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Now for some good news:Two books argue that the future is brighter than we think
The lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a small device with a huge potential. It can run dozens of diagnostic tests on human DNA in a few minutes. Give the device a gob of spit or a drop of blood and it will tell you whether or not you are sick without any need to send your DNA to a laboratory. In poor countries LOCs could offer diagnostics to millions who lack access to expensive laboratories. In the rich world they may curb rising medical costs.
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment, Technology
- Tags
- public health
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The Big Idea: Taking Mobile Money Forward
The excitement of mobile money has been dampened by an inability of deployments to take hold outside a handful of successful markets. Driving the enthusiasm forward is the opportunity to bridge the gap between one billion people in emerging markets who have mobile phones but no bank account. On Tuesday, McKinsey & Company released a report “Mobile money: Getting to scale in emerging markets” seeking to cut through this excitement and identify critical success factors for implementation.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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The Big Idea: (UPDATED) Simple Truths About Mobile Money
Wow, the role of mobile money has been hotly discussed across the mainstream media in recent weeks - even in Slate. There is much that I agree with in that article, and in a related critique of technology-centered development by Kentaro Toyama in CNN. So let’s unpack some of the conclusions presented in these two articles. (UPDATED: The Slate authors respond to this post).
- Categories
- Technology
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Weekly Roundup – 2-26-12: Making a Better Cookstove
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves’ ‘100 by 20’ goal calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.
Key to reaching that goal is creating one industry standard defining what constitutes a “clean” cookstove.- Categories
- Technology
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Kenya: Total’s Solar Kits Target Poor Households
Total Kenya is banking on portable solar kits for lighting and charging of mobile phones to break into the Kenyan renewable energy market.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday: Imaginary Engineers
The dabbawallahs, or "box people," deliver about 200,000 home cooked meals daily to about 80,000 offices at lunch time and have achieved six sigma status. This low-tech operation shows systems improvement is not just about applying the newest technology or management principle to an organization.
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- Education, Technology
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The Quiet Revolution in Social Impact
There are currently 30 million African migrants who have left their home countries to find work elsewhere. They support more than 300 million people in their home countries, remitting essential food and goods, and in aggregate represent more than $10b in annual economic activity. This is an economy without an infrastructure, however, relying on informal channels and bribes to function.South African entrepreneur Suzana Moreira is working to change that. Her startup moWozauses SMS to help African migrants order, pay for, and select a place for parcel pickup.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Future of mHealth: Mobile Phones Improve Care in Developing World
People in developing nations depend on mobile phones to access health services and prevent disease, as mobile technology creates a platform for improving healthcare in remote, underserved areas.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Tags
- public health