Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership

We prioritize learning and share insights to inform not just ourselves but others working towards the same goals.

In the IDAS business unit we take the view that many of the world鈥檚 development issues can be solved through collaboration. With cross learning at the top of the agenda, every day we work to uncover and learn new lessons from our specialists implementing programmes in the field. We use them to make our grantees鈥� projects work better; we use them to teach ourselves to do better; and we share them with our clients, so that they too can make the most of their funding. Every insight we adapt makes a world of difference in the outcomes we achieve and in making projects sustainable in the ever changing development landscape. Here are some of the lessons learned from our portfolio in general:

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乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网

漏 2025 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 Advisory Services Limited, a Kenyan Limited Liability Company and a member firm ofthe 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 global organization of independent member firms affiliated with 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 InternationalLimited, a private English company limited by guarantee. All rights reserved. For more detail about the structure of the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 global organization please visit /governance.

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Solar

Making it Happen: Conservation Agriculture in Africa

Zimbabwe Conservation Agriculture Network (鈥淶IMCAN鈥�) statistics estimate that there are 300,000 smallholder farmers practicing conservation agriculture in the country and that the number of farmers is on the increase. In this paper we look at the key drivers of this growth and what challenges have been experienced, looking at the potential of this practice revolutionizing agricultural practice in Zimbabwe.

Payments

Challenge Funds as Private Sector Development Tools

Challenge funds have been effective in sectors closely tied to poor communities, such as agribusiness and financial services, as well as through private provision of social services including health and education. In this paper we look at the distinguishing features of the funding model, the benefits and what we have learned in our experience deploying the fund.

 
trumph

Trump Presidency Impact on Sectors and Markets

This report summarizes the views of the analysts and media on the potential impact of the Trump presidency on various sectors and key markets globally. This report is based on news articles and broker reports published post the US Presidential election results, announced on 9 November 2016.
 
Monitoring and Evaluation in the Development Sector

Trialling Client-Focused Climate Finance in Ethiopia

The past few years have seen a proliferation of international climate finance schemes to help communities cope with the threat of climate change while also combating its root causes, but this landscape is problematic. Many of the strict financial accountability mechanisms employed by climate finance schemes make it difficult, slow and sometimes prohibitively expensive for stakeholders in developing countries to access climate funds, despite the dynamism and potential of many of these applicants. This paper examines potential solutions and lessons from our design of the SCIP fund.
mpower

PAYGO: Solar distribution

In a continent of 1 billion people 700 million people remain without access to power. Over the years, there have been many attempts to connect Africa to sources of energy, but the efforts have faced serious issues with expanding the grid to rural areas, bottlenecks around power generation, and long lead times that come with larger installations of power plants and grid extension. However there is new hope, a new model for providing access to electricity 鈥� It is called Pay as you go-technology (PAYGO), and with the right support and resources available, shows potential to trail blaze energy access into millions of households in Africa.
climate

Monitoring and Evaluation in the Development Sector

乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网鈥檚 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Survey, polled more than 35 respondents from organizations responsible for over US$100 billion of global development expenditure. The survey reflects perspectives from M&E leaders on the current state, including approaches, resources, use of technology and major challenges facing a variety of funders and implementers.
Innovate

Innovative Business models for Sustainable Energy Access in Africa

This paper gives an overview of the energy access landscape in Africa detailing the various financing models for the sector. We share our experience in creating a market for traditional fuel alternatives and working with rural distribution chains and small scale IPPs and mini grids.

Watering

Impact Investing in Africa

Through management of various funds across Africa, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网鈥檚 International Development Advisory Services (IDAS) has allocated capital to over 200 businesses working on projects that have a social impact, largely in agribusiness, renewable energy, climate change technologies and financial services, along with education, health and sanitation. In this paper, we draw on this experience to highlight practical lessons that may be useful to impact investors.
 
financial deepening

Financial Deepening and M4P: Lessons from Kenya & Rwanda

乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 IDAS currently oversees two multi-donor financial inclusion programmes in Africa that follow the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) development approach: the Financial Sector Deepening Trust in Kenya, and Access to Finance Rwanda. These programmes offer some important lessons regarding how M4P can promote sustainable financial inclusion, and how these interventions work best in different markets.
deepening

Other Thought Leaderships

In the IDAS business unit we take the view that many of the world鈥檚 development issues can be solved through collaboration.