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Viewpoint: How Mobile Banking Can Protect Refugees
“Mean spirited”, “inhumane” and desecrating the spirit of the Refugee Convention are some of the milder criticisms levelled at Denmark’s harsh new asylum laws, passed last week. Among new measures is a decision to strip new arrivals of any cash and valuables worth more than 10,000 kroner (US$1,450), purportedly to pay for their upkeep. Switzerland and some southern German states have introduced similar policies.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Your Cheap Solar Lamp is Garbage
It’s easy to think of “the poor” in two-dimensional, homogenous terms and rattle off assumptions like "They’re poor people, aren’t they happy with anything?" or "Isn’t something better than nothing?" Incorrect. As the charity research organization SolarAid once put it, “The quickest way to fix a problem is the best,” and in most cases, that means quality.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Tags
- Base of the Pyramid, solar
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UNICEF Innovation Fund Invites Blockchain Startups
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is including and inviting blockchain technology startups to apply for its ‘Innovation Fund’ with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of vulnerable children around the world.
- Categories
- Technology
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Building Efficient Social Sector Initiatives Through New Generation Impact Measurement
The social sector is going through a massive change never seen before. Thanks to the advocacy of innovative foundations, impact investments are now becoming mainstream, along with collective impact programs and other initiatives like social impact bonds and Pay for Success programs. As these trends spread, we are witnessing the rise of thousands of collective impact ecosystems accompanied by improved impact investment models. These ecosystems incorporate different catalysts to impact measurement, when what we really need is a unified strategy of metrics.
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- Impact Assessment, Technology
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Technology Meets Healthcare in India
When it comes to healthcare, developing nations face the challenges of accessibility and affordability. This is particularly true for healthcare in India.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Can Tech Solutions Power a New Kind of Health Care for the Developing World?
People around the world risk their lives by trusting health care workers who sometimes are doing nothing more than shooting in the dark.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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A Solution to Urban Blight? Crowdfunding’s Potential to Transform Cities
Lending through peer-to-peer platforms, or "real estate marketplace lending," involves connecting borrowers seeking alternative sources of financing for their real estate investment needs with investors seeking passive income opportunities. As more Americans embrace crowdfunding sort of solutions, we believe cities that were once forsaken can be revitalized and brought back to life.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
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Viewpoint: Bitcoin Investment Has Neglected the Developing World
indesk, the leading Bitcoin news site, stated in its latest quarterly report (The State of Bitcoin and Blockchain) that one of the most heralded areas of bitcoin disruption, “banking for the unbanked” has been the most disappointing area of interest when it comes to investment. Only 0.12 percent of Bitcoin investment has gone to Africa. Of course, this seems to fly in the face of the assertions, which you won’t miss in the various Bitcoin forums as well as news sites, that Bitcoin is the technology that the poor in the developing world have been waiting to afford them cheap financial services. According to Michael Fraser, reporting leader at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAAZ):
- Categories
- Technology
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