NextBillion - A WDI Publication

BVGH Announces Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant to Expand Biotech Industry?s Role in Fight Ag

Four-year, $5.4 million grant will help companies overcome market and funding barriers BIO Ventures for Global Health today announced it will expand its efforts to enlist biotechnology companies in the fight to improve global health, with a new $5.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. BVGH is a nonprofit venture founded last year by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, with support from the Gate...

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BIO Ventures for Global Health

Microcredit: the anti-poverty tool, by Mohammed Azim Hossain

Bangladesh can play a vital role for the creation of a microcredit environment within the region. Microcredit programmes can also involve: 1) education, 2) social and political awareness, 3) preventive health and nutrition awareness, 4) income generating activities, and 5) local resource mobilisation. It is possible to work with minimal funds if microcredit organisations implement a cost-effective methodology. The immediate impact of the above activities is that: 1) education increased the lite...

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Financial Express

Village banks offer hope in Asia, by Donald Greenlees

The concept of the village bank was brought to the people of Ban Taling Chan soon after the tsunami by Mechai Viravaidya, who became a celebrity in Thailand for promoting the use of condoms, curbing population growth and the spread of HIV. Mechai, chairman of the Population and Community Development Association, has a simple principle for his aid programs: The route out of poverty is business, not charity. Charity is a dead end, he said. Once your funds run out, you ...

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International Herald Tribune

Chinese seek resources, profits in Africa, by Rob Crilly

Aid only goes so far, he says. The key is development. Chinese companies are building roads, providing telecom equipment and building power networks. It is important to our economy, but there is also a big benefit to the developing country because we bring a lot of experience in this field. Trade tripled from 2000 to 2004, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, as China tapped into Africa’s natural resources and foreign earnings it needs to fuel rap...

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USATODAY

How to Help Poor Countries, by Nancy Birdsall, Dani Rodrik, and Arvind Subramanian

Summary: Increasing aid and market access for poor countries makes sense but will not do that much good. Wealthy nations should also push other measures that could be far more rewarding, such as giving the poor more control over economic policy, financing new development-friendly technologies, and opening labor markets. Getting Development Right The year 2005 has become the year of development. In September, at the UN Millennium Summ...

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Foreign Affairs

Banks adapt to cater for the fast growing informal sector

It is evident from the Financial Times Banking Fair that banks are refining their offerings to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Tanzania, the fastest-growing segment of the business market in the country. The two-day Banking Fair was sponsored last week by this newspaper with an aim to bring together financial institutions and the public so that the lending-borrowing relationship is enhanced. The government is also pushing for banks to increase access to finan...

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IPP Media

Social Fund Invest in SME Capacity Project

Substantial support for SMEs came this week in the form of a Nedbank SME Development Project, which was launched on Thursday. Many SMEs disappear from the scene mainly due to the shortage of bookkeeping skills, said the Minister of Trade and Industry, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, in his keynote address to mark the project’s official launch. Nedbank Namibia’s Social Investment Fund will make available N$350 000 for SME development over a three-year period. The p...

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Namibia Economist

Mozambique President Armando Guebuza Unveils The Newly Branded ’Zambique’ Cashew Nut for Export to U

Effective U.S. Foreign Assistance Program Underscores Benefits of Win-Win Public-Private Linkages with African Entrepreneurs President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, leading U.S. government officials, and TechnoServe today unveiled a newly branded cashew nut, Zambique, for its first export sale to a U.S. buyer, Suntree. This brand launch and new business-linkage demonstrates how targeted U.S. f...

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CSRwire

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa