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A Closer Look at The World’s Largest Unaddressed Disability: Leveraging Inclusive Business to Eradicate Poor Vision
Uncorrected poor vision affects some 2.5 billion people, costing the global economy $227 billion a year in lost productivity. Yet though 90% of these people live in developing countries, the problem ranks low on the global development agenda – even though it can often be fixed by a simple pair of glasses. Jayanth Bhuvaraghan at Essilor explores the issue, and discusses an innovative solution: the Eye Mitra program, which trains youth in emerging countries to become micro-entrepreneurs, providing primary vision care and selling low-cost eyeglasses in their communities.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care
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When college is out of reach, this academy trains Ugandans to be entrepreneurs
Uganda has one of the world’s youngest, and highest growing populations; a whopping 68 percent of Ugandans are under the age of 24. Few of those young people have formal jobs. Less than 3 percent of the Ugandans aged 15 to 24 are officially employed, according to World Bank figures. About 90 percent work informal jobs, where they do not pay taxes but also receive no benefits and few worker protections.
- Categories
- Education, Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press release: Hello Tractor and CTA launch partnership to support smallholder farmers access mechanisation
Across sub-Saharan Africa, farmers face some of the lowest rates of mechanisation. Despite the benefits of tractor mechanisation, cost and access have been key impediments to its widespread adoption.
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press release: Young people to Davos leaders: more jobs, better education
“There are 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 today – the world’s largest-ever group of young people. Every month, 10 million reach working age – and they’re finding that yesterday’s skills no longer match today’s job market,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said at a meeting today in Davos bringing together the Forum’s three communities: Global Shapers, Young Global Leaders and Schwab Social Entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Education
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The social entrepreneur equipping youth with skills of the future
Juan David Aristizabal is the founder of social enterprise Los Zuper, which uses a mix of media content and live events to inspire young people to equip themselves with the capabilities needed for the future.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Young, African, Employed – How A Ugandan Startup Aims to Mobilize the Continent’s Youth
Almost 80 percent of Ugandans are below the age of 30 – and many of them are struggling to generate a reliable livelihood. Hire the Youth is addressing this issue through online and in-person programs advancing youth employment and education, using a hybrid non-profit and for-profit model. Its founder, Ssenkubuge Kenneth, discusses the challenges the startup has faced – and how it has overcome them – as it aims to expand its services into other African countries.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Four Ways to Support Vulnerable Youth: Key Takeaways from a Six-Year Livelihood Program
The world’s current generation of 1.8 billion young people is the largest in history. But harnessing this demographic dividend has proven difficult, as youth unemployment rates have remained persistently high for the last decade. Save the Children’s recently concluded Youth in Action program was designed to improve the socioeconomic status of 40,000 out-of-school youth in rural Africa. To find out how well it worked, the organization embedded 32 studies into the program. It recently shared the results – and Nikhit D’Sa discusses four lessons from the findings.
- Categories
- Education
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Giving poor people cash is a good idea. Giving entrepreneurs cash might be a great one
As the country’s population continues to grow—the median age of in the country is only 18—the economy is struggling to create jobs at a sufficiently fast pace.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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