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’Africa Can Feed the World’
Africa can feed not just itself but the world is a bold assertion to make at a time when famine stalks part of the continent. But this is precisely the claim made by Kanayo Nwanze, the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Avon’s Door-to-Door Model Adopted in Uganda
Steve Chiotakis: Cosmetic-maker Avon releases earnings today. Analysts expect it to at least match profits from a year ago. In Uganda, a U.S. organization is using Avon’s door-to-door model to help consumers get the products they need, but often are unavailable to the -- and this month that service is expanding. The BBC’s Anna Cavell reports from Kampala, Uganda. Anna Cavell: With a $75 loan, women in Uganda are being turned into en...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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AfDB Launches Microfinance Capacity Building Fund
The African Development Bank, in partnership with the government of Spain, has launched the Microfinance Capacity Building Fund - a multiyear effort to increase technical capacity building in the finance sector for the benefit of poor and low-income people in Africa. With a special focus on women and rural areas, the MCBF aims to increase transparency in A...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Southampton Students Bring Solar Lights to Madagascar
Families in Madagascar are benefiting from solar-powered lighting through a project set up by Southampton students. The University of Southampton’s SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) group set up a finance scheme to reduce the cost of the lights for rural families. The Right Light scheme has meant 98 families have reduced their use of kerosene lighting. Student Michael Austin said the scheme showed how students were "creating positive change in the...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Encouraging Agricultural Efficiency through Microfinance: Implications for Food Security
Maybe those that work in development are sick of hearing this little factoid, but for those who are out of the loop, let’s repeat it just one more time: the majority of the world’s poor live in rural areas. As expected, many of these are highly dependent on agriculture, whether or not it is their primary economic activity. So if they live in communities dedicated to agricultural production, then why is it that many of them still suffer from hunger? To begin with, their own...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Silicon Savanna: Mobile Phones Transform Africa
The buzz at Pivot25, a conference for mobile-phone software developers and investors held this June, is all about the future of money. Ben Lyon, the 24-year-old business-development VP of Kopo Kopo, wants $250,000 to produce his app for shops to process payments made by text message. Paul Okwalinga, 28, describes his money app - called M-Shop, it allows you to buy travel tickets and takeout via mobile phone - as "not reinventing the wheel but pimping it." Kamal Budhabhatti, 35, claims Elma, t...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The New Microfinancing: SMS-Based Layaway to the Rescue
Microfinance , the Nobel Prize-winning initiative to turn aspiring Third World entrepreneurs into self-sustaining CEOs, has long been the only game in town when it comes to offering developing world entrepreneurs a viable and sustainable form of funding. But other financial instruments may work just as well--if not better--at supplying small farmers around the world with capital and a path out of poverty. ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Improving the Quality of Rwanda?s Milk, While Turning a Profit
Good, quality milk is one of the most nutrient-rich natural beverages available. Containing a healthy dose of at least nine essential vitamins and minerals, milk can be, quite literally, a lifesaver for populations suffering from an extremely nutrient-poor diet in developing countries. Yet in Rwanda , where an estimated 90% of the population is still dependent on agriculture, and ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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