Reading Time: 4 minutesAsk whether digital finance is helping women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) overcome old barriers and the honest answer is: both, at the same time. But is access enough to drive real growth?
Category: Digitalisation
Cutting red tape where it matters most: Why SMEs need simpler local rules
Reading Time: 4 minutesPolicymakers are placing renewed emphasis on regulatory simplification, seeking to cut red tape and help firms grow. For SMEs, this is crucial: growth is shaped not by one law, but by permits and reporting requirements piling across levels of government. How can governments simplify this patchwork without losing its safeguards?
From rainfall to response: how data guided recovery in Maipú
Reading Time: 4 minutesOn Saturday, 31 January 2026, a single cloud changed Maipú in less than an hour – 17 millimetres of rainfall in forty-five minutes, flooding streets and destroying homes. Images spread across social media. Many claimed they were fake. They were not. The storm devastated more than a thousand families. So how did Maipú use real-time data to reach those in need?
De las lluvias a la respuesta: cómo los datos guiaron la recuperación en Maipú
Reading Time: 4 minutesEl sábado 31 de enero de 2026, una sola nube transformó Maipú en menos de una hora – 17 milímetros de lluvia en cuarenta y cinco minutos, inundando calles y destruyendo viviendas. Las imágenes se difundieron por las redes sociales. Muchos afirmaron que eran falsas. No lo eran. La tormenta devastó a más de mil familias. ¿Cómo usó Maipú los datos en tiempo real para llegar a quienes lo necesitaban?
Lost in the policy maze: Why UK SMEs are missing out on tech gains
Reading Time: 3 minutesAI is spreading through the UK economy, but not quickly enough. Recent UK evidence shows that around one in three firms with fewer than 50 employees adopted AI, compared with almost two in three larger businesses, while regional adoption ranged from 32% in the North East to 67% in London. What can government do to close these adoption gaps?
Smart cities that leave no one behind
Reading Time: 3 minutesSmart city has become shorthand for digital ambition, but it still tends to conjure images of large cities, costly infrastructure and tech-led programmes that feel remote from everyday life. Sunderland’s experience points to a different approach. But what makes it different?
Building the ecosystem around the rules: What AI startups actually need from policy
Reading Time: 3 minutesSome frame AI policy as a choice between protecting people and enabling innovation, but that is too simple. Regulation and growth need not be opposed. How can governments close the gap between AI policy ambition and reality so that early-stage companies can genuinely innovate and scale?
The weight of the cloud: the cost of AI for water
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen people talk about “the cloud”, it sounds weightless, something almost magical floating in the sky. Except that it isn’t. It lives on the ground, in data centres filled with servers that store, process and move staggering amounts of information every second. These data centres consume energy, occupy land, use metals and minerals from global supply chains – and they need vast amounts of water for cooling.