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How 28 Poor Countries Escaped the Poverty Trap
Remember the poverty trap? Countries stuck in destitution because of weak institutions put in place by colonial overlords, or because of climates that foster disease, or geographies that limit access to global markets, or simply by the fact that poverty is overwhelmingly self-perpetuating. Apparently the trap can be escaped. The World Bank did its annual assessment of poor countries...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Solar Sister Wants to Light Up Rural Africa
One-year-old start up Solar Sister is using cosmetics company AVON’s model to distribute solar energy in Uganda , Sudan , and Rwanda . To learn more about the "business in a bag" model that’s giving rural African women ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Invest in Agriculture to Tackle Food Crisis in East Africa, says IFAD
In the face of a prolonged drought in East Africa that is threatening the lives of an estimated 10 million people across the region, Geoffrey Livingston, Regional Economist for East and Southern Africa at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said: "We need to act now and step up investment in agriculture and smallholder farmers if we want to prevent a major food crisis." The effects of climate change have been becoming more and more apparent in the region including...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Universal Charger for Just About Any Gadget Battery
ASPEN -- If you can pry the lithium ion battery out of your device, you can probably charge it with Fenix International’s noteworthy USB charger. And you won’t need an annoying adapter, either. The company developed the charger for use in Uganda and other developing world countries. It’s part of a whole suite of products Fenix designed to help local people to become one-stop electricity providers. But you can use it yourself, too. At the bottom of this post, you can see the ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Africa Can Extract Big Benefits for Everyone from Natural Resources
As the Natural Resource Charter holds its third annual workshop at the University Oxford, in the UK, this week, the combination of rising commodity prices and falling costs of communication technology presents Africa with an unprecedented opportunity to reduce poverty and fight corruption at the same time. T...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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World Bank Offers Farmers Money to Hedge Against Volatile Food Prices
The World Bank has teamed up with JP Morgan to offer farmers and food manufacturers in poor countries access to financial derivatives to hedge their risk from volatile food prices. Two other banks, one in sub-Saharan Africa and one in Europe with Middle East partnerships, as yet unidentified, are expected to launch similar products with the World Bank shortly. Excessive speculation ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Activate 2011: Mobiles Look Set to Play a Big Role in Africa’s Development
The mobile phone will have a dramatic impact on development in Africa over the next five years, declared Rakesh Rajani of Twaweza at the Activate conference this week on technology and social change in London. The technology industry has a track record of hype, but Rajani’s comments sound plausible given the huge number of pilot projects for mobiles in Africa in all areas of development. A race is on to find what...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Can Matt Damon Bring Clean Water to Africa?
Once upon a time, Matt Damon went for a long walk in rural Zambia. The devoted family man and method philanthropist was accompanying a 14-year-old Zambian girl who had no idea that her hiking companion was an Academy Award-winning international heartthrob. The walk came toward the end of a 10-day African journey, a systematic primer on the complexities of the continent’s extreme poverty that had been organized for Damon by staffers from his friend Bono’s ONE campaign. Damon was ...
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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