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Delivering Family Planning to Rural Customers: Are Mobile Pharmacies ‘Just What the Doctor Ordered’?
Pharmacies serve as key access points for family planning products in many emerging markets. In countries like Malawi, the number of pharmacies has ballooned by nearly 100% in the past 10 years. Yet it can be difficult to run a sustainable pharmacy business, especially in rural areas. Andrea Bare and Erika Beidelman at the William Davidson Institute discuss potential solutions – including an innovative mobile pharmacy – based on conversations with Malawian entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Health Care, Telecommunications
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What Will Last Mile Distribution Look Like in 2025? Six Predictions for an Emerging Sector
From water purifiers to solar lights, the impact-oriented products can’t further development goals if they can't make it to last mile customers. Emma Colenbrader and Charlie Miller of the Global Distributors Collective explain how the organization's 140 member distributors have defied tough odds to get 13 million products and counting into the hands of last mile households. They share a first-of-its-kind report that aims to better understand the markets for these products, the customers being reached – and the business models that can reach them.
- Categories
- Energy, Telecommunications, Transportation
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New Solutions to an Old Problem: How the Internet of Things, Water Kiosks and Sensor Data are Improving Access to WASH in Kenya
When well water systems break down due to a lack of monitoring or maintenance, people can go days or even weeks without access to water for themselves and their livestock. The Kenya RAPID program seeks to solve this problem by applying innovative technology and data to improve water management and distribution. Paul Wiedmaier at Catholic Relief Services explores how the program is already making a significant impact on water access in Kenya.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications, WASH
- Tags
- data, innovation, Internet of Things, water
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Mobile Giant Takes Another Crack at South Africa’s Mobile Money Market
MoMo forms a critical part of the group’s growth prospects, and MTN South Africa is confident that MoMo can mimic the success that saw telephony and the Internet being revolutionised and democratised over the past two decades.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Airtel and Mastercard Expand Digital Banking Services Across 14 African Countries
Telecoms and mobile money services provider, Airtel Africa announced that it is partnering with Mastercard to give over 100 million Airtel Africa mobile phone users across 14 African countries access to Mastercard’s global network.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Latin America
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Rwanda Opens ‘First Entirely Homemade’ Smartphone Factory in Africa
The company is anticipating high demand for its products. Sebera says the factory has capacity to produce a "few million phones per year," which is expected to scale up as demand increases.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- manufacturing, scale
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World’s First Blockchain Smartphone to Become Available in Bangladesh
Finney’s launch in Bangladesh comes amid a trend of growing smartphone ownership in the country.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- South Asia
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Tesla Batteries Are Keeping Zimbabwe’s Economy Running
The southern African country faces chronic shortages of physical cash, so almost all transactions are done digitally, and many via mobile phones.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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