully ‘failures’ as well as ‘successes’. Finally, we reflect on some of the unanswered managerial and policy-related questions that require a more rigorous inquiry-led appraisal to better understand and enhance the contribution of impact funds to inclusive business development in Africa

Fisheries and HIV/AIDS in Africa: investing in sustainable solutions

The WorldFish Center and the UN FAO are currently implementing a regional programme entitled Fisheries and HIV/AIDS in Africa: investing in sustainable solutions. The programme, funded by SIDA and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims to strengthen regional capacity to develop sustainable solutions to enhance the contributions of fish and fisheries to development. In particular, the programme is building a strategic response to HIV/AIDS in the fisheries sector that will benefit vulnerable groups in wider society.

Sustainable Fisheries Financing Strategies: Save the Oceans Feed the World Project

This paper attempts to evaluate the factors that affect the financial viability of sustainable seafood investments, and in doing so: a) examines the underlying industry dynamics, opportunities, and risks associated with investing in the seafood sector; b) summarizes lessons learned from existing approaches to sustainable fisheries investments; and c) describes in greater detail the three aforementioned impact-investing mechanisms that could support the development of more sustainable wild-capture fisheries. The design of these strategies reflects, to the best of our understanding, the unique characteristics of the countries studied. We recognize that these strategies will evolve through further research and development and will vary meaningfully in their design and execution depending on the specific characteristics of the fisheries and countries where they may be deployed. We hope that these strategies can be adopted, modified and executed by a range of public, private, and non-profit players over time, and that the execution of these or similar strategies will catalyze the flow of new sources of private capital towards sustainable fisheries with positive environmental and societal impacts

Investing in Healthy, Sustainable Places Through Urban Agriculture

The purpose of this paper is to provide funders with an overview of urban agriculture and its benefits; its connections to the community-based food system; and how foundations are supporting and encouraging urban agriculture as a public health, social enterprise, environmental stewardship, and/or economic development strategy. With bibliographical references

Investing in Sustainable Energy Futures: Multilateral Development Banks' Investments in Energy Policy

Analyzes MDB loans for electricity projects and lays out policy reforms, regulations, and institutional capacities needed to enable public and private investment in sustainable energy and ways for MDBs to address them consistently and comprehensively

Some Geographical Aspects of Rural Development with view of Montenegro: A Review

The paper discusses some geographical aspects of rural development with view of Montenegro. According to development of a heterogeneous, rural areas lag behind the urban and industrial, so the problem must be given more attention. In this regard, the European Union provides a powerful impetus to social and territorial cohesion of rural areas and attempt to provide a more efficient valorization of local development potential, in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. Privacy and promote rural development in Montenegro is in the interest of the whole society, and investing in the range of industries in rural areas increases their attractiveness, encourages sustainable growth and employment opportunities, especially for young employees willing and able to accept the new philosophy of development

The state of sustainable investments in key emerging markets: synthesis report

The report is intended as a summary and synthesis of country reports on the state of sustainable investing in key emerging markets, namely China, India, Brazil and Turkey. In general, the authors have defined sustainable investments as investments that incorporate environmental (E), social(S) and governance (G) factors into the investment processes. The reports primarily investigate sustainable investments through the supply of financial capital to publicly listed firms in the form of equity investments through the stock markets, using strategies that incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks into the investment process, with a long-term perspective. These investments can be purposefully ESG-inclusive and marketed as such (theme-based or labelled), or they can include ESG factors somehow in the processes without explicitly referring to sustainability-related factors. The reports also consider the supply of financial capital in various classes and forms to listed and privately held firms with a consideration of the investment’s impact on economic and social development or on investors’ values