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As Colombia’s FARC disarms, rebels enlisted to fight deforestation
Colombia is home to a swathe of rainforest roughly the size of Germany and England combined.
It is in war-torn areas like Caqueta where deforestation is on the rise following the FARC demobilisation, and where Colombia - in partnership with Norway - is focusing efforts to halt forest loss with a scheme that offers former fighters training and jobs as forest guardians.
As FARC fighters abandon their jungle strongholds, once no-go conflict areas are opening up for business.- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Latin America
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UPS opens 76,000-square-foot healthcare-logistics facility near Bogota, Colombia
The multi-client facility features temperature-sensitive storage and technology that Francisco Ricaurte, UPS Colombia country manager said would, “lower costs, streamline inventory and meet increasing demands across Latin America and the world.”
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
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Brazil’s fintech boom offers new vertical opportunities for investors
In Latin America and Brazil, a lack of banking services has created a boom for entrepreneurs and investors seeking to build lucrative fintech innovators there. While 85 percent of Brazilians now live in cities, 40 percent remain excluded from traditional banking systems, according to São Paulo-based Itaú Unibanco, the largest private bank in Latin America.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Jamaican government puts forward National Financial Inclusion Strategy
The Government has crafted a National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), which aims to improve the country’s financial system by 2020. The goal of the NFIS is to create the conditions in which Jamaicans, particularly those who were previously underserved by the domestic financial system, are able to save safely and build up resilience against financial shocks, and firms are able to invest, grow and generate greater levels of wealth.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Latin America
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Can Red Bull Make Social Entrepreneurship An Extreme Sport?
As a college student in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thato Kgatlhanye, thought up a clever product to improve both the environment and the lives of school-age children living in the struggling, largely rural communities that surrounded her: a backpack made of recycled plastic bags with a solar-charged light attached. The bag itself would reduce waste and trash heaps in the region. At night, the light could act like a lantern allowing kids without electricity to continue studying after dark.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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Venezuela asks the UN to help boost supply of medicines
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has asked for help from the United Nations to boost supplies of medicine. Mr Maduro said the UN had the expertise to normalise the supply and distribution of drugs in the country. Venezuela's Medical Federation said recently that hospitals had less than 5% of the medicines they needed. The president blames the problems on an economic war against his government and the sharp fall in oil prices.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
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Latin America impact investors set sights on social returns
After six weeks at the Aravind Eye Hospital in the Indian city of Madurai, talking to everyone from the janitors to the head of the low-cost eye-care centre, Javier Okhuysen and his partner flew back to Mexico City with a business plan, and opened their pilot eye clinic four months later.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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500 Startups launches fund to invest $10M for entrepreneurship in Latin America
Seed funding and networking guru 500 Startups launches its second Latin American Regional fund to bring $10 million in commitment to Spanish-speaking startups. The fund, Luchadores II, will be first anchored by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), and has plans to invest in over 120 companies through the Mexico City-based LatAm 500 Seed Program over the next 2 years.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
- Region
- Latin America
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