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Weekly Round-up 11-20-11: HealthPoint’s Push to Meet, Exceed Expectations
In a little more than two years, HealthPoint has created a network of medical clinics and clean water access points, providing 22,000 medical consultations, filling 28,000 prescriptions, and assisting more than 50,000 people a day with drinking water. This growth propelled the initial clinics to positive cash flow in the first quarter of 2011.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
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Farming to Invest in the Future
Recently, we surveyed more than 150 farmers in our cotton program to better understand the impact that TechnoServe’s work has on their lives and livelihoods. I wanted numbers - and I got them - but what stuck with me were not the facts and figures, but the deeply personal stories that those facts and figures told.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Watch: With Smartphones, Software, Building Better Agricultural Value Chains
Funded by the Gates Foundation, African Cashew Initiative is a $48 million project that aims to raise the incomes of 150,000 smallholder farmers. From Ghana, business software giant SAP is researching how ICT software coupled with smartphones is improving efficiency and trust in the cashew value chain, from farmers to buyers/traders. (With video)
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology, Telecommunications
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The FOUND Middle: Arogyam Organics
As part the "FOUND Middle" series, we share this interview with Kanmani Arumugasamy of Arogyam Organics Pvt. Ltd. Based in India, Arogyam works to promote organic products and improve the quality of life of local farmers by reducing middle man costs. This video is one of many highlighting businesses and organizations making up the "missing middle."
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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The U.S. Secretary of State’s Global Partnership Initiative on Impact Investing
Recently, I interviewed Kris M. Balderston, Special Representative for Global Partnerships at the Global Partnership Initiative (GPI), which is located in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State, and Lala Faiz, a Senior Partnerships Advisor at GPI, and who manages their Investing with Impact initiative . Rahim Kanani: Describe a lit...
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Promoting Innovative Agricultural Businesses in Zimbabwe
Brighton Makuvaza is the administrator of TechnoServe’s Agro Innovation Zimbabwe business plan competition in Harare. He has helped coordinate every aspect of the program. The experience has shown him the promise of the agricultural sector to change lives in poor areas of Zimbabwe, which is rebuilding after the collapse of its agriculture sector.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Wealthy Indonesians Start Sharing the Wealth
There are few places in the word where such vast contrasts exist that one can watch a Bentley overtaking a bajaj on city streets, an act that symbolizes the scale of economic inequality throughout the country. However, several determined Indonesians are aiming to take matters into their own hands as a means to provide greater opportunities to those who are less fortunate. Sandiaga Uno, a successful investor and CEO of Saratoga Capital, has found a unique way to link hi...
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Outgrower Systems Hold Promise for Smallholder African Farmers
African agriculture is poised for a boom. Investors are buying large tracts of land as commodity prices rise and Africa’s business climate improves. But will this mean higher rural incomes and a better quality of life for smallholder farmers? A new joint report from IFAD and TechnoServe highlights the promise and challenges outgrower schemes.
- Categories
- Agriculture