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Swiss Re Policies Help Cholera Victims in Haiti, Poor Farmers in Africa
Global reinsurer Swiss Re is introducing business interruption coverage in case of cholera outbreaks for women entrepreneurs in Haiti. Swiss Re, together with Mercy Corps and Fonkoze, the largest microfinance organization in Haiti, are introducing a new cholera insurance program. The coverage ensures rapid payout once a pre-defined set of criteria are met. These include cholera-related hospital admissions and observable weather factors linked to cholera outbreaks. Cholera first appeared...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Nut Farmers in Ghana Crack into Mobile Technology
Today is a day that I’ve been anticipating for weeks; ever since I found out I was going to host a group of international reporters in Ghana. My thoughts have ranged from excitement to anxiety to trepidation and back around again. After extensive preparation in the form of vaccinations, planning, research and shopping, the time to execute is finally here. As I get ready to join, host and escort nine international journalists through Ghana, a country that I’ve never been to and u...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dies at 71
NAIROBI, Kenya - Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist who started out by paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees and went on to become the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, died late on Sunday after battling cancer. She was 71. Mrs. Maathai, one of the most famous and widely respected women on the continent, wore many hats - environmentalist, feminist, politician, professor, rabble-rouser, human rights advocate and head of the ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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African Forest Policies Crowned Best in World
The prize is awarded annually by the World Future Council, a foundation that brings the interests of future generations to the centre of policy making. The jury which decided on the winning policies was composed of experts on sustainability and forests from all five continents. Runners-up were forest policies from Bhutan, Nepal and Switzerland. The US Lacey Act’s 2008 amendment, which bans the import of illegally harvested wood, received the second Silver Award. Rw...
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Safe Toilets Could Prevent Sexual Assault and Sickness, Say South Africa’s Poor
"Sorry. I was delayed - a woman was raped on her way to the toilet this morning," said Alakhe Mbuku. Distressed and arriving late, Mbuku, from Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, had been due to deliver her speech at the sanitation summit on Thursday called by the Social Justice Coalition. But that was all she said. The SJC had brought together religious leaders, trade ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Potential, Poverty, Politics & Parties: Why Kenya Attracts the Brightest Social Entreprepreneurs
They flock from America’s top universities, grad programs and consulting firms to the pulsing heart of a new Africa. From glass towers and Ivied halls to cramped garages, cooperative work hubs, and overflowing makeshift live/workspaces, these young, talented and driven entrepreneurs are riding a new wave of social enterprises, crash landing into a rapidly rising east African capital. The most populated city in east Africa, and one of the fastest growing, Nairobi, Kenya has become an...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Zambikes Bamboo Bikes Turn Heads In U.S., Fight Poverty In Africa
In Zambia, bicycles grow on trees, or rather bamboo, the primary building material for many Zambikes . Groves of it grow outside the company’s factory, which is run by two Zambians and two Americans on a quest to build a local bike for Africans, and employ the "uneducated and underprivileged" to make them for the rest of the world. So far, Zambike has cranked out at least 8,000 metal bicycles and 900 bicycle ambulances and cargo carts i...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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UN Helps Expand Tanzania’s Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction Plans
Tanzania expects to receive some $777 million from the United Nations as support for the implementation of two of the country’s economic growth and poverty reduction strategies. The funds will finance the second phases of Tanzania’s national strategy for growth and poverty reduction, or MKUKUTA II, and the Zanzibar strategy for growth and poverty reduction or MKUZA II, the East African Business Week rep...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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