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African countries want to turn their poor, overcrowded urban centers into “smart cities”
Rwanda is on a campaign to transform its capital city of rolling hills and low-rise buildings into a so-called smart city where urban living has been optimized. Already, officials like to stress how much technology is part of daily life in Rwanda, from the president’s active Twitter presence to the fact that registering a marriage, death, or birth—things that would normally require multiple forms and trips to a government office—are increasingly done online.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Research as a catalyst to grow technology clusters in Africa
Africa’s poor standing mirrors an unfortunate reality that has seen research and development given less importance, both in building scalable products or an active technology community.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- innovation, research
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Three Ways Entrepreneurs Can Tackle Climate Change (Hint: It’s Not Just About Scale)
There are ways entrepreneurs can make sizeable impacts on climate change without Facebook-like growth curves. Jean-Louis Racine says investors should follow the lead of the venture capital sector and support startups that won't grow or be profitable. Traditional impact metrics such as goods sold, customers served, revenues generated or jobs created no longer apply. The best way to catalyze a climate technology market is to help ensure that innovative high-risk, low-growth ventures don't fall through the cracks.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
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Illuminating the developing world’s “invisible” consumers
Texting-based surveys capture purchasing and behavior data from people living in remote areas.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Unitus fund’s latest StartHealth winners spotlight rise of medical tech innovation in India
Unitus Seed Fund, one of India's best-known impact venture funds that backs early-stage startups innovating for the masses, has named two winners of its StartHealth startup contest, which show medical tech innovation is taking off in India.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Malawi opens drone testing corridor for humanitarian efforts
The air corridor is a result of the partnership with the UN's children's agency and officials say it opens up the possibility for "potential humanitarian" drone use in the southeast African country.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Blockchains Could Revolutionize International Aid
It’s this sort of problem–a lack of traceability in aid–that encouraged Thompson to develop a system to transfer and track international development payments. AID:Tech is one of several startups working with blockchain technology, trying to ensure more funds go where they’re supposed to go. “Transparency is really needed in aid and welfare payments because there’s not a functioning system that works globally,” he says.
- Categories
- Technology
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Bridging financial inclusion with technology is key
Sonny Singh, Senior VP and GM of Oracle's Financial Services Global Business Unit, tells Anup Jayaram how the company is helping facilitate digital banking in India.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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