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Microsoft launches $40 million AI for Humanitarian Action initiative
One initiative to receive a grant from Conservation Metrics is using AI to recognize the unique sounds of elephants’ calls to track them over time. More than 100 AI for Earth grants have been awarded thus far.
- Categories
- Technology
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Global goal to end poverty by 2030 unlikely to be met, World Bank says
Without significant shifts in policy, about 480 million people - some 6 percent of the world - will remain in extreme poverty in 2030, the majority in poor African countries which are lagging behind, it said in a forecast document.
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Bill and Melinda Gates Sound The Alarm on Poverty
“We usually express our optimism by highlighting some of the recent mind-blowing improvements in the human condition—like the fact that advances in medicine have saved 50 million lives just since we started our foundation in 2000. We believe it’s worth repeating that until we’re blue in the face,” they begin.
- Tags
- global development, SDGs
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Press release: WHO launches first investment case to save up to 30 million lives
“As it embarks on its eighth decade, the World Health Organization is as essential and central as ever,” said Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda. “It has a unique role in developing new norms and standards, and sharing life-saving tools and technologies.”
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
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Ghana Receives Support to Strengthen its Financial Sector and Promote Inclusion
“This project will support Government’s plan to undertake reforms to deepen financial markets, promote inclusion, enhance the supervision and regulation of specialized deposit-taking financial institutions in line with Ghana’s National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy,” said Henry K.G. Kerali, World Bank Country Director for Ghana.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press release: WaterEquity announces the first closing of its US $50 million impact investment fund
WaterEquity, the first-ever impact investment manager with an exclusive focus on ending the global water crisis, announces the first close of its US $50 million flagship fund—WaterCredit Investment Fund 3 (WCIF3)—at US $33 million. Investors include Bank of America, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), Ceniarth LLC, Niagara Bottling, as well as the Conrad N. Hilton, Skoll, and Osprey Foundations. A second-close is projected before year-end.
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Report: New Earth imagery platform aims to tackle global challenges including disasters
“As global threats like climate change rapidly grow, observation systems and analytical technologies such as machine learning allow us to analyse landscapes and communities at a scale that was previously impractical and inaccessible to global development practitioners,” said Anne Hale Miglarese, founder and CEO of Radiant Earth Foundation.
- Categories
- Technology
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Africa’s fintech startups are innovating out of need and global investors are backing them
After pulling in almost a third of total funding raised by startups on the continent in 2017, the hot streak for African fintech businesses has continued this year. Among recent big-ticket deals in 2018, Cellulant, a digital payments solution company, raised $47.5 million in one of the largest Series C rounds for a solely Africa-focused venture-funded company.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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