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Looking For The Next Big Thing In Smartphones? Think Digital Inclusion In Developing Countries
If you’re looking for a revolution involving smartphones, you’re unlikely to find one by staking out front row seats at the next new product announcement. The transition from basic “feature” phones to smartphones is about to reshape how a large fraction of the world’s population engages with information.
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- Uncategorized
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Micro Insurance, Macro Problems
In the light of decreasing motivation to introduce microinsurance products, it’s time to redefine the concept.
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- Uncategorized
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Micro lenders eye growth paths in Myanmar
World Vision is attempting to become the first NGO to obtain a commercial license for its Microfinance Institution (MFI) arm in Myanmar, as the industry increasingly professionalizes, more commercial players enter and rules governing the sector are established.
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- Uncategorized
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- microfinance
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Branchless Banking: Mobile accounts still a fraction of total transactions in Pakistan
The latest quarter-on-quarter increase of 16% in the number of branchless banking transactions for January-March, the most recent three-month data the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has released, is by no means a small feat.However, while the SBP believes growth expectation in coming quarters is “fairly high,” dominant players in branchless banking say it is time the industry progressed from the over-the-counter (OTC) business model to mobile accounts.
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PULSE Merged Into B Analytics Platform
B Lab and Acumen announce today that PULSE is being incorporated into B Analytics. From custom metrics to comparable ratings, B Analytics is now the one stop shop for measuring, benchmarking & reporting on impact.
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- Impact Assessment
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How finding research gaps can help fight malnutrition
The case of nutrition in the development agenda is often complicated. It is often overshadowed when bundled with food security, and yet donors sometimes appear clueless on how to solve one without addressing the other, leaving many to question on whether donor money is really making a dent in the global fight against malnutrition. So what can the aid community do? Nutrition experts on Thursday converged in New York — where development takes center stage this week — to present some 20 priority areas for nutrition research in the first Global Research Agenda on Nutrition Services. These include:* Describing the interactions between the food system and nutrition. * Integrating individual and household-level factors underlying economic vulnerability and food insecurity. * Role of nutrition in developmental origins of health and disease. * The relationship between markers of nutrition and functional outcomes. * Knowledge related to inputs of nutrition intervention.
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- Health Care
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GAVI Alliance to address the next vaccine challenge: Supply chains
No one likes it when a delivery fails to show, but when it happens with vaccines it costs lives. Currently, millions of children go unimmunized each year because of delivery problems, including anything from vaccine supply chain breaks and ineffective cold chain equipment to poor vaccine stock management in developing countries. Shockingly, these kinds of issues account for a substantial number of the children who miss out on their shots. That has got to change. These supply chain inefficiencies may be contributing to the deaths of 1.5 million children each year from vaccine-preventable diseases, the vast majority in developing countries.
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- Health Care
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Firm bets on telemedicine to reach needy patients
Access to healthcare has been a challenge to many Kenyans, particularly those in remote areas which do not attract specialized doctors. To help solve this problem, Dr Emily Obwaka, a medic, has made advocating for the use of telemedicine in both public and private hospitals her mission.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- public health
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