Brazil’s Economic Crossroads: Which Path Will It Choose?

Latin America’s largest economy entered the pandemic before it could heal from its worst recession in decades. First appeared at Americas Quarterly By Otaviano Canuto As the pandemic unfolds, Brazil is paying a huge human cost, with the number of

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World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia: Interview with Anna Bjerde

Congratulations with your Mayday promotion as World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia. Are you excited to lead the World Bank’s strategic, analytical, operational and knowledge work in the region? Thank you! I am delighted to be returning

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EY on COVID-19 Pandemic: An Opportunity for Reinvention of Family Enterprises

Family businesses and SMEs face great challenges, as well as personal and financial losses, in these turbulent times. On the flip side of the coin, the COVID-19 pandemic can also be seen as an opportunity to rethink business models and

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Heidelberg University (CSI) on Financial Innovation: Unleashing Full Potential of Impact Investing

Many relevant fields and geographic areas are blank spots on the impact investing landscape, because they appear too risky or offer too low returns. If impact investing is to contribute to the SDGS, this needs to change. Financial innovation could

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UNCDF and Convergence: Getting the Right Blend in Game-Changing Finance

In December of 2015, the global news website, Quartz, published a piece entitled “Both Venture Capitalists and Banks are Betting on Blockchain.” In the five or so years since this piece was posted, the debate over blockchain persists — whether

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Responsible Investment: What it Says on the Tin, with Added Punch and Attention to Detail

The rise of responsible investment (RI) as a crucial part of the financial industry has been one of the defining themes of the past two decades. Matt Christensen has been at the heart of it for most of those 20

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Otaviano Canuto on Central Banks and Climate Change: Turning Black Swans Into Green

There are three possible motivations for the engagement by central banks with climate change: financial risks, macro-economic impacts, and mitigation/adaptation policies. Regardless of the extent to which individual central banks incorporate the three prongs of motivations, they can no longer

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ISID, McGill University: Updating the DFIs’ Operating Models to Achieve the UN 2030 SDG Agenda

The UN General Assembly set the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) five years ago. The estimated annual amount of investment needed to achieve them is short — by $2.5tn to $3tn. The stakeholders that play a key role in directing and

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Spain NAB: Setting Agenda for Spanish Impact Investment Market

At an estimated €90m[1], Spanish impact investment is considered an incipient market by European standards[2], well behind Germany, France, Italy and even Portugal. This market counts 14 impact funds[3], and has been developing slowly over the past 10 years out

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PwC Nigeria: Nigeria’s Finance Act Gets a Facelift to Attract Business and Investment

Earlier this year, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari signed the Finance Bill 2019 into law as the Finance Act of 2019 — the first amendment to the country’s tax laws since 1999. The Act, which comprises 57 sections, seeks to amend

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