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Rethinking the Flush Toilet: It’s Time to Move Sanitation Infrastructure Off the Grid
Virginia Gardiner, inventor of the Loowatt toilet system, says sanitation infrastructure has to move off the grid, just as mobile communications did in the 20th century. She points to a growing number of companies, including her own, that are piloting the provision of non-sewered sanitation to households thorough container-based sanitation, a system that presents the most viable alternative for urban areas in need of sanitation solutions.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment, Health Care
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The Future of the Graduation Approach: Taking a Proven Anti-Poverty Measure to Scale
How can the "graduation" approach to fighting extreme poverty achieve a scale commensurate with extreme poverty itself? Increasingly, the answer is to embed graduation within government-run social protection programs that already operate at massive scale. MetLife Foundation's Krishna Thacker explores why the approach works, and how innovative organizations are taking it to the next level.
- Categories
- Education, Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion
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I’m a Victim of DFS: Digitizing My Dollars is Fine, the Problem is Digitizing Me
The whole framework for digital money is inadequate, says Ignacio Mas, because people don't have a proper digital identity. That's partly due to governments and financial institutions having different needs. He recommends dividing identity rules into two: one set that serves financial integrity and law enforcement needs, and another that fulfills the bank's fiduciary duty toward customers.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
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Beyond ‘Pilotitis’: Three Critical Success Factors for National Digital Health Strategies
The ecosystem of digital health solutions and programs remains disjointed and many countries are moving toward the complex task of implementing national strategies to coordinate this fragmentation. A new report highlights eight countries that are effectively developing and implementing national digital health strategies, and finds three common success factors.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Investors and Entrepreneurs in Africa Take Note: Price of Solar’s Dropping While Demand’s Increasing
A number of factors are combining to create a favorable environment for decentralized clean-energy systems – and strong investment opportunities – in emerging markets, according to Ankit Mishra of Premise Data. Most noteworthy, energy use in non-OECD countries is expected to rise by 71 percent through 2040, and the cost of renewable energy is projected to decline rapidly.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Technology
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From Biometrics to Chatbots: Two Technology Challenges Aim to Help Governments Digitize their Economies
There is a growing consensus that emerging-market governments should digitize their economies, starting with the vast streams of payments they themselves make and receive. The DFS Lab is launching two technology challenges to fund new technologies that enable this transition: a Biometrics Challenge and a Chatbots Challenge. The deadline to enter is May 30.
- Categories
- Events and Competitions, Financial Inclusion, Technology
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Zimbabwe: $90m Package for SMEs Unveiled
Of the $90 million facility, $10 million will go to horticulture, $15 million to cross border traders, $40 million for the gold facility, $15 million for women empowerment, while $10 million has been earmarked for business linkages.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A growing share of aid is spent by private firms, not charities
Haiti is one example of a trend. Though not all countries break down aid spending according to the type of contractor used, data from those that do suggest that a growing share of aid is funnelled, not through charities or non-profit foundations, but through consultancies and other private-sector contractors that profit from the work.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- aid agencies, DfID, global development, government, Haiti, USAID
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