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: Investments
Beyond registration: Why does formalisation matter for Somalia’s small businesses?
Reading Time: 3 minutesFor small businesses, formalisation should not feel like another administrative burden. Done well, it can become a route to trust, finance and growth. In Somalia, informal shops and traders keep economies alive daily; so, are we formalising for paperwork, or to really help entrepreneurs succeed?
Making gender equality investable: How capital markets can unlock women’s entrepreneurship
Reading Time: 4 minutesDiscussions on women’s entrepreneurship frequently revolve around one issue: access to finance. But the world doesn’t lack capital. If investors move on measured risks, how can gender equality be turned into an investment opportunity?
Beyond Tokyo: Can Japan boost the appeal of its regions?
Reading Time: 4 minutesRegions and cities are being reshaped by falling birth rates, ageing populations and the continued movement of young people to large metropolitan hubs. Japan knows this story well: for more than two decades, over 100,000 people a year have moved to the Tokyo metropolitan area from elsewhere in Japan. The question is no longer how to strengthen Tokyo, but how to strengthen everywhere else?
When National Climate Averages Miss the Story
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen France recorded its hottest day in history last week, 41°C in Bordeaux, multiple deaths, half the country under red alert, the story got covered the way climate risk almost always is: one country, one number. But, how do we know which regions inside these countries are actually carrying the long-term economic cost?
The social economy is bigger business than you think
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe social economy is rarely part of conversations about competitiveness or economic resilience, yet it should be. Social economy organisations create jobs, deliver essential services and strengthen local economies across countries. But what does it take to build an environment that allows them to contribute fully?
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?
Putting industrial policy in its place
Reading Time: 4 minutesAfter years in economic exile, industrial policies are back in a big way. Industrial policy interventions increased 20-fold in the past decade, as governments seek to rebuild competitiveness, support emerging technologies and shore up supply chains. This is true in OECD countries, but also in developing countries which use it more intensively. Many of these are adopting a place-based approach: between 2019-22, regional industrial policy support rose by over 50% as a share of GDP in 11 OECD countries. But why?