This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

      Photo: Mr. Owusu, CIR Intern, Franklin and Marshall, Ms. Muyangwa, Director, Africa Program at the Wilson Center, Mr. Zheng, CIR Intern, Georgetown University.         The Wilson Center's event on opportunities and challenges of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was insightfully supportive of the new trade agreement. Trade refers to the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often (but not always) in exchange for money. A Free Trade Zone (FTZ), is a geographic area where goods may be traded without the imposition of any barriers by customs authorities. These barriers include tariffs and quotas. Free Trade Zone examples include the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Southern African Development Community Free Trade Area.  The AfCFTA seeks to create a unified continental market with minimal trade and migration barriers and unified trade policies to facilitate the easy movement of peo...

WASHINGTON - May 21, 2018 - PRLog -- The Federal Communications Commission's ("FCC's") Office of Communications Business Opportunities ("OCBO") and Media Bureau ("MB"), and the FCC's Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment ("ACDDE") will host a one-day supplier diversity workshop for small, minority-owned, women-owned and other diverse businesses. The workshop will teach small business entrepreneurs how to navigate corporate supplier diversity programs; identify successful strategies utilized by diverse entrepreneurs who do business with corporate entities; and enable one-on-one networking between participating firms and workshop participants to increase awareness about the expectations of procurement managers responsible for goods and services contracting. Workshop presentations and one-on-one consulting will be provided by representatives from various industry sectors, including voice, video and data providers, ...

WASHINGTON - May 18, 2018 - PRLog -- William Michael Cunningham will moderate a panel on the Future of Impact Investing at the Blockchain for Social Impact Conference 2018, to be held on Friday, June 1, 2018. The United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC will host the conference. The Conference is being organized by the ConsenSys Social Impact team, and will focus on "areas where blockchain technology could be instrumental in revolutionizing existing systems and making a significant impact." The Conference will focus on four major global challenge areas: Agriculture, Infrastructure, Democracy, and Refugees. Conference organizers noted, "As blockchain becomes the shared infrastructure for more and more people to collaborate with one another, participate in global marketplaces, access essential services, and protect their personal data and assets, it is the responsibility of the larger tech community and governments around the world to make sure this tec...

The most recent Africa Policy Breakfast, “Crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo” (DRC) was held on May 16th and hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Foreign Affairs & National Security Task Force. The discussion considered options for regional and international responses to the situation in the DRC, a Central African country rich in natural resources, with 79 million people. The country has industrial diamonds, cobalt, and copper along with about 50% of the potential hydroelectric power for the continent. The Policy Breakfast started with a brief introduction to the current crisis in the DRC and moved onto discuss potential solutions. The country has experienced many conflicts, causing the displacement of 1.7 million people in 2017. This tumultuous period can be attributed to a myriad of overlapping factors including the destabilizing historical role of Western countries vis a vis the DRC's colonial past, the corrupting influence of foreign corporations who v...

Being a minority small business owner can be particularly challenging due to issues that other business owners don't face, like racial and gender discrimination, having low (or no) collateral and having a low credit scores. These factors definitely make it harder to finance a business. There are, however, resources that can help make financing your business easier, given these constraints. Here are a few: SBA Loans While we have not been impressed with the outcome of their efforts focusing on African American businesses, the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers services and programs you need to know about if you are looking to start or fund a minority business. To begin with, SBA’s 8(a) Business Development program is focused on small businesses that are 51% or more owned and controlled by members of disadvantaged subgroups by ethnicity or race. The program offers a plethora of business support services, including financial assistance, business counseling, and mentorin...

On April 1, "The People’s Bank of China (PBOC)’s Institute of International Finance" identified "cryptocurrencies as a top priority for 2018,": citing the potential systemic risk that "widespread retail investment into cryptocurrencies" posed to the Yuan. The article below summarizes the Mandarin-language only report. Status and Outlook (1) Status Quo • Global cryptocurrency is growing explosively. As of March 10th, 2018, there were more than 1,500 types of cryptocurrency, totalling $389.1 billion in value. The market value for the top 10 cryptocurrencies stands at $321.1 billion and accounts for 80% of the total cryptocurrency market value. • A wide variety of institutions are involved in the issuance of cryptocurrency. Private sector players include financial institutions and large e-commerce platforms. On a national level, Tunisia, Senegal, Ecuador and Venezuela have issued legal cryptocurrency. • Existing problems: the issuance of crypto...

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting statement on March 21, indicated that the Committee voted for a quarter-point increase in federal fund rate. (See:  http://twisri.blogspot.com/2018/03/probability-of-fed-rate-hike-in-march.html ) The Fed seemed to signal, by this rate hike, that a more robust  economic outlook, strengthened, at least in part, due to fiscal policy (tax bill), provides a solid base on which to tighten (increase interest rates) monetary policy more aggressively in the future. The FOMC also sought to cling to a strategy in 2018 , according to the statement , that “ supports strong labor market conditions and a sustained return to 2% inflation .” Top  FOMC  considerations : Inflation targets and the labor market This cautious stance diverged from market expectation in a surprising way: the market seemed to expect more . The accommodative monetary policy ...