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Prepaid Meters Scupper Gains Made in Accessing Water in Africa
While many countries appear to have met the U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water, rights activists say that African countries which have taken to installing prepaid water meters have rendered a blow to many poor people, making it hard for them to access water.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Twitter Top 10 – 5/10/15
It’s Mother’s Day in the U.S., and we’ve put together a selection of tweets that anyone’s mother would love (assuming she’s involved in social enterprise or global development). This week’s tweets include case studies for impact investors, disturbing development’s on India’s financial inclusion front, and our usual array of resources and insights (along with some interesting gift ideas for mom.)
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
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Viewpoint: Is This the Big Solution to Failing WASH Projects We’ve Been Waiting for?
Water and sanitation projects often go something like this: NGOs show up with equipment, money, and people on hand, drill a well or install sanitation systems and then leave. A handful of locals are typically trained on upkeep and minor infrastructure repairs, but this isn’t always the case. If the wells need to be repointed or major leaks or breaks occur in the pipes, the communities are out of luck. As a result of the dig-and-dash approach, well-meaning projects end up abandoned and communities go back to contaminated water, which can lead to enteric illness and death, as well as economic setbacks.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Tags
- philanthropy
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Kenyan women make a healthy profit selling aloe to cosmetics firm
Women herders in Kenya's semi-arid Laikipia County have broken with tradition to export the leaves of a desert plant to Europe, boosting their incomes.Three hundred women in El Poloi have switched from the age-old occupation of goat-keeping to the new and far more lucrative activity of farming aloe, a plant with healing properties.Along the way, they are transforming their economic status and creating educational opportunities for their daughters.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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We’re Learning How to Sell Toilets in West Africa
With the excitement and buzz of World Water Day behind us I’m left both inspired and concerned. I’m inspired because there is a growing understanding by WASH professionals that it will take market development and systemic change to truly solve the problem. These methods look overall at what is working and not working in terms of WASH services for populations at risk across value chains and within the market system, and then, based on that analysis, develop targeted interventions with pro-poor innovations to make markets work. What is also exciting is the impact that adopting and implementing these approaches might have on the development sector in general.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Latin American Organizations Campaign to Ban Monsanto
Doctors, scientists and environmentalists in Argentina, and across Latin America, are demanding a ban on Monsanto products.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Latin America
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The Art of Saving – Look to the Giraffe, the Ant and the Zebra: A parable informs financial inclusion training in Ethiopia
My Amharic skills are basic at best, but I have managed to learn the names of a few animals, including “gundan,” which means ant. In the middle of a recent savings and credit training session we conducted with farmers in northern Ethiopia, one trainer used the word "gundan." "What does an ant have to do with savings?" I asked.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Mali’s Farmers Count on National Fund to Expand Climate Insurance
A lack of rain in the middle of last season caused Seydou Diarassouba's sorghum crop to fail.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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