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Stopping the Spread of ‘Superbugs’: Six Promising Solutions
The use, overuse and misuse of antimicrobial drugs has created resistant strains of bacteria that could be a greater threat in poorer nations than in richer ones, due to the absence of monitoring and surveillance systems for drug resistance and lack of regulation. And if new antibiotics become available, they are likely to be expensive and unaffordable in the developing world. Here are six ways the global health community can respond.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Three Keys to Scaling Technology in Africa
Based on the success of Mama Rescue, a cloud-based transport voucher and emergency dispatch system for mothers in rural Uganda, UNICEF and the Ugandan Ministry of Health decided that the platform should be scaled up to the entire country. Here are three key lessons they've learned for successfully scaling technology.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Closing the $2.5 Trillion Gap: How blended finance can help achieve the SDGs
The UN estimates it will take $3.9 trillion a year to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Based on current global development spending, that implies an annual funding shortfall of $2.5 trillion. Convergence describes how blended finance can bring together private and public investors to fill that gap.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, SDGs
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It’s the Ecosystem, Stupid: Exploring the “digital poverty stack” – Part 2
In the first post in this series, we proposed that donors and governments advance digital and financial inclusion by focusing more on creating public goods that enable the broader ecosystem, rather than on peripheral innovation in service delivery. In this second post, we discuss the implications of this shift and highlight some new efforts to move the fields in the right direction.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
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It’s the Ecosystem, Stupid – Exploring the ‘Digital Poverty Stack,’ Part 1
Donor investments to leverage technology have largely failed to achieve their imagined potential, often producing sub-scale pilot projects which do not solve a real problem. Instead, donors should focus on building a “digital poverty stack,” a set of interoperable and reusable digital tools that can be built into a large number of applications.
- Categories
- Technology
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Weekly Roundup: Dubious Controversy, Outrageous Pricing and Angels in South Africa
Among the week's highlights (and lowlights): Grameen Foundation and Muhammad Yunus make an unwelcome entrance into U.S. presidential politics, Mylan Pharmaceuticals defends itself from price-gouging accusations, and a business angel network launches in South Africa.
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- Education, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Creating ‘Solavores’ By Thinking Inside the Box
Solavore, launched last year, sells solar ovens in the developed world and uses the profits to subsidize clean-cooking technology for the 2.7 billion people in the developing world for whom wood fire is the only cooking option, with the inevitable result: lung damage.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- climate health, solar
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Curing Silicon Valley’s Myopia: Ross Baird, on How to Change the Narrative Around Investment and Innovation
Silicon Valley is home to some of the most brilliant innovators and deep-pocketed investors in the world. So why are they focusing so much of their time and resources on solving petty problems, while ignoring countless more pressing concerns? Village Capital's executive director Ross Baird discusses the problem and some potential solutions in this podcast.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- impact investing
