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USDA, TechnoServe Sign 3-Year, $15M Grant Supporting Cashew Farmers
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and TechnoServe intend to enter into a three-year grant agreement to support small-scale cashew producers, processing factories and the Government of Mozambique’s ongoing efforts to reduce poverty. This $15 million Food for Progress-funded project will support the cashew industry by harnessing global market demand for premium cashew kernel and addressing obstacles throughout the value chain, including in the areas of inputs, production, processing and marketing. In total, this project will support 30,000 smallholder cashew farmers by increasing their productivity and competitiveness as well as connecting them to new markets.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Swaziland: MSF Rolls Out Innovative Approach to Prevent Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission
Stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS from mothers to their children is an essential step in curbing the epidemic of the disease in Swaziland. Beginning in February 2013, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been rolling out an innovative approach, commonly referred to as PMTCT B+ (prevention of mother-to-child transmission, option B+), in southern Swaziland's Nhlangano area.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Safaricom Cautions Kenya Over Higher Taxes
Kenyan mobile operator, Safaricom, has warned the government that further increases in Excise Tax – a duty levied on goods or services for sale – will make mobile payment services less affordable for poorer citizens.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Africa: Early Childhood Survival Improving Globally
More children are surviving their early years and maturing into adolescence than in the past, and the international community is celebrating the progress. The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the United Nations' Population Division report data September 13 showing that child deaths worldwide were down by almost half in 2012 as compared to 1990. More than 12 million children under age 5 died, mostly from preventable causes, in 1990. In 2012, the annual number of young deaths was down to 6.6 million.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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IMS Health and BroadReach Healthcare Announce Strategic Alliance in Africa
IMS Health and the Life Sciences division of BroadReach Healthcare today announced a strategic alliance to deliver comprehensive advisory and commercial effectiveness solutions for life sciences organizations operating in Africa. The alliance brings together IMS Health’s industry-leading information, analytics, consulting and technology capabilities with BroadReach Healthcare’s deep knowledge of the African healthcare landscape and local regulatory environment. Life sciences organizations will gain immediate access to information and services that support market assessment, market entry planning and commercial implementation across the continent.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Three Global Health Successes That I Witnessed Firsthand
Somewhere bumping along the back roads in Mali, Nick Kristof challenged me to reflect on lessons learned from my 25 years working in Africa first as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s and most recently on public health and nutrition programs for Helen Keller International.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Cell Phones Are Transforming Health Care in Africa
In a little over a decade, Africa has gone from a region with virtually no fixed-line telecoms infrastructure to a continent where one in six of the billion inhabitants now owns a cell phone. But as this mass adoption of technology continues to gather momentum, it is causing a fundamental shift that goes beyond merely connecting people; it is creating one of the largest, low-cost distributed sensor networks we’ve ever seen, one which has the potential to completely transform global health care.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Growing disease burden to drive pharma boom in Nigeria, Africa
Huge opportunities are in the offing for local drug manufacturers including Fidson Healthcare plc GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer Nigeria and East Africa region (NEAR), Evans Medicals, Swipha, and Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, to grow their revenues on the back of recent surge in non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health