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The African Startup Using Phones to Spot Counterfeit Drugs
A Ghanaian entrepreneur thinks he has the answer to Africa’s fake medicine problem.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- vaccines
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The ketchup sachet-shaped drug saving babies from HIV
Inside a foil sachet, which looks more at home in a fast-food restaurant, an exact dose of antiretroviral medicine is helping to protect newborn babies against the threat of infection from their HIV-positive mothers.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
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Beijing gets 1st private mental hospital
Beijing got its first privately owned mental health clinic on Sunday. This is part of a larger drive by the government to shake up the monopoly of state-owned hospitals in a country where private hospitals have less than one percent market share.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- public health
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Impact Investors in Africa Are Looking East
President Obama’s recent trip to East Africa put the spotlight on a hot area for impact investing. So it’s timely that the Global Impact Investing Network(GIIN), in partnership with Open Capital Advisors, just published a detailed look at impact investing in the region.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing
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Viewpoint: Ebola Vaccine: The Need to Act Now
One year ago West Africa was descending into chaos. As the Ebola death toll approached 1,000 for the first time ever and Liberia closed its borders, the World Health Organization declared the situation an international health emergency. Experimental drugs were cautiously put to use to try to treat those infected, but what was urgently needed to stop the spread was a vaccine. Now, 12 months on, it looks very much like we have one.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Walmart Is Planning to Open Retail Outlets in Nigeria
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer by revenue, is in advanced talks to open big box stores in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why One City in Congo Is Astonishingly Stable and Prosperous
Several years ago, I got a request from some officials at a well-known international organization, wondering if we could chat about the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. After some polite conversation about my own research, my inquisitors got to their questions: Why is the North Kivu city of Butembo so stable? How are members of the Nande ethnic group, by whom Butembo is almost entirely populated, so economically successful? Perhaps most important, could their model be replicated to bring stability and economic growth to other parts of the Congo as part of the project to rebuild the postwar Congolese state?
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Are Governments ‘Paying for Failure’ With Social Impact Bonds?
Three years ago, New York City launched an ambitious and unprecedented social policy experiment at its jail on Rikers Island. Thousands of teenage inmates began receiving group therapy aimed at improving their moral reasoning by addressing their beliefs and thought processes in a step-by-step treatment. The goal was to reduce the number of repeat offenses once the inmates were released. Academic studies using the method, known as moral reconation therapy, had reported success in reducing recidivism. Still, no one had ever scaled up these studies to accommodate anything like the 9,240 inmates the four-year Rikers Island program aimed to serve. This month, the program is coming to an abrupt end.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- failure, impact bonds, public policy
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