The Global Risks Alliance (GRA)
Technology relevant to development finance, critical infrastructure and economic development: what it can do, the constraints it faces and its consequences for people and institutions.
GRA · Established · service level R0
Innovation at Development Finance Nexus is the evaluation of technology relevant to development finance: the need it addresses, the evidence behind it, its constraints and its consequences for safety, rights and the environment. Promising work can be built in Nexus Foundry and tested in Nexus Universe; nothing is called proven before test and review, and no product is endorsed.
Fig.How a finding is reviewed before it is published. Design, not a record.
For technology and emerging practices, in GRA's spatial-finance reading, the map opens on night lights and population density with built-up and settlement extent from NASA GIBS, framed on Southern Africa; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 2
People and exposure, for this page
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
For technology and emerging practices, in GRA's spatial-finance reading, the map opens on night lights and population density with built-up and settlement extent from NASA GIBS, framed on Southern Africa; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Layers and dates
Which problem does the technology address, and for whom?
What has been demonstrated, under what conditions, and what remains untested?
Cost, skills, infrastructure, data and governance requirements.
Effects on safety, rights, equity and the environment.
For each change, Development Finance Nexus asks what new dependency, concentration or model risk it creates for development bank project and risk officers, and which of World Bank and IFC, Multilateral development banks and IMF and World Bank has addressed it so far.
Promising work can be built in Nexus Foundry and tested under controlled conditions through Nexus Universe. No technology is described as proven before it has been tested and reviewed.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Technology readiness level | A scale from basic principles to proven operation that describes how mature a technology is. |
| Responsible innovation | Anticipating and governing the effects of new technology together with society. |
| Testbed | A controlled setting, from a lab rig to a field site or sandbox, for trying a technology before it meets real conditions of use. |
| Environmental and social safeguards | Requirements lenders set so financed projects avoid, minimise and offset harm to people and the environment. |
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.