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Announcing Ashoka Changemakers’ “Health Ideas” Week: A week-long discussion of nutrition’s impact on health
In health and wellness, everything is connected, from the soil that yields a staple crop to the policies of national governments. Global access to health is a critical need of our time, and it requires game-changing ideas from everyone from farmers to businesses. That’s why Ashoka Changemakers is hosting “Health Ideas” week on NextBillion Health Care, showcasing new opportunities and ideas that target global health from the perspectives of business, innovation and nutrition.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Tags
- nutrition, public health
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Gums, Not Guns: How Mali entrepreneurs are offering a path to peace
In Mali’s southern villages, gums, not guns, are proliferating. These natural gums are being harvested from trees that grow wild across the African Sahel, and exported to Europe to meet rising demand for their use in products from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics to baked goods. In 2010 Root Capital is offered financing to gum producer Produits du Sud to secure contracts with international buyers and expand its reach from 30 farmers spread across five villages to 2,000 farmers in 200 villages in 2012.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Uganda: Invest in Agriculture – World Bank
The World Bank has said that investing in agribusiness could be one of the landmark solutions to the slow pace of Africa's economic development.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Tags
- impact investing
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NexThought Monday – Nutrients for All: Thriving ecosystems for productive, resilient food systems
Natural ecosystems ensure that vital nutrients flow from soils to food to people. Thriving ecosystems are the bedrock of healthy nutrient chains, the basis of all life on the planet. But human activity like unsustainable agricultural practices is threatening ecosystems around the world. Escalating stress on ecosystems increases the impact of climate change, and limits the availability of nutrient-enabling resources like water, topsoil and biodiversity. But though the issues are dire, there are solutions.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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A STRYDE Forward for Youth: Creating opportunities in rural East Africa
Africa will add 122 million people to its labor force between 2010 and 2020. The Strengthening Rural Youth Development through Enterprise (STRYDE) program, a partnership between TechnoServe and The MasterCard Foundation, provides training, mentoring and building self esteem for young workers entering a difficult economy.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education
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Bi-Weekly Checkup – 3/1/13: What you may have missed and what we’re working on at NB Health Care
We’re launching a new regular feature at NextBillion Health Care – the Bi-Weekly Checkup. (Sorry for the obligatory medical pun – hey, it’s a health care blog…)
The Checkup has three main functions:
To highlight recent posts and news items that you might have missed, to explore new ideas, organizations and trends in global health and health-related social enterprise and to let you know about upcoming content on NBHC.- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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A New Business Model for Farmers in the Nutrient Economy
You could argue that a more comprehensive, albeit wonky, word for farmer is “nutrient steward.” Unfortunately, most farmers are only compensated for their end products, like corn and cotton. In reality, however, farmers are stewarding the nutrient processes that result in these end products. So why shouldn’t they be compensated for these services?
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Health Care
- Tags
- nutrition, public health
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Nutrients For All: Envisioning a new food system
Being fully nourished is a must for good health, but in an alarming global trend, our foods are losing nutrients at each stage of our environmental and food systems. We need to ensure that vital nutrients are generated, preserved, and conveyed from soil to food, and from food markets to people. Our health, human productivity and economics depend on it.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Tags
- nutrition, public health