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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Releases Open-Source Software to Support Efforts that Expand Access to Financial Services in Developing Countries
Current data from the World Bank shows that nearly two billion people in developing economies lack bank accounts and miss out on the benefits and security that basic financial services provide. Digital financial services, such as mobile money on cell phones, have rapidly expanded over the last two decades because they are convenient for users and cost-effective for companies aiming to serve new markets.
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How stoves can help solve a global pollution crisis
Dirty air, besides contributing to global warming, leads to 4 million deaths per year, according to the World Health Organization. That's about 1 millions deaths in China, 600,000 in India and 140,000 in Russia in 2012 alone.
- Categories
- Environment
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Only modernized commercial farms will fill Africa’s plate, economists warn
A transformation from small-scale subsistence farms to mechanised, more commercially viable farms is essential, said experts at the Ghana-based African Centre for Economic Transformation, who outlined a bold plan to revolutionise agriculture and fuel economic growth in a report launched Tuesday at an African finance ministers meeting at the World Bank and backed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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More trees help water sanitation, reduce child deaths: study
The study examined the health of 300,000 children and the quality of watersheds across 35 countries including Bangladesh, Nigeria and Colombia, and found that having more trees upstream led to healthier children.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
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Vodafone Americas Foundation Call for Entries for Tenth Annual Wireless Innovation Project
The Vodafone Americas Foundation today, at SOCAP17, announced the opening of its tenth annual Wireless Innovation ProjectTM (WIP) competition, seeking the latest connected innovations designed for social good. The Vodafone Americas Foundation asks all entrepreneurs, startups, non-government organizations (NGOs), nonprofits and university projects to submit technologies that aim to solve critical issues facing the global community.
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- global development, NGOs
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Meet 12 Youth-Led Social Businesses Inspired By Muhammad Yunus
From communities of women developers springing up across Africa to jointly revolutionize science and technology, to a Brazilian social business educating their countrymen of ‘effective altruism’ through scientific evaluation of charities, to Indonesian youths redefining conventional cafes by employing and engaging the deaf with the wider community, we are entering a new era of a capitalistic society led by the rise of youth social entrepreneurship.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Report: The State of Food and Agriculture 2017 – Leveraging food systems for inclusive rural transformation
Rural areas, too long seen as poverty traps, key to economic growth in developing countries. But sweeping transformations needed to unlock their potential to help feed and employ a younger, more crowded planet, says a new report.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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New development impact bond brings in big donors, provides biggest test of model to date
Gwokajja’s story is one of several thousand supported through Village Enterprise, a nongovernmental organization working to eliminate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation. The organization’s network of entrepreneurs is set to grow significantly through a new development impact bond that is trailblazing many firsts — the first in the world to focus specifically on poverty alleviation, the first in sub-Saharan Africa, and the first to bring on major donors, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.K. Department for International Development.
- Categories
- Investing
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