-
Avoiding the Generation Gap : Young people and financial access, going beyond mobile money
For many young people, owning a phone is aspirational and closely tied to their self-esteem. The surge of young people with phones or phone access and the emergence of low-cost mobile banking technology suggests that it may be timely to engage them in accessing digital financial services and building their financial capabilities.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
-
Africa’s Microinsurance Maze: Early trial-and-error efforts could lead to coverage for 1 billion in 2013
Insurers, mobile-phone companies and behind-the-scenes administrators also involved have learned that mobile networks and microinsurance are potentially a great fit. The challenge for the future is getting people to pay.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
-
A New Wave of Crowdfunding: Connecting Social Enterprises with Investors (for Greater Social Impact)
In a growing ecosystem where for-profit social enterprises are becoming more visible and investors equally interested, a significant problem remains: How do we connect the two and streamline them in a way that is both efficient and helps accelerate social impact?
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
-
All About India : A Health Care Market in Transition (Part 4)
India’s health care system is at a crossroads. Its population is getting older, and age and lifestyle-related diseases are on the rise. Yet its health care system is ill-equipped to respond. This fourth and final post in our series on India provides an overview of the country’s biggest health care challenges, and nine solutions for solving them.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, Technology
-
Socially Contagious: How Microclinic International is Spreading Healthy Behaviors
Whether you’re buying shoes or making health-related decisions, your behavior is influenced by those around you. That’s the premise behind Microclinic International, which uses social networks to make good health contagious.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Technology, Telecommunications
-
A Growing Lifeline: Mobile Technologies in Agricultural Development
For farmers, mobile devices can deliver services that help them improve their production, such as weather information and technical advice. For buyers, data delivered via mobile can increase their insight into volumes harvested and processed by farmers and their organizations during the cycle.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology, Telecommunications
-
The PeaceTXT Proposition: Stopping violence with an SMS
PeaceTXT: a global mash-up of social innovators, software designers and information technologists (to name a few) collaborating on mobile technology’s potential to prevent violence. The collaboration, spearheaded by PopTech, is aiming to create the first broadly available tested methodologies and technical platforms for using mobile phones to disrupt violence and engender more peaceful communities.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology, Telecommunications
-
Good Cloud, Bad Cloud: Multinational ICT vendors are pushing services in Africa, why the solutions are in Africans’ hands
While global multinational companies are pushing private cloud computing services, the only viable solution for most enterprises in Africa, then, is the public cloud. The hope for Africa lies in the rapidly decreasing cost of broadband Internet and smaller, homegrown cloud service providers (CSPs) that are willing to invest in cloud data centers in Africa.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications