Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2022: Vote for Your Favorite!

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NextBillion has been running our “Most Influential Article of the Year” contest since 2012, selecting the 12 most-read articles we’ve published each year and inviting readers to vote for their favorites. Since almost all our content is guest-written by entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and others working in impact-focused business in emerging markets, the contest serves as a barometer of sorts, highlighting key topics of interest in these sectors.

That’s why I’ve always found it fascinating to see how the topics of these articles change in response to external events and sector-specific trends. Sometimes, global events dictate the focus of our guest writers’ and readers’ attention — for instance, it was no surprise that eight of the 12 articles in our 2020 contest dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Other times, these articles reveal vital discussions that are happening behind the scenes in boardrooms and investor meetings. For example, our 2019 contest included multiple articles exploring the “African investment frenzy” that was raising eyebrows at the time.

What can we learn from the topics discussed this year? If I had to identify a common theme among these articles, it would be: finding what works by addressing what doesn’t. Most of these pieces explore businesses, technologies and investment approaches that have demonstrated their positive impact — but that are falling short in maximizing it. They involve a wide range of subjects, including digital finance (and how it can reach lower-income segments); energy access (and the lack of funding that’s holding it back); and impact investing (and the measurement and gender equity challenges that have sparked criticism of the sector). But australia whatsapp number data regardless of the topic, most of them have a shared focus on the need for improvement, even in successful approaches.

What does this mean for the broader community of entrepreneurs and investors looking to make a development impact in emerging markets? I’d view these discussions as a sign of the growing maturity of these sectors: We’ve long passed the point of proving the concept behind businesses aimed at lower-income customers: These markets can be profitable, as any number of companies have amply demonstrated. We’ve also moved past the wide-eyed early days of impact-focused enterprise, in which companies were sometimes based more on good intentions than a promising business model. These days, the guest writers who discuss their work on NextBillion typically have a detailed understanding of their market, often based upon a growing track record full of both successes and failures. This suggests that many impact sectors — and the businesses and investment firms that drive them — are now solidly in their adolescence: trying new things to see what works, adapting their strategies to pursue new opportunities, and reaching greater levels of success — only to be met with higher expectations.