NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Innovation Provides Alternative Energy Source

Local handmade paper and products marketer and sales agent Phumani Paper is actively involved in assisting community-based enterprises to diversify their income base by introducing innovative products. One of these products is the ecofuel briquette. University of Johannesburg (UJ) associate professor in the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture Kim Berman explains that the fuel briquette is a round disc made of slightly decomposed and compressed plant matter,...

Source

Engineering News (South Africa) (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

For Pennies, a Disposable Toilet That Could Help Grow Crops

A Swedish entrepreneur is trying to market and sell a biodegradable plastic bag that acts as a single-use toilet for urban slums in the developing world. Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces. The bag, called the Peepoo , is the brainchild of Anders Wilhelmson, an architect and p...

Source

New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Banking on Mobile Money: What Does It Mean For Kenya’s Economy?

Many technologists and entrepreneurs have argued that mobile phones can empower people in the developing world by providing civic and commercial resources where traditional infrastructure is lacking. But what actually happens when people start using such technologies? An MIT economist’s detailed new study from Kenya sheds light on the impact of a mobile phone-based money system in a developing economy. Kenya’s new mobile-money system, called M-PESA, really is ch...

Source

MIT News (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Supporting Ghana’s Private Health Sector

The argument for the development of the private health sector in Africa could not have been more strongly made than at a recent international conference held in Accra under the aegis of the World Bank Group. Featuring diverse success stories on health care financing and insurance from Ghana, Kenya and Mali, it was perhaps the story of ...

Source

My Joy Online (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Self-Reliance Ethos Sets Africa Charity Apart

While billions of pounds have been spent on food aid for developing countries, only a small portion has made any long-term difference to the future economic prosp...

Source

The Telegraph (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Branchless Banking to Enhance Microfinance Operations

Players in the microfinance industry are looking forward to the establishment of branchless banking so that they can reach more people countrywide without the cost of erecting brick and mortar outlets. The planned changes to the legislation governing the setting up of financial institution branches ,which will allow for the establishment of branchless banking or agency banking, is expected to provide microfinance institutions with a leverage to extend their reach at minimal cost. ...

Source

Business Daily Africa (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Exploring a Market-Based Approach to Malnutrition

Soon, low-income families in Kenya will be able to add to their diet a pre-cooked porridge product that is rich in proteins and vitamins and supplies the nine essential amino acids required by the human body. The porridge will not be delivered under the auspices of an aid agency or a governme...

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Tackling the Crisis of Urban Poverty in Kenya

NAIROBI, 19 January 2010 (IRIN) - Fridah Awour Agolla has sold vegetables in Nairobi’s Mathare slum for 20 years. In better times, her stock sold out every day. But lately market forces have begun to bite even harder for the millions in Kenya who live in such squalid, neglected settlements. "My customers are buying less and less; now I find that goods like vegetables do not sell out, they go into the next day. People’s ability to buy these goods has really dropped," A...

Source

IRIN (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa