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A Field-Based Perspective on Sub-Saharan Africa’s Agriculture Crisis: Exploring the Four Critical Dimensions that are Driving Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is no longer just a humanitarian concern in sub-Saharan Africa: It is a business issue. According to Asamoah Oppong Zadok, a researcher and entrepreneur specializing in sustainable agriculture, it constitutes a fundamental business risk with far-reaching implications for the region's economic growth, supply chain stability and geopolitical resilience. He explores the multifaceted structural factors that are driving Africa's agriculture and food security crisis, exploring how business innovators, funders and policymakers can respond.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Technology
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The Circular Solar Opportunity in Africa: How Refurbishing Solar Systems Can Reduce E-Waste and Expand Energy Access
While working in the bustling solar energy scene in Ethiopia, Zelalem Nigatu at Inter Ethiopia Solutions noticed a disheartening trend: Mountains of solar home systems were being discarded due to minor issues that could have been fixed by trained technicians with access to spare parts and the proper tools. He explores how Inter Ethiopia Solutions is tackling this challenge through a systematic approach to refurbishing solar home systems and repurposing lithium-ion batteries, enabling it to offer affordable off-grid energy solutions while reducing e-waste.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Designing Digital Health Tools for the Last Mile: Lessons for Maximizing Connectivity, Usability and Trust
Digital health has become a promising approach for improving healthcare access in under-resourced communities. But as Kaumudi Tiwari at Zonka Feedback explains, bringing healthcare to the “last mile” isn’t just about overcoming the challenges of physical distance. It’s about navigating poor network coverage, language mismatches, lack of trust in digital systems, and tools that don’t align with local workflows or realities. She shares four critical lessons from digital health deployments in Africa and Asia that underscore why some digital health tools succeed in the last mile, while others stall.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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A Global Effort to Unleash Local Data: How Open Mapping is Shaping Grassroots Climate Resilience Worldwide
As climate change intensifies, heatwaves, storms, wildfires and flash floods are increasing in scale and frequency worldwide. Yet as Atiya Anis at Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team explains, many of the areas that are most vulnerable to climate impacts lack representation on existing maps, leaving communities and decision-makers without reliable data to address these crises. She explores how open mapping offers a solution to this issue by leveraging community-generated data to create accessible and reliable maps of vulnerable areas to support climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
- Tags
- climate change, data, NGOs
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Redefining Fairness: How Second-Degree Price Discrimination Can Bring Greater Access to Essential Goods and Services in Emerging Markets
Second-degree price discrimination is a pricing model in which customers are offered a lower price point in exchange for a lower level of quality or convenience, or a lower price per unit in exchange for purchasing a larger amount of the product. According to Wasiu Akintunde at Texas Tech University, this approach can benefit not only businesses, but also governments, NGOs and the communities they serve. He explores how this pricing model can be designed ethically and effectively to bring necessary products and services to multiple income segments in emerging markets.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
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Transforming How Financial Service Providers and Fintechs Leverage Data: A New Free Tool Aims to Separate the Signal from the Noise
In today’s digital finance landscape, data is one of the most valuable assets. Yet as Sarah Corley at AllianceDFA and Mallory Sheff at DataKind explain, data remains siloed, fragmented and underutilized across the sector — and this challenge is particularly acute in emerging markets. They argue that this isn’t just a missed opportunity, but a structural barrier to inclusion and innovation, and share a free, open-access learning platform designed to help fintechs and other financial service providers turn data into action to fuel customer growth and retention.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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The Rise of the Creator Economy in Emerging Markets: Empowering Youth and Marginalized Communities Through Web Monetization
The creator economy — a thriving ecosystem of online content creators ranging from influencers to bloggers — is a growing source of employment and income in developing economies, especially for younger generations. And as Matšeliso Thabane at the Interledger Foundation explains, alternative earning routes are emerging that can allow these creators to monetize their content in new ways. She explores how Web Monetization — a “pay-as-you-use” approach that enables small, real-time payments to content creators — can help this work become a viable career for creators in emerging markets.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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Connected Power: Ensuring Africa is Not Left in the Dark — or Offline
Sub-Saharan Africa has both the highest energy access and digital connectivity gaps in the world. As Ravi Suchak at Helios Towers explains, this is due not to a lack of demand, but to fundamental infrastructure barriers: Telecom towers and mobile networks require a reliable power supply, which is often absent or prohibitively expensive in rural areas, and electricity providers need consistent demand to de-risk rural energy investments. He explores a solution that addresses both of these needs: "connected power," a development approach that aligns energy and telecom infrastructure by positioning telecom towers as anchor customers for electrification projects.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology, Telecommunications
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