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Healthcare Cannot Exist Without Clean Water: Why WASH is the Foundation of an Effective Pandemic Response
Hospital beds and masks are often seen as the basic elements of defense against COVID-19. Yet for many developing countries, the pandemic has exposed even more fundamental disease prevention needs – namely, clean water and sanitation. Nafisa Jiwani at U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) discusses the vital role WASH plays in combating the pandemic, and how DFC is supporting water and sanitation efforts around the world.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Investing, WASH
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The COVID-19 Pivot: How Five Nonprofits and Community-Based Enterprises Have Adapted in Response to the Pandemic
As COVID-19 has upended entire industries, businesses and non-profits everywhere have had to adapt to survive – sometimes shifting completely from their traditional services. June Sugiyama at the Vodafone Americas Foundation explores how five participants in the OpenIDEO COVID Business Pivot Challenge have quickly adjusted to provide innovative solutions to the crisis.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Health Care, Technology
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The Ripple Effects of Funding Global Health Innovations: How Philanthropic Capital and Impact Investing are Shaping Markets
The Saving Lives at Birth Grand Challenge for Development has leveraged nearly $80 million dollars in investment capital over the last decade to fund over 110 innovations targeting the maternal and neonatal health sector in emerging markets. Analysts at Duke University explore the program's impact in India and Kenya, two of the fastest-growing hubs of innovation in their respective regions.
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- impact investing, innovation, SDGs
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Building Back Better: How the COVID-19 Crisis Could Lead to an Integration of Health Care and Finance
Since COVID-19 started, the health care world has been talking about finance, trying to lessen the economic damage of lockdowns. And the financial world has been talking about health, launching new products that address the challenges of the pandemic. Chris Wolff explores how the two industries can use their combined response to rebuild in a way that leaves the world in a better place than it was before.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Health Care, Technology
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The Blind Spot in Africa’s COVID-19 Response: Western Public Health Tactics Won’t Work – This Local Solution Might
The COVID-19 pandemic is primed to spread in Africa, and with just one doctor per 5,000 people, a major outbreak would overwhelm the continent’s health care systems. But as Anatole Manzi at Partners In Health points out, tactics like social distancing and hand-washing are not feasible in crowded slums and areas without clean water. He proposes a home-grown solution: training young people as community health workers.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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Fighting a Pandemic in the Dark: How SolarAid is Helping Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa Respond to COVID-19
As COVID-19 starts to spread through sub-Saharan Africa, John Keane and Sofia Ollvid at SolarAid point out that an estimated 600 million people on the continent live without access to electricity at home, and a staggering 75% of health facilities have unreliable power. They explore what solar providers are doing to help African countries respond to the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Energy, Health Care
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Chickens Are an Overlooked Risk to Child Health: Here’s Why We Have to Get Poultry Promotion Right
Bill Gates once wrote, “It’s pretty clear to me that just about anyone who’s living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens.” But despite the critical nutrition and income poultry can provide, Chris Prottas at the Water Trust raises a key concern: Chickens pose a significant threat to children’s health. He explores why the development community needs a better approach to poultry promotion.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care, WASH
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Big Data in a Time of Crisis: Maximizing its Value – And Avoiding its Risks – In the Fight Against COVID-19
About 2 million people around the world have been infected by the coronavirus, and the numbers continue to grow. Yet this data reveals only a fraction of the scale of the crisis. As Jessica Espey at SDSN TReNDS points out, the pandemic has exposed the acute weakness of the world’s data systems. But she cautions that, in modernizing these systems, we must not sacrifice our long-term data rights for short-term benefits.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Technology, Telecommunications
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