AXIAN Group and the African Development Bank have launched a major women’s  financial inclusion programme to expand access to finance and business support for more than 34,000 women-led enterprises in five African countries.

Supported through the African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), the programme aims to address one of the biggest constraints facing women-owned businesses in Africa – limited access to finance. Africa has the highest rate of female entrepreneurship worldwide, yet women entrepreneurs continue to face an estimated $49 billion financing gap.

The programme will be implemented through AXIAN Group’s digital financial services platforms, Mixx and MVola, which combine digital lending, financial literacy training, business development services and digital inclusion initiatives to help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses and improve access to formal financial services.

The African Center of Statistics (ACS) at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) this week opened a five-day workshop for delegates from Botswana, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Togo, aimed at giving health ministries and statistical offices the tools to show, in economic terms, that health spending is an investment, not a cost. 

The workshop is the first country level activity under ECA’s broader Transforming Health Financing in Africa initiative, with the five countries as first movers. This week’s session covers one part of it: building health focused Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs), economy wide accounts linking health services, financing, households, government, firms, and the rest of the world. Policymakers often know how much is spent on health but struggle to see the bigger picture: where the money comes from, who benefits, how much employment it generates, and how households are affected. The SAM connects data already spread across national accounts, health accounts, household surveys, and other sources into one coherent picture.

William Muhwava, representing the Director of ACS, said a central aim of the week is to “bring these different sources together within a coherent statistical framework” using each country’s own national data, adding: “We are particularly pleased that this exercise is based on country data, not international data, and national ownership.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) will hold the fourth World Sustainability Symposium (WSS) in Brussels, Belgium, on 13-14 October 2026. Bringing together leaders from aviation, energy, finance, technology, academia, and government, the event will focus on the policies and actions needed to advance air transport’s transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Taking place in Brussels, where many of aviation’s most consequential sustainability policies are shaped, WSS will provide a unique opportunity to connect industry leaders and the policymakers responsible for designing the frameworks that will influence aviation’s energy transition. The Symposium will facilitate constructive dialogue to accelerate decarbonization while preserving the economic and social benefits of air connectivity. 

“The air transport industry is committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. But airlines’ energy transition cannot happen in isolation. Success depends on increasing renewable energy production for all, building new infrastructure, advancing novel technologies, support investment, transfer risk, and design policies with the whole system in mind. Today, the challenge is constrained not by ambition but by the pace at which interdependent solutions can be developed and scaled.

The Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) and the Eastern Africa Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance (EAA) have formed a partnership aimed at helping East African countries build sustainable, equitable and high-integrity carbon markets.

The partnership will support governments in the region to develop the policies, institutional capacity and infrastructure needed to participate more effectively in voluntary carbon markets. The initiative will include assistance in developing national carbon-market strategies, regulatory frameworks and relevant public authorities.

Under the agreement, EAA member countries will receive technical assistance through VCMI’s Access Strategies programme, a global initiative designed to help emerging markets and developing economies develop credible carbon markets, mobilise climate finance and establish national policy frameworks.

VCMI will also provide on-the-ground support through regular engagement between its Kampala-based policy expert and EAA member states. (Press Release)