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U-M researcher deals with hope, not charity, in far corners
On the east side of Nairobi, in a slum called Mukuru, Ted London went looking for outhouses and found a Steve Yzerman hockey jersey.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A promising strategy for SA’s development
By focusing on key sectors, government believes it can reduce unemployment from 25% to 15% by 2020. The priority sectors are infrastructure development, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, the “green” economy, and tourism — as identified in the November 2010 New Growth Path.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ethiopian shoemaker takes great strides
Eight years ago Ethiopia's Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu decided to sell cool colourful shoes made of recycled materials, including car tyres.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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StartMe gives SA entrepreneurs crowdfunding
South African entrepreneurs, who have been hard pressed to find funding via traditional means such as bank loans, can now take advantage of a new funding mechanism in South Africa – StartMe.co.za.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Growing Rwanda Out of Poverty
For the last few years, development wonks and international organizations have had the “Green Revolution for Africa” on their radars. Leaders in Africa have recognized that the first Green Revolution (spurred by the work of agronomist Norman Borlaug) resulted in massive improvements in health and productivity around the world, and are now looking to do the same on the so-called “Dark Continent”.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Using Small Loans to Generate Big Profits
NAIROBI, Kenya—At a recent group-lending meeting in the Kawangware slum, about 10 miles from downtown, Jackson Munyovi sought $350 to build a new shanty for his wife and two children.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- microfinance
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Water harvesting slakes thirst at an innovative Kenyan inn
When Gaitano Likhavila was still working as an accountant at the provincial hospital in the west Kenyan town of Kakamega, he ran into a situation that got him thinking about water.“There was a serious water shortage that made the hospital administration almost close down the hospital. At the same time, a lot of rainwater from the roofs was wasted, running down to the River Isikhu, but nobody thought of getting hold of this free water,” says Likhavila.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Rio summit keeps African hopes alive
African expectations were high for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the biggest UN summit ever. The conference, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June, was “too important to fail,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the outset. Under the theme of “The Future We Want,” many of the 100 heads of state and more than 40,000 participants demanded ambitious and measurable outcomes to address sustainability issues such as the “green economy,” climate change and so on. Yet when it was over, the “Rio+20” summit left a heated debate over whether those goals had been met.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
