Case Studies

The Challenge

Following our successful collaboration to understand the challenges to inclusive health in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Bayer Foundation and the Global Alliance sought to broaden the study to map the barriers to inclusive health, sustainable agriculture, and climate across Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. The study sought to identify challenges as well as entrepreneurial solutions across 65 countries in the two regions.

Our Solutions

We gathered 2.5 million news articles, academic papers, and social media posts in 10 languages from 65 countries across Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. The multi-language, multi-geography analysis of this data was possible by harnessing the power of our AI-driven text analytics toolbox, allowing machines to perform computations and run AI models around the clock for a span of 10 weeks in the cloud. This led to the identification of 21 primary barriers and 109 sub-barriers related to inclusive health, sustainable agriculture, and climate in Latin America and Asia-Pacific, along with entrepreneurial solutions to the barriers and sub-barriers. Furthermore, the barriers and sub-barriers were quantified in terms of volumes, trends, and gender-related dimensions. To ensure the accuracy of our findings, we conducted three workshops with experts from both regions.

The Results

The insights derived from our quantitative and qualitative analyses were published by the Global Alliance to inform investments and partnerships in the areas of inclusive health, sustainable agriculture, and climate. A selection of results were also published in the World Economic Forum’s interactive Strategic Intelligence dashboard. For more granularity, you can view the results in this interactive dashboard, where you drill down into areas of interest.

The Challenge

The World Economic Forum’s Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship was looking to understand the role of social entrepreneurs in improving healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, they needed a comprehensive understanding of the barriers to inclusive health and potential solutions to address them.

Our Solution

Impact Intelligence provided AI-driven data and insights to support the Alliance’s Actionable Insights Report. We analyzed more than 1.5 million news articles, academic articles, and social media posts related to inclusive health in Sub-Saharan Africa, both in English and various local languages. We identified ten broad barriers to inclusive health and mapped them to related solutions created by social entrepreneurs. Additionally, we calculated the correlation of each barrier with gender inequality and conducted temporal and geographical analyses to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on inclusive health and identify clusters of countries facing similar struggles.

The Results

The uncovered insights were used in the Alliance’s report on inclusive health in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report informs investments, partnerships, and actions to nourish the enabling environment for social entrepreneurs attempting to tackle barriers to inclusive health in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Challenge

An intergovernmental organization needed to understand the development of different sustainability-oriented sectors globally and identify strategic opportunities for international partnerships. They needed a comprehensive view of 12 different sectors, including current developments, priorities and strengths, investment opportunities, and leading companies.

The Solution

We employed a framework with a variety of data sources, including academic articles, R&D funding data, patents, and news articles, to create a Sector Mapping for the 12 sectors. Using AI-powered text analytics techniques, we mapped out the developments and current discussions to create a detailed report about the sectors globally and on the level of specific countries, allowing for comparisons.

The Results

The Sector Mapping allowed the intergovernmental organization to identify gaps and priorities, investment and business opportunities, as well as leading companies, universities, or research groups within the sectors and different regions. This in-depth analysis enabled them to pinpoint strategic opportunities for international partnerships.

The Challenge

The UNDP wanted to create a platform that helps guide private capital toward investment opportunities with a positive impact as well as return on investment. To do this, they created a framework that is being adopted globally through UNDP Country Offices. UNDP asked us to map Investment Opportunity Areas (IOAs) for different sectors in China, including healthcare, agriculture, and the care economy.

Our Solution

We worked with UNDP China to identify IOAs for different sectors in China. The first step was to identify Chinese provinces of interest for each subsector by mapping provinces in terms of policy support and development need. This was done by collecting and analyzing each province’s policy documents and statistical data. After the priority provinces were selected for each subsector, relevant experts were identified and interviewed. Combined with data mining and desk research, a list of IOAs was generated, and supporting information was collected.

The Results

The study identified key Investment Opportunity Areas in healthcare, agriculture, and the care economy to inform impact investors through the UNDP SDG Investor Platform. The study provided clear investment opportunities that will have a financial return while also generating a positive impact for people and the planet.

The Challenge

Female entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa face numerous challenges in the process of starting and running their enterprises. To understand these challenges and develop tailored supporting mechanisms, Bayer Foundation encouraged the applicants for their 2022 Women Empowerment Award to share their stories.

Our Solution

We helped Bayer Foundation analyze the stories shared by the applicants using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, including AI-powered text analytics. We identified the main challenges and mapped their interconnections.

The Results

The study helped Bayer Foundation understand the different challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, which enabled them to create tailored supporting mechanisms. The findings were published in a white paper, which can be found here.

The Challenge

A leading FMCG company wanted to understand how their brands were communicating about sustainability on social media and press releases. They needed to know which topics each brand was focusing on and how that compared to their peers.

Our Solution

We conducted a comprehensive analysis of their brands’ and peers’ communications on sustainability and corporate image. We used natural language processing, understanding, and generation to analyze more than 100,000 news articles and 15,000 social media posts.