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The Disruptors Are Forcing Change in the Remittance Industry
Remittances to Africa have grown rapidly in recent times, and it forms an integral part of the $500 billion global money transfer market. This is because several African nations rely heavily on money sent home by friends and relatives working abroad. Hundreds of Africansare migrating daily to keep growing the influx. But the biggest gainers in this have for long being a few firms, whose near-monopoly costs the continent about $2 billion annually in remittance fees. However, a new breed of companies are causing much needed disruption in the money transfer market and are putting consumers back in control of their money.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public policy, remittances
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OPINION: It’s time to better understand what makes primary health care work
Recent crises — from the earthquake in Nepal to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa — have been wake-up calls: too many primary health care systems are under-resourced and fragmented, leaving countries unprepared to reach everyone with needed health services. This is true when disasters strike, and it’s also true in times of relative calm.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Mexico’s Anti-Poverty Programmes Are Losing the Battle
While most of Latin America has been reducing poverty, Mexico is moving in the other direction: new official figures reflect an increase in the number of poor in the last two years, despite the billions of dollars channeled into a broad range of programmes aimed at combating the problem.
- Region
- Latin America
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Are Governments ‘Paying for Failure’ With Social Impact Bonds?
Three years ago, New York City launched an ambitious and unprecedented social policy experiment at its jail on Rikers Island. Thousands of teenage inmates began receiving group therapy aimed at improving their moral reasoning by addressing their beliefs and thought processes in a step-by-step treatment. The goal was to reduce the number of repeat offenses once the inmates were released. Academic studies using the method, known as moral reconation therapy, had reported success in reducing recidivism. Still, no one had ever scaled up these studies to accommodate anything like the 9,240 inmates the four-year Rikers Island program aimed to serve. This month, the program is coming to an abrupt end.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- failure, impact bonds, public policy
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How Anti-Vaxxers Have Scared the Media Away From Covering Vaccine Side Effects
"It was the most startling side effect I've ever come across." That's how Elizabeth Miller, head of the immunization department at Public Health England, described some recent vaccine research you've probably never heard about: Pandemrix, a shot designed to stave off swine flu, also appears to be causing narcolepsy in some children.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public policy, vaccines
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Obama’s Top Initiative to Aid Africa Is Now in Jeopardy
As President Barack Obama returns to Africa this week, his major initiative to help the continent double access to electricity is in jeopardy, undermined by Congress.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public policy
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Viewpoint: India Must Keep Patent Laws for Manufacture of Cheap Generic Drugs
Recently, trade ministers from 10 Asean countries, India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea gathered to negotiate a deal on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement. But, RCEP negotiations on intellectual property (IP) are at a standstill because India and the Asean countries are unwilling to trade away health by adopting IP provisions that go beyond what is required of them under international trade rules.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- public policy
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India Pitches for Global Tax Policy to Safeguard the Interests of Developing Nations
India has pitched for a global tax regime built into the UN process, rather than being looked at from the point of view of rich countries, in a bid to curb illegal financial flows from the developing world running into some $200 billion annually.
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- public policy