-
The Key to Fighting Poverty in Africa: Could unlocking smallholder finance solve both the continent’s food and employment challenges?
Small and mid-sized agribusinesses are a vital link in Africa’s local and regional agriculture markets. They're also key to building an inclusive African economy able to absorb a workforce that’s set to double in size over the next 25 years, and to feeding a continent that is hungrier now than ever. There’s only one problem: Commercial banks won’t lend to them.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
Rewriting the Rules for Surgery: ‘Task-shifting’ is one way to help solve the human resource problem in global health
Requiring the designation of “surgeon” as it is traditionally defined as a prerequisite for holding a scalpel in the developing world is simply untenable, given the relentless growth in population, the rapidly changing landscape of illness from acute to chronic, and the increasingly well-documented need for, and value of, essential surgery.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
-
NexThought Monday – Collecting Data That Matters: Nine tips for making sure your organization extracts the most value from measurement
Measurement is an iterative process. Metrics can and should shift as a company evolves from design to scale. Organizations should focus on collecting data that helps them improve their operations, such as data that can lead to them creating more value for their customers, producers and/or the communities where they operate.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Weekly Roundup – 8/8/15: A solution to a perennial global health problem – and all the world’s other ills! – highlight this week in development
This week was marked by some hopeful - perhaps even overly hopeful - events in global development. We cover the highlights, from a malaria vaccine to the U.N.'s new development goals - along with a dispatch from Kenya's never-ending mobile money wars and a thought-provoking point from Melinda Gates - in this roundup.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
-
Saving Mothers and Their Babies: Innovators working to solve problems in the hardest-to-reach regions of the world
Saving Lives at Birth recently nominated 17 promising ideas to add to its impressive and growing group of innovators. These newest innovations rose to the top from a pool of more than 750 submissions, more than half of which came from low- and middle-income countries. The program will be announcing additional nominees for transition-to-scale awards (up to $2 million) later this year.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
-
Defining ‘Good Practices’ in Microfinance: Smart Campaign Director Isabelle Barrès addresses the thorny issues of profits and pricing – and discusses its next steps
The Smart Campaign was launched to promote customer protection in microfinance – most notably by certifying the practices of participating MFIs. But critics have taken issue with the profits and pricing of some certified institutions. The campaign's director, Isabelle Barrès, responds to these criticisms, and discusses its next steps, in part two of our Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
An Uphill Climb: Smart Campaign director Isabelle Barrès, on the challenges of promoting client protection in microfinance
The Smart Campaign’s numbers are growing: It has certified 39 microfinance institutions as meeting its client protection standards, and these MFIs now serve slightly more than 20 million clients. But achieving this momentum hasn’t been an easy task for the campaign – or for the industry it’s trying to improve. Smart Campaign director Isabelle Barrès discusses the challenges in part one of this Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Landscape of Opportunities in India: Transforming health care through last-mile, private-sector solutions
A growing number of enterprises have developed innovative business models and technologies to tackle some of the toughest challenges in health care delivery. They are devising new and innovative products, services and business models to deliver affordable, quality health care at the last mile.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
