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Dissident’s Daughter, Crusader for Health and Women’s Rights: Sheikha Moza bint Nasser al-Missned

When Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, mother of current Emir of Qatar, inaugurated WISH 2020 (World Summit For Health) in Doha in November, she did so in her official capacity as president of the Qatar Foundation. Her unofficial role was once

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PwC: South Africa Has an Unprecedented Opportunity to Capitalise on the Rapidly Developing Global Hydrogen Economy

Hydrogen can be a game changer for the South African economy. Opportunities exist for South Africa to partake in the global hydrogen economy but will depend largely on investments in renewable energy generation, as well as the development of a

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UNCDF: Women as Builders of Inclusive Digital Economies

The dramatic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, at times, seemingly defies belief. Yet, every time there is an analysis of the pandemic’s damage — human, societal, economic — a recurring narrative emerges, one that is quite believable. That COVID-19 has

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The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board: Financial Impacts of Sustainability – Connecting Businesses and Investors

Sustainability issues are global business issues. For example, data security—a social issue—is important to companies in the software industry. Water management—an environmental issue—is essential to a beverage producer. Managing conflicts of interest—a governance issue—is critical for an investment bank. Effectively

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Geoffrey Okamoto, First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF: Knightmare Uncertainty

The American economist Frank Knight theorised about the difference between risk and uncertainty in his classic book Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. Risk is “a quantity susceptible of measurement.” A precise outcome may not be known, but the probability of a

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OECD: Advancing the Global Agenda on Blended Finance and Sustainable Development Impact

In its efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development[1] and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda[2], the international development community has been working to promote the mobilisation of financial resources beyond official development assistance, across both the public and

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Building the Bridge Between Non-financial and Mandatory Reporting

BP CEO Bernard Looney’s courageous announcement that BP will transition to becoming a green energy pioneer shows the need for a new supporting logic for a standard measurement system. If BP is prepared to publicly commit to do the right

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UniCredit’s Roberta Marracino: Banking with a Social Impact

Determined to help shape the post-pandemic ‘new normal’, UniCredit is stepping on the accelerator to redouble its efforts at sparking meaningful change in the lives of accountholders and in the wider society. UniCredit’s Social Impact Banking programme, first launched in

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Appreciation of ESG Values Has Increased During Pandemic, says Asset Manager of Goldman Sachs Sheila Patel

As a keen angler, Sheila Patel knows that the secret to hooking a big trout is to deliver the fly in a precise and careful manner. So when Covid-19 lobbed a rock into the financial world’s waters, one might have

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Matein Khalid: A Random Walk Down Silicon Valley’s Pre-IPO Deal Flow

2020 was a spectacular year for investing in late stage technology unicorns and I am proud to have led significant investor syndicates from the Gulf for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the e-learning marketplace Udemy and Swedish fintech Klarna Bank. The secondary

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