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Can a UN social impact fund spark further reform at the organization?
A new fund to boost smart affordable housing options in Bangladesh is one of the first major announcements from the UNDP’s SDG Impact Finance initiative — an enterprise that took UNDP’s David Galipeau four years to convince the U.N. it needed.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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New UN report reveals momentum for digital payments in Ghana could save over $230M within next four years
With 37 percent of the value of all payments now made digitally, Ghana is on course to be a leader in the region, with great potential to expand economic opportunities for businesses
- Categories
- Inclusive Fintech, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Are the Sustainable Development Goals Achievable?
The SDGs were always bound to meet strong headwinds, owing to technological disruption, geopolitical rivalry, and widening social inequality. But populist calls for nationalist policies, including trade protectionism, have intensified those headwinds considerably.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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7 biggest trends to emerge from Global Goals Week
Underlying the scattering of news-making announcements, pledges, partnerships, and disappointments that make up Global Goals Week, a few currents tend to emerge. These speak to deeper shifts within the global development community, and point to the direction progress — or failure — might travel.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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This aid agency is using chatbots to beat world hunger
WFP first began to assess food needs using text messages and interactive voice response systems in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2014, with help from global information and audience measurement company Nielsen. This year, they expanded to using chatbots on the Facebook messenger platform. Approximately 170 million Africans use Facebook, mostly on their phones.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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UNCTAD adviser, Alibaba’s Jack Ma, launches African Young Entrepreneurs Fund
Mr. Ma said that he would also work with UNCTAD help bring 200 budding African businesspeople to his homeland China to learn from Alibaba hands on.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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No more empty stocks: Contraceptives reach rural women thanks to pioneering logistics system
“It is free - no need to pay. Better still, I am also told that from now on I can get it regularly in my home when the mobile health team visits my village. We can now start family planning. It is very good for us”, says Nan Aye Aye Lwin.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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U.N. glimpses into blockchain future with eye scan payments for refugees
Iris recognition devices at the checkouts of the camp's supermarket authenticate customers' identities and deduct what they spend from sums they receive as aid from the World Food Program (WFP).
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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