NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Over 14 lakh youths trained-Tk 641 cr loan provided for self-employment

?The Department of Youth Development (DYD) under the Ministry of Youth and Sports provided self- employment to 1,414,831 trained youths in the country up to October 2005, and 679,101 were given microcredit support of over Taka 641 crore (=6.41 billion Taka, or 96.5 million USD) , reports BSS. The self-employment fields include poultry, fisheries, livestock, goat rearing, food processing, carpentry, tree plantation, nursery, wool knitting, dress making, block a...

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Bangladesh Observer (link opens in a new window)

How start-ups are helping countries to catch up

Alejandro Pitashny raised more than a few eyebrows when he left a comfortable job at Deutsche Bank in London to return to his native Argentina to start a business during the worst moment of the country’s financial crisis. ? Four years later, the strategy appears to be paying off. Jos?, which Mr Pitashny created with two former school friends, exports luxury tea and herbal infusions to Britain, the US, continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Although sales were just $100,...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Business must take African stand

One of the UK’s leading businessmen says companies have a responsibility to actively support fresh efforts to improve the investment climate across the continent. However, Reuters chairman Niall FitzGerald said there was also a need to tackle the stigma of profiteering accusations which many successful companies in Africa now seemed to face. Mr FitzGerald, the former Unilever chairman, told a business audience in London that the case for business growth as the mai...

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BBC Online (link opens in a new window)

Enterprise Uganda to Become Autonomous

Ricks Kayizzi ENTERPRISE Uganda, a business development and advisory services provider, will turn into a legal entity, independent from the finance ministry, Charles Ocici, the body’s executive director, has said. We shall launch a national legal entity, defined by a wider array of business development solutions, reputable board, competent staff and a wider source of business partners and revenue sources, he said at their Lumumba Aven...

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New Vision (Kampala) (link opens in a new window)

Development analyst Dr Sudhirendar Sharma worked at the World Bank before embarking on development consultancy and independent research. During the last five years or so, he helped set up hundreds of self-help groups in villages. However, realising that the hidden agenda might be different, he started researching the flip side of micro-credit. At the Ecological Foundation, the Delhi-based think-tank, Dr Sharma and his colleagues critique development through research and advocacy.

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OneWorld South Asia (link opens in a new window)

How strategy guru C.K. Prahalad is changing the way CEOs think

Take a cab ride through Bombay, and these are the scenes that will likely strike you first: raggedly dressed homeless families sprawled on blankets amid shacks. Traffic hopelessly clogged with every manner of soot-belching vehicle and wooden cart. Gaunt hawkers and beggars tapping on your window at red lights. For foreign visitors, such jarring images of pove...

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Business Week Online (link opens in a new window)

Wristwatch fights malaria

A South African inventor has developed an antimalaria wristwatch that helps combat one of Africa’s biggest killers by monitoring the blood of those who wear it and sounding an alarm when the parasite is detected. Gervan Lubbe said his malaria monitor wristwatch, due to launch next month, could save lives and keep millions out of hospital by heading off the disease before patients even feel ill. It picks up the parasite and destroys it so early that th...

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Reuters (link opens in a new window)

Environment Friendly Solar Lanterns for Rural Lighting

IN a country where only 9% of the total population have access to electricity, kerosene lamps (tadooba) and wax candles serve as the major providers of light in many households. These, however, bear far-reaching health and environmental consequences, especially in rural areas. But with the recently established project to provide solar lanterns to different parts of Uganda, this risky practice will perhaps be minimised. The project is spearheaded by Makerere University Cen...

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New Vision (Kampala), Stephen Ssenkaaba (link opens in a new window)