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Lending to Poor Farmers: Seeding the Market
“Coffee is our gateway drug,” jokes Willy Foote, founder of Root Capital. “Then we move on to harder stuff, like cocoa, cashews, quinoa and sorghum.” That is how the firm got started in 1999, after Mr Foote quit his job as a Wall Street analyst, lending $73,000 to a coffee (and cardamom) co-operative in Guatemala. It has since expanded to 25 countries in Latin America and Africa, and in December set up shop in Indonesia, with a loan of $550,000 to an organic coffee co-operative.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Tags
- lending
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From the Gates Foundation, Direct Investment, Not Just Grants
The Ebola crisis underscored a problem that vexes experts in global health: Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives, especially in developing countries, yet traditional vaccines can take years to develop.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Top 10 Illnesses That Have Developed an Immunity to Vaccines
The medical community has been issuing alerts about mutating viruses and increases in the frequency of infectious disease. The changes make it more difficult to control diseases that have become resistant to vaccines and antibiotics.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- vaccines
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Cholera vaccine succeeds in rural Haiti
A vaccination campaign that almost didn't happen was widely effective in reducing transmission of cholera in the midst of an ongoing outbreak of the disease in rural Haiti.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health, vaccines
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Nonprofit Contractor Sent Government $1.1 Million Bill for Parties and Retreats
The largest nonprofit contractor working for the U.S. Agency for International Development during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan billed the government $1.1 million for staff parties and pricey retreats — three of them held at one of the poshest destinations on the East Coast, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania.
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India’s Top Mobile Wallet App Adds Support for Payments to Bank Accounts
Paytm, a India-based mobile payments service operated by (now) Alibaba-backed One97, has introduced a big new feature that lets 25 million users transfer money to bank accounts.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments
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Grameen Foundation USA Partners with MetLife Foundation to Provide Microfinance in Uttar Pradesh
Grameen Foundation US has partnered with MetLife Foundation to provide savings and other services to at least 40,000 poor and women clients in Uttar Pradesh.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- microfinance
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PPP is an Avenue That Needs to Be Aggressively Tapped
Alisha Moopen, Director, Aster DM Healthcare, as a young entrepreneur working for improving women’s health, feels that in India there is an immense need for continued innovation in this sphere. She talks about the need for the government, private sector and NGOs to integrate their efforts to strengthen the health system for women in India, in an interaction with Raelene Kambli
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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