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Colombia: For the Poor, a New Way to Protect Against Disaster
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia - Before a sales team for Liberty Mutual fanned out into a crime-infested slum to sell insurance, the venders bowed their heads, asking god to bless their work and protect them from thieves. A ramshackle neighborhood where horse carts ply the streets and the floors of many houses are made of dirt might seem an odd place to peddle insurance. After all, insurance companies have historically ignored the poor. But the Liberty team was offering something new to l...
- Region
- Latin America
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Web Inventor Seeks Voice-Enabled Internet in Africa
Tim Berners-Lee is best known as the father of the World Wide Web, but his latest side-project in Senegal and Mali--the World Wide Web Foundation’s VOICES project --aims to give youth and families without typical computing abilities a way to access the Internet with voice-enabled apps. "VOICE...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Yunus Signs Clothing Deal with French Company
Yunus Centre and ID Group, a French company, yesterday signed a deal to produce functional clothing for children of 0-5 years under social business in Bangladesh. The business will also provide technical training to the rural poor and generate employment. It plans to start production by the year-end. They will also set up a day-care centre for children under another social business, Yunus Centre said in a statement. ID Group Chief Executive Officer Jean-Luc Soufflet and Nobe...
- Region
- South Asia
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Jamaicans May Bank on a Mobile Future
JAMAICA can choose a mobile phone-based financial services delivery system which targets those persons who currently do not have easy access to the established banking network. Carl Rosenquist, a Chartered Information Technology Professional with the British Computer Society, was one of several industry experts trumpeting the development during the Mobile Financial Services Conference at the Terra Nova All Suites Hotel in Kingston in December, which aimed to develo...
- Region
- Latin America
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Islamic Micro Lenders Set Up Global Network
LAHORE: Islamic Microfinance Network (IMFN) has been set up to assemble the international Islamic Microfinance organisations on one platform, a statement said. The IMFN head office is in Lahore and its regional offices will be in Ghana, Mauritius and Middle East. According to IMFN official the board members of IMFN are Farida Tariq, Chairperson, Amjad Saqib, Vice Chairman, and Muhammad Zubair Mughal, Chief Executive Officer. Kawako Yasuma, CEO, Ghana Islami...
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Business Schools With a Social Appeal
LONDON - Business schools can be cutthroat places. After struggling to gain admission to the top schools, students compete for grades and the best work placements. Meanwhile, the schools themselves jostle for position in the various global rankings, competing in order to attract the most able students. But in the never-ending battle for dominance, one London business school has decided to appeal not to potential students’ wallets, but to their consciences. Starting in September, the...
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Designing the Future of Housing for India’s Poorest
The words "affordable housing" don’t properly explain the work of Micro Home Solutions . The company, based in Delhi, India, does occupy that housing space, but its more of an interdisciplinary design services company for low-income urban dwellers, drawing upon the insights of sociologists, urban planners, architects, policy-makers, and engineers to help create a sustainable living ecosystem for some of the world’s poorest residents...
- Tags
- housing
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Indian Scavengers Doing What Officials Can’t
In cities and in the countryside, in forests and on beaches, along roads and riverbeds, India is choking on garbage. India generates more than 100 million tons of municipal waste a year. On a per capita basis, this is far lower than most developed countries, but the amount of garbage generated is growing fast. More problematically, very little of India’s waste is properly treated. The ...
- Region
- South Asia