NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Menstruation Stigma Costs Girls Dearly: Development Group and MIT Create Affordable Sanitary Pads

Three days a month, Annalita is too embarrassed to go to school. The Rwandan teen, like millions of her peers worldwide, is menstruating. Her family can’t afford sanitary pads, so Annalita makes do with what few materials she can find including rags, bark and mud. But these makeshift pads are usually ineffective. Rather than focusing on her studies, Annalita spends her day anxious about a potential accident in front of her classmates. She also worries about embarrassment...

Source

Toronto Star (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Innovation Provides Alternative Energy Source

Local handmade paper and products marketer and sales agent Phumani Paper is actively involved in assisting community-based enterprises to diversify their income base by introducing innovative products. One of these products is the ecofuel briquette. University of Johannesburg (UJ) associate professor in the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture Kim Berman explains that the fuel briquette is a round disc made of slightly decomposed and compressed plant matter,...

Source

Engineering News (South Africa) (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Easing Poverty Can Be Good for Business

At the World Economic Forum in Davos recently, a diminutive figure in a brightly coloured suit could be seen stalking the hallowed halls of business and finance, casting fear into the most imposing of corporate leaders, albeit with easy smiles and endless diplomatic charm. Barbara Stocking, the first female director of Oxfam, is on a mission to persuade business to assist in the charity’s goal of improving the lives of the poor. "People want to see me for one of two reasons: they fe...

Source

Times Online (link opens in a new window)

Microsoft and Telecentre.org Providing Internet Access To One Billion By 2015

Incubated by Microsoft , Canada’s International Development Research Centre ( IDRC ), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation ( SDC ) for the past five years as Telecentre.org, the new Telecentre.org Foundation ...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Global Poverty And The Cost Of A Pair Of Jeans

The classic way for a country to work its way out of poverty is to build a textiles industry. And if you’re a developing country today looking to get into the textiles business -- making pants, shirts, that kind of thing -- you have to have a trade deal with the U.S. Adam Davidson and Chana Joffe-Walt have been reporting recently on the effort by Haitian businesspeople to land a better trade deal with the U.S. (They did a ...

Source

NPR (link opens in a new window)

Microfinance Grapples With Success

Microfinance is in the news, again for the wrong reasons. Five years ago, it was tension over multiple lending and coercive recovery in Andhra Pradesh. Now it is Muslim community leaders in a couple of districts in Karnataka issuing a fiat to their members to renege on microfinance institution (MFI) loan repayments as they do not approve of such borrowings. What’s worse, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a severe warning to MFIs against wrong practices. RBI’s main concern, re...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

The Tupperware Effect: Can Direct Sales Help Women Living in Poverty?

While direct sales presents a potential career path for Americans looking for work, most of the growth for companies like Tupperware and Avon is happening abroad-specifically, in emerging markets like Africa and Indonesia. The presence of these companies in poor nations have provided a much-needed chance for women to gain economic independence. It’s been a successful partnership on both sides, and the impact of these companies is s...

Source

Newsweek (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

For Pennies, a Disposable Toilet That Could Help Grow Crops

A Swedish entrepreneur is trying to market and sell a biodegradable plastic bag that acts as a single-use toilet for urban slums in the developing world. Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces. The bag, called the Peepoo , is the brainchild of Anders Wilhelmson, an architect and p...

Source

New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa