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Hobbyist Makers vs. Global Manufacturers: Is 3D Printing Really the Solution to the Prosthetics Gap?
Be they startups or tinkerers, 3D printing innovators are trying to fill in the gaps in traditional health care, particularly in resource-constricted countries where prosthetic devices are scarce. For those who struggle through life without a limb, 3D printing offers hope. But are hobbyist makers and their 3D printers really the stopgap the limb-loss community needs? Certified prosthetist Jason Bender wades into the debate.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care, Technology
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Even Africa’s poorest countries are too expensive to be the world’s next manufacturing hub
In a bid to find out if African countries can “break into global manufacturing in a substantial way”, the researchers found factories in Africa were almost always more expensive to start and run. Looking at overall costs, small African firms were 39% more expensive than comparative firms elsewhere while medium and large firms were around 50% more expensive.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A new mindset for the SDGs? Top takeaways from Singularity University’s Global Summit
Singularity University faculty explain how exponentially growing technologies — such as artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing and synthetic biology — will enable us to make dramatic gains in the years ahead.
- Categories
- Technology
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IKEA aims to take 200,000 people out of poverty in massive social sustainability drive
IKEA is to open production centres in refugee camps in Jordan this summer as part of a long-term plan to create employment for 200,000 disadvantaged people around the world through social entrepreneurship programmes.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
- Tags
- employment, manufacturing, refugees
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With New Partner, Wello Rolling Down ‘the Fastest Path to Scale’
Social enterprise Wello today announced it will license sales and manufacturing of its main product, the WaterWheel, to Mumbai-based Nilkamal Limited in India and Sri Lanka. The publicly traded Nilkamal is one of Asia's manufacturers and sellers of injection mold plastic furniture and other plastic home goods. We hear from Cynthia Koenig, founder and CEO of Wello, about what the deal means not only for the for-profit company, but also for other social enterprises facing the perennial struggle of scaling their products.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment, NextBillion Originals
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To Stop Relying on Western Hand-Me-Downs, African Countries Are Importing Chinese Textile Companies
Every day the workers at C&H Garment Factory are required to learn a few words of Chinese. Today’s lesson, written on a whiteboard at the back of a humming factory floor, is the numbers 8, 9, and 10—written in Kinyarwanda, English, and Mandarin. “We’re a Chinese company so we want to introduce a little Chinese culture to them,” the textile company’s owner, Candy Ma, tells Quartz.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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South Africa: Condom Manufacturing Plant to Create Jobs
A total of 145 potential direct jobs are to be created when a latex condom manufacturing plant at the Dube Trade Port in Durban is opened. The plant is a result of a partnership - facilitated by the Department of Trade and Industry -between US company HBM and SA Health Protecting Service which is a local medical consumable supplier in both the public and private sector.
- Categories
- Health Care
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The Silver Lining Beneath Fashion’s Dirty Supply Chains: Three innovative solutions to the industry’s sustainability problem
It's Fashion Week in New York and consumers across the globe increasingly care about whether their clothes are ethically produced. Yet, most likely, the clothes you're wearing come from a sweatshop. But could there be silver lining under fashion's dirty garments? Absolutely.
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- Uncategorized
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