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Can Digital Currencies Change the World?: Bitcoin is a tech-savvy alternative to traditional payment systems, but could it meet the needs of the financially excluded?
Riding on the Bitcoin hype, a legion of techno-optimists believes that digital crypto-currencies have the potential to transform ineffective global payment systems, and ultimately spur global financial inclusion. But will digital currencies such as Bitcoin truly change the global payment infrastructure and bring financial access to millions?
- Categories
- Technology
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Scaling Mobile for Development: Strengthening the business case for social enterprises, including those delivering health care
The developing world is rapidly gaining access to mobile phones, but still lags in services key to development. This gap presents an opportunity for social entrepreneurs, impact investors, NGOs and mobile operators who would like to achieve positive social impact through commercially viable businesses.
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- Education, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise, Technology
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NextThought Monday: Three Assumptions You Should Avoid When Working with the BoP
My goal in Villa El Salvador — an urban, residential district on the outskirts of a desert area in Lima —was to supervise a focus group with inhabitants of this neighborhood that will be part of a broader study that IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority is developing as part of its 2014 knowledge production strategy. Many of participants in the focus group surprised me with some of their answers, as they went against many of my rooted preconceptions.
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- Finance, Technology
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‘Mobile Midwife’ Empowers Ghanaian Women: Phone apps provide key information during different stages of pregnancy
Almost everyone in Ghana has a mobile phone subscription. That led a to a collaborative initiative to use cell phones to increase the quantity and quality of prenatal and neonatal care in rural Ghana and improve health outcomes for mothers and their newborns.
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- Health Care, Technology, Telecommunications
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Can You Hear Me Yet?: mHealth breakthroughs not increasing as fast as the possibilities
How could mobile phones be even more important in the future, if most of the world already has one? Because one day soon they’ll be put to their highest use: saving millions of lives.
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- Health Care, Technology, Telecommunications
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NextThought Monday: Why I’m optimistic about small-dollar credit in the U.S.
The dangers of payday loans and similar products are well-known: they are extremely expensive, often with triple-digit interest rates, and structured in a way that easily traps borrowers in a cycle of debt. Yet CFSI’s Beth Brockland sees cause for optimism in the small-dollar credit marketplace in the U.S. - and this optimism could extend to other developing markets.
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- Finance, Technology
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‘Software is Eating the World’ (Including the BoP): GIZ’s upcoming sector workshop nets ICT practice, progress
GIZ is hosting practitioner workshop Nov. 6-7 in Berlin focused on practical guidance for companies on how to leverage ICT to improve their inclusive business models. It builds on the previous BoP Sector Dialogues and is particularly geared towards company representatives from the ICT, energy, pharmaceutical, agricultural, microfinance and microinsurance sectors.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Applying ICT to Education in Africa: While Internet access expands, energy access is waning
Africa has largely leapfrogged through several technological innovations – such as the landline phone – in the last 20 years. The rapid pace of development has also led to the spread of ICTs without the infrastructure to support widespread adoption. Many developing countries lack consistent access to energy.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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