Our Expertise
“Being in government gave me more perspective into the importance of what is called financing sovereignty. The sovereignty to finance your own ideas, your projects, your priorities. This is what Technology and Innovative Financing does, it gives you the freedom, the flexibility, the financing sovereignty to make decisions based on your own priorities.”
Laurent Lamothe, Founder and CEO
INNOVATIVE FINANCE
Creating New Revenue Streams
For many countries, financing large scale development projects that would see the improvement of infrastructure, education, healthcare and the overall well-being of its citizens, is an ongoing challenge. It’s not cheap, and these project are often long-term, lasting many years.
When it comes to financing, if a country cannot find the additional revenue through its tax-base, it may look towards securing a loan. The most common solution is to approach multi-lateral organisations, the World Bank, the IMF and other development banks. However, this means increasing a country’s debt levels, and it might not be enough. Innovative Financing is an alternative solution, which allows governments to fill the development finance gap.
Innovative finance refers to a range of non-traditional mechanisms to raise additional funds for development utilising micro-contributions, public-private partnerships and market-based financial transactions. Thus, governments are able to leverage millions of transactions, apply a micro-levy onto those transactions and bring in millions of additional dollars for development.
SMART CITIES
Data Driven Policy-Making
Smart cities are more of a reality than we think. We are living in a digitised world. Most people have a smartphone and can conduct their daily lives on this one device. This connectivity means that the public sector across the globe needs rethink how it operates and engages with its constituents.
The benefit of smart cities is that municipalities, cities and even countries can make smart optimised decisions. Which ultimately saves money and improves the quality of services offered by a government. By leverage on technology and the use of a large amount of data, their citizens generate every second to optimise resources, to connect people and to improve business and trading. A smart city targets energy savings and adopts environmentally-friendly technologies, which helps in promoting sustainable development. All of this translates into an improved quality of life for residents.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Effective and Efficient Governments
At LSL World Initiative we believe that technology is one of the key drivers for any government wishing to transform its services, to become more efficient and effective. New technologies hold great promise for improving government services.
However the challenge is, if and how quickly it can leverage technological advancements — enabling it to radically increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its programs and services. History has demonstrated that new technologies can fundamentally affect how governments operate. Advances in technology can enhance or streamline administrative tasks and service delivery.
A good starting point for governments wanting to embark on digital transformation is to view citizens as customers. The public sector needs to make the citizen experience more user-friendly. Similar to how the private sector puts a focus on customer experience and satisfaction. Getting a licence, applying for an ID or a passport could be as easy as using your phone and downloading an app.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Preparedness Through Smart Accelerators
Countries in the both the developed and developing world should take the Caribbean’s lead in building resilience to mitigate the impact of climate change. Besides its captivating beauty, one thing Caribbean nations have in common is vulnerability to frequent and costly natural disasters.
For countries affected by natural disasters the challenge is similar, how to implement mitigation strategies that can better prepare countries for natural disasters. We know that climate change dramatically increases the severity of weather conditions. Also, these disasters tend to disproportionately affect the poor, who have a limited ability to cope with the impact. Many of the communities in these regions live in high-risk areas with weak infrastructure. Moreover, the economies rely heavily on sectors sensitive to weather, such as tourism and agriculture, while capacity and resources to manage risk are limited.
Caribbean nations have established the world’s first “Climate-Smart Zone” and Accelerator. The Accelerator has created an unprecedented coalition including 26 countries and over 40 private and public sector partners which will implement climate solutions for resilience, renewable energy, development of sustainable cities, oceans and transportation. This climate-smart zone will not only protect the region but create jobs and a new economy based on climate-smart infrastructure.