NextBillion - A WDI Publication

In Egypt, Will an Economic Revolution Follow?

The popular uprising in Egypt has quickly been accorded a conventional explanation: The people want democratic government. This is not necessarily wrong, but it risks ignoring deep-seated trends in Egypt that, if neglected in the coming political transition, will only boil over again. Specifically, Egypt suffers from a stagnant economy and it should not be surprising that a lack of economic opportunity contributed to ...

Source

Inc. (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Founder, Teach A Man to Fish Wins Anti-Poverty Achievement Award

News Release: San Francisco, CA, February 14, 2011 - Martin Burt, Chief Executive Office of both Fundación Paraguaya in Paraguay and Teach a Man to Fish , which operates globally, has been named the 2011 Opportunity Collaboration Achievement Award recipient. Presented every World Poverty Day on the final evening of the annual ...

Source

Press Release: Opportunity Collaboration

Engineers Hone Clean-Energy Stoves For The World

Almost half the world still cooks its food with solid fuels, such as wood and charcoal. The results are deforestation and black carbon, which contributes to global warming. And smoke-related disease kills an estimated 1.6 million people a year. In war zones, the daily hunt for firewood can present families with terrible dilemmas, says Veronique Barbelet of the World Food Programme. "You hear women in northern Uganda and places like that telling you, ’My choice is between...

Source

NPR (link opens in a new window)

Egypt Plans Stimulus to Revive ?Sudden Stop? Economy

Ashraf Abdel-Wanis had plenty of reasons to join tens of thousands of fellow Egyptians in their successful push to oust President Hosni Mubarak. At 39, he last worked five years ago in a sugar factory and now gets by mainly on his wife’s $50 monthly salary and his mother’s pension. "The Egyptian family’s nutrition consists of beans, lentils and beans," he said in an interview in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the plaza at the heart of almost three weeks of protests. "If they’...

Source

Bloomberg (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Can a PepsiCo-Powered Crowd of Scientists Rescue Moms, Infants?

Last November, Scientists Without Borders underwent a makeover from a social networking site for scientists to an open innovation platform that crowdsources solutions to scientific problems. The first major challenge, sweetened by $10,000 in PepsiCo-funded prize money, is reducing infant mortality in the developing world through better nutrition. Infant mortality in many developing countries is high (3.6 mi...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

A Mobile Banking Powerhouse Born From Bus Fare Theft

M-PESA , one of the world’s most rapidly expanding mobile banking systems, is transforming the banking sector in Africa. And it started, in part, when a thief stole bus fare from a woman who was participating in the M-PESA pilot. Until then, M-PESA was a microfinance initiative, but the victim’s husband used the mobile pay service to transfer fund...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

’Best Chance’ to End Polio – Bill Gates Promotes Vaccines and Food Programs to Attack Poverty

Washington, DC - The likelihood that few African countries will meet any of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, aimed at reducing severe poverty by 2015, has prompted a spate of studies, books and debates that examine development assistance. Many argue that aid, in general, has done more harm than good. Since leaving an operational role at Microsoft in 2008, Bill Gates has devoted full time to the premise that international assistance, sp...

Source

allAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

What Are Social-Impact Bonds?

By DAVID LEONHARDT My column this week describes a new strategy for improving the performance of government programs. In short, private investors - typically foundations - pay the costs of a new program in its early years, and the government later repays the investors,...

Source

The New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Finance

Tags

impact bonds