Podcasts about International Finance Corporation

In this episode of the Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie discusses global development with Bruegel director Jeromin Zettelmeyer and Alfonso García Mora, vice president for Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group's arm for mobilizing private finance. They discuss what tools are available, what needs can be addressed, and how that fits into today's geopolitical environment. By helping public and private funders work together, these efforts allow recipient countries like Ukraine to get more out of international assistance.

Cities house over half the world's population and drive more than 80% of global GDP—but many struggle to finance the infrastructure needed for sustainable growth. In this episode of IFC Audio Stories, we explore how IFC helps cities unlock capital through subnational financing. From identifying bankable projects to deploying loans, IFC experts share insights into how municipalities can build inclusive and resilient futures. 

In this episode of IFC Audio Stories, we're in Nairobi, Kenya, where a bold private sector partnership is driving inclusive growth. Royal Apparel EPZ Ltd., backed by IFC, is expanding to create thousands of jobs while promoting sustainable manufacturing. We explore how private sector investment is transforming lives and strengthening Kenya's garment industry. 

In this episode of the GRU Podcast, we host Dr. Vera Sevrouk, the Senior Syndications Officer at the International Finance Corporation, to discuss the structure and implications of the IFC's Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (MCPP.) The discussion begins by detailing the IFC's role within the World Bank Group before detailing the structure, composition and development of the MCPP, what role the insurance sector plays and how credit insurance is leveraged in the program, providing examples of projects supported by the MCPP, common challenges facing institutions looking to participate in the program and much more.

The Bulletin discusses Trump disruptions, university investigations, and the recent Syrian massacre. Find us on YouTube. Clarissa and Mike cover this week's headlines as they ask, “Is this the MAGA Americans wanted?” Political commentator Charlie Sykes joins the show to talk about the disruptiveness of Trump's first 50 days in office. Then, The Atlantic's Peter Wehner stops by for a thoughtful conversation about the state of US universities, tribalism, and the uniquely Christian posture of hopeful inquiry. Finally, we consider Syria's recent Alawite massacre and the future of peace in this war-torn region with research analyst Ahmad Sharawi. GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Join us and go deeper on our Substack. Find us on YouTube. Rate and review the show in your podcast app of choice. ABOUT THE GUESTS:  Peter Wehner is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum. He was formerly a speechwriter for George W. Bush and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Wehner is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and his work also appears in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and National Affairs. Charles J. Sykes is one of the most influential conservatives in Wisconsin. Until he stepped down in December after 23 years, Sykes was one of the state's top-rated talk show hosts. He is currently an MSNBC contributor. Sykes has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Salon, USA Today, National Review, The Weekly Standard, and other national publications. He has appeared on the Today Show, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, PBS, and the BBC and has been profiled on NPR. He has also spoken extensively on university campuses. Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Middle East affairs, specifically the Levant, Iraq, and Iranian intervention in Arab affairs, as well as US foreign policy toward the region. Previously, Sharawi worked at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he focused mainly on Hezbollah. He created a map visualizing the border clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese frontier and authored articles on Jordan and Morocco. Sharawi previously worked at the International Finance Corporation and S&P Global. He holds a BA in international relations from King's College London and an MA from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a weekly (and sometimes more!) current events show from Christianity Today hosted and moderated by Clarissa Moll, with senior commentary from Russell Moore (Christianity Today's editor in chief) and Mike Cosper (director, CT Media). Each week, the show explores current events and breaking news and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world. We also offer special one-on-one conversations with writers, artists, and thought leaders whose impact on the world brings important significance to a Christian worldview, like Bono, Sharon McMahon, Harrison Scott Key, Frank Bruni, and more. “The Bulletin” is a production of Christianity Today Producer: Clarissa Moll Associate Producer: Leslie Thompson Editing and Mix: Kevin Morris Music: Dan Phelps Executive Producers: Erik Petrik and Mike Cosper Senior Producer: Matt Stevens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In honor of Women's Month, IFC Audio Stories presents “My First Job” - conversations with senior women leaders about how their careers got started and the lessons they learned along the way. We kick off the series with Mary Porter Peschka, IFC's Regional Director for Eastern Africa. 

Today I have the immense pleasure of speaking with Jes Wolfe, the remarkable CEO of Rebel Girls, a company dedicated to inspire the next generation of girls to embrace their most confident selves. In this deep dive into Jess's life, Jes shares her inspiring story from a small-town Oregon upbringing filled with lots of outdoors time to becoming a powerhouse operator and entrepreneur who is making waves in the world of children's literature and female empowerment.    Jes takes us back to her childhood, recounting her early money stories that taught her the value of saving and investing from a young age and ultimately set the groundwork for her future in finance, consulting, and, eventually, entrepreneurship. We journey through her career transitions, from her first job picking blueberries, to impactful roles at Morgan Stanley, the International Finance Corporation, and BCG, to selling her first business and finding her true calling at Rebel Girls.    Throughout the episode, Jess eloquently discusses the importance of long-term thinking in personal finance, the grit required for entrepreneurial success, and her unwavering commitment to supporting women and girls in all her ventures. We also learn valuable lessons in planning out your pivots and taking time to really absorb life to figure out the best move for you and your future.  Key Topics: Growing up in small-town Oregon and the first jobs Jess had as a kid Learning to invest in high school to start saving for her future Taking time to explore the world while decided on a life path The career fair that had Jes dreaming of work in the private finance sector The aha moment of learning how the world works and understanding how to play the game of life Jes's start at Morgan Stanley out of university How Jes planned her career moves to always be one step ahead The long-term planning and saving that allowed her to graduate from business school debt-free Moving to DC to work for BCG and all the places that job took her Investing in her friends' success by investing in the companies they worked for Following her desire to build companies through another career pivot Soul-searching in Asia, looking for her new path in life The move to SF that allowed Jes to finally start building things bigger than herself Navigating finances on a smaller salary while building a startup The lessons learned from selling her first business The pivot that brought her to Rebel Girls as the CEO Investing in the next generation to support female founders      Connect with Jes online:    Website: https://www.rebelgirls.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jes-wolfe-a58921/ Find more from Syama Bunten:   Instagram: @syama.co, @gettingrichpod Website: https://syamabunten.com/ Download Syama's Guide to Getting Rich: www.syamabunten.com  Women & Wealth Catalyst Summit: https://women.win/ Big Delta Capital: www.bigdeltacapital.com  

*Key news articles for today* Arab leaders endorsed Egypt's USD53 bn reconstruction plan for Gaza during yesterday's emergency Arab League summit held in Cairo. Net foreign reserves rose to USD47.4 bn at the end of February 2025, marking a USD129 mn increase from January.Chinese companies are expected to invest USD2-3 bn in moving production to Egypt, particularly the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), as China looks to maintain export access to global markets amid trade pressures from the US.OPEC+ decided to proceed with an earlier decision to gradually increase oil production from April in a move that will see it unwind long-standing output cuts.An official revealed that the government has excluded Cairo International Airport from the list of airports that will be offered to the private sector for development, management and operation, and has decided to start with a small airport model, explaining that the International Finance Corporation will finish preparing the strategy for the airports' within 3 months.Egypt's trade deficit widened in December 2024 to record USD4.15 billion, up from USD3.67 billion in December 2023, on a faster pace of growth in imports compared to exports.SUGR reported 4Q24 financial results with bottom-line of EGP290 million (+55% YoY, +8.1x QoQ). This brings FY24 bottom-line to EGP1,262 million (-21% YoY). SUGR is currently trading at FY25 P/E of 4.9x.TAQA posted a 26% YoY growth in FY24 consolidated net profit to record EGP702.0 million. Revenues increased by 40% YoY to EGP18.9 billion in FY24.EFIH (FV: EGP28.28, OW) announced that it is participating in the launch of Egypt's first onshore private equity fund, C3 Capital Fund 1, the first-ever Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) fund in Egypt. The final close of the fund is expected to be EGP3.0 billion. Pharma sales value increased by 54.7% YoY in the first month 2025 to record EGP21.5 bn, while sales volume recorded a modest 6.5% YoY increase. 

Nuestra invitada de este episodio es una destacada profesional en el ámbito financiero y de inversión con una amplia trayectoria en finanzas sostenibles y gestión de propiedades para rentas cortas, quien hace un par de años decidió hacer un cambio de carrera y dedicarse a lo que verdaderamente le apasiona: diseñar espacios para que las personas vivan en armonía y rodeados de cosas bellas. Después de trabajar más de 20 años en el sector financiero, ocupando roles estratégicos en instituciones como la International Finance Corporation y Finance in Motion, decidió montar su estudio de diseño: “Dos Espacios”, desde donde asesora a clientes que buscan vivir en espacios bellos, funcionales y armoniosos.  Se graduó de la Universidad Externado de Colombia con formación en Finanzas y Relaciones Internacionales y continuó su especialización en la University of Sydney, donde obtuvo una maestría en Finanzas y Banca, actualmente estudia Interiorismo Sostenible en LCI. 

Egypt's PMI recorded 50.7 in January, up from 48.1 in December, signaling a renewed improvement in the health of the Egyptian non-oil economy at the beginning of the year, on growth in output and sales as well as falling cost pressures to eight-month low.The government will lease a Turkish floating storage regasification unit starting June and for the duration of the summer, an unnamed government official said. It will cost some USD45 million to lease the unit from June and until November. The unit will liquify some 500 million cubic feet of gas a day for electricity generation in efforts to meet heightened domestic demand during the summer months.Turkey's Kipas Textiles plans to invest EGP1 billion to set up its second fabric factory in Egypt, expected to go live before the end of the year, a company representative said.A consortium of Egyptian, Turkish, and Chinese investors led by homegrown leather manufacturer Fabrica is looking into setting up a EGP200 million industrial complex for leather products. The three partners will hold equal stakes of 33.3% each in the complex, which will focus on export. Construction, facilities preparation, and production lines installation are scheduled to begin next year The House will “within days” introduce a draft law scrapping the capital gains tax on EGX transactions and reinstating a stamp tax, as part of measures aimed at boosting investment, deputy chairman of the Budget Committee Yasser Omar said.Cairo House Egypt inked an agreement with Tourism Investment and Marriott International to turn the Mogamma building into a 500-key Autograph Collection Hotel.The International Finance Corporation's full airport privatization plan should be out in the next six months.The Madbouly government is looking to introduce the unified financing initiative for startups, coordinating efforts between public and private entities to support over 5k startups.The Ministry of Finance collected more than USD1 billion from Egyptians working abroad as part of the initiative to facilitate the import of expatriates' cars, up to January-end, an official said.The CBE has adjusted its mortgage finance initiative for low and middle income groups, its changing income brackets, interest rates, and minimum downpayments. The low-income category, with a monthly net income not exceeding EGP10-12k for individuals and EGP13-15k for households, will be able to get their hands on subsidized mortgage financing at a declining 7.5-8% interest rate. The middle-income category, with a monthly income not exceeding EGP 20k for individuals and EGP 25k for households, can secure financing at a declining 12% interest rate. The minimum down payment for accessing the financing has been set at 20% for both groups.The Ministry of Finance is considering exempting the banking sector from the tax on international loan returns. The government previously introduced an amendment to Article 56 of the Income Tax Law, canceling the tax exemption that was granted to interest paid to non-residents on long-term international loans exceeding three years, and it is expected to have a significant impact on the ability of Egyptian banks to secure USD financing from foreign markets.The local consortium setting up the 300k sqm dry bulk terminal in Dekheila Port is expected to deliver it in 4Q25 with investments to reach USD450 million. The consortium includes Mediterraneo Egypt, Latt Trading and Shipping, a SWDY company, and the Transport Ministry's Holding Company for Maritime and Land Transport.The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has sold the last 8.8% it held of ISPH.CNFN subsidiary, Contact Creditech, announced the launch of its Maestro program,available through the Contact Now application, enabling customers to customize repayment plans. 

From day one of his professional life, Derek Warnick knew his career would be driven by a purpose greater than finance alone. As an undergraduate studying finance and international business, he sought ways to make a meaningful impact. Upon graduation, he joined the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, focusing on empowering small businesses in developing countries. “I was excited by the opportunity to help people and have an international focus,” he recalls.However, Warnicksoon realized he wanted to do more to address climate change. “I started to become much more interested in learning about how we could avert the worst effects of climate change,” he says. This passion led him to pursue an MBA at MIT Sloan, concentrating on clean energy finance. “I believe in utilizing a financial focus to further technology and business innovation,” Derek explains. “I don't think that the role of a CFO or a finance department should be an afterthought.”After his MBA, he joined a commodities trading firm but soon took on the role of CFO at a small power development startup. There, he gained hands-on experience in all aspects of finance and operations. “I had to do absolutely every single thing in a finance organization,” he says. “I enjoy walking that tightrope and being an operator.”His dedication to sustainable energy culminated in co-founding Electric Hydrogen, where he serves as CFO. “At Electric Hydrogen, we are singularly focused on bringing down the cost of industrial-scale decarbonization,” Derek states. He believes that providing cost-effective, scalable solutions is key to making a real impact on climate change. “I can't imagine doing something where I worked for a company that made widgets,” he reflects. “For me, there has to be that business purpose so that I'm excited about what I do.”Throughout his career, Derek has consistently chosen roles that align with his commitment to sustainable energy. “I firmly believe that if you have a job you love, you'll never work a day in your life,” he says.

In this episode of The Banker's Bookshelf, host Paolo Sironi and guest Khrystyna Kushnir discuss insights from the IBM report, Banking for Small and Medium Enterprises: Serving the World Economy. The report highlights the evolving needs of SMEs, including access to finance, market entry, and business support, with a notable focus on technology integration. While bankers emphasize branch accessibility and app usability, SMEs seek personalized solutions, ecosystem integration, and super apps that address both banking and business needs. Key differences across regions are highlighted, such as the U.S. focus on branch access versus India's emphasis on mobile apps, influenced by government-led digital adoption. Both bankers and SMEs agree on the value of instant payments and cash flow forecasting, while SMEs also prioritize fraud monitoring and regulatory support. The episode underscores the role of AI in risk management and invites listeners to read the report, available at: https://www.ibm.com/downloads/documents/us-en/10c31775c8d402bb ‌ Khrystyna Kushnir is an Operations Officer with the International Finance Corporation's Corporate Strategic Initiatives, Analytics, Learning, and Knowledge Management group. She initially joined IFC in 2018 as the Knowledge Management and Content Lead for the SME Finance Forum, focusing on small business research. Previously, Khrystyna held research positions at the World Bank Group, which she joined in 2010. Her earlier professional experience includes roles with the European Union, a Japanese consulting firm, and a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Khrystyna holds an M.A. in International Economic Relations from American University, where she studied as a Fulbright scholar. Connect now: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khrystyna-kushnir/ ‌ Paolo Sironi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thepsironi/

Join us for the fifth session of our Soil Conversations series, featuring a compelling discussion with Hunter Lovins, renowned environmentalist, author, and champion of sustainable development. This session promises to delve into the intricate relationships between soil health, climate resilience, and sustainable agriculture. Lovins will share her wealth of knowledge on how nurturing our soil can lead to a regenerative future, offering insights drawn from her extensive experience and pioneering work in the field.In this conversation, we will explore practical strategies for improving soil health and enhancing ecosystem services. Lovins will discuss the role of innovative agricultural practices, such as agroforestry and holistic management, in building resilient food systems. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how healthy soils contribute to carbon sequestration, water retention, and biodiversity, and how these benefits can be realized on both local and global scales.This session is an invaluable opportunity to hear from one of the leading voices in sustainability and to engage in a dialogue about the future of our soils. Hunter Lovins' unique perspective, grounded in decades of activism and research, will provide a rich context for understanding the critical importance of soil stewardship in addressing the pressing environmental challenges of our time.L. Hunter Lovins is President of Natural Capitalism Solutions. NCS helps companies, communities and countries implement more regenerative practices profitably.  A professor of sustainable business management at Fordham University, Hunter teaches entrepreneuring and coaches social enterprises around the world. A Managing Partner of NOW Partners, she is also a board member of Aquion and several non-profits. Hunter has worked in energy, regenerative agriculture, climate policy, sustainable development and resilience for 55 years.A consultant to industries including International Finance Corporation, Unilever, Walmart, the United Nations and Royal Dutch Shell, as well as sustainability champions Interface, Patagonia and Clif Bar, Hunter has briefed heads of state, the UN, and the US Congress, leaders of the numerous local governments, the Pentagon, and officials in 30 countries. Author of 17 books – including the recently released A Finer Future: Creating an Economy in Service to Life, which won a Nautilus Award – Hunter has won dozens of awards, including the European Sustainability Pioneer award and the Right Livelihood Award. Time Magazine recognized her as a Millennium Hero for the Planet, and Newsweek called her the Green Business Icon. Support the show

In this episode, we chat to Graham Trusler, CEO and founder of Digby Wells Environmental who provide environmental, social, and sustainability solutions for the resource, infrastructure, energy, and agriculture sectors. Their services range from exploration to extraction to rehabilitation and closure as they have the knowledge to support you through every milestone of the project life cycle. Graham has 30 years of experience within the mining industry in metallurgical production, research, and environmental issues and talks about best environmental practices in our industry and what mining companies can do to improve standards across the globe. KEY TAKEAWAYS Graham Trusler, CEO and founder of Digby Wells Environmental, has 30 years of experience in the mining industry, specialising in environmental issues. Digby Wells Environmental provides a range of services for the mining industry, including environmental impact assessments, closure plans, and social consultation. Mining companies need to comply with international standards, such as those set by the International Finance Corporation, regardless of the country they operate in. Climate change is a significant challenge for mining operations, requiring adaptation strategies to manage risks and opportunities. The outlook for Digby Wells Environmental is positive, with plans to expand offices in Africa, North America, and Australia to meet the growing demand for their services. BEST MOMENTS "The funders, whether they're from a banking community, they normally go with International Finance Corporation or IFC rules and guidelines."  "It's been very positive over the last while, and fortunately in our space, the needs for our services are continuing to grow."  "So our bread and butter used to be environmental impact assessments or environmental and social impact assessments as they are now."  "I think it's a legitimacy challenge in a lot of the first world countries where the money is going to come from."  VALUABLE RESOURCES Mail:        rob@mining-international.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/ X:              https://twitter.com/MiningRobTyson YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DigDeepTheMiningPodcast  Web:        http://www.mining-international.org LinkedIn: Digby Wells Environmental (https://www.linkedin.com/company/digby-wells-environmental/)  Facebook: Digby Wells Environmental (https://www.facebook.com/DigbyWellsEnvironmental) Instagram: @Digbywellsenviromental ( https://www.instagram.com/digbywellsenvironmental/?hl=en) Email Adress : info@Digbywells.com Contact details: 011 789 9495 ABOUT THE HOST Rob Tyson is the Founder and Director of Mining International Ltd, a leading global recruitment and headhunting consultancy based in the UK specialising in all areas of mining across the globe from first-world to third-world countries from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. We source, headhunt, and discover new and top talent through a targeted approach and search methodology and have a proven track record in sourcing and positioning exceptional candidates into our clients' organisations in any mining discipline or level. Mining International provides a transparent, informative, and trusted consultancy service to our candidates and clients to help them develop their careers and business goals and objectives in this ever-changing marketplace. CONTACT METHOD rob@mining-international.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/ Podcast Description Rob Tyson is an established recruiter in the mining and quarrying sector and decided to produce the “Dig Deep” The Mining Podcast to provide valuable and informative content around the mining industry. He has a passion and desire to promote the industry and the podcast aims to offer the mining community an insight into people's experiences and careers covering any mining discipline, giving the listeners helpful advice and guidance on industry topics. 

Mary Ellen Iskenderian is President and CEO of Women's World Banking, the global nonprofit devoted to giving more low-income women access to the financial tools and resources they need to achieve security and prosperity. Ms. Iskenderian has led the Women's World Banking global team, based in New York, since 2006 and also serves on the Investment Committees of its two impact investment funds. Previously, Ms. Iskenderian worked at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, and the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Ms. Iskenderian is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a member of the Women's Forum of New York and the UN's Business and Sustainable Development Commission. She serves as a Director on the Board of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Ms. Iskenderian holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Recently, she was recognized in the Forbes 50 over 50: Investment list, which highlights female investors and financial leaders. Her first book, There's Nothing Micro About a Billion Women: Making Finance Work for Women, was published by MIT Press in April 2022.

Mary Ellen Iskenderian is President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, the global nonprofit devoted to giving more low-income women access to the financial tools and resources they need to achieve security and prosperity. Ms. Iskenderian has led the Women’s World Banking global team, based in New York, since 2006 and also serves on the Investment Committees of its two impact investment funds. Previously, Ms. Iskenderian worked at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, and the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Ms. Iskenderian is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a member of the Women’s Forum of New York and the UN’s Business and Sustainable Development Commission. She serves as a Director on the Board of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Ms. Iskenderian holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Recently, she was recognized in the Forbes 50 over 50: Investment list, which highlights female investors and financial leaders. Her first book, There’s Nothing Micro About a Billion Women: Making Finance Work for Women, was published by MIT Press in April 2022.

This week, Julia is joined by Naz all the way from Pakistan. With the Expedition in Pakistan in full swing, we thought it was the perfect time to get back to the basics. More often then not, we tend to forget that a large part of the struggle when leading is breaking out of and rising above the shackles of the status quo. Naz shares with us her journey of a vibrant career. She reflects on how in her early years she placed a self imposed pressure of having to constantly prove herself and lead the way one was "supposed to". But over the years she discovered her own way of leading that was authentic and honest, one that challenged the pressures of leading like everybody else. She reminds us that when one is truly authentic it is the most comfortable feeling!About the Guest: Naz Khan is the Principal Country Officer in Pakistan for the International Finance Corporation.

Climate finance is vital to tackling climate change and decarbonising economies. Past pledges, however, have often failed to deliver, especially for developing countries. In the lead-up to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, climate finance will be a major topic. Ruth Townend is joined by Jamie Fergusson, global director for Climate Business for International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, and Creon Butler, Director of the Global Economy and Finance program at Chatham House to discuss what action is needed, and from whom.

This week's Espresso covers news from Ruedata, Welbe Care, and more!Outline of this episode:[00:27] – ABSeed raises $30M to invest in B2B SaaS[00:36] – Ruedata raises $2M seed round[00:50] – BTrust lands $1.5M in seed funding[01:05] – CloudWalk raises $313M to finance anticipation of receivables[01:20] – Evertec acquires Zunify[01:31] – PayRetailers acquires Brazilian fintech Transfeera[01:43] – Darwin Startups announces $20M fund[01:54] – Welbe Care Raises $7M in Series A[02:09] – El Dorado raises $3M seed roundResources & people mentioned:Startups: Ruedata, BTrust, CloudWalk, Welbe Care, El Dorado,  PayRetailers, Transfeera VCs: ABSeed, Barn Investimentos, Invexor, Itaú BBA, Volpe Capital, International Finance Corporation, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Darwin Startups

Female-founder launches tech solution to save millions of hours on ESG research Each year, environmental and social specialists spend millions of hours on critical research to assess the risks and impacts of development projects around the world. While this work is essential to meet sustainability related financing requirements, the reality is a large proportion of experts' time is spent gathering huge amounts of historic data, regional statistics, policy documents, local legislation and other information, before they are even able to apply their professional analysis and judgement. Improving ESG assessments Now, a new AI-powered solution is set to revolutionise the way E&S experts work, potentially saving thousands of hours, improving accuracy and empowering experts to add value more efficiently. myESRA is the world's first automated research assistant that puts the industry's most comprehensive environmental and social specific knowledge base at the fingertips of E&S experts. myESRA's knowledge base gathers all historic project documents disclosed by development banks, regional and national statistics, lender policies and local legislation from hundreds of different sources with weekly updates. A full environmental and social impact assessment for a high-risk project can cost up to US$500,000. The biggest cost item within the project is collection of primary and secondary data - repetitive, manual tasks that typically take hours. myESRA can not only find secondary data in seconds, but also provides citation and reference to the original document or source. myESRA is the brainchild of world leading social development specialist Ildiko Almasi Simsic. After spending 15 years working on ESG projects for the likes of the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme, she has experienced first-hand the frustrations and inefficiencies that are impeding progress in companies ESG efforts around the world. Speaking about the launch of myESRA, Ildiko Almasi Simic said: "Environmental and social risk assessments are crucial, not only for organisations, but also the communities and habitats they impact, so it seems crazy they are still so reliant on manual, time-consuming processes. I realized the industry was ready for a technology-driven transformation, so I set about developing a customized solution that uses AI technologies to free up professionals to add real value through their expert insights and analysis." myESRA is available now from its parent company, E&S Solutions. For further information go to http://essolutions.ai/ See more breaking stories here. More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too. You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie now to discuss. Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at Info@IrishTechNews.ie now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience. You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

Improving financial inclusion is linked to at least 9 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is considered by the World Bank Group as a key enabler of its mission of creating a world free of poverty on a livable planet. This episode brings together two World Bank Group leaders spearheading financial inclusion efforts: Jean Pesme,  Global Director for Finance, in the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice; and Adel Meer, International Finance Corporation's Manager for Financial Inclusion.

How can the World Bank play a role in attracting more private capital to address development and climate needs? That is a challenge that World Bank President Ajay Banga has prioritized and was a key discussion in Washington, D.C., last week at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings. From a Private Sector Investment Lab charged with helping the bank identify and scale what already works to a new loan guarantee platform and plans to bundle and sell some International Finance Corporation investments to private investors, changes are afoot. But there are questions about how far existing proposals go, if they will succeed, and how exactly private sector mobilization will be measured. In this podcast episode we hear from experts about how those efforts stack up and what more can be done to attract private money to these markets. We dive into what the Private Sector Investment Lab has prioritized, why mobilization efforts have been stymied, and the importance of data transparency in these discussions. Gavin Wilson, who leads DAI Capital; Nancy Lee, director for Sustainable Development Finance at the Center for Global Development; Ben Weisman, executive director of capital mobilization and public policy at the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero; and Gary Forster, CEO of Publish What You Fund share their insights.

Die Capricorn Corner-gebou, die Capricorn-groep se moderne kantoorfasiliteite in Klein Windhoek, het 'n EDGE Advanced groen gebou-sertifisering verwerf. Dit is 'n sertifisering deur die International Finance Corporation, die privaatsektor-tak van die Wêreldbankgroep. Dit is die eerste internasionaal erkende operasionele gebou wat EDGE-gesertifiseer is in Namibië. Die prestasie sluit ook by vanjaar se Wêreld Aarde-dag aan, wat vandag gevier word, en beklemtoon die groep se vordering in omgewingsrentmeesterskap. Capricorn-groep se hoof van volhoubaarheid, Ruan Bestbier, gee meer inligting oor die toekenning.

This week's Espresso covers news from Nubank Colombia, Radar, Lolocar, and more!Outline of this episode:[00:28] – Nubank secures a $150M loan[00:42] – Lolocar acquires OlaCar to enter Uruguay[00:58] – Radar raises $1.5M[01:17] – Habi raises $30M from the International Finance Corporation[01:29] – Carryt acquires Treggo's operations in Mexico and Colombia[01:42] – goFlux lands a $6M Series A[01:57] – Interview Rodrigo Gonçalves goFlux Cofounder and CEO[06:10] – LatamList roundupResources & people mentioned:Startups: Nu Colombia, Lolocar, OlaCar, Radar, Habi, Carryt, Treggo, goFluxVCs and Angel investors: The Fintech Fund, Everywhere Ventures, Startup Istanbul, Rhombuz VC, Capria Ventures, Cristóbal FornoInstitutions: DFC, IFC, 

Episode 3 continues the exploration of the other institutions of the World Bank Group: the International Development Association, the International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Authority, and the International Center for the Resolution of Investment Disputes. Nancy Jacklin and Joaquim Levy also take a look at the use of specialized trust funds administered by the World Bank.

Ever feel that pang of guilt when you finally score a kid-free getaway with girlfriends? How about when you go away to a conference and that means missing your son's trumpet solo? Big confession. I recently went to a conference and missed my kid's solo. Yep, I felt mom guilt especially while I watched the livestream, but as a mom of three, I knew I was doing my best and that this conference (ironically the Mom 2.0 conference) was a big deal for my book and business. And (further justifications) it wasn't an on-stage solo in front of an audience...it was a Saturday morning classroom solo in front of a teacher. All of this to say, yes, mom guilt still continues to pop up for me when I pick career over family (and it doesn't even happen a lot!), and yet it's a constant juggle. So imagine this: what if you had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in another country without your family to explore your childhood career dreams? Sounds impossible? Would that make you feel guilty? This episode tackles the monster called "mom guilt." Enter Alicia Fernandez Miranda, a super-achiever mom of twins who decided to hit pause on her high-powered CEO career at 40. We delve into her story and ask the lingering questions: Does mom guilt ever truly fade? Is self-care a selfish act, or a necessity? Most importantly, can our actions teach our kids valuable life lessons that words simply can't? Tune in to episode 225 for an honest conversation that will empower you to embrace motherhood on your own terms. Let's connect on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/melissallarena/ In This Episode You Will Uncover: -How to navigate the guilt of pursuing your own passions as a mom, especially if it means taking time away from your family. -The importance of role modeling and showing your children how to live a fulfilling life, even if it means taking risks. -Why it's better to try something and fail than to never try anything at all. This Episode is Perfect For You If: -You're a mom who feels stuck in a rut and longs to pursue your own interests. -You're wondering if it's possible to chase your dreams while still being a good parent. -You're looking for inspiration to break free from self-doubt and create a life you love. Key Points: -Many moms struggle to find inspiration for pursuing their own dreams because the media often portrays women who achieve success without children. -The guilt of leaving your family can be a major obstacle, but sometimes the risk of not following your dreams is greater. -By taking action and showing your children how to live a fulfilling life, you can inspire them to do the same. -It's okay to fail, and in fact, it can be a valuable learning experience. Taking time for yourself can ultimately make you a better parent. This episode is brought to you by Fertile Imagination: A Guide for Stretching Every Mom's Superpower for Maximum Impact, which reached the #1 spot as an Amazon bestseller in both the motherhood and women and business categories! Woo hoo! And if this episode deeply resonates with you, then you are definitely invited to read my book, Fertile Imagination! In my humble opinion, I believe double-fisting Alisha's book The What If Year and mine, Fertile Imagination, would make for an epically fun weekend of reading. Dive into Alisha's adventures and live vicariously through a fellow mom, and then turn to my personal framework to help you think about your best first step on getting your imagination fired up about your own adventure! As I alluded to earlier, this episode tackles the struggle of mom guilt that tugs at our hearts, even when we deserve a getaway or break from adulting! I've been there too! Moreover, I, Melissa, share a vulnerable moment straight from my book, Fertile Imagination, where I spent Sundays unlocking a surprising talent. And guess what? It was totally worth it! Intrigued to discover your own hidden mom superpower? Head over to https://www.melissallarena.com/fertileideas/ and grab a FREE chapter of Fertile Imagination. It's your guide to maximizing your impact as a mom. Imagine achieving goals you never thought possible, all while rocking motherhood on YOUR terms. Download your free chapter today and ignite your fertile imagination! https://www.melissallarena.com/fertileideas/   Official bio for Alicia Fernandez Miranda ALISHA FERNANDEZ MIRANDA is the author of My What If Year, featured on Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and as one of People's Best Books. She is the host of podcasts Extra Shot with Alisha Fernandez Miranda and the award-winning Quit Your Day Job. Alisha also serves as chair and former CEO of I.G. Advisors, a social impact intelligence agency that consults with the world's biggest nonprofits, foundations, and corporations on their philanthropy and social initiatives. A graduate of Harvard University and the London School of Economics, her writing has appeared in Vogue, Marie Claire, Insider, Romper and Huffington Post. Originally from Miami, Alisha currently lives in Scotland with her husband and children. Follow Alisha on Instagram @alishafmiranda and her website at www.alishafmiranda.com. TRANSCRIPT Alicia Fernandez Miranda. I am excited to have you on the podcast, and I feel like you need to like stamp my passport. Where are we going? Where are you located? Let's chat. Let's chat. Thank you so much, Melissa, for having me. I am in Edinburgh, Scotland right now. Behind me, it's like hurricane force winds blowing outside, which is sort of typical, typical Wednesday for January in Scotland. Yeah, kind of, sort of like, uh, Canada, actually,  so it's, it's interesting, but Alicia, I am so excited to have you here. When I saw your profile, cause I know you're going to be attending probably like mom 2. 0, right? Yes, I'm going to be there this year. I was like, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's like this like twinsie of me somewhere in, in Europe. So that's a good thing. Cause I want to eventually land there. But when I saw that you wrote the book, my what if year, I was just like, Holy mother of guacamole. This is so cool. Like, this is like really, really cool. So why don't you share with listeners just a little bit about my what if year, and then we'll go into maybe like what has stopped a lot of moms from pursuing their own what if years. Totally. So  I guess the story really kind of started for me in 2019. I was living in London. I had done the expat thing. I grew up in Miami  and moved to London in 2008. I was the mom of my twins who were eight years old at the time. I was CEO of a business I had founded with my husband and we were kind of consulting to the biggest foundations and wealthy people, companies, nonprofits, all on social impact and philanthropy and how to give away money a bit better, which was an interesting job. And I sort of, I had done. All of the things that I had said I was going to do in my life. I had my list. I had checked everything off my list and I found myself approaching 40 and thinking, oh my God, is this really where I want to be? Then of course, feeling horribly guilty about. Thinking, is this really where I want to be? Which we can definitely talk about. Cause I think a lot of moms can relate to that.  And I just sort of had this moment where I was like, what, what, what were all the things that I didn't do that I had maybe always wanted to do? And is it really too late to try them? Or could I do this crazy thing, which is to take a year and through a series of little small. Sabbaticals, I was calling them, could I go try out all the jobs I wanted to do when I was a kid and never got a chance to do the things that I really loved, like working on a musical or working in the art industry. And so that was my what if year. It was an attempt to explore these paths that I never got to explore and to do internships at the jobs I had always dreamed of doing. So all of that sounds like so theoretically amazing. It's like, I want to just the, the abort mission, but, and I guess you could say on life and I just want to go and be in Cirque du Soleil. That's what I wanted to do. Actually. I have that in my own book, fertile imagination. I didn't do it just let's just to be clear. You haven't done it yet. That's true. I am working on mobility, so you never know what's up for me. But that was like my thing, right? I was like, Oh, how cool would it be Cirque du Soleil?  And, and I have other, I have a list of other things too, but there was, there was nothing, I never saw any woman, certainly any mom, Nor any Latina do something where she was away from her kids for such a long time during a time when they still needed her,  right? And 40, my goodness. So 40 years old, like how far could someone go 40? I'm just curious from your own perspective, like what sort of things were like, okay. Within the realm of possibilities for a mom versus what you did. I mean, it's such a good question because the guilt was real and the  feeling that my primary responsibility was always to my family, no matter what, even if that meant putting myself further down the list. It was just, I had just accepted that. I had accepted that that was the case. Without really stopping to think, what are the implications on my family? If I am a person who is not happy with my life and not feeling complete in myself or full in myself. So, I mean, of course, who are the people that had done this kind of like, They press the abort button on their life, right? Okay, you have like Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote Eat Pray Love, not Latina. Didn't have kids, I don't think either.  But she went, she took a year. She went to eat pasta in Italy and to India. And then she went to Bali and fell in love with a hot surfer. And that was the end of that book. But that was not a possibility for me. Neither was the Cheryl Strayed Wild. Also not Latina. Also no children. Because there was no way I was going to sleep in a tent for like a year at a time. But again, she left to deal with her grief. And she walked the Pacific Coast, the Pacific Crest Trail. And this idea of literally blowing up my whole life, that was off the table for me. Because I love my children. I love my husband. And I was so conscious that whatever I did was going to be  at best inconvenient for them. And at worst, a really big deal. for their day to day lives, if I was going to leave and go try these things. And so I was very, very conscious of that. It wasn't like I was just like, Meh, screw you all, like I'm going off to Italy to eat all the pasta. So when I started thinking about what this experience was going to be for me, I had a plan. I had, Months of planning, of fitting everything in, of figuring out who was going to pick up my kids from dance and soccer on the different days when my husband had to work, of organizing everything, of figuring out how to do my internships at the same time as their vacations from school, so they could come with me and join me. This was like a beautiful color coded plan because I wasn't willing. To really throw their happiness out. I could never, I could never have done that to them and I couldn't have enjoyed myself if I knew that that was the case. Now, of course, I say all of this and then I'll tell you my first internship started on February 29th, 2020. So all of my careful plans went completely out the window as soon as the pandemic hit, but definitely.  I was very, I was putting myself first, but only to a certain extent. I was very conscious that I didn't want my kids and my husband to be collateral damage somehow to my desire to go and chase these opportunities.   And it's so interesting because it's, it's true. Like, it's like, who is it that you look towards as inspiration for what's possible in your life? And me too, for, for some odd reason, I don't know if it's just like a quirk, but like, I look at these like billionaires that have no children whatsoever that are men as like, Oh, why can't I be like Tom Bilyeu?   And it's like, Hello, you have three kids, two of whom are identical twins who are 10 years old. You live in Austin and there's just no way for you to create a fitness bar or a protein bar without high fructose corn syrup without breaking some nails, right? Cause the machinery that Tom  broke and used, I wouldn't do.   So it's, it's just a weird, it's super weird, right? Like what a, what an interesting thing to kind of compare yourself. Those articles that are like advice from successful CEOs. And one of the things that, and they're almost always men. And one of the things that they'll say is get up an hour early, get up at 5 AM to start working and start your day and exercise and clear your head.   And I'm like, if I'm getting up early, I'm making breakfast for people. I'm feeding the dog. The kids are getting ready for school. So that's, that's not possible in my life. I think you can be a successful CEO, by the way. And still have all those responsibilities, but that model, that inspiration, it's, it's not really meant, I think, for people like us, at least it hasn't been historically.   Yeah, which is why we have to kind of carve our own path. So as a mom with two kids who were eight years old, who started this adventure right when the pandemic hit ultimately. And at that, you started with. theater as your first internship, which I think listeners can now appreciate had a big hiatus, right?   During that time,  how did you sort of navigate the mom guilt? And then also just like the regular guilt, because this was a very unique timeframe. And I'm saying that 1000 times unique once in a lifetime  timeframe. Right. As far as being away from family when there was a lot of uncertainty and fear. So why don't you share a couple of stories about that?   I felt,  I felt, I felt so guilty at every point. I mean, I felt guilty for even thinking that I maybe wanted to. A life that looked different because I had been brought up to always be grateful and appreciative of what you have and what you have been given. My dad was a Cuban immigrant. I grew up in a family where that story of we left everything to come here and give you a better life.   And you need to work hard to get to the point where you don't ever have to do that and be appreciative and grateful for everything we've done and what you have. That was my. like cornerstone mythology of my entire childhood. So I felt guilty even for, for thinking.  This thought that I was unhappy, that was like something that I shouldn't be, I shouldn't be thinking that.   That's just being ungrateful for everything I have. And so I felt guilty even from the inception. I felt guilty about doing something that was about putting my needs, even for a short period of time ahead of my family, even though I did not abandon them completely.  I felt guilty about all of those things.   And I like to joke always that my dad is Cuban and grew up Catholic. My mom is Jewish. And so I have the most guilt. I have Catholic guilt and Jewish guilt. It's like all the guilt forever.  But at the same time, I could recognize, finally, after a lot of thinking and soul searching, that I was not in a good place in myself.   I was not happy. I was not being the best mom I could be, or the best wife I could be, or the best me that I could be. Because I felt like I was treading water in my own life, and I was living a life that I had signed up for, but wasn't right for me anymore. And so, really, I got to the point where it felt like the risk of not doing something was greater than the risk of doing something.   And this worry that I was always going to feel this way, or maybe even worse, became so great that I just knew, I That it was going to be worth the kind of short term inconvenience for my family as it, as it was going to be worth it to have this experience. Now, right before I left, like the night before I left, my husband and I were sitting on the sofa, and at the time, You're thinking back like late February 2020, China had already been in lockdown for a month.   Italy had gone into lockdown. Iran was, I think, in some sort of lockdown. But there was still, people were still saying like, oh, it's going to be contained to these three countries. This is not going to spread. It's going to be very small. The idea that the pandemic would have happened on such a scale was so far from our heads.   But I did have a conversation with my husband and I said, do you not want me to go? Do you want me to stay behind?  And then I held my breath. Because I was so worried he was going to say, yeah, I think you should stay, which I was going to be devastated if that was the case. Theater was like my dream, the dream of the all the dreams.   It was the dream to be able to be part of a production. And I had these incredible opportunities to be part of two shows about to open on Broadway and off Broadway. And so I went and then. The whole time I was there, I kind of had my fingers in my ears until the very end. Things were getting worse.  My husband was definitely freaking out.   And I was like, nothing's happening.  Everything's fine. This is all going to blow over. It's not going to be a big deal. And it wasn't until things got really bad. That I decided to leave. And then the following day, before I got on my plane, they announced that all the Broadway theaters were closing for what was initially going to be a period of, I think, four weeks.   And then of course ended up being, I want to say 21 months altogether before everything got back to normal. normal.  But yeah, I mean, I was a little bit in denial and I, I, the thing is I felt guilty anyway. I felt guilty, but I did it anyway. Right? Like that's how I navigated the guilt. I never stopped feeling guilty.   I just knew that it was important. And so I was able to push the guilt to the side. and do what I knew I needed to do.  Yeah, and,   and I was wondering about that. So like, kind of like exposure therapy, like, do you feel that it got a little bit easier the first time you're like, Oh, okay, everybody survived.   And then the next time and the next time. So do you feel like it got easier during that time?   I don't know. I don't know that it's gotten easier. The first time I went on a work trip after the twins were born, they were about  not quite 18 months old, I think. And I had a new job that I had started and I went to China and my husband was in, we were in London at the time with the kids and I flew for a kajillion hours to get there.   I got there like in the middle of the night and I pick up the phone to call home and it's like a disaster zone at home. Like, They've already been to the, the emergency doctor with my daughter who has like a horrible cough and her nose is blocked and she can't breathe the, and now Carlos is starting to feel sick and I was so upset and like, I have to get on, I have to get on a plane home.   I have to go home right away. And of course I couldn't do that. I had other responsibilities. He was like, look, it's going to be fine. You don't need to come home. You're not going to get home in time anyway. Continue with this trip. So I've always had that fear that something has gone wrong. And sometimes stuff has.   I went to Paris once on a girl's trip with my daughter and my son broke his arm. And thank God he didn't need surgery, but he was in the emergency room with my husband for several, I mean, like stuff has gone wrong. Even in the book, as soon as I get to New York on my internship, my kids have terrible food poisoning and they have thrown up all over the house.   They're all three in bed together, my husband and the twins and. He eventually they had to get that room professionally cleaned before I got home because it was so it was so disgusting. Okay, so stuff goes wrong. It does go wrong. It still goes wrong, and I don't know that it gets easier because my kids are 12 now, and for whatever reason, it feels like they miss me more sometimes when I go away.   Now, I don't know if it's that they're better able to articulate how they're feeling than they were when they were little or what. So it's it's.  I know that things are going to be okay. That has changed. I know the more times I do it, that everybody will survive. But I'm not sure it really gets easier. The thing that is easier is that I've seen The positive impact of taking these moments for myself, whether it's a work trip that I need to do, or just going to spend a weekend with my girlfriends because I haven't seen them in a long time, or sometimes meeting my parents somewhere that I wasn't able to do.   I mean, they're so rejuvenating. They helped me reset. They helped me come back into my life and myself, uh, feeling better and doing better all around. And I think that's, what's gotten easier because I know that it's worth it. Yeah.  So even if I still feel guilty about leaving them and I still worry about what's going to go wrong, I know now that I've done it so many times for really fantastic experiences that I would do it again.   And I think anyone that's listening, that's inspired by this, I think you don't have to necessarily. Go away for an entire year. We could do this like baby steps. What I mean? It's like you nurse your kid or you bottle feed your kid and then you introduce solid slowly. So it's kind of the same idea for us.   I know in my case, in my book, Fertile Imagination, like I decided to actually take storytelling classes at Magnet Theater in Midtown in Koreatown. Love it. Yeah. And it was nine Sundays and I was coming from Connecticut. I like to call it fancy town, Connecticut, and it was a schlep, right? And so the whole idea is I know that on Sunday, technically, if I followed a certain script, like I was supposed to be at home, I don't even know, either washing the walls or like being at a soccer field or like something, right?   Making pancakes for somebody, for sure.   Right, in the shape of their desired animal farm person, right? Or whatever. I'm thinking dinosaurs and I'm just saying animal farm. I'm like, I'm a city girl. I can't help it. So yeah. And it's kind of like just doing that, like on weekends, for goodness sakes, it's not saying I'm out an entire year, but you could work your way up.   If you start noticing that, wait a minute, when I got back home and I saw my kids, I was happier.  I had stories to tell, what I mean? So there, there are benefits and it's not all one sided, but it takes courage because then, yeah, maybe, maybe you are not the mom who's doing the things with the other moms and you might feel a little bit like an outsider, but again, was it worth it?   And what I'm hearing from you, Alicia, is that it was worth it to actually take action in your life that might go against what. Other individuals may have done before with children that are Latina. And so I'm curious in terms of really what your, my, what if your experience showed your kids, like, why do you, what do you think is the difference?   Right? Cause we could tell our kids like, Hey, when you turn 40. I mean, granted it's very far ahead, but like 40, that's so old. I know. Right. So, okay, fine. So, Hey, when you go to college, you could do a gap year, for example. Right. Like that's something that I've heard people say, and, and that's one thing, right, you're saying it to them, but what if you actually like did it yourself?   And so for you, Alicia, like, I know they're still young, they're 12, but what do you think is the difference between showing versus telling? A. K. also how to write a good   book.  I mean, I think, okay. So I remember like when my kids were, when they were babies, I was like, I'm never going to let them eat like junk food because I grew up only eating junk food, but if I eat junk food, my kids, turns out they also like some junk food.   Now we don't eat a lot of junk food, but. There's only a certain point that you can tell your kids, wouldn't you rather have this carrot stick than a pack of McDonald's French fries. If you're sitting there eating the McDonald's French fries, they're going to realize that maybe you're not being completely true and authentic to yourself.   So I do think that kids receive information so much better. From modeling and from you showing them how to do it. And the thing is that my kids went on this journey with me. They were, I was away for different parts of it, but even the times that I wasn't with them, we were talking on the phone every day and then I would come home and talk to them about what I was doing.   And subsequently they got to come on my book tour. They've heard, heard me talk about this book more than I'm sure they'd ever liked to in the world, but they. watched me decide to do something different. They watched me try my hand at these varied jobs, many of which I was very bad at, like very, very bad at.   And they watched me fail, and they watched me dust myself off and stand back up and go back the next day and do the thing.  To me, that is the most important lesson that I hope they have taken from this and that I try to instill on them is that  it is better to try something and fail at it than to not try anything at all.   That you are not going to be good at everything and that's okay. And that the most important thing in your life is not necessarily picking the job, doing it perfectly and sticking with it on that path, no matter what happens, then no matter how you feel and that they know that when they're adults and hopefully have families of their own, that they are important people, both my son and my daughter and their needs also matter.   And I just was in the U S last week. Doing a bunch of different work things and some fun book stuff and my son and I had, I had, I did a talk at the IFC, the International Finance Corporation for my what if year, it was amazing. And the day before my son was like, why can't you just tell them you're sick and cancel and come home early because I want you to come home so you can come and see my hockey match.   And I was like, okay, so not only would that be. Completely setting aside my responsibilities, but also I want to be here. This is important to me. I want to be able to share this experience with people. This is why I did it. Why I wrote the book. Not why I did the internships, but why I wrote the book. And so, no, I'm not going to tell them I'm sick and come home early because this is important to me.   And making sure that they are seeing me choose myself sometimes, I am hoping is going to give them that Permission or awareness that when they get to a point in their lives, when they are caring for other people, too, that they know they also can choose themselves sometimes. And that's okay.   Yeah, I love it.   I think, I think what you said as far as like the, they saw you maybe like,  Either fail or, or have errors and stuff, but then like, decide to like, get back up again, like watching you do that. I don't think it, I don't think it could be replaced with words. I mean, that's like resilience in action. That's resilience while mommy ing.   Yeah, resilience while mommy ing, I love it.   Yeah. Yeah. And, and it's just like, it's beautiful. And, and I witnessed it with my own mom because she has a mental illness. And so every time she'd get into an episode, she had to like dust herself off in, in very dramatic ways. But then it gives you a sense as a kid, it's like, huh, I'm related to that.   Maybe I got a little bit of that in me too. Right.   100%. There's beauty. That's how I, I think, I think that  a large part of the reason I have  such resilience, and I do feel like I'm a very resilient person, so far so good, is because I came from a family that I, I grew up hearing all of the stories of my grandmother, my dad, and his siblings, and my, my grandfather, and how they, how they, you know, Left everything behind.   They left Cuba with a suitcase each and nothing else and moved to a country where they didn't speak the language and they had to just pick themselves up and they had, they had no other choice but to do that. And that, knowing that that's part of me, that's inside of me somewhere,  has always made me feel A lot more capable of dealing with challenge, I think, because I know there's got to be something in there that came from them that is propelling me forward.   And I know that I have that, and I want my kids to know that's part of who you are. You come from a long line of people who have failed at things and had to move forward, and that is, I think, the best gift that I could give them, if that's a realization that they take from this whole thing. Definitely. I love it.   Alicia, where can people continue to follow your story and purchase the My What   If Year book?  Well, you can get my book anywhere that you get books. You can get it at a bookstore. You can get it online at bookshop. org or Amazon if you want. You can listen to me on audiobook if you enjoy this. It's me reading it, so it's basically just like nine hours of this or however long the book goes for.   And you can find me on my website, which is aliciafmiranda. com or my Instagram at aliciafmiranda. And that's A L I S H A I'm named after a shoe store. It's not because that name has anything to do with anything else.   I love it. Fun facts. Appreciate it so much, Alicia. Have an awesome Scottish day.   Yeah, well, let's see if I can survive the wind and rain.   Thank you so much for having me. Oh, thank you.   You're awesome.  That was great.   Here are the three things that really stood out for me in terms of this conversation. The first one is, it's true. I have seen a lot of non Latina moms who decide to actually go and live in Europe or press abort mission on their lives, like that we see in the media.   But there's not too many Latina moms who have been portrayed, not even in Hollywood, as making this idea okay to choose yourself every once in a while and not have to struggle with so much mom guilt and let it hold you back. Second point is there is this point where if you really think about it, When you weigh the risk of doing something for yourself versus not doing something for yourself, there's that, that point where the risk of not doing it might outweigh the risk of doing it and the inconvenience of doing it.   When I lived in Australia with my family, when we all went abroad, it was highly inconvenient to sell every single article of furniture that I had. It was highly inconvenient to find brand new schools, but The risk of not doing it would have meant that my kids would have never been exposed to a completely different culture or side of the world.   And for that, I'm grateful. Here's the third point. In terms of, you know, does it get easier, right, with mom guilt. So Alicia said it best in that it might not get easier, but you do appreciate the fact that things will be okay.  Having more. evidence that things will be okay if you choose yourself and you're away from your kids just builds your confidence and gives you this sense that, okay, I might be feeling this emotion of mom guilt.   However, as in the past, things have been okay. So I hope you enjoyed this conversation. And I want to hear from you. Like, do you suffer from mom guilt? Is it particularly hard or when it's unrelated to doing something that you have to do, like building your business? Like, what if you wanted to all of a sudden take tennis lessons?   Like, is that the point where thickly? Let me know on Instagram at Melissa Llarena. I would love to hear from you.

‘Edge certification is effectively green building certification, and banks traditionally do not provide a role like this. The Nexus 1 building – Attacq's first net-zero carbon Level 1 development – now also meets a global benchmark set by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation': Genevieve Naidoo of Nedbank CIB. Podcast series on Moneyweb

Join us as we dive into strategies to foster investment in female founders, with a special focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Our guests, Katherine Coffman from Harvard Business School and Hela Cheikhrouhou from the International Finance Corporation, shed light on the barriers and disparities faced by female founders and advocate for gender-specific approaches to funding. Hosted by Alison Kim, a student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. Our conversation covers Two-Six's analysis methodology for creating their biannual Media Manipulation Monitor (M3) report which chronicles China's efforts and presents strategies for achieving information advantage. Research Question: Becky and Hannah suggest an interested student examine how China's influence online compares to everything else that's influencing other people online. Because there's a lot of evidence that China is doing a lot online to influence people's minds, but not a lot of evidence that China has been successful except in a few cases and in a few countries. Resources: Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned #144 Nick Eberstadt on Demographics Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era: Reassessing Collective Leadership by Cheng Li Middle Class Shanghai: Reshaping U.S.-China Engagement by Cheng Li  Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China's Great Firewall by Dr. Molly Roberts Intelligence Matters podcast: Chinese Cognitive Warfare Link to full show notes and resources Guest Bio:  Becky Fair is the Vice President of Information Advantage at Two Six Technologies. She spent a decade as a CIA officer in a variety of roles and brings a deep understanding of the national security community mission sets. She was the CEO and co-founder of Thresher, a software company acquired by Two Six Technologies, that uses unique data sets and machine learning to help decision makers in government and industry detect and measure information operations. She started her career working in Russia at the International Finance Corporation, a division of the World Bank. Hannah Lincoln is the Analysis Lead for the M3 team at Two Six Technologies. She spent a decade in China during its late economic boom years (2008-2018), where she worked in consumer research for a variety of multinational companies. Research on Chinese consumers was a natural segue into China intelligence analysis. Ms. Lincoln moved back to the US in 2018 and switched to OSINT analysis with a focus on Chinese censorship, propaganda, and disinformation at Thresher, now part of Two Six Technologies.  About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn. Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Hernan Pareja, principal investment officer and telecom lead for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Obinna Isiadinso, global sector lead for cloud and data center investments and a senior investment officer at the International Finance Corporation, join Sarah Devine and Rebecca Abou-Chedid for a conversation about data centers. We explore why data centers are an important part of digital infrastructure investment in emerging economies and what is driving demand for new data centers. We also discuss the role of cloud providers and considerations for investors, including project bankability and sustainability of data center projects.

How do you create purposeful success?As a leader it can be challenging to define what success means to you. To achieve this, you need master your inner journey by reflecting, collaborating, and reinventing yourself.My guest in this episode, Paolo Gallo, is an expert in developing leaders who do just this. We talk about the importance of foundational beliefs that guide how leaders think and behave. As well as how we should think about what success means, and what it implies for who you spend your time with, and what you spend your time on. We reflect on what it takes to refresh and reinvent your identity as you look to amplify and enhance your leadership impact. Paulo also discusses why leaders can have such narrow definitions of success.“What unites people with organisations is not what you do, but how you are doing it” – Paolo GalloYou'll hear about:·      Why personal beliefs are important to Paolo·      Paolo's most important belief·      How do so many people lose their identity?·      What leads to narrow definitions of success?·      What does it take to find peace with oneself?·      Knowing yourself vs playing the outer game·      Achieving spiritual levels of leadership·      Myths about leadershipAbout Paolo Gallo:Paolo is an executive coach, bestselling author and keynote speaker. He collaborates with Bocconi and Ashridge Business Schools. He was the chief human resources officer at World Economic Forum in Geneva, chief learning officer at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and director human resources at European Bank for Reconstruction & Development in London, with previous experiences at International Finance Corporation in Washington, D.C. and Citigroup in London, New York and Milan, his hometown.His resources:•          Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paologallo-coaching-keynotes-/ •          Book ‘The Seven Games of Leadership': https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/seven-games-of-leadership-9781399405478/  My resources:Take my new Becoming a Strategic Leader course (https://bit.ly/3KJYDTj). Sign up to my Strategic Leader newsletter (http://bit.ly/36WRpri) for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox: Subscribe to my YouTube channel (http://bit.ly/3cFGk1k) where you can watch the conversation. Take the Extraordinary Essentials test (https://bit.ly/3EhSKY5) to identify your strengths and development areas as a strategic leader:    For more details about me: ●      Services (https://bit.ly/373jctk) to CEOs, entrepreneurs and professionals.●      About me (https://bit.ly/3LFsfiO) - my background, experience and philosophy.●      Examples of my writing (https://bit.ly/3O7jkc7).●      Follow me and engage with me on LinkedIn (https://bit.ly/2Z2PexP).●      Follow me and engage with me on Twitter (https://bit.ly/36XavNI).

Join us as Tom Wilson from Seedcamp and Anthony Danon from Cocoa talk to Paul Forster, co-founder & CEO of Indeed and currently an active angel investor.Paul Forster co-founded Indeed and was CEO until the company's acquisition in late 2012. Today, Indeed is the leading job site globally, with over 100 million unique visitors in more than 50 countries and 26 languages. Paul previously co-founded the leading job site for financial professionals, and before that was an investment professional at International Finance Corporation. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and Master's degrees from Cambridge and Oxford Universities.Paul loves working with founders and loves their energy, creativity, and variety. As an investor, he enjoys the intellectual stimulation from getting to know different industries and sectors and from working with different kinds of people.We invite you to listen to this discussion below to hear some wonderful stories, besides the actionable pieces of advice that you can have a sneak peek at below.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview

In this episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Russell Sturm, Professor of the Practice at University of Virginia, University of North Carolina/ Chapel Hill, and California Polytechnic Institute /Humboldt. He is also an Advisor for the Off-Grid Solar Industry.Russell is an innovator in the field of sustainable energy market development, and has been a sector leader across international multilateral institution, private sector, and NGO professional platforms over a 35-year career mobilizing investment in clean energy technologies.Ted and Russell discuss his background, raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He mentions that he was aware of his privilege growing up. He became increasingly aware of existential environmental challenges, and also society evolving in some troubling ways around concentration of wealth, inequities, apartheid in South Africa, which led to him becoming politically involved and motivated to organize in college.His studies focused on energy and natural resource policy and finance at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University/Kennedy School of Government, where he received a Masters in Public Policy. Early in his career, Russell did econometric modeling at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and worked on the first energy performance contract (ESCO) agreements in the United States at the law firm of Lane and Edson, LLC.Russell then redirected his focus to accelerate adoption of clean energy technology in developing country markets where he has been a global leader in sustainable energy market development for the past 25 years. As President of the International Institute for Energy Conservation, Russell expanded the NGO's reach globally, across 6 continents. At the International Finance Corporation – the private sector-focused investment arm of the World Bank Group -- Russell developed innovative business models that enabled IFC to leverage $2 billion a year in sustainable energy finance, projects which created resilient, low carbon infrastructure that has avoided several hundred million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. He is the creator of the Lighting Global program, which has catalyzed the global off-grid solar industry that has to date attracted private investment and has enabled 500 million people to emerge from energy poverty and avoided 200 million tonnes of GHG emissions by providing affordable, clean modern solar electricity household and productive use energy services.Today Russell continues to advise the off-grid solar industry that he helped to create. In addition, his primary focus is on supporting the development of the next generation of students and young professionals who will carry forward his vision of universal energy and clean water access enabled by a global economy built on a foundation of sustainable technology.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Zoe Weinberg, Founder and Managing Partner of Ex/Ante, a venture firm investing in the next generation of privacy, security, and information tools. Prior to Ex/Ante, Zoe served on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence and at Google AI. She has also had stints as an investor at the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank and at Goldman Sachs. Tune in for insights into Ex/Ante's thesis of agentic tech and how blockchain represents a core component of the firm's investment strategy. Let's get into it. Resources Mentioned National Secuirty Commission on Artificial Intelligence Signal Foundation Open Tech Fund The Metaverse is Coming, and the World is not Ready for it — Zoe Weinberg (NY Times article) Connect with the guest ex/ante https://www.buildexante.com/ Follow ex/ante on Twitter/X https://twitter.com/buildexante Follow Zoe on Twitter/X https://twitter.com/zweinberg Disclaimer  Ben Jacobs is a partner at Scenius Capital Management. All views expressed by Ben and the guests of this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Scenius Capital Management. Guests and the host may maintain positions in the assets or funds discussed in this podcast. You should not treat any opinion expressed by anyone on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy but only as an expression of their personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

In this episode, I am speaking with Tammy Newmark, CEO and Managing Partner of EcoEnterprises Fund. Billed as ‘An Investment Fund for Nature', EcoEnterprises Fund has pioneered investing in small businesses in Latin America that preserve the integrity of natural capital while contributing to local economies and biodiversity.Originally an “East Coast Girl”, Tammy completed her undergraduate studies at Smith College in Massachusetts in the US. Following her studies, a desire to move to New York and her mother's serendipitous cocktail party meet led to Tammy working at JP Morgan Chase, which was her first step into the world of finance. Tammy then went on to study for an MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, before moving to Washington DC, where she worked for the International Finance Corporation.Tammy has been a pioneer and a leader in the impact investing space for over thirty years, and in this episode we join her impact journey, starting at the IFC, moving on to a start-up venture fund, the Environmental Enterprises Assistance Fund, then to Technoserve and finally The Nature Conservancy, where the EcoEnterprises Fund was first launched by Tammy in 1998, before spinning off as an independent women-run investment manager in 2010.In this episode, we discover more about EcoEnterprises Fund, their mission and why they focus solely on Latin America. We hear about their typical investor profile and what attracts them to natural capital. We discuss EcoEnterprises Fund's investment process and the screens and due-diligence used when verifying investments and why they only invest in companies that have working partnerships with local communities, to ensure a vested interest among all stakeholders for the long-term sustainability of natural resources.Tammy provides some real-life examples of companies that the EcoEnterprises Fund have invested in and how they have made an impact. We talk about potential problems with transparency in supply chain, impact washing, and of course, no episode would be complete without my rapid-fire questions.I really enjoyed this insightful discussion with Tammy, and I hope you enjoy it too!About the SRI 360° Podcast: The SRI 360° Podcast is focused exclusively on sustainable & responsible investing. In each episode, Scott Arnell interviews a world-class investor who is an accomplished practitioner from all asset classes. In my interviews, I cover everything from their early personal journeys—and what motivated and attracted them to commit their life energy to SRI—to insights on how they developed and executed their investment strategies and what challenges they face today. Connect with SRI 360°: Sign up for the free weekly email update: https://sri360.com/newsletter/ Visit the SRI 360° PODCAST: https://sri360.com/podcast/ Visit the SRI 360° WEBSITE: https://sri360.com/ Follow SRI 360° on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/SRI360Growth/Follow SRI 360° on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/SRI360Growth/

This week we attended SOCAP23 in San Francisco — a conference bringing together investors, entrepreneurs, and social impact leaders to discuss how progress can be accelerated against the world's toughest challenges through market-based solutions — and have some key takeaways for the global development community. In addition to taking a look at the International Finance Corporation's push to invest in the creative industries and providing an update on OSF's reorganization, we also released an exclusive story on the European Union's “Global Gateway” project. Critics say the initiative is focused on Europe's own interest in securing supplies of renewable energy and critical raw materials, as well as on preventing China from laying claim to the world's digital infrastructure. To dig into these stories and others, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger for the latest episode of the podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

This episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast features Paolo Gallo, a renowned executive coach, bestselling author and keynote speaker. He's the author of two superb books: 'The Compass and the Radar - the art of building a rewarding career while remaining true to yourself' and the newly published 'The Seven Games of Leadership - navigating the inner journey of leaders'.  In his dynamic career he's been chief human resources officer at World Economic Forum in Geneva, chief learning officer at the World Bank in Washington, and director human resources at European Bank for Reconstruction & Development in London, with previous experiences at International Finance Corporation in Washington, D.C. and Citigroup in London, New York and Milan, his hometown. So, in the interview we discuss both of his books, and his fascinating viewpoints on issues including authenticity, ethics, trust, change, development, and reputation. Paolo is a deeply interesting individual, and I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as I did!

Do currently available taxonomies adequately address sector-specific transition concerns and what are salient additions to later versions?Assessing disclosure requirements and developing an effective climate change curriculum for financial institutionsHow are governments and exchanges enabling the trading of carbon credits, and what are the objectives and benefits of such initiatives?Defining the role of the financial sector in facilitating an effective energy transition in conjunction with the National Energy PolicyHow will the pace of adoption of ESG by SMEs impact the banking sector and capital markets?Moderator:Sharifatul Hanizah, Executive Director, Islamic Capital Market Development, Securities Commission MalaysiaPanelists:Bilal Parvaiz, Executive Director and Head Islamic Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking, Standard Chartered SaadiqLouis Booth, APAC Commercial Lead, SylveraMohd Ekmal Mohd Zazi, Regional Head, Wholesale Banking, CIMB Islamic BankSedef Gunsur, Senior Investment Officer, Financial Institutions Group, International Finance Corporation

In this Episode, Juliette Powell & Art Kleiner - The AI Dilemma - 7 Principles for Responsible Technology - Lauren Hawker Zafer is joined by Juliette Powell & Art Kleiner Who are Juliette Powell & Art Kleiner? Juliette Powell is an author, a television creator with 9,000 live shows under her belt, and a technologist and sociologist.  She is also a commentator on Bloomberg TV/ Business News Networks and a speaker at conferences organized by the Economist and the International Finance Corporation. Her TED talk has 130K views on YouTube.  Juliette identifies the patterns and practices of successful business leaders who bank on ethical AI and data to win. She is on faculty at NYU's ITP where she teaches four courses, including Design Skills for Responsible Media, a course based on her book. Art Kleiner is a writer, editor and futurist. His books include The Age of Heretics, Who Really Matters, Privilege and Success, and The Wise. He was editor of strategy+business, the award-winning magazine published by PwC.  Art is also a longstanding faculty member at NYU-ITP and IMA, where his courses include co-teaching Responsible Technology and the Future of Media. Why this Episode?

Landry Signé, senior fellow in the global economy and development program and the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution and executive director and professor of the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, leads the conversation about Africa on the global stage. FASKIANOS: Thank you and welcome to today's session of the Fall 2023 CFR Academic Webinar series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record and the video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org/academic. And, as always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We're delighted to have Landry Signé with us to discuss Africa on the global stage. Dr. Signé is a senior fellow in the global economy and development program and the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings Institution. He's also a professor, executive director, and the founding codirector of The Globalization 4.0 and Fourth Industrial Revolution Initiative at Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management, and distinguished fellow at Stanford University's Center for African Studies. He serves as chairman of the Global Network for Africa's Prosperity and is also the author of numerous scholarly publications and several books. His most recent is entitled, Africa's Fourth Industrial Revolution. And it was published by Cambridge University Press this summer. So, Dr. Signé, thank you very much for being with us today. I'm going to throw you a very big question, and you can take us in the direction you would like, by talking about the important challenges and opportunities facing countries across Africa. SIGNÉ: Hello, everyone. And thank you so much, Dr. Irina, for so kind an introduction. It's a pleasure to be with all of you today. So when it comes to Africa, I want to highlight a few key trends why Africa is playing such an important role in the global sphere. So the first thing that I want to share to everyone is Africa's transformation is more substantial than what most people will think. And this is for many reasons. One is that, especially pre-pandemic, trade and in and with the rest of the world have grown for about 300 percent, which exceeds the global average of a little bit less than 200 percent. So that is a key dimension to highlight. And this is also driven by the competition between emerging countries, such as, of course, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, China, and more established and industrialized nations such as the United States, France, and others. So that is one of the key trends that I want to highlight. So Africa is richer and is transforming much more than what most people will be thinking. So the second trend that I also want to highlight, why Africa is so important in the global sphere, is that by the end of this century Africa could reach about 40 percent of the global population. Listen, I said 40 percent. So this is incredible, especially as the continent represent now only about 17 percent of the global population. So that is a key dimension to take into consideration when speaking about Africa, how Africa engages with the rest of the world. A third trend that I also want to highlight is really the rise of global partnerships and the competition, as I highlighted, between emerging and established powers. So, as a matter of fact, between 2006 and 2016, for example, China trades with Africa surge with imports increasing by 233 percent, and exports increasing by about 53 percent. This is a substantial growth in engagement. And if we compare—so with Russia, for example, it was about 142 percent of change in imports from Africa and about 168 percent change in exports with Africa. So in comparison, and with the rest of the world was only about 56 percent for change in imports and 18 percent for change in export. So this is another key trend. And a country like the United States still needs to expand and to do much more in terms of those engagement. This also apply with—to the countries in the European Union in general. So another trend that I want to highlight is really the, let's say, fast urbanization that we see on the continent. So the continent will be growing from about five cities—will reach about five cities of more than ten million inhabitants, in comparison of only three in 2015. And will exceed fifteen cities of more than five million inhabitants, in comparison of about five to six in the recent year. So another point, when people speak about Africa, I want to speak about industrialization in Africa. Of course, we have to acknowledge the diversity of the continent. Some would say fifty-four member states, because we have about—those other ones recognized by the United Nations. But don't be surprised if you also hear people mentioning instead fifty-five countries, because the Western Sahara is also consider as a member of the African Union. So when speaking about industrialization, people may—some people may consider Africa as deindustrializing. But that is because they're not looking at one of the things that we call at the Brookings Institution industries without smokestacks. Those industries are important because they have similar characteristic when they compare to traditional manufacturing. And those similar characteristics include, for example, the tradability, they are labor intensive, and the store—they absorb a high quantity of moderately skilled workers. But they are also—they also have a high level of productivity. Irina, you mentioned my book on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. I want to connect, because when people speak about digitalization, innovation, they will mostly think about the Silicon Valley. They will think about some of the emerging nations—Israel, India—in addition to the U.S., of course. A key dimension to highlight is that in the 1990s New York City had more mobile phone subscribers than the entire continent of Africa, where now the continent has hundreds of millions of mobile phone subscribers. So in addition, we have disruptive innovations such as mobile banking, with M-PESA, for example, which is a digital application allow—which allow to provide banking services, digital banking services, to African citizens. This is another illustration of the important dynamics with Africa. Let me finish with about two or three additional points, and I'm looking very much forward to the conversation. I will highlight the critical importance of regional integration. We have, for example, the African Continental Free Trade Area, which was adopted in 2018, ratified by a sufficient number of country in 2019, and was officially launched in January 2021. And that is an incredible speed from the signing to the coming into force of the second-largest trade organization in the world, or let's say trade area in the world, after the World Trade Organization, of course, in terms of number of countries. So this is a key dimension. And another trend to highlight, despite some of the challenges that we see in many African countries in terms of democratic retreat. The overall trend is that African citizens want democracy. So they want accountability. But they also want democracy to deliver. And let me finish with a trend related to business. The combined consumer and business spending in Africa will reach or exceed $16 trillion U.S. dollars by 2050, and about $6.7 trillion U.S. dollars by 2030. So Africa really is a place with phenomenal opportunities, despite the challenges that we see. Climate change affects Africa more than other regions, for example. Some of the most vulnerable countries in terms of state fragility. We have, as I also mentioned, some democratic recession. But despite those challenges, the continent is really growing and is really transforming at a very important pace. And I enthusiastically look forward to engaging, to answering your many questions. Thank you so much. FASKIANOS: Thank you very much. That was a great overview. Obviously, this is such a big topic. So now we're going to go to all of you for your questions. (Gives queuing instructions.) Alright, so the first question we're going to take is from Pearl Robinson. Pearl over to you. Q: Hello. Very pleased to meet you. I have a question, something I'm going to ask you to do. I'm at Tufts University. FASKIANOS: Thanks, Pearl. Q: Can you use this wonderful, optimistic introduction, and connect it with a discussion of the wave of coups in the West African Sahel? Because I find myself having to talk about both. And I thought that you began with the last decade's narrative of Africa's growth and opportunities. And today, everybody is talking about democratic decline and all of these coups in the context of everything. So I'd like you to put your talk onto an introduction for me to talk about the coup situation. SIGNÉ: Absolutely. Thank you so much for the question. So I have studied the—also the democratic situation in Africa from the—from the independence to the last decade. And one of the reasons, of course, when you have democratic interruption, there are serious reasons to be concerned. And this is mostly related to the ability of democratic governance to deliver. Typically when democracy is promoted with many of the Africans, one of the key argument which was chose is that democracy allows citizens to have a better standard of living, deliver economic outcomes, education, health, security, good governance, less corruption, among others. And many of the countries which have faced a coup are countries—when you think about Mali, we think about Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, among others—there are countries where citizen are facing serious economic—a serious economic situation, deteriorated by the pandemic, of course. They are not the only country but deteriorated by the pandemic. You also have a question—the security question in the Sahel especially, with violent extremism. But I want to put things in perspective because democratic development is a slow-moving process. And although it is very unfortunate some of the development that you are seeing in terms of coups, when you look at Africa in the long-term perspective, when I was looking, for example, in the 1980s, almost the entire continent was red. Red, meaning authoritarian. But now the majority of African countries have elections. More than half of those country have free, fair, and transparent, meaningful elections. They are able to choose their government. And this so I'd just highlight those point, to say I classify those countries—I had them in four categories. So one was the uninterrupted democracy. So the countries which once they become democracies, they remain uninterrupted democratic. And those countries are outperforming overall, economically speaking and with many of the other benefits of democracy that I've mentioned. But the countries which are interrupted are mostly the countries where democracy is not necessarily delivering wealth. But will that change the broader trend on the continent? I don't think so. So I think, yes, we have to acknowledge those challenges. We have to act vigorously to address them to reduce the negative impact. But those are not necessarily—I don't think that that makes Africa a hopeless continent, as depicted by the Economist in the early 2000s, as discussed before. I'll pause there. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take a written question from Tanisha Fazal's student Jack Drouin, and they're at the University of Minnesota: Will Africa as a whole ever compete at the same level as the United States and China in international trade and production? SIGNÉ: So the idea behind the African continental trade area is to make Africa stronger internationally when dealing with the rest of the world, while unlocking also the potential of trade within Africa. For example, when African countries trade with one another, more than 40 percent of products exported are manufactured products. Which mean that they create jobs and opportunities for young people, for women, for the economy. They accelerate industrialization. And when African countries trade with the rest of the world, about only 17 percent of those countries—of those—of the products exported are manufactured products. So the idea really behind the African Continental Free Trade Area is not just to grow African trade with—and improve countries' trading with one another. But it is also really to make Africa stronger when engaging with other countries. As a matter of fact, Africa still represents less than 3 percent of global exports. So this the reason why when I engage with some leaders, some are wondering if whether the AfCFTA was really needed. There is no doubt that the African Continental Free Trade Area was needed, because partnering and coming together to engage with them makes the continent stronger. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I've never seen so many questions. So I'm going to go next to Fordham IPED. They have their raised hand. It's the International Political Economy and Development Program at Fordham. Q: Hi. My name is Julisha. I'm a student here at Fordham in the IPED Program. And thank you for your presentation, Landry, if I may call you that—I'm sorry, Professor. My question is—and I come from the continent. My question to you is, you seem very optimistic about Africa, as we call it. But why exactly? What gives you this optimism, given the fact that different countries have varying problems, and also we've got different levels of infrastructure and productive capacities? And then also, we haven't had that much success in relation to the regional FTAs. So why optimistic specifically about this one? Should we focus more on maybe building stronger regional bodies and then come together as one consortium? SIGNÉ: Thank you so much for your question. I don't think that it is either/or. And you have to put in perspective also, again, when—I like to look at things from a historical perspective, putting things in context. And when we put things in context—again, I mentioned, for example, before, in less than a couple of decades Africa went from being a continent almost full of authoritarianism, to a continent where in perhaps the past six, seven years you have had an incredibly important number of countries which where the incumbent lost the election or was changed through an electoral process. So those are important gains not to overlook. When we also speak about poverty, for example, so we are also seeing positive—although, and I published an article at Brookings about it—why, despite the fast economic growth just before the pandemic, the continent had an important number of poverty. The key dimension here was poverty in terms of percentage of the population went down, but the continent is also growing at a fast rate, the population of the continent. So which means that even if you're in relative number you have a reduction of poverty, in absolute number we can still have an important number of poor. But if you also put that further in context, by removing—of course, you could not remove them—but by considering Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo, which are countries with the highest concentration—not the highest, but an important number of poor, the picture related to poverty on the continent will be very different. Another reason of my lucid optimism is that Africa—more than 50 percent of the African—close to 60 percent of the African population is below the age of twenty-five. So what this means, that everything is possible in an incredibly short duration. You probably know what we have named the Cheetah—what George Ayittey has named the Cheetah Generation. So the generation of young Africans who are dynamic, they are innovative, in opposition to the elephant who are moving slowly. So this is also another characteristic. When you look at innovation and you look at entrepreneurship, the general entrepreneurship survey globally, when you compare Africa to the rest of the world, the percentage of optimism, of interest in innovation, in entrepreneurship, of willingness and of respect for the field is also higher in general. So, again, I understand why most people will be focusing on challenges versus opportunity. But you also know, like me, that when in 2000 the Economist wrote that article about a hopeless Africa, in 2011 they wrote another issue about Africa rising, apologizing about their previous assessment. Because six to seven of the world's ten fastest-growing economies in the first decade—the first fifteen years of the twenty-first century, were located in Africa. So yes, we have numerous challenges. But most countries, which were at the level of development of many of the African countries, have also had challenges. So. yes, we have to address those challenges. And that is also part of what my work does with the Brookings Institution—identifying how to bridge the gap between the policy intentions and the implementation outcome. And a part of doing that is also to shift the mindset from looking exclusively at the challenges that Africa is facing, to also think about what are the opportunities? How can we identify those opportunities? How can we transform those opportunities into reality, into positive outcomes? Because the young generation in Africa deserve it. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next written question from Dayanara Miranda, who's an undergraduate student at Lewis University: My question is, besides agricultural and mineral resources, what other markets can African countries enter to grow their economies? SIGNÉ: So, that is another extremely important question. And let me say, overall Africa—so, it depends as to whether we are speaking about the consumer spending, household consumptions, or whether we are speaking about business spending. In terms of household consumption, by 2030 the continent will receive about $2.5 trillion U.S. dollars of household consumption or consumer spending. And some of the largest sector include food and beverage because people need to eat, but also include housing, healthcare, financial services, transportation, and education. So to put things in perspective, African countries will be growing faster in some of those sectors compared to the growth of other developing economies. Now, if I also think now about the business-to-business spending, so the continent will be home of about—of more than $4 trillion U.S. dollars by 2030. Of course, the largest area for that spending will include agriculture and agri-processing. But we will also have manufacturing, construction, utilities, transportation, wholesalers, and retailers in terms of resources. So, yes, a place—Africa is an important business destination for people who are, again, open to identify opportunities and to manage the risk. Of course, have risk, but those risks also exist in Latin America, exist in the Middle East. exist in the broader—in the broader Asia, and also in the—in some of the advanced economies. So, again, I think, like, a change of mindset is important. One of the reasons why China become the first trade partner of Africa, the first investor in infrastructure amount order, is because while other countries were looking at the challenges that Africa is facing, China and other emerging countries were looking at opportunity and how to manage their risk amount order. Of course, that is not to say that the Chinese model of engagement is necessarily the right one, but it's just to say that the difference of mindset may explain why some country may be identifying more opportunities than other. But I'm also very happy to highlight the fact that recently, the U.S. administration has also been very much active—much more active in terms of engaging with Africa from an economic perspective, from an opportunity business perspective, including the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. Thank you. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Dorian Brown Crosby. Q: Yes. Hello. Thank you, Professor Signé, for this discussion. I'm from Spelman College. And I do have a question regarding remittances. Can you speak to the current impact of remittances that those in the diaspora are sending to African countries? And how is that affecting Africa's economic trajectory? Or even speak to a specific country. Thank you. SIGNÉ: Absolutely. Thank you very much for the questions. Remittances are playing a key role in Africa. In some of the countries they are exceeding even, let's say, the official development assistance. So that is a key point to highlight. Perhaps the nuance that I want to bring is that most of the remittances are sent for consumption, for family consumptions, among others. A shift that we may want to see happen is to turn—(inaudible)—to increase perhaps those remittances, and especially the category of remittances, shifting only from consumption, for productive use, for economic use, for entrepreneurial activities, as well on the continent. But, yes, remittances are key for development. They are extremely important. They are making a difference. And I connect with that question with the notion of diaspora. The rising role of the diaspora is also one of the key trends. Of course, I didn't—I wanted to be brief in my preliminary comments, but diaspora are really playing a key role in fostering the relations between Africa and the rest of the world. They play the role of investor. You have also the remittances, as you have just mentioned. They are diplomat. In addition of the higher representation that we are also seeing of people of African origin in international organizations, whether we speak about the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Finance Corporation, among other. So there's really a trend where the diaspora playing a key role, both financially to remittances and have an increased demand, also for investment. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to combine two questions, two written questions, because they are along the same lines. One from Thomas at Oklahoma State University and Kihoa from Adelphi University, and it has to do with China: China's trade with—China's aid to Africa, is it purely altruistic? Should African states be receiving Chinese aid? And should Africa be giving aid to historically authoritarian regimes? And then the second question is to have you talk a little bit about the Belt and Road Initiative, and how that initiative is influencing trading partners with other Western countries. SIGNÉ: Absolutely. Thank you for the important question. So let me—to further speak about China in Africa, some key trends to highlight is that, first, you have an exponential growth of exports to Africa, increase imports from Africa, substantial lending to African countries. So China is already one of those, the major lending on transport, power, and mining, the Ex-Im Bank is really leading the way in terms of loans. I do prefer to speak about development versus assistance, development finance instead of developing assistance, or on the longer term, a growing trend in terms of FDI. So China is dominating also the important investment on the continent. You have an important presence of Chinese workers, and forgot—not to forget the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which remains critical to an action of the multiplication of the of the Confucius Institutes on the continent. Despite that important presence, a key element you mentioned is that per Afrobarometer survey, African citizen still prefer the U.S. model of development to the Chinese one. So this is an important dimension that I want to highlight. And whether China is altruistic, it's important to mention when we speak about the commitment, they are not necessarily—China is a country with its own national interests. Perhaps the way of doing business is different, but they are not acting toward Africa, from my perspective, from an altruistic perspective. They're really looking to achieve interest, whether from a geopolitical dimension, economic interest to secure especially energy, power, mining, oceans, agricultural lands for food security in China, among others. And many of the other countries in the world are doing the same. So I'm not—so, of course, we are speaking more about China, but most of the countries when they're acting globally they are acting in alignment of their interests. And probably Jentleson, for example, has mentioned when we speak about the U.S. foreign policy as some of their drivers, which include what are the—of course, we have power, we have peace, we have prosperity, and we have principles. So foreign policy decisions are usually, let's say, the result of a tradeoff between either power consideration, peace consideration, or security consideration, economic consideration, and principle consideration, which could include democratic development, and, of course, humanitarian intervention, and so on. So it depends on which country we are talking about. And to just connect it to the broader Belt and Road Initiative, I think that, of course, it is part from my perspective of China ambition to become the next global power. And in my conversation with many of the African leaders, their main concern—including head of states and head of governments—so their main concern is given the gap, the infrastructure gap that we have on the content, financing gap that you have on the continent, China is providing an alternative and China is acting quickly. However, many of the leaders with whom I'm engaging will prefer to deal instead with, for example, the United States. The United States is probably acting slower than some of the other players. But this is also because of the democratic process and the compliance mechanism, among others. But despite that, I think that there are still tools which can allow to be compliant, to respect the democratic principle, but also act faster, with more agility. And we are having conversations. I testified before the Senate on some of those questions, before the House of Representatives, before the U.S. International Trade Commission, sharing perspective on how the U.S. can further leverage its strength and the alignment to advance U.S.-Africa prosperity. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next oral question from John O'Toole. Q: Well, thank you, because my question directly kind of follows off of that. So that's very fortunate. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. Q: So my question was related to, like, Africa on, like, the global security scale. So, like you said, like, Russia and China are investing heavily, are—and becoming, like, major players, some might argue, in an attempt to be, like, first to market, in a way, in terms of being, like, colleagues with Africa. And you can't really pick and choose who your partners are, especially if the people you want to work with, like the United States or the EU, aren't moving as fast. But is there a concern that growing relationships with China and Russia could morph into a global security conflict? And that some African leaders might be afraid of becoming perhaps the next Lumumba where they're characterized as, you know, perhaps a communist pawn, or something? Is that part of the thought process? SIGNÉ: Thank you for the important question. So it's important to highlight a few considerations here. Typically, when many of the more established powers, whether you're speaking about France, the United States, UK, when they are engaging with many of the African countries they take into consideration the principles that I mentioned before, whether we speak about democratic principles, human rights consideration, humanitarian consideration, among other. So those are really key dimensions that are taken into consideration with more traditional African partners, although it is not uniform. So you will also have the same country which will be trading both with some of the authoritarian countries. But when doing so, they will often bring the question of democratic governance, of human rights in the conversation. And the difference there with countries such as China or Russia, is they are decoupling trade, investment, and principle quotient of democracy—democratic quotients, human rights quotients. For obvious reason, when you look also at your level of democratic development, or at the situation of human rights in your—in your countries. So now, what are the potential risk for the continent? I think that the—many of the—we have seen the presence, whether in an official capacity or in an unofficial capacity of foreign forces in Africa, including from Russia. So to what extent are they influencing the political sphere? To what extent are they fueling or contributing to fuel some of the insecurity and conflict that we have, as we say, in the Sahel? Or to what extent are they helping those country to address some of the challenges faced? I think the growing support that we have seen for Russia, or China, or for some of the emerging countries is related to a narrative, which may not always be founded, but a more appeasing and more respectful narrative that they have when engaging with some of the African countries. But that doesn't mean that they are acting in a way which better advance the interests of those countries. And African leaders are often in a complex situation where they don't necessarily—some of them, of course, will be very clear in terms of their preferences for Western countries. And others, in between, where they want to be certain that they will not be dropped, if I can use the terms. And this is because historically, even some of the best partners of the West—and we look at the case of Niger, when the military coup happened, so despite some political discourses the West was not able to do much. So those are elements which create also a certain level of insecurity on the continent. So yeah, your question is extremely important. And I think that there are risks which are associated with the—with the growing involvement of those emerging powers, like China, especially as it is shifting or has shifted from the economic quotient to a more security, military quotient and cooperation. But some of the countries with which they are cooperating, or perhaps even most of those countries in terms of military engagement, are not necessarily countries with their reputation or leaders with the reputation of—or with the best record in terms of democratic progress or in terms of human rights. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Zachary Billot, a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas: How will increased environmental challenges related to climate change impact institution and governmental efficacy in Africa? Can Africa be expected to transition to green energy if there isn't substantial foreign investment? SIGNÉ: Absolutely. It is extremely important. Thank you for the question. It's extremely important to highlight the consequences of climate change on the continent, especially in the fragile countries, in the fragile regions, especially also when combined with governance challenges. So many of the conflicts in the Sahel—and I publish a—I co-published a report with Brookings on the question on how—on the nexus—on the climate change-security-development nexus. So many—if climate change doesn't necessarily—the relation between climate change and conflict is not necessarily causal, but there is a strong correlation at least when it comes to exacerbating initial conditions in regions where you have poverty and where governance is already quite weak. So the question is, yes, climate change is increasing the likelihood of conflict, especially in an area where we already have bad governance, or poor performance. And how to address some of those questions? Of course, we have involved also in drafting the human development—the Sahel Human Development Report, where the topic is on using energy to unlock Africa potential to contribute to sustainable development, how we can leverage in a sustainable way. And, yes, I do believe that the continent has a path. So of course, I will not necessarily disclose the findings, because they will have to be officially launched by the United Nations Development Program later this year, early the next one. But there is a clear path for Africa to achieve a greener future, especially as the continent has, I would say, the luxury of learning from what has been done on the negative experiences of some of the advanced economies. But also on capitalizing on technology to achieve those goals. Now, you mentioned about investment. Yes, that is an area where global partners who have committed, including the United States, France, Canada, among others, to support a greener revolution, economic revolution, energy transition, industrial development on the continent also have to play their part. Of course the global community, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, among others. So Africa has the potential to achieve it, but not alone. With the collaboration of global partners, including some of the biggest polluters. FASKIANOS: Great, thank you. I'm going to go next to Alicia Hoffman. Q: Hello. How are you? I have a question regarding some previous legal agreements that were put forth between the ACP countries and the European Union. So my question is, I would like for you to highlight and discuss the role of the comprehensive legal agreements such as the Rome Agreement, that is now defunct, the Lomé Agreement, the Cotonou Agreement and now the post-Cotonou Agreement, which was just finalized last month, and get some of your opinions or your thoughts about the post-Cotonou Agreement in fostering the economic development of African countries. And also mitigating the issues dealing with migration and even human trafficking that kind of were not really addressed clearly in those earlier agreements, such as the Rome, and Lomé, and the Cotonou. SIGNÉ: Thank you so much for the extremely important question. So I think that to put things in context, as you mentioned, the Lomé Agreement, the Cotonou Agreement, and other agreement, when we look—again, I like to look from an historical perspective. So we clearly see that if a single agreement was almost having the impact of a magic stick, Africa will be in a different position now. So all those agreements, of course, and some of those agreements are benefiting, at least per the perspective of some of the African countries, they are benefiting more the European Union countries and France than perhaps, per se, in the absolute term, the African countries. Because many of the key players in those countries in industrial development, among others, are foreign corporations, which are originating from those countries. But let me instead speak in a in a broader perspective. I think that the responsibility for Africa's development really lie primarily with African leaders and citizens. So it's a notion that I think we should really come back to. Of course, when we discuss then the relation within Africa and the rest of the world, Africa has been historically in a situation where it was abused—from slavery, to colonization, and so on. But as you have seen in in my permanent record, I'm also part—most of my work consists not only at looking at those structural asymmetries that we can see on the continent, but at giving back the responsibility, accountability of the African leaders, despite the asymmetrical relation they may be having with some of the other part of the world, still have the power and the responsibility to better deliver for their citizens. So, yes, I think that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), as I mentioned, also represents an opportunity to address some of those challenges. But, of course, some countries will—we also have the political economy of the AfCFTA, in the sense that some country—and the ones which are the most advanced, economically speaking—the most enthusiastic about accelerating the implementation. But the beauty of the AfCFTA is that they also acknowledge some of the country we may potentially be left behind and have specific growth or special and differential treatments allowing the countries with more challenges to be—to be developed. So, again, I think that, yes, it's extremely important for Africa when engaging with the European Union to really find a configuration which would unlock the industrial development of the continent, and not necessarily just rely on the primary goods, among others. FASKIANOS: So, thank you. I'm you're going next to Charlotte Langeveld, who's a lecturer at Ocean County College: To which identity do the young African people prefer to be associated with, ethnic or national identity? While national identity is superficial and ethnic is real, it has consequences for the future of the continent. SIGNÉ: So yeah, so that is probably a specific survey should be developed and in a systematic way to provide a definitive response to that question. But we have different, again, multiple belonging. Like some African citizens, especially young people, will want to be presented as African, even beyond your nation, or as global citizens. But it is clear that ethnic—the ethnicity continues to play a role on the continent, because although younger Africans speak less than the previous generation local dialects and languages, so it is important to also highlight that it is part of a broader cultural system. So I don't think that it is either/or. So if you think also about citizens of the Africa—of the European Union, are French people considering more French than European, or more European than French? I would say it probably depends, but that multiple belonging remain valid. And although the comparison is slightly different, are Californians believing that they are more Californian than American or are more American than Californian? So, but understanding also the potential implication of the question is that it is extremely important to keep—in nation-building to go beyond the questions or the notions which are dividing, to focus on the common values, and systems. So I don't think that's a problem for young people to have multiple belongings or ideas of belonging. What is—what could be a bad thing is to use those differences for discrimination, for poor governance, among others. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Kimberly Pace. Q: Hello, Landry. It's nice to see you. I have—my question is—hi, University of Alaska, Anchorage. My question is regarding women and girls. My question is, you know, given the role that violent extremism has had in Africa, what is the effect—what do you think is the effect on the economic and political opportunities for girls and women across African countries? Would love to hear your response. SIGNÉ: Absolutely. Hello, Kimberly. And so great to see you. And so I'm looking forward to following up after this session. So this is an extremely important question. There is no future of Africa without a full acknowledgement of the critical importance of women and girls, and not just economically speaking, politically speaking, in all the spheres of society. Just speaking economically, the gross domestic product of the content in some country could be increased by more than 50 percent with the full—or, about 50 percent—increase from 2 to 48, 49 percent with the full integration of women in society, in the economy, among other. So, and it is incredibly painful to see how in some countries, especially in situations of conflict, some of the first victim—the main victims, are girls, are women, or young people in as well, in general. So it is therefore extremely important, I think, to further empower women. But when you speak about empowering women, most people will think about empowering them politically, in particular. But for my conversation with many heads of state—former head of states, including President Banda or President Gurib-Fakim, so in our conversation it appear clearly that one of the best way to empower women politically is first to empower them also economically. Because when you're empowered economically you can organize a campaign, you can be a fully contributing member, and you can be independent. So, yes, addressing conflict, human rights challenges, will be a way to further protect women, because when you have war, when you have civil conflict, they are typically the most vulnerable people and they are often the one who are the most abused by a protagonist. So yeah. So I fully concur to the fact that we have to act in a more vigorous way to protect women, to create opportunities for women, and to empower women. And some of my best models, not to say most, are women. And starting with my mother, my sisters, and yeah. So I couldn't agree more with you. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from William Decourt, who's at Hamilton Lugar School at Indiana University: You mentioned surveys indicating widespread support for democracy across the continent. How have you seen public opinion in Africa responding to or shaping norms of liberal governance on the continent? And has it been affected by other challenges, such as the recent coups, influence from Russian mercenaries, and perhaps from increased Chinese investment too? SIGNÉ: So, just to be certain that I understand, and thank you so much for the important questions, is also about some of the trends on the continent related to democratic support, and the overall political situations. One of the reasons, and please, Irina, feel free to engage and follow up as needed. So one of the reasons why we have seen coups, of course, some—you have to put things in context. I mentioned that before. Many of the African citizens really want democracy to deliver. And not just democracy to deliver—if you live in rural contexts. At the origin of modern states is the social contract, which require that while a citizen will be giving up some of your fundamental—some of your rights, you will receive in exchange from states basic public services and goods, including security, economic opportunities, among others. But when those are not delivered, whether in a democracy or in a nondemocratic regime, that is when you have more challenges. Which could lead in some cases to a military coup, as we have seen, because then coup leaders may justify that—may justified their action by the imperative of restoring security or bringing about economic opportunities. So I think that is a point that I first want to highlight, to insist on the fact that, yeah, so the—those surveys show that on one hand, Africans want democracy. On the other hand, they want those democracies to deliver. And sometime even in democratic countries, some leaders are not necessarily governing in the way which is aligned with accountability. And those are the reasons why some coup leaders will also be supported by some citizens as an alternative, not to restore a long-term authoritarian system, but perhaps organize a transition. But from my perspective, it's one of the reasons why I think that—for many reasons. But one of the key reasons why I think coups even in a very contested context are extremely bad is one of the best predictors of a coup is a previous coup. So once military got involved in politics, even after a successful short-term transition and return to power to the civilians, the likelihood of having another coup is high. So that is one of the reasons why I think it's very important to invest in citizen, and invest in democratic development, and also invest in making democratic countries, African democracies, African democratic countries, deliver better for their citizens. FASKIANOS: Well, Landry, we are unfortunately out of time. And I apologize to all of you who had wonderful questions, we could not possibly get to them all, and raised hands. So we will just have to continue the conversation, and organize another conversation around these important issues. But, Landry Signé, thank you very much for being with us today. We really appreciate your comments and your analysis. And you can follow Landry on X, the app formerly known as Twitter, at @LandrySigne. It's spelled S-I-G-N-E. And our next Academic Webinar will be on Wednesday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m. (EDT) with Stephen Biddle, who's an adjunct senior fellow here at CFR and professor at Columbia University, to talk about military strategy in the contemporary world. And in the meantime, I'd encourage you to learn about CFR paid internships for students and fellowships for professors at CFR.org/Careers. Please visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org. We have been posting a lot of content there in light of the Israeli-Hamas conflict. So there are a lot of resources on our homepage that I commend to all of you. And again, Landry Signé, thank you very much for being with us today. SIGNÉ: Thank you so much, Irina. And thank you so much for the wonderful questions, conversation, and to the incredible team which has put everything together. FASKIANOS: Thank you. (END)

Dr. David Martin returns to the show to discuss his latest efforts to expose and bring to justice the criminal cabal. His latest presentation in the European Parliament went viral around the world with over one billion views while it was virtually blacked out in the western world. It's a tale of two different realities. We are the new Soviet Union living in a blacked out world controlled by big tech and the criminal cabal. You can follow Martin at https://www.DavidMartin.World Win-Win Opportunities as mentioned on the show: Learn more or Buy Restore Patch at https://www.restorepatch.com/Sarah - use code “SARAH” to save 10% Email info@MilesFranklin.com tell them “Sarah sent me” and receive the best service and the best prices in the country Buy the world's best C60 with full spectrum frequency for all your vitamins and minerals at https://purebellavita.com/pages/c60-sarah-westall?sca_ref=1290220.bH1D9nyiWa See Important Proven Solutions to Keep Your from getting sick even if you had the mRNA Shot - Dr. Nieusma Join my Substack at https://SarahWestall.Substack.com MUSIC CREDITS: “In Epic World” by Valentina Gribanova, licensed for broad internet media use, including video and audio     See on Bastyon | Bitchute | Odysee | Rumble | Youtube | Freedom.Social   Dr. David Martin Biography Dr. David E. Martin is the Founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the international leader in innovation finance, trade, and intangible asset finance. He is the developer of the first innovation-based quantitative index of public equities and is the Managing Partner of the PureBody Zeolite Detox - Works over 100x Better than others on the Market. Removes Heavy Metals & more!! Purple Bridge Funds.  He is the creator of the world's first quantitative public equity index – the CNBC IQ100 powered by M·CAM.  Actively engaged in global ethical economic development, Dr. Martin's work includes financial engineering and investment, public speaking, writing and providing financial advisory services to the majority of countries in the world.  Dr. Martin is the architect and founder of the Global Innovation Commons and is the author of the international legal framework for the Heritable Knowledge Trust and Heritable Innovation Trust programs.  He has pioneered global programs to bring corporate and stock market transparency to multi-national extractive industries and has been instrumental in repatriating value to countries which have been subject to corporate and financial abuses.  His work on ethical engagement and stewardship of community and commons-based value interests is at the forefront of global financial innovation.  Dr. Martin is a Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.  He served as Chair of Economic Innovation for the UN-affiliated Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization and has served as an advisor to numerous Central Banks, global economic forums, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, and national governments. Read his full bio at DavidMartin.World/about/  

Spotlight Nineteen is a snippet from our upcoming episode: Juliette Powell & Art Kleiner - The AI Dilemma - 7 Principles for Responsible Technology. Listen to the full episode, as soon as it comes out by subscribing to Redefining AI. Who are Juliette Powell & Art Kleiner? Juliette Powell is an author, a television creator with 9,000 live shows under her belt, and a technologist and sociologist. She is also a commentator on Bloomberg TV/ Business News Networks and a speaker at conferences organized by the Economist and the International Finance Corporation. Her TED talk has 130K views on YouTube. Juliette identifies the patterns and practices of successful business leaders who bank on ethical AI and data to win. She is on faculty at NYU's ITP where she teaches four courses, including Design Skills for Responsible Media, a course based on her book. Art Kleiner is a writer, editor and futurist. His books include The Age of Heretics, Who Really Matters, Privilege and Success, and The Wise. He was editor of strategy+business, the award-winning magazine published by PwC.  Art is also a longstanding faculty member at NYU-ITP and IMA, where his courses include co-teaching Responsible Technology and the Future of Media. Why this Episode?

Dan Runde is Senior Vice President at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he directs the Project on Prosperity and Development. He previously worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (or USAID), the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, and in investment banking with experience in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Dan recently wrote a new book called "The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership Through Soft Power." This is the first book in decades to look at U.S. non-military power through the lens of great power competition. He is also the host of "Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, and Foreign Policy," a podcast series focused on updating the United States' soft power playbook to meet the hopes and aspirations of developing countries. This was an incredibly fun conversation and chock-full of insights! We start by talking about Dan's path, from growing up in a family that taught him the importance of public service, to his experience of working for USAID, the World Bank's IFC, and currently for CSIS. Dan then talks about his views as a conservative internationalist, and why we need the trade, security, and multilateral system that was designed and built by the US, in partnership with others, after WWII. He goes on to highlight that while the system is necessary, it cannot function in the absence of leadership and asks us to imagine which set of values we would rather have shape the world we live in. We then shift to how global development is going to be increasingly refracted through the lens of great power competition, where the tools of soft power become even more critical. Dan's framing of development as applied foreign policy helps make the concept more real and applicable. We also discuss the areas of cooperation between US and Europe, as well as some of the tensions still present between these long-standing partners. Afterwards, we touch upon the thorny topic of mining, minerals, and climate change and the much-needed realization that decarbonization doesn't mean dematerialization. Our conversation then turns to the Global Fragility Act (GFA) and what the US needs to do to succeed in this new initiative. Dan sums up the top priorities for U.S. development efforts over the next five years: help Ukraine, close the digital divide, mining and minerals, nearshoring, and address corruption.   Listen to the episode and pick up Dan's book for so many more insights! ***** Dan Runde Website: https://www.csis.org/people/daniel-f-runde Twitter: https://twitter.com/danrunde LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielfrunde/ ***** Mihaela Carstei, Paul M. Bisca, and Johan Bjurman Bergman co-host F-World: The Fragility Podcast.  Twitter: https://twitter.com/fworldpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fworldpodcast/ Website: https://f-world.org Music: "Tornado" by Wintergatan. This track can be downloaded for free at www.wintergatan.net Video editing by: Alex Mitran - find Alex on Facebook (facebook.com/alexmmitran), Twitter (twitter.com/alexmmitran), or LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/alexmmitran) EPISODE RESOURCES: Project on US Leadership in Development: https://www.csis.org/programs/project-us-leadership-development Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, and Foreign Policy with Dan Runde: https://www.csis.org/podcasts/building-future-freedom-prosperity-and-foreign-policy-dan-runde TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:32 Dan's background 00:10:11 What is a conservative internationalist? 00:19:37 The world needs leadership not entropy 00:23:11 What is development & the role of political engagement in donor countries 00:33:19 What is fair vs. unfair global power competition? 00:45:15 What is soft power? Development is applied foreign policy 00:52:31 US – Europe cooperation vs competition in development 01:06:24 The Global Fragility Act – how to get it right 01:10:59 Priorities for U.S. development efforts in the next five years

Who is this episode for? Looking to live in a more sustainable way -sustainable but practical way - this episode is for you!Episode Summary: Today, we're diving into the world of the zero-waste movement with my guest, Stephanie Miller, author of "Zero Waste Living, The 80/20 Way." Stephanie, former director of Climate Business at the International Finance Corporation, combines professional expertise with personal experience to reveal how simple lifestyle changes can drive significant positive impact. Join us as Stephanie discusses actionable ways for busy individuals to create a profound difference by focusing on key areas: food choices, plastics reduction, and effective recycling—collectively known as the "Magic Three." Discover how your influence can extend beyond personal boundaries, fostering a ripple effect within your community.-------------------------------Links Discussed in This EpisodeOrder a Copy of Minimalist Moms: Living and Parenting with SimplicityEpisode 92: Sustainable Minimalism with Stephanie SeferianEpisode 156: Sustainable Minimalism on a Budget with Stephanie SeferianEpisode 219: Realistic Tips for Less Waste with Tara McKennaBonus Episode: How to Contribute to the Climate Movement...Episode 137: Living a Sustainable(ish) Lifestyle with Jen GaleEpisode 74: Zero Waste Home with Bea JohnsonConnect with Stephanie:WebsiteInstagramBook: Zero Waste 80/20 by Stephanie MillerEnjoy this Podcast?Post a review and share it! If you enjoyed tuning into this podcast, then do not hesitate to write a review. You can also share this with your fellow mothers so that they can be inspired to think more and do with less. Order (or review) my recent book, Minimalist Moms: Living & Parenting With SimplicityQuestions? You can contact me through my website, find me on Instagram, or like The Minimalist Moms Page on Facebook.Thanks for listening! For more updates and episodes, visit the website. You may also tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.Checkout the Minimalist Moms Podcast storefront for recommendations from Diane.If you enjoyed today's episode of the Minimalist Moms Podcast, then hit subscribe and share it with your friends!Episode Sponsors |The Minimalist Moms Podcast would not be possible without the support of weekly sponsors. Choosing brands that I believe in is important to me. I only want to recommend brands that I believe may help you in your daily life. As always, never feel pressured into buying anything. Remember: if you don't need it, it's not a good deal!Check out Ideal Living and use my code MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://airdoctorpro.com/Check out Stride K12 and use my code MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://www.stridelearning.com/who-we-serve/k12-parents-students.htmlGain peace of mind today with Trust and Will. Get 10% off plus free shipping of your estate plan documents by visiting trustandwill.com/MINIMALIST.Our Sponsors:* Check out Gaia Provides and use my code MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://www.gaiaprovides.com/* Check out Ideal Living and use my code MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://airdoctorpro.com/* Check out Quince: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjVtJG56NKAAxU-N0QIHQf1Bq8QFnoECBwQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.quince.com%2F&usg=AOvVaw15ySPxxJ1v1l0I4qSPAJS5&opi=89978449* Check out Stride K12 and use my code MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://www.stridelearning.com/who-we-serve/k12-parents-students.htmlSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/minimalist-moms-podcast2093/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A video of Dr. David Martin speaking to the European Parliament went viral after he alleged the COVID-19 pandemic was premeditated domestic terrorism and a “biological weapon of genocide.” Dr. Martin said evidence shows the coronavirus was isolated as a model pathogen in 1965 and that by 1990, Pfizer filed a patent for a spike protein vaccine. Dr. David Martin is the founding chairman of M Cam Asset Management Company and an expert on patent auditing. He is the creator of the world's first quantitative public equity index – the CNBC IQ100 powered by M·CAM. He served as Chair of Economic Innovation for the UN-affiliated Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization and has served as an advisor to numerous Central Banks, global economic forums, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, and national governments. Dr. Martin received his undergraduate (BA) from Goshen College, his Masters of Science from Ball State University, and his Doctorate (PhD) from the University of Virginia. Follow Dr. David Martin at https://twitter.com/DrDMartinWorld and read more at https://davidmartin.world/about/ 「 SPONSORED BY 」 Find out more about the companies that make this show possible and get special discounts on amazing products at https://drdrew.com/sponsors • GENUCEL - Using a proprietary base formulated by a pharmacist, Genucel has created skincare that can dramatically improve the appearance of facial redness and under-eye puffiness. Genucel uses clinical levels of botanical extracts in their cruelty-free, natural, made-in-the-USA line of products. Get an extra discount with promo code DREW at https://genucel.com/drew • PRIMAL LIFE - Dr. Drew recommends Primal Life's 100% natural dental products to improve your mouth. Get a sparkling smile by using natural teeth whitener without harsh chemicals. For a limited time, get 60% off at https://drdrew.com/primal • PALEOVALLEY - "Paleovalley has a wide variety of extraordinary products that are both healthful and delicious,” says Dr. Drew. "I am a huge fan of this brand and know you'll love it too!” Get 15% off your first order at https://drdrew.com/paleovalley • THE WELLNESS COMPANY - Counteract harmful spike proteins with TWC's Signature Series Spike Support Formula containing nattokinase and selenium. Learn more about TWC's supplements at https://twc.health/drew 「 MEDICAL NOTE 」 The CDC states that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective, and reduce your risk of severe illness. You should always consult your personal physician before making any decisions about your health.  「 ABOUT the SHOW 」 Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Kaleb Nation (https://kalebnation.com) and Susan Pinsky (https://twitter.com/firstladyoflove). This show is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. 「 WITH DR. KELLY VICTORY 」 Dr. Kelly Victory MD is a board-certified trauma and emergency specialist with over 30 years of clinical experience. She served as CMO for Whole Health Management, delivering on-site healthcare services for Fortune 500 companies. She holds a BS from Duke University and her MD from the University of North Carolina. Follow her at https://earlycovidcare.org and https://twitter.com/DrKellyVictory. 「 ABOUT DR. DREW 」 For over 30 years, Dr. Drew has answered questions and offered guidance to millions through popular shows like Celebrity Rehab (VH1), Dr. Drew On Call (HLN), Teen Mom OG (MTV), and the iconic radio show Loveline. Now, Dr. Drew is opening his phone lines to the world by streaming LIVE from his home studio. Watch all of Dr. Drew's latest shows at https://drdrew.tv Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie von Friedeburg of Citi and formerly the International Finance Corporation joins CGD's Karen Mathiasen and Clemence Landers for a conversation on how to balance risk and impact in investment, why blended finance needs a rethink, and what mechanisms offer the most promising solutions to the development finance problem. 

Diego Caicedo is now championing his third industry in Latin America. He not only took his latest startup through an acquisition, but also bought it back, and raised $100M in capital in the process. The venture, KLYM, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like JP Morgan Chase and International Finance Corporation.

From the World Economic Forum in Davos, this episode of Women on the Move Podcast features Anita Bhatia, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. She shares the mission of UN Women with host Sam Saperstein, and they discuss the importance of public-private partnerships in the journey to gender equity. Anita also describes her personal commitment to educating women and how education influenced her own trajectory in life. Small agency with a big mission Founded just 11 years ago by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN Women is the newest agency in the UN system. Anita recalls sitting next to the Secretary-General at dinner one evening as he shared his first perception upon getting to the UN and realizing there were agencies dealing with children, hunger, trade - but nothing that was focused on solving one of the greatest problems in the world: gender inequality. “So he set up UN Women,” Anita tells Sam. “We're a small agency, but I like to think that we punch above our weight, and my role is really a partnerships role,” Anita says. “It's a resource mobilization role, but it's also partnering both within the UN system and outside the UN system.” Anita says her focus is on making sure her team is growing UN Women's impact on solving for gender inequality by partnering with others “because we're too small and this problem is too big for us to do it alone.” Anita says the goals of UN Women include women's economic empowerment, ending violence toward women, and increasing leadership representation. One critical factor is driving more finance toward the mission. “Public finance and private finance because without proper resourcing, we're never going to be able to change the state of the world,” she notes. Anita says she learned about the importance of the public-private partnership approach during her time with the International Finance Corporation, the private sector branch of the World Bank Group. “Working in IFC, you understand something very fundamentally, which is that it's possible to do financially well while doing social good,” she says. “The other thing you understand when you work at the World Bank Group is the important role of the private sector in business in solving for development problems because governments just don't have enough money or bandwidth to do this.” Personal commitment to educating women But Anita says she brings more than her professional background to her role at UN Women. “I think the thing that gets me going is the idea of a girl getting educated,” she says. “It's because education has been so fundamental in my own life. I really do believe the research that education is the single biggest lever for development. When I think about a girl going to school, that inspires me, and I also do think about women who are victims of violence and about the need for the world to just do a hell of a lot more on that issue.” Anita grew up in Kolkata, India, with a mother who she describes as a very progressive teacher who believed firmly in education. Anita was just 18 when her mother died, but before that, her mother had asked Anita's father to make sure their daughters were educated and not married early as many young women in India were. “So my dad was a very strong feminist actually,” she tells Sam. “He kept his promise. He made sure the girls were educated.” After college, Anita told her father she wanted to go to the United States for graduate school. And while many Indian fathers kept their daughters near to help take care of them, he urged Anita to accept her scholarship to Yale. Today, Anita calls on men to follow in the footsteps of her own feminist father. That's because another key part of UN Women's mission is male allyship. “We work with women and girls, but what's becoming even more important in our work is working with men and boys because this is a problem that is not a woman's problem, it's a whole of society, whole of government problem,” she says. “I don't want men to be bystanders,” she adds. “Men need to call out bad male behaviors and toxic masculinity when they see it. And so in Davos, I've made a call to action to men and said, ‘You need to acknowledge that you guys actually still hold the power. You need to challenge negative masculinities and you need to share space. When you are on an all-male panel, it shouldn't be the women who are saying, Hey, we're not there. It should be the men saying, Where are the women?'”   Full transcript here .   Disclaimer: The speakers' opinions belong to them and may differ from opinions of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and its affiliates. Views presented on this podcast are those of the speakers; they are as of June 15th, 2023 and they may not materialize.

President Biden is running for his second term in office, but this time it's not just against former President Donald Trump. Republican presidential hopefuls like Governor Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, and let's not forget about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, are vying for the White House too. Black America will be the deciding vote on the future of U.S. democracy. President Biden boldly boasted that he had Black America's back in his acceptance speech for the presidency. Despite gains in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and the historic achievement of choosing the first woman of color as his Vice President, Kamala Harris, Black Americans are questioning if President Biden deserves another term in office. But how has U.S. foreign policy impacted the African diaspora? In this three-part series, we will evaluate U.S. foreign policy in the three main corners of the Diaspora: Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Alexanderia Haidara, Global Take Podcast Host, talks to Nii Simmonds, Non-resident Fellow of the Atlantic Council, and Dr. Nola Haynes, Georgetown University professor. They discuss how diaspora engagement shapes U.S.-Africa foreign policy, Vice-President Kamala Harris's recent trip to Africa, and reflect on the impact of the 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit that took place in Washington, D.C. About Nii Simmonds Nii Simmonds is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's GeoTech Center and an expert in emerging and frontier markets. He has held top leadership positions in corporate finance, entrepreneurial ecosystems, supply chains, and research commercialization. Simmonds has previously worked for Fortune 500 firms, including companies in the pharmaceutical, biotech, consumer product, and strategy consulting industries. He also provides thought leadership on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, analyzing their impact on society for innovation and policy while accelerating impactful solutions to challenges. Simmonds has worked for the World Bank Group, International Finance Corporation, and African Development Bank, providing consultation in the areas of private-sector development, diaspora engagement, and financial inclusion. Simmonds holds a BS in Management from Pennsylvania State University and he has undertaken graduate courses in operations/business process management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School for Executive Education. Dr. Nola Haynes Dr. Nola Haynes is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She is an academic, policy writer, and advocate. Her interests center on emerging threats, WMD in space, strategic competition, and intersectionality. Recently, Dr. Nola was named one of the top 50 leaders in national security and foreign affairs by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Diversity in National Security (DINSN). She is the former Director of the West Coast chapter of Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS) and sits on several boards, including the Women's Caucus for the International Studies Association communications team (WCIS), Foreign Policy board for the American Political Science Association (APSA), and ISA West. She is a Black Professionals in International Affairs (BPIA) member and an alumnus of the WestExec Advisors mentoring program. As a Pacific Council on International Policy member, Dr. Nola works as an Ops Coordinator to help resettle Afghan allies with Evacuate Our Allies (EOA) and is a policy advocate for the Afghan Adjustment Act. Dr. Nola has over ten years of experience working in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and is a proud New Orleans native. Donate and follow Black Professionals in International Affairs at ⁠⁠www.iabpia.org⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

Dipender Saluja is the Managing Director of Capricorn Investment Group, a venture capital firm with $9B under management. He was an early investor in Tesla. Today Dipender leads Capricorn's clean tech investments effort and is betting on nuclear fusion, next gen batteries and electric aviation as the next moneymakers in decarbonizing the economy. Dipender has worked in Silicon Valley for 35 years. This week, Akshat talks with him about why he got interested in venture capital, climate tech, and how his start in the semiconductor industry informs his investment strategy. Listen to the interview with Rebecca Shirley of World Resources Institute and Makthar Diop of International Finance Corporation to learn more about clean energy financing in developing nations here.  Read more:  Leslie Kaufman's story about TerraCycle here. A transcript of the episode Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Kira Bindrim, Venkat Viswanathan, and Dashiell Bennett. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.