NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Results

• News
  India explores ‘heat-proof’ vaccines to stop vital medicines going to waste

  As India is witnessing wastage of at least 50 per cent of vaccines stocked by various healthcare agencies owing to heat exposure, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSO) has decided to explore the idea of developing thermostable vaccines.

• News
  Price capping takes sheen off condom sales following government decision

  It's the condom makers turn to seek protection as sales of the male contraceptive have plunged drastically following a government decision to dub it an essential drug and cap its price more than a year ago.

• News
  We’re Learning How to Sell Toilets in West Africa

  With the excitement and buzz of World Water Day behind us I’m left both inspired and concerned. I’m inspired because there is a growing understanding by WASH professionals that it will take market development and systemic change to truly solve the problem. These methods look overall at what is working and not working in terms of WASH services for populations at risk across value chains and within the market system, and then, based on that analysis, develop targeted interventions with pro-poor innovations to make markets work. What is also exciting is the impact that adopting and implementing these approaches might have on the development sector in general.

• News
  Press Release: Microcredit Summit Campaign Joins World Bank’s Financial Inclusion Efforts

  The Microcredit Summit Campaign joins the World Bank Group and their coalition of partners -- including MasterCard, Visa, Mandiri, the State Bank of India, Equity Bank, and Bandhan -- in making a commitment to accelerate universal financial access; financial access and inclusion are stepping stones to achieving the end of extreme poverty by 2030. The Campaign will work with its reporting institutions to help them expand their outreach by at least 53 million of the world's poorest families, bringing the overall total of the world's poorest families reached by microfinance to 175 million by 2020.

• Blog Post
  NexThought Monday: Is Faster Necessarily Better?: As India’s financial inclusion initiatives race forward, questions linger about its microfinance-focused MUDRA

  The pace of recent financial inclusion initiatives in India has been supersonic. Since August of last year, banks have opened 147 million new accounts, thanks largely to government programs. But while this progress is exciting, there are a number of unanswered questions about the real impact of these initiatives, including the new microfinance refinancer/regulator MUDRA.

• Blog Post
  Twitter Top 10

  What do magic, humor, banking and libraries have in common? Not much, unless you’re talking about NextBillion’s weekly Top 10 tweets.

• Blog Post
  Weekly Roundup – the Social Enterprise: Solution to the Migrant Crisis

  The San Francisco-based Not For Sale is a nonprofit that works with the victims of human trafficking, providing them with job training, counseling and other resources that help them enter a legitimate work environment. NSF’s work, and that of its business incubator, might be a model to emulate considering this week’s tragedy in the Mediterranean, which claimed the lives of hundreds of migrant workers.

• News
  Ugandan MPs Ask Government for Greater Mobile Money Regulation

  Members of Parliament grilled Information, Communication Technology (ICT) state minister, Nyombi Thembo over lack of a law to regulate mobile money services and safeguard clients’ money.