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MIT Global Challenge, Connecting Ideas and Innovators
In 2008, the MIT Public Service Center asked: ’What would it look like if we applied that level of problem-solving to the challenges faced by under-served communities, places where markets are failing to provide basic necessities like clean water, health care, or reliable energy?’ The result is the MIT Global Challenge.
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- Impact Assessment
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The (BoP) Project: Finding Sustainable Water Solutions
The Grundfos LIFELINK system is certainly no robot, but it is about as high-tech as rural water solutions can get. A single-point water supply system with a submersible pump that is powered entirely by solar panels, the water is pumped to an elevated storage tank, then led by gravity to a tap unit in a small, secure concrete housing structure.
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- Agriculture, Environment
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Energy for the BoP Made ’Simple’
Simpa Networks manufactures a solar household system that, unlike some others, is off-the-shelf, and easy to install and maintain. Inspired by mobile phone prepayment systems, the big innovation is Simpa’s unique "Progressive Purchase" pricing model, a micropayment system specifically designed to fit the unpredictable incomes of the poor.
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- Energy
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NextThought Monday: Gold Stars, the Best of December (and Best Ideas of 2010) on NextBillion
NextBillion ended 2010 by picking our writers’ and editors’ brains on what really made a difference - the best ideas if you will - this year. At the same time, December’s lineup of the top five most-popular posts seemed to reflect the step forward for development through enterprise on numerous fronts.
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- Education, Technology, Transportation
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Can Private Sector ?Greed? Manifest Into Transformational Development?
Okay, so I’m obviously pining for some exaggeration here, but with the base of the pyramid now seen as a veritable consumer demographic, can 2011 be the year where multinationals really start to delve into the BoP no longer for CSR but for profits?
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- Uncategorized
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Best Ideas of 2010: Dead Aid Reminds Us of Our Mission
It should come as no surprise that the Dead Aid prescriptions are market-based, since no economic ideology other than one rooted in the movement of capital and competition has succeeded in getting the greatest numbers of people out of poverty, in the fastest time. -Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid
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- Impact Assessment
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Best Ideas of 2010: Cardiocam
"Cardiocam: Technology for Non-Contact Multi-Parameter Physiologic Measurements" was developed by researchers at Harvard/M.I.T, and captures physiological data via a webcam. The webcam is able to detect subtle shifts in face color and blood flow and then translates these facts into usable data, enabling physicians to diagnose patients from afar.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Best Ideas of 2010: Bringing Change to the Bottom with Change at the Top
If poor governance in places like Africa has been one of the primary impediments to development, national elections there have often provided little cause for hope. But this time, the international community is not playing along.
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- Impact Assessment
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