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The World is Losing the Fight Against Malaria: Could Drones and AI Help Defeat the Disease Once and For All?
The fight against malaria has been one of the great global health success stories of the 21st century, as efforts to defeat the disease have prevented an estimated 2.2 billion malaria cases and saved 12.7 million lives. But as Yosuke Kaneko at SORA Technology explains, this progress has stalled in recent years — and as global development funding dries up, there are worrying signs that the problem could get worse. He argues that this situation calls for an openness to new, tech-driven solutions, and explores how SORA Technology is using drones equipped with AI-powered cameras to target mosquito breeding sites and eradicate the disease at its source.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Public Good vs. Profitable Exits: Why Public Innovation Agencies Must Stop Copying Venture Capital
A new class of venture capitalist is emerging, but they aren’t Wall Street financiers or Silicon Valley tech bros. As Emre Eren Korkmaz at the University of Oxford argues, they are public innovation agencies that are shifting their funding approach: Instead of supporting high-risk research and innovations aimed at delivering societal benefit, they have begun to adopt the logic of venture capital, favoring commercially viable projects that are more likely to secure follow-on private funding. He explores the downsides to this shift, arguing that the world needs these institutions to do what private capital cannot or will not: supporting innovation for the public good, not just for profitable exits.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up: Bhutan and Fiji’s Contrasting Paths to Digital Transformation Reveal the Pros and Cons of Government and Market-Driven Approaches
The pursuit of digital competitiveness — the capacity and readiness to adopt digital technologies — has led to remarkable success stories in emerging markets, transforming public infrastructure and enhancing the delivery of social and financial services. But as Neeraj Lekhwar and Garima Singh at FinValue Advisors explain, this path remains challenging for many nations — particularly small countries. They share insights from a FinValue study involving Bhutan and Fiji: two countries with comparable sizes and socioeconomic structures that have approached their digital transformation very differently. The policy paths they've taken present contrasting examples of digital adoption strategies that provide valuable lessons for other small markets.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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The Emergence of InfraTech: How AI and Other Digital Technologies are Enabling Climate-Resilient Transportation Infrastructure in LMICs
An estimated 1 billion people around the world lack access to all-weather roads. As Caylee Talpert at AnyWay Solutions explains, this means that over 12% of the global population cannot travel to school or work reliably throughout the year. She highlights the impacts of this gap, and explores how artificial intelligence, satellite and drone technology, and other advanced "InfraTech" solutions are optimizing climate-resilient transportation infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries.
- Categories
- Technology, Transportation
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SACCOs, Social Collateral and Bitcoin Communities: A Filmmaker Documents New (and Old) Ways to Extend Financial Inclusion Past the Limits of Fintech
Luke Willms worked at an African NGO, where he was tasked with creating short videos to showcase the positive impacts of its microcredit program. But as the video project progressed, his assumptions about the effectiveness of microfinance began to unravel. He would spend the next seven years filming stories from across Africa and other regions, exploring whether microlending still held relevance in a rapidly changing world. The resulting documentary, “Unbankable,” was released last year, with the goal of helping to reframe the global conversation around financial inclusion. He shares key stories from the movie, which show how Africa’s informal, trust-based financial systems offer models of resilience and adaptation that could find new applications in other emerging countries.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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When AI Gets It Wrong: Lessons from a Women-Centered Design Experiment Highlight the Need for Inclusive GPTs
In emerging markets, women entrepreneurs continue to face systemic barriers to financial inclusion. And as Koheun Lee at CARE explains, ChatGPT and other AI models sometimes contribute to this exclusion, reinforcing societal biases that limit women’s potential for business growth and long-term financial health. She shares insights from CARE's attempt to build a women-centered design GPT — and proposes some practical steps AI users can take to mitigate bias against women when working with mainstream GPTs.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Moving Past the ‘Infrastructure of Hope’: Why Investors, Policymakers and Entrepreneurs Must Build a Modern E-Commerce Ecosystem in Southeast Asia
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for over 95% of all businesses in Southeast Asia, and millions of these entrepreneurs have migrated their hustle online. Yet according to Macy Castillo at Enstack, due to a lack of access to reliable payment options and other tools, they are attempting to build modern e-commerce businesses on a foundation of informal agreements and personal trust: an “infrastructure of hope” that leaves them exposed to payment fraud and locked out of formal finance. She argues that this is the central challenge for economic inclusion in Southeast Asia today, and explores Enstack's solution.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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A New Green Revolution in Indian Agriculture: How Satellite Remote Sensing is Quietly Transforming the Sector
Satellite remote sensing involves the use of satellite-based sensors to capture data about the earth’s surface. According to Sat Kumar Tomer at Satyukt Analytics, this technology is increasingly being used by Indian farmers and the businesses and organizations that serve them, generating data on vegetation health, soil moisture, irrigation patterns and other key drivers of agricultural productivity. He explores how satellite remote sensing is enabling a data-driven revolution in Indian agriculture, and how the sector can overcome barriers to wider adoption.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Finance, Technology
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