-
New $35 million competition will enable greater financial inclusion for smallholder farmers in Africa
The MasterCard Foundation has announced the opening of a US$35 million Scaling Competition under its Fund for Rural Prosperity.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
OPINION: Whatever Happened to the Machine That Turns Feces Into Water?
Earlier this year, I shared a video where I drank water made from feces. (My review: It was delicious.) Today the machine that produced the water, the Janicki Omni Processor – or JOP – is in Dakar, Senegal, as part of a pilot project that could ultimately save lives and reduce disease in poor countries.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Health Care, Technology
-
MasterCard Foundation to Invest in Ugandan Companies
Uganda is among eight countries set to receive USD50m (Sh177b) by the Master Card Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity to fund innovations aimed at improving access to finance in rural populations in sub Saharan Africa.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Across Africa, a New Kind of Container Garden Is Changing Women’s Lives
Some people have the talent to take a simple idea and adapt it into a solution with far-reaching benefits. Take Veronica Kanyango of Zimbabwe, a grassroots organizer who works in home-based health care and hospice for people with HIV/AIDS. She’s managed to take a couple of bags full or dirt and turn them into an agrarian movement.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
President Obama Announces Major Progress Through Feed the Future Initiative
On July 28 President Obama announced that Feed the Future, his signature global hunger and food security initiative, is delivering on his promise to reduce hunger and malnutrition through agricultural development. New data demonstrate that, thanks in part to Feed the Future and other U.S. Government efforts, stunting rates have declined in Ethiopia, Ghana, and parts of Kenya by between 9 and 33 percent in recent years, while areas in Uganda have seen a 16 percent drop in poverty.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- nutrition
-
Financing Agribusinesses in Africa: Mobile Money Shows More Viability
As a result of mobile money financing schemes, farming businesses, most of which are in rural areas in Africa are able to enjoy agritrade financing in form of loans, subsidies and free inputs facilitated mainly through phones. The main advantage of mobile money financing for agriculture is the elimination of cash handling by other individuals during the transfer of the money from the financing individual/organisation to the farmer or agribusiness operator. This reduces or eliminates corruption, outright theft or violence that could result when individuals have to carry cash around.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
IDB Approves Climate-Smart Agriculture Fund
First-of-its-kind fund will support investments that increase rural livelihoods, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance biodiversity.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
-
Bangladesh-Based Poverty Group Founder Wins World Food Prize
A man who created a nonprofit organization credited with helping more than 150 million people out of poverty was named the winner of the 2015 World Food Prize on Wednesday.Fazle Hasan Abed, of Bangladesh, created BRAC, the organization originally known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, as a temporary relief organization to help the country recover from the 1970 typhoon that killed about 500,000 people and the subsequent war fought in 1971 to win independence from Pakistan. Bangladesh was once listed as the second poorest country in the world.
- Categories
- Agriculture
The Best of NextBillion in Your Inbox Each Week!
Subscribe to NB Notes for news, jobs & on-the-ground insights from the world of emerging markets business.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.