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Cell Phone Makers Hope To Connect In Poor Nations, by Mike Angell
Economists say more than 1 billion of the planet’s 6.5 billion folks are doing just that. But phone service can help lift people out of such poverty. And for many of the world’s poorest people, mobile phone service is the most viable. Landline networks are faulty or nonexistent in many parts of the Third World. Thus, many companies in the wireless field see an opportunity with low-cost phones. Efforts to make such phones are one of the industry’s big initiatives this year. ...
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- Investor’s Business Daily
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Cellphones Changing African Lives At All Levels
Neither a lack of money nor a lack of electricity denies entrepreneurial Africans access to a cellphone, according to a recent study. People at all income levels are using mobile services, either by owning or sharing a phone, while a lack of mains electricity is circumvented by recharging phones with a generator or a car battery. The effort is worth it because in the poorest rural areas cellphones have reduced the need to travel, helped people hunt for jobs, given them more access...
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- Business Day (Johannesburg)
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UK banks not best option for remittances to Developing Countries
Specialist money transfer companies are generally cheaper than high street banks for immigrants to send money home to developing countries from the UK and informal methods are the cheapest according to a survey published by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). On Thursday DFID launched the results of the UK survey into the best ways for people to send money to relatives and friends in developing countries. This is the first survey of its kind in the UK, and addresses a...
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- FinFacts Business News
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Developing countries ?leapfrog? to mobile technologies
Although many developing countries are leapfrogging to new, mobile, wireless technologies as drivers for development different business models are required, according to preliminary findings from a senior industry Think Tank. The Think Tank, run under the IST-programme?s MOCCA project , addressed issues and requirements in usage, technology, regulations and policies in emerging markets, all of which face shortages ? or a complete ...
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- Information Society Research
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Alliances aim to put an end to poverty
Technology Project (Ericsson) The initiative will provide communications technology to rural poor by establishing communications centres that will typically be owned and operated by a local entrepreneur as a franchisee Novella Project (Unilever) The project aims to promote biodiversity and reduce poverty by building an oil supply chain through the use of Allanblackia nuts that will provide rural communities with a new source of income? Integrated Dairy Development Project (Tetr...
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- Financial Times
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Up From The Rubble, by Kerry A. Dolan
Can $2,000 loans help revive a war-torn economy? Entrepreneurs in Bosnia and Herzegovina are putting microfinance to the test. The economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina remains shaky-20% of the population live below the poverty line and unemployment is at an estimated 20%. But since 1996 per capita GDP has tripled to $1,500. Microcredit groups have had a significant role in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the postwar period, increasing income levels, reducing poverty, developin...
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- Forbes
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Brazil: Free Software’s Biggest and Best Friend, by Todd Benson
Since taking office two years ago, President Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva has turned Brazil into a tropical outpost of the free software movement. Looking to save millions of dollars in royalties and licensing fees, Mr. da Silva has instructed government ministries and state-run companies to gradually switch from costly operating systems made by Microsoft and others to free operating systems, like Linux. On Mr. da Silva’s watch, Brazil has also become the first country to require any compa...
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- The New York Times
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Partnerships that profit the poor, by Sarah Murray
So far, companies such as Ericsson, Unilever, Total, Tetra Pak, Shell, Thames Water and EDF are participating with pilot schemes in Tanzania, Madagascar, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. Geographically, much of the focus is on projects in Africa. However, the UNDP wants to extend the GSB initiative - which was spearheaded by the UN Global Compact, a voluntary corporate citizenship network - to countries in Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe. While the business activities are commercial, n...
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- Financial Times
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