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Harnessing Mobile Technologies to Make Matatus, and Kenya, Safer
Kenya's roads are deadly due in no small part to accidents involving "matatus," the ubiquitous minibuses. A key problem: The more passengers they pick up, the more matatu drivers get paid. So Echo Mobile and a team from the University of California at Berkeley recently launched the SmartMatatu project to study driver behavior and how they might be incentivized differently.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Weekly Roundup: Keeping Talent, Seeking Another Uber, Auctioning Vegetables, Watching for Seagulls
In this week's Roundup: The talent dilemma in social entrepreneurship; a discussion about whether there will ever be an Uber for health care; a smallholder farmer turned WhatsApp auctioneer; and the revelation that the highest use of drones is probably not as sunscreen-pooping seagulls.
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- Health Care
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Equipping a New Era of Global Development
Sometimes it can feel like NGOs, social businesses and big development aid institutions are in competition with one another to improve the world. But in an increasingly complex world, we should view violent extremist organizations, such as ISIS, as development competitors. This perspective was a running theme – but one of several facing social entrepreneurs and global development leaders at all levels – discussed at Devex World.
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- Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Swine Flu Adds to Brazil’s Zika Worries
Brazil, which will host the Olympics beginning Aug. 5, was already beset by economic problems, a political crisis and the Zika outbreak. Now it's experiencing its worst swine flu outbreak since 2009. Dr. Melvin Sanicas, a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, wonders if this will be the crisis that forces a change to the Olympic schedule.
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- Health Care
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Getting Silicon Valley Behind Development: First, change its attitudes
Silicon Valley has become the global center for entrepreneurship because it has developed the assets, networks and cultural values necessary to promote risk-taking and innovation. The Valley has an incredibly productive and self-reinforcing entrepreneurial ecosystem. Such a system may well be impossible to fully replicate in other places — especially in less wealthy, emerging market regions. However, entrepreneurial talent and passion can be found everywhere.
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- Uncategorized
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Beyond the Lending Club Scandal – Why Marketplace Lending is Still Needed in Emerging Markets
Renaud Laplanche, the CEO of industry pioneer Lending Club, resigned in May amidst rumours of fraud and malpractice. Since then, critics have been trying to write off marketplace lending as a flawed business model. But it's too early to discount the value of the entire industry – especially as it emerges in markets like India and China to address the critical needs of SMEs.
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- Uncategorized
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Weekly Roundup: Appreciating banks, emojis for health, d.light’s destination
This week in our roundup: A major new study shows mobile finance is essential, but highlights the role of old fashioned banks; the language of emojis could improve global health; and solar lamp pioneers d.light are well on their way to reaching their goal of 100 million customers by the start of the next decade.
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- Health Care
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Last Mile in Style
Zipline, a Silicon Valley drone manufacturing firm, has contracted with the government of Rwanda to make last-mile blood deliveries. Starting this month, the drones will make between 50-150 deliveries per day to 21 transfusing facilities located in the western half of the country.
- Categories
- Health Care
