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Accenture, Mastercard and Amazon Web Services create blockchain powered circular supply chain
Accenture has partnered with Mastercard, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Everledger, and Mercy Corps to explore solutions that will “empower consumers, enable transparency and promote financial inclusion for small-scale producers” through a circular supply chain.
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- Finance, Technology
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Report: Ban on Aadhaar linking may crimp growth of financial players in India
Last month, the Supreme Court had declared the government's flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid but struck down some of its provisions including its linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions.
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- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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The Missing Link in the Blockchain: The Need for Trust in a ‘Trustless’ System
Blockchain has become the ultimate tech buzzword, and development organizations are seeking to apply it in projects of every stripe. But as Rose Davis discovered in researching the technology’s social impact applications for Stanford, reliable digital identification is an essential precursor to many blockchain initiatives. Does a distributed ledger that has supposedly transcended the need for centralized oversight actually require some form of verification from trustworthy authorities? And if so, who should provide it? Davis explores these questions in this thought-provoking post.
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- Technology
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Viewpoint: How India Could Transform Africa
An Aadhaar-like digital ID system would boost growth as much as Chinese-built roads.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Sierra Leone, United Nations to Develop Blockchain Digital ID System
The UN Capital Development Fund (UNDCF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have entered into a partnership with Kiva, a technology nonprofit. Kiva will lend its institutional protocol of the same name to implement the “Credit Bureau Of The Future.”
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- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Blockchain Experiments Have Begun: Here’s What They Could Yield for Business and Development
The buzz around blockchain is loud. But despite the widespread attention the tech has generated, it has yet to live up to its potential to make a major impact in low- and middle-income countries, according to Akhtar Badshah of Catalytic Innovators Group. Badshah profiles blockchain success stories from the for-profit, social enterprise and development sectors alike, arguing that if more organizations would give the tech a chance, they (and their beneficiaries) could tap into its great potential.
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- Technology
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Zambians, Wary of Taxpayer ID Rule, Opt for Mobile Money Rather Than Banks
Zambia’s government and its banks insist the country’s new taxpayer identification numbers aren’t used to collect additional taxes. But the public’s suspicions about this ID requirement have driven many locals to favor digital transactions, now a booming business.
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- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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From Financial Inclusion to Employment: Four Ways Superplatforms Will Shape Africa’s Future
Perhaps surprisingly, young people in sub-Saharan Africa and other low-income countries haven't embraced digital payments to the extent of their older peers. But that may be changing as "superplatforms" like Alibaba and Facebook – which can leverage their data and tech capabilities over multiple sectors – emerge in the region. David Porteous and Amolo Ng’weno of BFA and Olga Morawcynski of Mastercard Foundation discuss four ways these tech platforms will shape youth employment, financial inclusion, digital identity and other fields.
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- Finance, Technology