-
Malaria Scientist Celebrates Success After 24 Years
For Joe Cohen, a GlaxoSmithKline research scientist who has spent 24 years trying to create the world's first malaria vaccine, Tuesday, October 18, 2011 goes down as a fabulous day.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- solar
-
International Medical Corps Helps Haiti in its Long Haul
International Medical Corps is a model for global not-for-profits, with a plan that goes way beyond drop-in disaster relief. In Haiti, IMC is training locals, building communities, and doing everything it can to put itself to pasture. Dan Khodabakhsh doesn’t require a whole lot of sleep. It’s perfectly normal, in fact, for the 33-year-old doctor to work a double shift bandaging up drunks and pulling bullets from teenagers in the emergency room of UCLA’s Harbor Medical Center...
- Region
- Latin America
-
Why We Prefer Social Enterprises and Co-ops as Business Partners
At HCT Group, we believe that social enterprises and co-ops make natural business partners. When the time comes to find a new supplier, we will always ask if a social enterprise or a co-op can fit the bill. The recent publication from Social Enterprise UK, Fightback Britain showed that 29% of all social enterprises receive some work from other social enterprises. We would have hoped that that number...
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
-
How Businesses Can Excel as the Poor Shift to Buying in Small Packs
My colleague expressed shock at the price of packaged mushrooms in supermarkets in Eastlands compared to those in Westlands in Nairobi. The price for the same product was almost double in Eastlands compared to Westlands. She was surprised at the pricing logic, but this is just a poverty penalty. I explained that the rich always pay less than the poor in many circumstances. Micro finance institutions charge higher interest rates for loans than mainstream banks while shylocks ...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Women Seen Key to Solving Hunger Issues in Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa faces daunting problems staving off famine in coming decades but food and development experts also say one solution to the problem is obvious: empower women. "They are the major producers of food crops in Africa. If we want to make a real headway on food production, we should be able to invest in women, improve their skills and access to the inputs they require," said Namanga Ngongi, president, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a top seed producer. ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Power Can Challenge Poverty ? And That Makes Universal Energy Access a Must
Earlier this week, decision makers came together in Oslo to launch Energy +, the international energy and climate initiative. It promises to be a landmark contribution towards securing sustainable energy for all by 2030. The need for such progress is clear, given that half the world’s population live without modern energy, the majority of people cook on an open fire, and two out of t...
- Categories
- Education
-
Aakash May Not Help Bridge the Digital Divide
Developments in the information technology world have been catching the headlines in the last few days. We lost "magician" Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc., none of whose innovations I see being used by poor people. The Indian government launched the $35 (Rs. 1,700) tablet called Aakash, which Union minister Kapil Sibal called a "tablet for the poor." Also, the government released a telecom policy that, perhaps belatedly, proposes to give infrastructure sector status to th...
- Region
- South Asia
-
Inefficient Developing World Stoves Contribute to 2 Million Deaths a Year
An international effort to replace smoky, inefficient household stoves that people commonly use in lower and middle income countries with clean, affordable, fuel efficient stoves could save nearly 2 million lives each year, according to experts from the National Institutes of Health. In a commentary in Science , the NIH scientists noted that indoor air pollution from such inefficient stoves affects about 3 billion people -- nearly half the world’s population. In addition to ...
