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Rural Knowledge Meets Tech Innovation: What Ultra-Poor Entrepreneurs Can Teach the World
What happens when Barefoot College, a global NGO which trains entrepreneurs in poverty-stricken rural areas, melds its expertise and values with tech innovators like Apple? It sparks the emergence of a new kind of entrepreneur who has much to teach the world, says Scot Bolsinger – along with new opportunities for rural communities to share and connect in ways never before possible.
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- Education, Technology
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Looking For the Next Big Thing: New Partnership Builds Fintech Ecosystems in Four Emerging Start-up Markets
A new partnership between Village Capital and MetLife Foundation seeks to build the fintech ecosystems in four emerging start-up markets: Poland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine. The idea is to find, and then support, entrepreneurs working specifically in fintech who have the potential to solve real-world problems.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- financial inclusion, fintech, scale
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From Biometrics to Chatbots: Two Technology Challenges Aim to Help Governments Digitize their Economies
There is a growing consensus that emerging-market governments should digitize their economies, starting with the vast streams of payments they themselves make and receive. The DFS Lab is launching two technology challenges to fund new technologies that enable this transition: a Biometrics Challenge and a Chatbots Challenge. The deadline to enter is May 30.
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- Technology
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From Trash to Resource: How Technology Can Help Informal Waste Pickers Solve India’s Recycling Problem
Due to its dependence on informal waste pickers, urban waste management in India is at once a complex problem to solve, and an excellent business opportunity. Kabadiwalla Connect, a tech-based social enterprise, is using smartphones and innovative logistics to help this informal ecosystem of urban recyclers make a better living and keep untold tons of garbage out of landfills.
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- Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
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Two-Sided Mobile Platform Creates ‘Network Effect’ to Help Patients, Health Clinics
The private health sector, where a large percentage of people in developing countries seek care, is fragmented and marked by poor quality and high prices. Two interlinked programs conceived by a group in the Netherlands – M-TIBA and the Medical Credit Fund – are attempting to address this problem at large scale. Both have achieved remarkable growth within a short period.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Geodata Technology Moving Into New Fields. Literally.
Geodata and ICT applications help farmers with precision farming, leading to increased yields and improved quality. This information has not yet been made available to financial institutions at a large scale, but it has the potential to increase access to finance for smallholder farmers. The Rabobank Foundation and NpM have launched a Board of Inspiration to help speed the process.
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- Agriculture, Technology
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From Robotic Exoskeletons to ‘Uber’ for the Disabled: How Social Tech Startups Can Transform Health Care
Today, thanks to technology, individuals and startups can tackle issues that previously could only be addressed by governments and big business – including health care. Here, in advance of June's AVPN Conference in Bangkok, the social tech acceleration program Tech For Good recognizes five companies that are harnessing technology in innovative ways to solve health care and safety issues.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Social Business Roundup: The Problem with Sachets, the Beauty of Rats and the Dark Side of Cross-Selling
Everyone seems to love the products in individually-sized sachets being sold at the BoP ... except for Mother Nature. Ethiopia's only too happy to roll out the welcome mat for some rats with amazing TB-sniffing skills. A questionable cross-selling strategy in South Africa harms a vulnerable population and raises uncomfortable questions about financial inclusion. It's all part of our weekly Social Business Roundup.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care, Social Enterprise, Technology
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