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Bill Gates to UN: Find new ways to help poor farmers; announces $200 million in grants
ROME — Current approaches to global agriculture are outdated, inefficient and don’t give small farmers in poor countries the help they really need, Bill Gates told U.N. food agencies Thursday as he announced nearly $200 million in grants. The Microsoft founder brought his campaign to fight poverty and hunger in Africa and Asia to a forum of the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), one of three Rome-based U.N. food agencies.Much of some $2 billion spent over the past five years to fight poverty and hunger in Africa and Asia by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has gone toward improving agricultural productivity.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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IDA to Help Improve Irrigation System in Pakistan
The World Bank’s concessional lending arm is providing $250 million to help improve water and agricultural productivity in the Pakistani province of Punjab.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
- Region
- South Asia
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BRAC puts Entrepreneurs to Work Providing Clean Toilets for Millions
In Bangladesh, the development organization's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program gives millions of the rural poor a fresh start with latrines at prices fair to buyers and sellers alike.
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- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Can The iPad Revolutionize Rural Agriculture?
The iPad’s fairly steep price has kept it firmly entrenched in the developed world. That’s starting to change, however, as evidenced by efforts from Exprima Media and coffee importer Sustainable Harvest to bring the iPad to coffee co-ops and farmers in East Africa, Mexico, and South America.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- supply chains
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East Africa: Boost for Agriculture
The fight to secure food and income for millions of small holder farmers in eastern Africa, a region that experiences severe food shortages from time to time, is poised to get additional ammunition with the construction of a science research block by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Social Business: A More Sustainable Way to Help in Haiti?
Children dressed in school uniforms sit in rows listening to one of their classmates sing a song while snacks are passed around. Two years ago, before a devastating earthquake struck the island, they were in a different location in a building that has since been demolished on a nearby plot of land here in Léogâne, Haiti. Now these youngsters and their families are getting another chance with the help of an innovative antipoverty effort that combines business tactics with so...
- Categories
- Agriculture
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New Legal Structures for ’Social Entrepreneurs’
You may have noticed the emerging class of "social entrepreneurs" who are creating companies that seek profit but also are devoted to a social purpose, to create long term, sustainable value. But, until recently, social entrepreneurs would find themselves in the position of choosing whether to organize either as a for-profit company or a nonprofit organization. The problem was that sometimes a company would be too much of a business to be a nonprofit. Yet, it also might be too mission-d...
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Samasource, Inveneo Included in Google $40M Grants
In its biggest single-day contribution ever, Google ( GOOG ) on Wednesday announced it has handed out $40 million to battle slavery, promote education and make technology more accessible worldwide, with nearly a fourth of the money going to Bay Area organizations. "The causes we are supporting are issues we’ve been committed...
- Categories
- Agriculture
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