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Monday, May 20, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Malaria fight at a ‘tipping point,’ experts tell Congress

Source: Global Post
Leading global health experts told Capitol Hill lawmakers today that the fight against malaria is at a turning point, during a hearing on the US’ role in combating malaria globally.
TAGS:health care, public health
Thursday, May 16, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The hottest frontier

Source: The Economist
Strategies for putting money to work in a fast-growing continent.
TAGS:impact investing, poverty alleviation, social enterprise
Monday, May 13, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Venture Capital to invest US$20m this year

Source: Ghana Web
The Venture Capital Trust Fund will invest US$20million in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in different sectors of the economy this year, building on a portfolio of investments currently valued at close to US$60million.
TAGS:impact investing, poverty alleviation
Monday, May 13, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Us Family Biz Icon Launches Africa Fund

Source: Campden FB
Dr John Coors, fourth-gen chief executive of ceramics company CoorsTek and a member of the Coors brewing dynasty, is behind the launch of an investment group targeting Africa that plans a new approach to investing in the continent.
TAGS:impact investing, investment fund, poverty alleviation
Friday, May 10, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

In Africa, the best 'charity' is aid for business

Source: The Christian Science Monitor
The traditional approach to solving Africa’s problems has been to rely on charity and aid – free money, more or less. And while charity has done much good for millions across the continent in terms of food security, health care, emergency response, and education, its chief weakness is that its results have not proven sustainable. Africa finds itself continually going back to donors simply to maintain the status quo. What the continent really needs is to create the environment – political, economic, and social – to achieve self-sufficiency.
TAGS:banking, skill development
Friday, May 10, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Venture Capital Trust Fund signs MoU with GIMPA to establish Centre

Source: Ghana Business News
Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) signed a Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with the Ghana Institute for Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to establish a Centre for Impact Investing in the country.
TAGS:impact investing, poverty alleviation, social enterprise
Thursday, May 09, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Preventing Drug Shortages With Cell Phones in Malawi

Source: PBS Newshour
Eighty percent of the 13 million Malawians live in rural areas, making delivering health services challenging, especially in remote parts with no roads.
TAGS:mobile phones, public health, social enterprise
Thursday, May 09, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Where Private School Is Not a Privilege

Source: The New York Times
In the United States, private school is generally a privilege of the rich. But in poorer nations, particularly in Africa and South Asia, families of all social classes send their children to private school.
TAGS:poverty alleviation, rural development
Wednesday, May 08, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Big Pharma in Africa: Weighing corporate citizenship and the bottom line

Source: African Arguments
In the early 2000s, pharmaceutical companies were high on activists’ hit lists. Today, the discourse seems merrier.
TAGS:health care, public health
Wednesday, May 08, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Pharmacovigilance Reporting Goes Digital in Kenya

Source: Management Sciences for Health
Monitoring and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and poor-quality human medicines has gone digital in Kenya.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, May 06, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

How one social enterprise is leading the fight against malaria

Source: The Guardian
Living Goods, a social enterprise based in San Francisco, has built a network of door-to-door salespeople in Uganda.
TAGS:health care, public health
Friday, May 03, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Banishing poverty through banking

Source: The Guardian
Access to financial services could pull millions of people out of poverty, so where does microfinance fit in?
TAGS:Microfinance, poverty alleviation
Thursday, May 02, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

How solar panels are leading the fight against malaria

Source: Business Green
Kenyan island aims to become free of the disease thanks to solar-powered, insecticide-free mosquito traps
TAGS:public health, solar, technology
Wednesday, May 01, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Meet The Entrepreneur Working To Challenge Nokia, Blackberry And Samsung In Africa

Source: Forbes
Alpesh Patel, a Ugandan-born entrepreneur, served as director of sales in Africa for Motorola before quitting the American telecommunications giant to launch Mi-Fone, an African mobile phone brand.
TAGS:mobile applications, mobile phones, technology
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

‘We believe strongly in the power of entrepreneurs to transform Africa’

Source: Business Day
As of March 2013, Omidyar Network has committed more than $611 million to for-profit and non-profit companies that foster economic advancement, including entrepreneurship.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social enterprise, social entrepreneur
Monday, April 29, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Malaria resistance - it's in the parasite's genes

Source: The Guardian
Tracking malaria resistance is imperative if it is to be prevented, say scientists who have been genotyping the parasites.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, April 29, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Vaccines shunned by some as others struggle for access

Source: CNN
For parents in Somalia, giving their children immunizations is not a choice.
TAGS:health care, public health
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

IFC, Others Invest $20m In Ghanaian Microfinance Bank

Source: Ventures Africa
The IFC, the German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG), and the African Capitalisation Fund (ACF) have together invested about GH¢46 million ($20 million) into one of Ghana’s leading microfinance banks, UT Bank.
TAGS:impact investing, poverty alleviation
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

African Farmers Celebrate Earth Day By Saving The World

Source: Forbes
Storms are getting more violent, seasonal patterns are shifting, and the weather is seemingly harder to predict.
TAGS:agribusiness, social enterprise
Monday, April 22, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

AfDB Provides $38m To Aid Entrepreneurship, Job Creation In Rwanda

Source: Ventures Africa
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is contributing $38 million to boost entrepreneurship and job creation in Rwanda.
TAGS:impact investing, social enterprise
Monday, April 22, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Social impact bonds gear up for Mozambique

Source: SmartPlanet
For generations, non-governmental organizations have depended on donors to fund their activities. There was no promise of a return on investment, and many of the programs they funded were unsustainable and died when the money dried up.
TAGS:social enterprise
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Coca-Cola turns to solar energy to increase sales

Source: Business Day
Coca-Cola has turned to solar energy to consolidate its market share and boost sales through provision of subsidised solar kits to soda kiosks in order to extend their operating hours. Speaking Wednesday during the launch of a partnership with energy solutions provider, One Degree Solar, Managing Director Nairobi Bottlers Patrick Pech said the project will go a long way in helping retailers and kiosk owners extend their operating hours, reduce operating costs and enable them record higher sales.
TAGS:multinational corporation, solar
Monday, April 15, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

New Dalhberg Study shows how the Internet will drive development in Africa

Source: Press Release
Despite widespread agreement on the web’s potential to transform lives and reduce poverty, there is little information about how policymakers and investors should capitalize on this potential.
TAGS:mobile applications, technology
Monday, April 15, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Sierra Leone: Using Technology to Save Lives

Source: All Africa
The telecommunications industry and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have teamed up to use mobile phone technology to save lives in Sierra Leone.
TAGS:health care, public health, technology
Monday, April 15, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

World Bank: Africa's economic growth to outpace average

Source: BBC
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa should significantly outpace the global average over the next three years, according to the World Bank.
TAGS:poverty alleviation, scale
Friday, April 12, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Nairobi Company Develop Innovative Technique for Waste Management

Source: Voice of America
Just one-third of Nairobi’s trash makes it to the single municipal dumpsite at Dandora.
TAGS:social enterprise
Friday, April 12, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa: Poverty No Bar to Fighting Deadly Undernutrition

Source: All Africa
Some of the world’s poorest countries, including two in sub-Saharan Africa, are showing the greatest political commitment to tackling hunger and undernutrition.
TAGS:health care, public health
Thursday, April 11, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa: People On Art Have Near Normal Life Expectancies

Source: All Africa
People living with HIV in South Africa, who access antiretroviral therapy (ART) before their immune systems are severely compromised, have life expectancies close to that of the general population, researchers have found.
TAGS:health care, public health
Thursday, April 11, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa can leapfrog other regions on energy, power expo hears

Source: Business Day
Billed as Africa’s biggest power and energy expo, Power and Electricity World Africa launched in Sandton on Tuesday, with exhibits from China, India, Europe, the US and further afield displaying renewable and traditional technologies.
TAGS:energy, urban
Thursday, April 11, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

mHealth ‘could save a million African lives by 2017

Source: AfrOnline
Mobile health (mHealth) applications such as text messages could save more than a million lives in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years, according to a report.
TAGS:mobile phones, social enterprise
Tuesday, April 09, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Zambia slowly winning HIV/AIDS fight

Source: Zambia Daily Mail
In Southern Africa, Zambia has one of the world’s most devastating HIV and AIDS pandemic. In 2009, nearly 76,000 adults were newly infected with HIV, representing about 200 new infections each day.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, April 08, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Donors likely to cut down on HIV and Aids funds

Source: Standard Digital
Uncertainty looms over the future of donor funding of the fight against HIV and Aids, malaria, and tuberculosis.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, April 08, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Rockefeller And Tony Elumelu Foundation Launch African Impact Fund

Source: Forbes
The Rockefeller Foundation and theTony Elumelu Foundation, founded by Nigerian philanthropist Tony Elumelu, have launched an impact investment fund for Africa.
TAGS:impact investing, Rockefeller Foundation
Monday, April 08, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Mara Foundation, NFTE Partner For Global Entrepreneurship Education

Source: Ventures Africa
Mara Foundation and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) have launched a partnership aimed at educating emerging entrepreneurs across the globe.
TAGS:social enterprise, social entrepreneur
Thursday, April 04, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa: Why Money Sent Home Is Better Than Foreign Aid

Source: All Africa
The African diaspora is a major source of foreign income so large that it now outstrips foreign aid sent by Western donors.
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 03, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

New apps transforming remote parts of Africa

Source: Associated Press
For generations, breeding cows in the rural highlands of Kenya has hinged on knowledge and experience passed down from parents to children. But Mercy Wanjiku is unlike most farmers. Her most powerful tool is her cell phone, and a text messaging service called iCow.
TAGS:mobile phones, poverty alleviation, social enterprise
Tuesday, April 02, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya: Major Price Cut for Rapid TB Test

Source: All Africa
The cost of a highly accurate, rapid diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB) has been reduced by 40 percent under a new agreement between the US government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the health financing mechanism, UNITAID.
TAGS:health care, public health
Tuesday, April 02, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Indigo Telecom CEO: White space is the technology Africa's been waiting for

Source: Devex Impact
As part of the multipronged Microsoft4Afrika initiative, a new public-private partnership between Microsoft, Indigo Telecom and the government of Kenya, called Mawingu (meaning “cloud” in Swahili), aims to bring broadband Internet service via solar-powered stations to two remote communities.
TAGS:social enterprise, technology, telecommunications
Monday, April 01, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Clever Packaging: Essential Medicine Rides Coke’s Distribution Into Remote Villages

Source: Wired
Simon Berry is piggybacking on Coca-Cola’s distribution system to bring life-saving medicine to the places that need it most.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, April 01, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa: HIV/Aids - New Investment in Point-of-Care Evaluation

Source: All Africa
International medicines financing mechanism UNITAID will invest more than US$140 million to evaluate point-of-care HIV diagnostic and monitoring technology in seven African countries.
TAGS:health care, public health
Thursday, March 28, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Social Enterprises Scale Up To Fight Poverty in Africa, Asia-Pacific

Source: CSR Press Release
NEW YORK, Mar. 27 /CSRwire/ - Hundreds of thousands of low-income people will benefit from expanded access to financial services as a result of new commitments to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), an anti-poverty initiative backed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
TAGS:financial inclusion, poverty alleviation
Wednesday, March 27, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Gates explores Ghana’s health progress

Source: IOL News
The freckled man with the rectangular glasses instantly recognisable to much of the world stood in the West African heat, staring at data that had nothing to do with selling software.
TAGS:Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, health care, public health
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

New plan to ensure universal health care in Somalia

Source: IRIN
Every Somali citizen will have access to basic healthcare by 2016 if a new, government-led strategic plan achieves its aims.
TAGS:health care, technology
Thursday, March 21, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

World food security and what young Africans can do about it

Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Leaders in sub-Saharan Africa, a region with the world’s fastest-growing and youngest population, seek to create more agriculture jobs.
TAGS:farmers, Poverty, Women
Thursday, March 21, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Mozambique leads from the front in battle against Aids

Source: The Guardian
Mozambique is using new technology to improve diagnosis and treatment for people living with HIV.
TAGS:health care, public health
Thursday, March 21, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

New Technology Can Save Lives From an Ancient Disease

Source: Huffington Post
Can a machine that looks suspiciously like a computer CPU help save lives from one of the world's most ancient diseases?
TAGS:health care, public health
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Tackling poverty with social enterprise

Source: The Guardian
Despite the promising economic growth exhibited by African nations in the last decade, the spectre of food poverty still looms large.
TAGS:Poverty, social enterprise
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Connecting the dots between vaccines and hunger

Source: The Guardian
Comic Relief started as a response to the 1984 famine in Ethiopia. Any solution to the persisting problem of global hunger must factor in immunization.
TAGS:health care, public health
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Sun-Powered Mobile Clinic Could Revolutionize Rural Healthcare

Source: Earth Techling
Life in a rural Africa isn’t easy. Remote villages lack access to electricity, clean water, and most importantly, healthcare. Samsung recently unveiled its solution to the last of these problems at the Africa Forum in Cape Town, South Africa.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, March 18, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Mozambique turns to technology in battle against tuberculosis

Source: The Guardian
New machine expected to cut TB diagnosis time dramatically, enabling speedier treatment in Maputo and beyond.
TAGS:health care, public health, technology
Monday, March 18, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

LAPO Boss: Microfinance Industry Needs Intellectual Leadership

Source: The Guardian
LIFT Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) operated as a pro-poor non-government organisation (NGO) more than two decades before it was licensed a microfinance institution in 2010. The same year it was recognised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a micro lender, it paid out N21.9 billion loans.
TAGS:Microfinance, poverty alleviation
Friday, March 15, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Philips highlights unmet healthcare needs of African women

Source: AfricaNews.com
Royal Philips Electronics released its Fabric of Africa Trends Report on healthcare services across Africa, focusing specifically on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), maternal and child health and the strengthening of healthcare systems.
TAGS:health care, public health
Thursday, March 14, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Mali Entrepreneurs Offer Path to Peace

Source: Forbes
The day French fighters started bombing Mali in January, I was on edge. Root Capital’s regional credit manager based in Dakar, Diaka Sall, was visiting clients in Mali that very day the French stepped in to stop the Northern rebels’ southward march toward the capital city.
TAGS:social enterprise
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa Moves to Revitalize Nursing

Source: All Africa
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has unveiled a national strategic plan aimed at rebuilding and revitalising the nursing profession in South Africa.
TAGS:health care, public health
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

We Found it: The World's Greatest Small Social Enterprise Will Inspire You

Source: Forbes
Today, I interviewed The Yonkofa Project founder Dr. Gabriella Nanci. I’ll share that interview with you directly and unedited as Dr. Nanci tells her story much better than I could.
TAGS:social enterprise
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Women Entrepreneurs in Eurasia, Africa Get $100 Million Boost

Source: The Daily Beast
In a promising step toward the economic empowerment of women in emerging markets, the Coca-Cola Co. and International Finance Corp. (IFC) on Monday announced a joint initiative that aims to support female entrepreneurship in Eurasia and Africa.
TAGS:supply chains, Women
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa on the move

Source: Business Day
Awolowo Road has long been a destination for enterprising Nigerian traders. In the 1990s, Kola Karim became one of them, setting up shop on the road that links the plush neighbourhood of Ikoyi to the tumult of the Lagos Island business district, selling shirts and jeans to the throngs.
TAGS:social enterprise
Monday, March 11, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa: Advance Market Commitments 'Promising Solutions' to Global Health Challenges

Source: All Africa
An evaluation of the design of the pilot Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for pneumococcal vaccines published today shines a light on the groundbreaking funding mechanism which has already helped vaccinate 13 million children against the world's biggest childhood killer.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, March 11, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya’s major ICT plan

Source: Daily Nation
Mid last month the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Kenya ICT Board launched an ambitious national ICT master plan which seeks to transform the country as a regional technology hub.
TAGS:social enterprise, technology
Monday, March 11, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

In Democratic Republic of Congo, Women Face Deep-Seated Bias

Source: PBS Newshour
Anonciata, a 30-something mother of four, survived a brutal raid on her town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, but not without injury.
TAGS:Poverty, Women
Friday, March 08, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Shell-Backed Solar Company Bets on Phone Banking for Africa

Source: Bloomberg
M-KOPA Kenya Ltd., backed by a Royal Dutch Shell Plc-funded charity, sees sales of its solar-lighting system that allows users to pay by phone surging 13-fold as mobile operators roll out banking services in Africa.
TAGS:mobile phones, solar
Thursday, March 07, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

'Impact Entrepreneurship' Places Importance on Social Consciousness

Source: Entrapreneur
On a trip to Africa in 1990, Peter Scott was moved to tears by the deforestation he encountered.
TAGS:leadership, social enterprise
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Rwanda's Historic Health Recovery: What the U.S. Might Learn

Source: The Atlantic
Over the last decade in Rwanda, deaths from HIV, TB, and malaria dropped by 80 percent, maternal mortality dropped by 60 percent, life expectancy doubled -- all at an average health care cost of $55 per person per year.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, February 25, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Invested Development Invests in SolarNow to Provide Affordable Solar Home Systems in Uganda

Source: Press Release
The Netherlands, & Kampala, Uganda – Invested Development, an emerging markets-focused social impact investment company, has invested in SolarNow, a Dutch social enterprise operating in Uganda. SolarNow combines a franchise model with an end-user credit facility to provide affordable solar home systems (SHSs) in Uganda.
TAGS:solar
Friday, February 22, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa: Closing the Gap - Meet Aims to End Extreme Poverty

Source: All Africa
When 17-year-old Sona Traore represented the Child Protection Network of Liberia at a civil society event organized in conjunction with a three-day United Nations meeting in this capital city earlier this month, she knew she was not speaking for Liberian children alone.
TAGS:health care, poverty alleviation, public health
Thursday, February 21, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Full speed ahead: AfDB’s plan for a Pan-African information highway

Source: Devex
The African Development Bank has installed a common information technology platform in 13 countries and the African Union Commission.
TAGS:technology
Thursday, February 21, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa: Global Fund News Flash - Issue 14

Source: All Africa
The Global Fund plans to launch its new funding model in the coming days.
TAGS:investment fund, poverty alleviation
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

I promote farming to get people out of poverty

Source: Daily Monitor
Following the success of Upland rice that Professor Gilbert Bukenya promoted throughout the country while he was Vice President, he is planning a similar exercise in the near future. He talked to Daily Monitor's Dorothy Nakaweesi about that and more.
TAGS:poverty alleviation
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa ‘needs coherent energy policy’

Source: Business Day
Sout Africa must create a coherent energy policy or it will continue to struggle to rely on power utility Eskom and millions of South Africans will remain in energy poverty, World Energy Council head Christoph Frei said on Tuesday.
TAGS:renewable energy, sustainability
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Five food issues to watch out for

Source: IRIN
Who or what do you blame when the price of maize seems to keep going through the roof? If you did not mention fuel subsidies, then you need to read this list of emerging food issues in Africa.
TAGS:agribusiness, profits
Monday, February 18, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Vaccinator killings set back Nigerian polio eradication drive

Source: IRIN
Unknown gunmen on mopeds shot dead 10 polio vaccinators last week in separate attacks on two polio clinics in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, capital of a polio-endemic region where concerted global efforts are being made to stamp out the virus by the end of 2013.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, February 18, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

How social entrepreneurs are inspiring change across Africa

Source: The Guardian
Leadership programmes are facilitating social enterprise projects that could be a viable alternative to aid
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social development, social entrepreneur
Friday, February 15, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Norman humanitarian group brings health care to heart of Africa

Source: The Oklahoman
A medical team of surgeons, medical students, nurses and others has traveled this month deep into Africa's Ivory Coast with a Norman nonprofit humanitarian organization to bring health care to what some refer to as “the forgotten people.”
TAGS:health care
Friday, February 15, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa calling: rewarding patient investors

Source: Financial Times
In the 1970s, it was Idi Amin’s expulsion of Asians from Uganda. In 1980s, it was a malnourished child in Ethiopia, struggling just to stand up. In the 1990s, it was piles of mutilated corpses in Rwanda. For many in the west, these remain the defining images of Africa – despots, disasters and despair.
TAGS:impact investing, poverty alleviation
Thursday, February 14, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Obama in SOTU: Eradicate extreme poverty in 20 years

Source: Devex
In a Feb. 12 speech focused on improving the lot of the U.S. middle class, Obama also vowed to help stabilize countries such as Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Mali, and help to spread democracy from the Middle East to South-East Asia.
TAGS:poverty alleviation, social development
Thursday, February 14, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Doctors Struggling to Fight 'Totally Drug-Resistant' Tuberculosis in South Africa

Source: U.S. News
In a patient's fight against tuberculosis—the bacterial lung disease that kills more people annually than any infectious disease besides HIV— doctors have more than 10 drugs from which to choose. Most of those didn't work for Uvistra Naidoo, a South African doctor who contracted the disease in his clinic. For those who contract the disease now, maybe none of them will.
TAGS:health care, public health
Thursday, February 14, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Decentralise malaria diagnosis and treatment in Africa

Source: The Guardian
The most effective way to overcome the key challenge of access is to focus on community health workers – if people can't come to a health facility, take the health facility to people
TAGS:health care, public health
Thursday, February 14, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

An Optimistic Era for Global Infectious Disease Control

Source: The Atlantic
The world has an "historic opportunity" to contain and end three of humanity's deadliest scourges by focusing on their "hot zones," according to Mark Dybul, the newly appointed director of the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
TAGS:health care, public health
Monday, February 11, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

EU budget deal freezes foreign aid spending

Source: Devex
After tense negotiations in Brussels, European leaders reached a historic budget-cutting deal on Friday – but appeared to have spared foreign aid. The consensus reached today could have potentially negative consequences on the ability to achieve global anti-poverty goals, especially in Africa,” said Natalia Alonso, head of Oxfam’s EU office.
TAGS:poverty alleviation
Friday, February 08, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

In Microsoft’s ‘4Afrika’ launch, a surprising game-changer

Source: Devex Impact
In the next three years, the Microsoft Afrika Initiative aims to “help place tens of millions” of smartphones in the hands of African consumers, bring 1 million small and medium-size African businesses and nonprofits online, train 100,000 African university graduates (and find jobs for 75,000 of them), and pilot low-cost wireless broadband in Kenya using “white-space” spectrum.
TAGS:consumer products, poverty alleviation, technology
Thursday, February 07, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

‘Tsunami’ of Diseases Waiting to Hit

Source: Inter Press Service News Agency
A tsunami is looming on the horizon and the world is unprepared for it. This one won’t be a massive wall of water but a tidal wave of non-communicable disease – cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, among others – and experts say the international community needs to act fast to keep it from crashing.
TAGS:Aid agencies, health care, public health
Wednesday, February 06, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

TB vaccine trial disappoints

Source: Relief Web
The first tuberculosis (TB) vaccine to be tested for efficacy in infants in more than 40 years has proved ineffective as a TB booster shot, but it may have laid the groundwork for the next phase in TB vaccine research. The world has relied on the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine against TB for over 90 years, despite recent controversy over its efficacy. In clinical trials, effectiveness estimates have ranged from 80 percent protection to none at all; the reasons for these differences are not yet understood.
TAGS:health care, public health
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Private Equity Firm Jacana Plans Africa Expansion With New Fund

Source: Bloomberg

Jacana Partners, a private-equity company with $43 million under management, agreed to merge with Kenya-based InReturn Capital and raise a new fund to invest in small and mid-sized businesses in Africa.
TAGS:SME finance
Friday, January 25, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Healthcare Initiative to Train 1 Million Health Workers for Rural Africa

Source: RYOT News
Across sub-Saharan Africa, community health workers using mobile phones and broadband access to sophisticated medical resources are delivering health care to where it is most needed, among the rural poor. A new campaign aims to greatly expand that effort by training, equipping and deploying one million health care workers by the end of 2015, reaching millions of underserved people.At the World Economic Forum today, Rwanda President Paul Kagame and Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez joined Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs in announcing the campaign, which will be overseen by a steering committee at the Earth Institute and will be run through the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (www.undsdsn.org) as part of its Solutions Initiative.
TAGS:health care, rural
Thursday, January 24, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenyans Prioritizing Mobile Phone Over Food, Transport

Source: Voice of America
NAIROBI — A recent study commissioned by the World Bank suggests that increasing numbers of Kenyans in the poorest socioeconomic group are foregoing food and transport or opting for cheaper alternatives, to buy credit to use mobile phones. Mobile phones were once considered luxury goods in Kenya. But with decreasing prices, people of all socioeconomic levels have come to rely upon them for both personal and professional needs.
TAGS:mobile banking, mobile phones
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

WEF: Africa's Growth March to Continue in Stride

Source: IDN
There is good news from Africa. The continent is witnessing the second fastest economic growth, and according to knowledgeable sources it may grow even faster in 2013. What is more, currently Africa accounts for 14 sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) with a total amount of USD114 billion in 2009, representing 3% of global SWFs, and that share is expected to increase in future with the establishment of new SWFs.
TAGS:conferences, infrastructure
Monday, January 21, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

In Central Mali, MSF Staff Bunkers Down, Clamoring for Access

Source: Devex
The day after it called for military leaders to unblock access to crucial roads in central Mali, the majority of Médecins Sans Frontières’s staff remained on lockdown, unable to provide medical care and services to those in need.
TAGS:health care, NGO, rural healthcare delivery
Friday, January 18, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

An inconvenient truth

Source: The Australian
LAST year, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates gave $US10 million to British scientists to crack a problem he hoped might help solve the looming world food crisis. Unusually, this time the philanthropy of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was met with howls of outrage from left-leaning politicians and environmental groups that previously had welcomed its efforts to eradicate malaria and alleviate global poverty and hunger.
TAGS:Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, farmers, nutrition
Monday, January 14, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Rwanda: Telemedicine Project On Track Year After Plan Was Hatched

Source: AllAfrica.com
A year after a plan to connect Rwandan hospitals through telemedicine was announced, the government says the project is set to start soon in some district hospitals.
TAGS:health care, infrastructure, public health, rural healthcare delivery, telemedicine
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Liberia: Ellen Launches Reports On Women's Health, World Malaria 2012

Source: All Africa
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has called on all health partners to identify ways in which, working together, Africa can continue to ensure that the progress made is maintained and enhanced regarding women's health and in combating malaria in the African region.
TAGS:malaria, public health, Women
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Students develop low-cost water filtering system for African nation

Source: Penn State Live
In an effort to bring fresh water to rural Kenyans, School of International Affairs (SIA) students Kory Hansen and Jin Ju Kim participated in Penn State's Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) program to develop a ceramic water filtration system for parts of the sub Saharan African nation.
TAGS:product design, social enterprise, water
Monday, January 07, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Drug-Resistant Malaria Flares As Funding For Research Tapers

Source: Think Progress
Global health experts worry that a new breed of malaria that has arisen in South Asia could reverse trends in the fight against the disease, since it has proven resistant to the drugs usually used to treat malaria infections.
TAGS:health care, malaria, pharmaceutical industry
Friday, January 04, 2013 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Disease burden links ecology to economic growth

Source: The Guardian Nigeria
A NEW study in the open access journal PLOS Biology, finds that vector-borne and parasitic diseases have substantial effects on economic development across the globe, and are major drivers of differences in income between tropical and temperate countries.
TAGS:public health, sanitation
Thursday, December 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

VMK launch 'first African-designed' smartphone and tablet

Source: BBC
A smartphone and tablet said to be the first designed by an African company have beenlaunched.
TAGS:mobile phones, technology
Friday, December 21, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Afroindia Introduces Telemedicine For The Underserved

Source: The Guardian Nigeria
A healthcare service provider in Nigeria, Afroindia Medical Services Limited has signed a memorandum f understanding (MoU) with Apollo Group of Hospitals in India to set up 100 Telemedical centres in West and East Africa.
TAGS:health care, telemedicine
Thursday, December 20, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

JP Morgan-linked firm triples cash in Africert deal

Source: Business Daily
A JP Morgan-linked private equity firm, Pearl Capital Partners (PCP), has exited its investment in a Kenyan agricultural firm in a deal that saw it triple its investment in six years.
TAGS:agribusiness, investment fund
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

IFC Announces Partnership to Increase Access to Affordable Sanitation in East Africa

Source: WebWire
Nairobi, Kenya — IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, today announced support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to catalyze the market for improved sanitation and accelerate access to more affordable sanitation solutions for low-income households in East Africa.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sanitation
Friday, December 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Need to Scale: Social Enterprises and Community Health

Source: CSRWire
“Community health workers: Now that is a profession that must be compensated.”
TAGS:health care, scale, social enterprise
Thursday, December 13, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Saving Tanzania’s Poorest Children

Source: Inter Press Service
DAR ES SALAAM, Dec 13 2012 (IPS) - Half asleep, Anuary lies exhausted on his bed in Amana Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital. His mother, Mariam Saidi, sits on the edge of his mattress, staring blankly out of the window. Every now and then, she turns to wipe her 18-month-old son’s forehead.
TAGS:health care, pharmaceutical industry, public health, vaccinations
Thursday, December 13, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

How to Light Africa Within a Decade

Source: Forbes
Today, when the sun goes down in Africa, over 150 million homes will not turn on the lights. The reason is simple: they don’t have electricity. Instead, they will extend their day by the dim light of kerosene lamps. Families will huddle around these lamps, inhaling the lung-burning equivalent of two packs of cigarettes each from kerosene fumes.
TAGS:poverty alleviation, renewable energy, solar
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Reshaping the Future of Cocoa in Africa

Source: New York Times
Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa now comes from West Africa, where family-run farms have proliferated across the landscape in recent decades. Yet in a paradox, the spread of these nonnative cocoa trees often contributes to deforestation.
TAGS:agribusiness, Base of the Pyramid, technical assistance
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria: Global Fund Happy With HIV, TB Treatment in Nigeria

Source: All Africa
The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, on Tuesday expressed delight at the level of care and treatment given to persons infected with HIV and tuberculosis in Nigeria.
TAGS:health care, HIV/AIDS, pharmaceutical industry, public health, tuberculosis
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Tanzania free of tetanus in mothers and babies

Source: Saudi Gazette
Dar Essalam —The Tanzanian government yesterday celebrated the introduction of two vaccines to protect children against pneumonia and diarrhea and announced that it has been declared free of maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT), one of the world’s major causes of deaths in mothers and newborns.
TAGS:pharmaceutical industry, public health
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

GSK Forms Partnership with Vodafone to Help Increase Childhood Vaccination in Mozambique

Source: Equities.com
GSK today announced it has formed a partnership with Vodafone to harness innovative mobile technology to help vaccinate more children against common infectious diseases in Africa. Despite major advances in the funding and availability of vaccines worldwide, it is estimated that up to a fifth of children worldwide still do not receive basic vaccines. The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa offers an opportunity to create innovative and cost-effective ways to address barriers to universal vaccination.
TAGS:corporate engagement, health care, pharmaceutical industry
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya SMEs Get U.S.$60 Million

Source: All Africa
Nairobi — The World Bank has extended a $60 million loan towards boosting Kenya's fledgling Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) sector.
TAGS:agribusiness, financial inclusion, investment fund, small and medium enterprises
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Machine that Will Help End TB

Source: MIT Technology Review
Nearly 1.5 million people die from tuberculosis every year, even though most cases can be cured with routine antibiotic treatments. One country’s fight to get the ancient scourge under control has an unlikely hero: a simple diagnostic test.
TAGS:health care, public health, technology, tuberculosis
Monday, December 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

In Africa’s malaria fight, a $3.6B funding gap

Source: Devex
A global public-private partnership is exploring a number of options to fill a multibillion-dollar funding gap in efforts to fight malaria in Africa.
TAGS:health care, impact investing, malaria, public health
Monday, December 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

From NYC To Nairobi: Interview With SunCulture, Audience Choice Award Winners 2011-12

Source: Forbes
All entrepreneurs are inherently risk-takers, but some are willing to go above and beyond for an idea they believe in. NYU Stern alumnus Samir Ibrahim and serial entrepreneur Charles Nichols, winners of the Audience Choice Award at the 2011-12 Entrepreneur’s Challenge fit this description perfectly. The two recently packed their bags and moved to Kenya, where their start-up SunCulture sells solar-powered irrigation products and agricultural services to local farmers.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, solar, water
Monday, December 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Adult population access to MFBs swells by 4.6m

Source: Business Day
The number of adult population that have a microfinance bank account rose to 4.6 million or 5.2 percent in 2012 as against 3.2 million or 3.8 percent in 2010, representing 1.2 million increase, according to Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA)’s access to financial services in Nigeria 2012 survey report.
TAGS:financial inclusion, Microfinance
Friday, December 07, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Global Impact Investing Network Receives GBP 10.5 Million Commitment from UK's Department for International Development

Source: Press Release
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) announced today that the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) will provide GBP 10.5 million to support the GIIN’s role in developing and growing the impact investing market in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
TAGS:impact investing, investment fund, poverty alleviation
Thursday, December 06, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

GAVI Needs to Offer Lower Vaccine Prices to Humanitarian Groups

Source: Doctors Without Borders
DAR ES SALAAM/GENEVA, DECEMBER 5, 2012—The GAVI Alliance should systematically extend the discounted vaccine prices it obtains from pharmaceutical companies to humanitarian organizations that are often well placed to reach unvaccinated children, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today at the GAVI Partners Forum meeting in Tanzania.
TAGS:health care, pharmaceutical industry
Wednesday, December 05, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Zambia hosts regional meeting for mapping of unmet country needs

Source: WHO Press Release
Lusaka, 04 December 2012 -- The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) in collaboration with WHO Global Capacities, Alert and Response has organized a regional meeting for mapping of unmet country needs to accelerate the implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005) in the African Region.
TAGS:governance, health care
Wednesday, December 05, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

AfDB, researchers launch $63 m initiative to lift Africans out of poverty

Source: Africa Science News
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and researchers have launched the US$63.24 million AfDB-funded initiative aimed to raise agricultural productivity and also lift millions of Africans out of poverty.
TAGS:investment fund, poverty alleviation, research
Tuesday, December 04, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Ecobank, IHS seal $202m deal for mobile network in Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire

Source: The Guardian Nigeria
THE investment profile of the pan-African bank, Ecobank Group, may have risen with the signing of a syndicated loan facility with IHS Holding Limited, for the mobile tower investment and solar energy projects in Cameroun and Côte d’Ivoire.
TAGS:investment fund, renewable energy, solar
Tuesday, December 04, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

100 millionth person receives lifesaving meningitis vaccine

Source: UNICEF Blog
GENEVA, 3 December 2012 – A revolutionary meningitis vaccine will reach the 100 millionth person this week in a region of Africa that has been plagued by deadly epidemics for more than a century. The milestone will take place in northern Nigeria, part of Africa’s “meningitis belt,” where the country is conducting its second seasonal immunisation campaign against the disease.
TAGS:health care
Tuesday, December 04, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria: MSD Introduces New HIV Drug, Atripla

Source: All Africa
AS part of the efforts to meet the Anti-Retroviral, ARV, drugs requirements of Nigerians living with HIV, MSD, one of the world’s healthcare leaders, weekend launched into the Nigerian market its innovative antiretroviral, ARV, drug – Atripla – a prescription medication used to treat HIV-1 infection in adults and children of at least 12 years of age.
TAGS:health care, pharmaceutical industry
Wednesday, November 28, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Profile: Elizabeth Scharpf Seeks Affordable Solutions to Women's Hygiene

Source: PBS NewsHour
Harvard Business School and Kennedy School of Government graduate Elizabeth Scharpf, 35, appears confident with a warm smile. These attributes no doubt come in handy when Scharpf travels the world to raise awareness about a subject that most people don't often discuss: menstruation.
TAGS:health care, Women
Tuesday, November 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Child marriage perpetuates cycle of poverty for young people

Source: Deseret News
In the developing world, one in 10 girls is married before the age of 18. One in seven is married before 15. Tino Borantu of Ethiopia was married at age 9.
TAGS:health care, poverty alleviation, Women
Tuesday, November 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

M-Shwari platform set to shake up small loans market

Source: Business Daily Africa
Safaricom subscribers can now operate mobile-based savings accounts, earn interest on their deposits and borrow small loans in a move set to raise competition against banks, saccos and shylocks.
TAGS:corporate engagement, Microfinance, mobile banking
Tuesday, November 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa: Development Targets Ride on Vitamins

Source: All Africa
One hundred and ninety million - that's more than the populations of Germany, France and Poland combined. It is also the number of children affected by vitamin A deficiency around the world.
TAGS:health care, nutrition, poverty alleviation
Monday, November 26, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Enter the iShack, a possible answer to improving Africa’s slums

Source: How We Made it in Africa
For those who aren’t familiar with South Africa’s informal settlements, it is estimated that seven million South Africans live in shacks in the country’s many “squatter camps” located around all major cities.
TAGS:affordable housing, poverty alleviation, renewable energy
Friday, November 16, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Carlyle Group to Make Africa Investment

Source: Wall Street Journal
Private-Equity Firm Is Latest to Follow Rush Into Continent With Sub-Saharan Fund; 'We're Here for the Long Haul'
TAGS:agribusiness, investment fund
Thursday, November 15, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Rwanda: Exclusive Growth, Identified As Boosting Instability in Africa

Source: AllAfrica
In the recently concluded African Economic Conference (AEC) which was winded in Kigali on November 2nd under the theme "Inclusive and sustainable development in an age of economic uncertainty", it was revealed that continued growth that is not transforming into tangible inclusion of youths in the development process may result into instabilities than economic transformation on the continent.
TAGS:conferences, inclusive business, sustainability
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Four African Teenagers Create Power From Pee

Source: Fast Company
A group of African girls have made an engine that runs on a truly renewable resource: human urine.
TAGS:renewable energy, sustainability
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Italians, Israelis aim to fight hunger in Senegal

Source: The Jerusalem Post
Trilateral agricultural development project seeks to eradicate hunger by providing farmers with technological know-how.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, nutrition, technical assistance
Friday, November 09, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Accion Microfinance Bank Named Nigeria’s Best Microfinance Bank of the Year

Source: Press Release
The Lagos State Enterprise (LEAD) Awards has selected Accion Microfinance Bank Limited (MfB) as Nigeria’s “Best Microfinance Bank of the Year” for the second consecutive year. The selection, by an industry research group for the LEAD awards, was based on Accion MfB’s ‘excellent performance and deep understanding of microlending in the microfinance sector.’
TAGS:Microfinance
Thursday, November 08, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Enablis, ILO, unveil business competition

Source: Business Daily
The Enablis Entrepreneurial Network East Africa and International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Thursday launched the 2012 annual business plan competition aimed at identifying and growing emerging and existing entrepreneurs.
TAGS:business development, entrepreneurship, events and competitions
Tuesday, November 06, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Study paints sad picture of women in poor countries

Source: Standard Digital
Women perform more than half of all economic activities in developing countries but only a third of their work is captured by statisticians, a new report says. This means women are likely to miss out on business, industrial and social development opportunities arising from globalisation.
TAGS:financial inclusion, poverty alleviation, research, Women
Monday, October 29, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

N220bn MFBs' fund to drive development, financial inclusion

Source: Punch Nigeria
The Federal Government is set to launch a N220bn fund to enable Nigerian businesses and citizens that lack access to traditional financial services access such services at a much lower cost. The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, said this at a press conference on the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in Abuja on Wednesday.
TAGS:financial inclusion, Microfinance, small and medium enterprises
Friday, October 26, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Willow announces investment in Kenya's Bio Food Products Ltd

Source: Press Release

Willow has acquired a 35% stake in Bio Food Products Ltd. - the award-winning producer of the top ranked brand in the added-value dairy products sector in East Africa.
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, October 26, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Group mitigates poverty with alternative building technology

Source: Creamer Media's Engineering News
JSE-listed energy and chemicals group Sasol’s enterprise development vehicle, ChemCity, believes alternative building technology (ABT) has the potential to curtail unemployment and poverty – two of South Africa’s most pressing issues.
TAGS:infrastructure, poverty alleviation, technology
Thursday, October 25, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Women Entrepreneurs Drive Growth in Africa

Source: New York Times
KAMPALA, UGANDA — Far too often, in the view of Africa’s budding female entrepreneurs, their continent is characterized as the recipient of aid that enables residents just to struggle by, and as a place that mistreats and marginalizes its women.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, Women
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Meet The Man Who’s Shaping Africa’s Future

Source: Ventures Africa
VENTURES AFRICA – Just like the great American civil right activist Martin Luther King Jnr. had a dream of an equal social existence, so did Ghanaian-born entrepreneur, Fred Swaniker, dream to build a Pan-African school that will position the new generation of African youth towards prosperity in future years. His mission was to give the African child a network of successful peers to tap for job opportunities, mentoring and career guidance.
TAGS:education, leadership, Microfinance, social impact
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Technology a pathway out of poverty

Source: Tech Central
It will take a century for a poor household to tweet its way out of poverty. That’s a very long time for anyone wondering where their next meal is coming from. But it’s a significant new finding because it proves once and for all that social media and access to information and communication technology (ICT) is a pathway out of poverty.
TAGS:mobile phones, poverty alleviation, technology
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Somalia's ambitions online could bring Mogadishu to the world

Source: BBC
At The Village Restaurant, a popular open-air hangout for Mogadishu's returning diaspora community, a charcoal-powered Italian espresso machine brews Somalia's best cappuccino.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, technology, telecommunications
Monday, October 22, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Bottom of the Pyramid Business Strategy Holds Sway

Source: Business Day Nigeria
The BOP strategy is right here with us and it is holding sway, but many probably do not know. This is what the case is with several economic practices we get involved in day-in-day-out, which we are oblivious of what esoteric names the intellectuals of this world call them..
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, sustainability
Friday, October 19, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Sisal board introduces mobile decorticators to revolutionise farming

Source: IPP Media
Way back in the early 60s, the sisal industry was the best organised commercial agriculture in East Africa with Tanzania leading in terms of production, followed by Brazil.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, technical assistance
Friday, October 19, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria: UN, Brazil Sign U.S.$20 Million Pact to Help Farmers in Developing Countries

Source: All Africa
A $20 million agreement signed during the week by the United Nations and Brazil will seek to transfer the expertise of the South American country to support cotton farmers in developing economies.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, technical assistance
Friday, October 19, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Poor Infrastructure may hinder gains of mobile money market

Source: Business Day
Nigeria's mobile money market is worth $7.2 billion according to Accenture, however the prevalence of poor infrastructure is hindering its takeoff.
TAGS:mobile banking, scale
Thursday, October 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Partners in Food Solutions, USAID and TechnoServe Expand Partnership to Improve Food Security in Africa

Source: TechnoServe Press Release
$15 million Public-Private Partnership Agreement will enable consortium of global food companies to help transform food processing through its 500+ corporate volunteer network
TAGS:nutrition, TechnoServe
Thursday, October 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Handheld Poverty Fighters: Building the Killer Apps of Global Prosperity

Source: GOOD
Among many in the development space, connective technologies are either the cheat code to global prosperity or a false prophet obscuring the real challenges effecting the world’s poor. Officials as high-ranking as Secretary Hillary Clinton have called the spread of cheap cell phones and laptops a driving force against poverty even as many of their most promising applications are failing to deliver on scale.
TAGS:mobile applications, poverty alleviation, social impact
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

AfDB, Citi and IFC Enter New Agreement to Support Trade Finance in Africa

Source: Citi Press Release
London - October 4, 2012 – The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Citi and International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, have agreed to provide a $175 million thre-year revolving credit facility covering short-term trades for exporters and importers in Africa. This agreement builds on the success of a previous similar program launched in 2010 to help boost economic growth in the region.
TAGS:corporate engagement, investment fund, multinational corporation
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Samsung, KWFT pact to boost mobile banking

Source: Capital FM
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 10 – Samsung has partnered with local microfinance solutions provider, Kenya Women Finance Trust – Deposit Taking Microfinance (KWFT-DTM) to promote the uptake of mobile technology solutions among women.
TAGS:corporate engagement, Microfinance, mobile banking
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

‘The potential is big,’ says green energy entrepreneur

Source: How We Made it in Africa
Socially and environmentally conscious entrepreneur Mshinwa Edith Banzi is the founder of Illumination East Africa (iEA), a Tanzanian-based company that offers affordable solar chargeable LED lamps to predominantly low income earners. These lights have a battery life of between 18-24 months and batteries can be replaced thereafter.
TAGS:social entrepreneur, solar, sustainability
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Opportunity Africa: How One Social Venture Is Crowdsourcing the For-Profit Finance Model

Source: Forbes
The best social entrepreneurs are always tweaking the model. In microfinance, crowd-sourced ventures have aimed at connecting first world capital with developing world opportunity – and with some success. A few years ago, I met Mads Kjaer in Oxford and was fascinated by a model that added risk and reward to what had been more a form of philanthropy than investment.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, impact investing, social entrepreneur, venture capital
Thursday, October 04, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

How to boost adoption of mobile health care, by report

Source: The Guardian Nigeria
MORE doctors in developed and emerging markets have identified adoption of mobile technology in healthcare as an inevitable means to boost health care services.
TAGS:health care, mobile applications
Wednesday, October 03, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Meet A Playboy Entrepreneur Who Went From Making Millions To Making an Impact

Source: Forbes
Kitwe, a dusty industrial city in North Western Zambia’s ‘Copper Belt’ region, isn’t much to look at. It does however have a hidden jewel. The city is home to the office of internationally acclaimed social entrepreneur, Peter Sinkamba.
TAGS:Ashoka, entrepreneurship, fellowships, impact investing
Monday, October 01, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Liberia: Lifting Liberia by Lifting Women -President Sirleaf Heightens Crusade on Women

Source: All Africa
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, addressing a Goldman Sachs Foundation Cocktail and Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Sunday, says one of the surest ways to lift Liberia is to train and empower 70% of the nation’s population, which are women and the youth.
TAGS:conferences, corporate engagement, financial inclusion, governance
Monday, October 01, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Habitat for Humanity Canada and The MasterCard Foundation partner to expand access to housing microfinance in Africa

Source: Canada Newswire
ACCRA, Ghana, Oct. 1, 2012 /CNW/ - Habitat for Humanity Canada, Habitat for Humanity International (collectively "Habitat") and The MasterCard Foundation today announced the launch of a $6.6 million, five-year partnership to expand microfinance services to maintain and improve homes for disadvantaged families in three African countries.
TAGS:affordable housing, corporate engagement, Microfinance
Monday, October 01, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Accenture and VSO Give Entrepreneurship Award to Shoemaker from Sierra Leone

Source: Daily Finance
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2012-- Accenture and VSO today announced that Umaro Kargo, a shoemaker from Makeni, Sierra Leone, is the winner of the Making Markets Work for the Poor: Entrepreneurship Award.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, business development, corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurship
Thursday, September 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Early stage investment growing in Africa tech

Source: PC Advisor
The rise of technology hubs over the last couple of years has spurred investment, helped by humanitarian agencies and VCs
TAGS:impact investing, technology, venture capital
Wednesday, September 26, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Coke Applies Supply-Chain Expertise to Deliver AIDS Drugs in Africa

Source: The Daily Beast
Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent tells Daniel Gross his company is expanding a project that helps nonprofits deliver vaccines in rural Africa more quickly.
TAGS:health care, nonprofit, rural, supply chains
Monday, September 24, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Acumen Fund and Dow Partner to Scale Social Enterprises in East and West Africa

Source: Acumen Fund Blog
Commitment announced at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting brings funding and technical expertise to entrepreneurs providing low-income consumers with energy, agricultural inputs, water and sanitation
TAGS:Acumen Fund, corporate engagement, scale, social enterprise
Monday, September 24, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

LendmeMula introduces ZimSwitch enabled MulaConnect card

Source: TechZim
One of the issues with the LendmeMula micro-credit service that we have covered here before, is that so far borrowers have had to wait for up to 24 hours before they could access the borrowed money in their bank accounts. The money had to be transferred by Lendme to their bank accounts. This made the process somewhat slow, and where a borrower did not have a bank ATM card, they had to pray they could access their money before the banks closed their doors.
TAGS:financial inclusion, microcredit, mobile applications
Thursday, September 20, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Esource: Cycling solution to gadget recycling

Source: BBC
Our desire to buy the latest must-have gadget comes at huge cost to the countries and people who deal with our electronic waste. But could pedal power offer a solution?
TAGS:sustainability, technology
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Initiative for Global Development teams with Accenture to develop electricity, connectivity in Uganda

Source: Notre Dame News
The University of Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (IGD) and Accenture — a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company — are taking the lead to empower disconnected communities in northern Uganda by harnessing solar energy to generate electricity for Internet and communications technologies, education and training centers, and new locally developed ventures.
TAGS:corporate engagement, rural development, sustainability, telecommunications
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa’s best tech minds to meet at Indaba

Source: IT News Africa
Three years on, in every way that counts, Tech4Africa continues to be the premier mobile, web and emerging technology event, and this year’s conference promises to be no exception, congregating some of the best minds in ICT today and bringing a greater than ever breadth and depth of tech talks.
TAGS:conferences, mobile applications, technology
Monday, September 17, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

World Hunger: The Problem Left Behind

Source: New York Times
THE drought-induced run-up in corn prices is a reminder that we’re nowhere near solving the problem of feeding the world. The price surge, the third major international food price spike in the last five years, casts more doubt on the assumption that widespread economic development leads to corresponding gains in agriculture.
TAGS:agribusiness, nutrition, poverty alleviation
Monday, September 17, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Rwanda: Microfinance Firm Boosts Agro-Mechanisation

Source: All Africa
A local microfinance institution, Duterimbere IMF Ltd, has launched new products that target the promotion of agricultural mechanisation among small scale farmers.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, Microfinance
Friday, September 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

At UN-backed conference, African officials discuss path to sustainable development

Source: United Nations News Centre
13 September 2012 – Representatives from more than 40 African countries have gathered at a United Nations-backed conference in Arusha, Tanzania, to discuss the region’s strategy to achieve sustainable development and come up with an integrated strategy for the region to encourage environmental initiatives.
TAGS:conferences, social development, sustainability
Friday, September 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

In Uganda, Villages Reap Benefits of “Machine” Energy

Source: National Geographic
Immaculate Kongai said she was quick to spot the potential of the Multifunction Energy Platform (MFP) as soon as it arrived in Usuk, her village in northeastern Uganda. Kongai grows and sells sorghum to local beer brewers, and has earned a reputation as a shrewd local entrepreneur. When the MFP—or, as she calls it, "the machine"—first showed up three years ago, she said she saw a chance to "make a lot more money" for her family.
TAGS:poverty alleviation, rural development, sustainability
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

What is the Agaciro Development Fund?

Source: Devex
Rwanda is setting the stage in driving its own development, starting with the launch Thursday (Aug. 23) of the country’s national solidarity fund.
TAGS:impact investing, investment fund
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Does Africa really benefit from foreign investment?

Source: BBC
African economies have grown robustly over the past decade, but that has not solved the continent's economic problems.
TAGS:business development, entrepreneurship, investment fund
Thursday, September 06, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

How door-to-door business can empower rather than repress women

Source: The Guardian
It's easy to criticise business for expanding into developing countries. But if it helps poor and isolated women, is it all bad?
TAGS:consumer products, corporate engagement, multinational corporation, social entrepreneur
Wednesday, September 05, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Oando seals pact with LAPO on access to cooking gas

Source: The Guardian Nigeria
Following its plan to switch millions of Nigerians from biomass to a clean and sustainable cooking gas, Oando Marketing Plc has entered into an agreement with Lift Above Poverty Organisation Microfinance Bank (LAPO) to provide soft loans for low-income households in Nigeria to purchase Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, microcredit, poverty alleviation
Tuesday, September 04, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Social entrepreneur connects African women to global e-commerce

Source: How We Made It in Africa
Ella Peinovich is a MIT graduate and one of the three founders of Kenyan-based SasaAfrica, a women owned and operated social enterprise, which offers an innovative e-commerce platform for female artisans, vendors and entrepreneurs in Africa to create sustainable micro-enterprises using mobile phones.
TAGS:mobile phones, social entrepreneur
Thursday, August 30, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

New alliance for food security would accelerate agricultural development -Namoale

Source: Business Ghana
The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, an initiative to lift 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years through sustained agricultural growth, was on Wednesday launched in Accra.
TAGS:agribusiness, nutrition, poverty alleviation
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Rockefeller Foundation Supports Impact Investing Policy Research in Africa

Source: Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation through its Impact Investing initiative is funding research in five sub-Saharan African countries which will contribute to two overarching goals: understanding the policy barriers and enabling environment for impact investing across Africa and recommending national policies to encourage the growth of the industry for the ultimate benefit of poor or vulnerable communities.
TAGS:impact investing, investment fund
Monday, August 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa innovations: 15 ideas helping to transform a continent

Source: The Guardian
A mobile phone database for dairy farmers and a strain of sweet potato that can help fight child blindness. These are just two of the imaginative new ideas that are tackling Africa's old problems
TAGS:agribusiness, social impact
Monday, August 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Innovation in Africa: Upwardly mobile

Source: The Economist
VISITORS to Kenya’s capital are often horrified by the homicidal minibuses called matatu. They swerve around potholes, seldom signal and use their iffy brakes only at the last second. They are therefore an ideal subject for a video game, which is why Planet Rackus, a Nairobi start-up, released “Ma3Racer” last year. Each player uses his mobile phone to steer a matatu down the street. The (unrealistic) goal is to avoid pedestrians. Within a month, a quarter of a million people in 169 countries had downloaded the game.
TAGS:mobile phones, startup, technology
Wednesday, August 22, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Rwanda: Tigo Unveils New Package for Social Entrepreneurs

Source: All Africa
Tigo and "Reach for Change", an international NGO, have launched a new campaign with an aim of supporting social entrepreneurs to enhance the lives of Rwandan youth.
TAGS:business development, social entrepreneur
Friday, August 17, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Secret of Africa’s Banking Boom: Mobility

Source: TIME
While U.S. and European banks suffer hangovers from the Great Recession and continued shock waves inside the eurozone, Africa’s top lenders have never looked stronger or been more ambitious. Why is a continent better known for political instability and foreign aid riding a banking boom characterized by aggressive pan-African expansion and swelling balance sheets?
TAGS:financial inclusion
Friday, August 17, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

A continent goes shopping

Source: The Economist
AFRICAN consumers are underserved and overcharged, reckons Frank Braeken, Unilever’s boss in Africa. Until recently, South Africans who craved shampoo made specially for African hair, or cosmetics for black skin, had little choice besides costly American imports. Unilever spotted an opportunity: its Motions range of shampoos and conditioners is now a hit.
TAGS:consumer products, multinational corporation
Thursday, August 16, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Ghana: Midland to Deplore 300 ATMs, 5,000 POS Devices

Source: All Africa
Midland Savings &Loans Company Limited, the leader in Ghana's microfinance sector has disclosed that it would add up four more branches this year to it existing branches to further bring banking services to its numerous customers across the country.
TAGS:Microfinance
Thursday, August 16, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Acumen Fund Announces Duncan Onyango as New Director of Acumen Fund East Africa

Source: Acumen Fund Blog
Nairobi, Kenya, August 15, 2012 – Acumen Fund, a pioneering nonprofit global venture firm addressing poverty across Africa and in South Asia, today announced Duncan Onyango as the new Director of Acumen Fund East Africa. Mr. Onyango joins from Rift Valley Railways having served as Group Chief Finance Officer. He replaces Biju Mohandas who is leaving Acumen after five years of leading Acumen’s local office and building the portfolio to its current size of $29 million in cumulative investments. Mr. Mohandas will play an informal role through this transition.
TAGS:investment fund, poverty alleviation
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Avon's 'Lipstick Evangelism' Shows Promise in Poverty Fight

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Lipstick may be the newest weapon in the fight against global poverty. A recent study (PDF) by University of Oxford researchers suggests that selling Avon (AVP) cosmetics have helped women in South Africa become financially independent. Other businesses are mimicking Avon’s model of direct sales as a way to alleviate poverty in developing countries.
TAGS:consumer products, entrepreneurship, poverty alleviation
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Rwanda to develop off-grid lighting

Source: UPI.com
LAGOS, Nigeria, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Approximately 85 percent of Rwanda's population has no access to the electricity grid, leading energy officials to seek "off-grid" solutions. GVEP International, a charity that battles poverty and climate change by promoting access to modern and renewable energy sources, has produced a report outlining investment possibilities in Rwanda's off-grid electrical sector, which includes solar lanterns and solar photovoltaic systems.
TAGS:renewable energy, solar, sustainability
Friday, August 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Boyd's power play a ray of light for world's poor

Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Almost every entrepreneur says they want to "change the world", but for Australian Boyd Whalan, the phrase is more than just a cheap cliche.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, sustainability
Thursday, August 09, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa: The Last Investment Frontier

Source: Forbes
If you are the adventurous sort and happen to find yourself strolling the streets of Tripoli, Libya, you may smell the familiar aroma of cinnamon buns baking. U.S. bakery chain Cinnabon opened a new café in downtown Tripoli, making it the first American franchise to set up shop in the country. You can bet that more will be following.
TAGS: No Tags
Wednesday, August 08, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria's low-cost tablet computer

Source: BBC
Nigeria's Saheed Adepoju is a young man with big dreams. He is the inventor of the Inye, a tablet computer designed for the African market. According to the 29-year-old entrepreneur, his machine's key selling point is its price - $350 (£225) opposed to around $700 for an iPad.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, technology
Tuesday, August 07, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Ugandan Billionaire Ashish Thakkar Launches Venture Capital Fund For Young Entrepreneurs

Source: Ventures Africa
VENTURES AFRICA – Ugandan billionaire businessman Ashish J. Thakkar, under the auspices of the Mara foundation, a non-profit enterprise of Mara Group, today announced the formation and launch of a venture capital firm – Mara Launch Uganda Fund to support the needs of today’s entrepreneurs.
TAGS:corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurship, impact investing, investment fund
Monday, August 06, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Helping Africa manufacture its own emergency and disaster relief supplies

Source: The Guardian
In the current humanitarian emergencies in South Sudan, Somalia, Niger and Kenya, the strong likelihood is that tarpaulins – one of the most basic relief items – will have come from China.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, consumer products
Thursday, August 02, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

U-M researcher deals with hope, not charity, in far corners

Source: Detroit News
On the east side of Nairobi, in a slum called Mukuru, Ted London went looking for outhouses and found a Steve Yzerman hockey jersey.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, poverty alleviation
Tuesday, July 31, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

A promising strategy for SA's development

Source: Financial Mail
By focusing on key sectors, government believes it can reduce unemployment from 25% to 15% by 2020. The priority sectors are infrastructure development, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, the “green” economy, and tourism — as identified in the November 2010 New Growth Path.
TAGS:poverty alleviation, sustainability
Friday, July 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Ethiopian shoemaker takes great strides

Source: BBC
Eight years ago Ethiopia's Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu decided to sell cool colourful shoes made of recycled materials, including car tyres.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social entrepreneur, startup
Thursday, July 26, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

StartMe gives SA entrepreneurs crowdfunding

Source: My Broadband
South African entrepreneurs, who have been hard pressed to find funding via traditional means such as bank loans, can now take advantage of a new funding mechanism in South Africa – StartMe.co.za.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, investment fund
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Using Small Loans to Generate Big Profits

Source: Wall Street Journal
NAIROBI, Kenya—At a recent group-lending meeting in the Kawangware slum, about 10 miles from downtown, Jackson Munyovi sought $350 to build a new shanty for his wife and two children.
TAGS:Microfinance, profits
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Growing Rwanda Out of Poverty

Source: Forbes
For the last few years, development wonks and international organizations have had the “Green Revolution for Africa” on their radars. Leaders in Africa have recognized that the first Green Revolution (spurred by the work of agronomist Norman Borlaug) resulted in massive improvements in health and productivity around the world, and are now looking to do the same on the so-called “Dark Continent”.
TAGS:agribusiness, poverty alleviation
Monday, July 23, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africans Urge China to Help Create Sustainable Development

Source: Voice of America
BEIJING — African leaders and independent groups are pressing China to prioritize sustainable development in its trade with African countries. In Beijing, officials say they increasingly recognize the importance of sound environmental practices for building strong relations with the continent.
TAGS:sustainability
Monday, July 23, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Water harvesting slakes thirst at an innovative Kenyan inn

Source: Christian Science Monitor
When Gaitano Likhavila was still working as an accountant at the provincial hospital in the west Kenyan town of Kakamega, he ran into a situation that got him thinking about water. “There was a serious water shortage that made the hospital administration almost close down the hospital. At the same time, a lot of rainwater from the roofs was wasted, running down to the River Isikhu, but nobody thought of getting hold of this free water,” says Likhavila.
TAGS:water
Monday, July 23, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Rio summit keeps African hopes alive

Source: Afrik-News
African expectations were high for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the biggest UN summit ever. The conference, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June, was “too important to fail,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the outset. Under the theme of “The Future We Want,” many of the 100 heads of state and more than 40,000 participants demanded ambitious and measurable outcomes to address sustainability issues such as the “green economy,” climate change and so on. Yet when it was over, the “Rio+20” summit left a heated debate over whether those goals had been met.
TAGS:conferences, sustainability
Friday, July 20, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa ready for post-2015 MDG development agenda – Report

Source: Ghana Business News
A new report has observed that Africa has effectively engaged in the process of defining the contours of the post-2015 development agenda as deadline for the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target draws near.
TAGS:sustainability
Thursday, July 19, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya’s CNN ‘hero’: Africa’s high growth rates not felt at bottom of the pyramid

Source: How We Made it in Africa
Evans Wadongo shot to international fame after he was named one of the top ten CNN Heroes in 2010. His project replaces kerosene lamps with solar-powered LED lanterns across villages in rural Kenya. CNN Heroes honours everyday people changing the world. Born in rural Kenya, the 26-year-old electronic and computer engineering graduate is the executive director of Sustainable Development for All Kenya (SDFA-Kenya) where he literally lights up people’s lives. How we made it in Africa’s East Africa correspondent Dinfin Mulupi chats with Wadongo to find out what makes this social entrepreneur tick.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, sustainability
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Building business in Ghana, one battery at a time

Source: Marketplace.org
Kai Ryssdal: Whaddya suppose happens when a guy invents a board game that hits big, he sells it for enough to be comfortable, and then wants to do something that matters?
TAGS: No Tags
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Tanzania: Academics, Policy Makers Discuss Entrepreneurship

Source: AllAfrica
"ENTREPRENEURSHIP, Private Sector and Sustainable Development in Africa," was the main theme of the 13th International Conference on African Entrepreneurship and Small Business (ICAESB-2012) held from 20th-21st, last month, in Dar es Salaam.
TAGS:conferences, entrepreneurship
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Pearson to invest in low-cost private education in Africa and Asia

Source: The Guardian
Pearson, the UK education company and owner of the Financial Times, has launched a £10m fund to invest in private schools in Africa and Asia aimed at providing affordable education for poor children.
TAGS:impact investing, investment fund
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Voxtra invests in Mtanga Farms Limited

Source: Seed Investors Blog
The Voxtra East Africa Agribusiness Fund (Voxtra) has completed an investment of US$ 1.5 million in Mtanga Farms Limited (MFL), a commercial farm engaged in seed crops, arable farming and livestock.
TAGS:agribusiness, impact investing
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Power to More People

Source: Wall Street Journal
Africa may be about to get a whole lot more power. For years, nonprofits have worked to make lighting available and affordable to Africans who aren't connected to a power grid. But they've managed to help only a tiny percentage of that population, mainly by selling them inexpensive kerosene lamps.
TAGS:solar, sustainability
Monday, July 09, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Forget Foreign Aid, Focus on Foreign Investment In Women Entrepreneurs

Source: Forbes
Foreign aid can sometimes account for over 90% of a country’s GDP; yet developing nations are quickly learning that foreign aid is not a long-term solution. And over the past few years, we’ve seen just how interconnected the global economy is: a misstep in one economy, affects the global economy.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, impact investing
Tuesday, July 03, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Acumen Fund Invests in Paga to Scale Money Transfer Service across Nigeria

Source: Acumen Fund Blog
Lagos - Paga, Nigeria’s leading money transfer service launched in February 2011, today announced it has secured new investments from Adlevo Capital, Omidyar Network, Acumen Fund, Capricorn Investment Group, and current investors Goodwell West Africa Microfinance Development Company.
TAGS:mobile banking
Monday, July 02, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria: Using Call Centres to Bridge Poverty Gaps Among Unemployed Youths

Source: AllAfrica
Due to the recent economic recession, more people have become unemployed adding to the security problems that are plaguing the country. Evelyn Okoruwa writes on how call centres could bridge poverty gap by providing makeshift jobs for the country's teeming youths.
TAGS:poverty alleviation
Thursday, June 21, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Mobile Money: How Cell Phones Can Fight Hunger in the Sahel

Source: Huffington Post
Some five billion people worldwide were using mobile phones in 2010, according to the International Telecommunication Union, with the strongest growth taking place in developing countries. Africa is the fastest growing mobile market. In the past six years, the industry estimates that the number of subscribers has grown nearly 20 percent each year. At this rate, we can expect to see some 735 million cell phone users in Africa by the end of 2012.
TAGS:mobile applications, nutrition
Thursday, June 21, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa: Support From Private Sector Is Needed for Sustainable Development

Source: AllAfrica
Sustainable development in Africa depends on innovative sources of finance and resources from the private sector, African leaders and world experts said at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, currently being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
TAGS:impact investing, sustainability
Monday, June 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Business fighting poverty

Source: The Guardian
For nearly 100 years, Africa has been a key driver of Anglo American's business success. Almost 40% of our assets remain in South Africa. Three of our seven main business groups (platinum, iron ore and thermal coal) and two of our key associates (diamonds and manganese) operate out of South-ern Africa. These are all globally competitive businesses and we are investing in them: $20bn in capital expenditure in South Africa over the last 10 years, and a future growth pipeline of almost $15bn.
TAGS:business development, poverty alleviation
Thursday, June 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Time For An African Valley? — Sub-Saharan Accelerators Start To Emerge

Source: Tech Crunch
The news that i/o Ventures had launched the Savannah Fund in Africa is clearly welcome news for an emerging continent. It’s $10m fund size will be a shot in the arm for the eco-system there. But I was surprised to see that it was being described in some quarters as the “first ever” Sub-Saharan African incubator and accelerator. Because it patently is not.
TAGS:investment fund
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Microinsurance Revolution

Source: The New York Times
Six years ago David Patient felt his immune system slipping. He had been H.I.V.-positive for a long time, but now he made two decisions: He started on antiretroviral medicines to protect himself, and he began trying to buy life insurance to provide for his partner.
TAGS:health care, microinsurance
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

New Farmer Alliance to Improve Incomes and Food Security in Africa

Source: TechnoServe
WASHINGTON, DC, June 12, 2012 – Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Vodafone, and TechnoServe launched a new partnership to increase the productivity, incomes and resilience of smallholder farmers in Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania. The Connected Farmer Alliance will leverage mobile phone-enabled solutions to improve supply chain efficiency and increase farmers’ ability to access secure, timely payments and other financial services.
TAGS:farmers, TechnoServe
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya: Equity's Mwangi Tops the World Again

Source: All Africa
Nairobi, Kenya — Equity Bank's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director James Mwangi, has been voted the 2012 Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year at a colorful ceremony held in Monte Carlo, Monaco over the weekend.
TAGS:financial inclusion, social entrepreneur
Friday, June 08, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Acumen Fund Invests in Virtual City to Automate Agricultural Supply Chains in East Africa and....

Source: Acumen Fund Blog
Nairobi, Kenya, June 5, 2012 – Acumen Fund, a pioneering nonprofit global venture firm addressing poverty across Africa and in South Asia, today announced a $1.5 million convertible debt investment in Virtual City, a mobile technology services provider based in Nairobi.
TAGS:agribusiness, supply chains
Thursday, June 07, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

SEEP Network, The MasterCard Foundation Launch $7.6 Million Partnership to Strengthen Sub-Saharan Africa Microfinance Groups

Source: Press Release SEEP Network
The SEEP Network and The MasterCard Foundation are launching a new $7.6 million, four-year partnership to strengthen and develop the capacity of microfinance industry associations in Sub-Saharan Africa. As microfinance scales and commercializes in Africa, there is an opportunity to support greater consumer protection and financial transparency within the industry.
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, June 06, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Virtual City gets Sh135m loan from US social fund

Source: Business Daily

Virtual City, a local software development firm, has received a Sh135 million ($1.5 million) convertible loan from Acumen Fund for the development of a mobile-based agricultural application to help small-scale farmers market their produce. The investment represents the latest capital inflows from international investors in the local information technology sector, which is emerging as a key target for venture capitalist firms.
TAGS:agribusiness, technology
Monday, June 04, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Board Approves Equity Investment of U.S. $100 Million in Agvance Africa

Source: All Africa
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) approved on 16 May in Tunis, an equity investment of USD 100 million to Agvance Africa, the first agribusiness-focused Fund of Funds on the African continent. The strategic objective of Agvance Africa is to increase private investment flows into the agribusiness sector on the continent to address growing food security concerns and unleash the largely unexploited potential of African agriculture and agribusiness sectors.
TAGS:agribusiness, impact investing
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Should Fighting Hunger Be a Franchise Business?

Source: GOOD
The idea of a business franchise is more likely to conjure an image of a Happy Meal than a famine food ration, but what if the same system that makes McDonald’s globally omnipresent could do the same for food aid or poverty-fighting?
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Escaping poverty on the back of a chicken

Source: The Guardian
In the dusty Nigerian village of Nwangele, a 13-year-old girl, Eziuche Chimdi, has escaped a life of oppression. She has only one tool - a chicken. Her life could easily have been very different. Poverty and traditional values dictate the lives of many young girls who will be forced to become child brides. 40 per cent of girls in Nigeria are married by the age of 15, and marriage puts an end to education. Once wedded, she will be subject to a life of servitude as the second or third wife to a man more than twice her age. Disobedience results in violence and young girls are sexually vulnerable and susceptible to HIV/AIDS - the biggest killer of women in Nigeria.
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, May 25, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Can Funding Entrepreneurs in the Developing World Create 1 Million Jobs?

Source: Mashable
Big Idea: The Adventure Project is an alternative funding organization that supports entrepreneurs in developing countries, with the goal to produce one million jobs within the next ten years.
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, May 24, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

FXB International Releases Graduate Tracer Study

Source: FXB
(New York, NY) – Today FXB International released a Graduate Tracer Study. Among the exciting results include findings that, from their starting point as the poorest households in their communities, FXB-Village participants in Rwanda and Uganda show greatly increased income and savings. Additionally, the study shows that FXB-Village participants have vastly improved access to clean drinking water and are more likely to own their homes, and children are much more likely to be enrolled in school than they were at the beginning of the program. In each of the three study areas, the results show that the FXB-Village program significantly improves the lives of these participants.
TAGS:social development
Thursday, May 24, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

'Explore cocoa potential,' ICCO urges manufacturers

Source: Daily Times
The International Cocoa Coordination Organisation (ICCO), on Wednesday, urged Nigerian manufacturers to explore the potential of cocoa, so as to produce more cocoa-based goods.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Scaling up the fight against poverty and hunger in Africa

Source:

Agriculture is a powerful tool for reducing poverty and hunger. Events of recent years – such as food price increases, droughts, growing climate change impacts and other emergencies – have put agriculture high on the international agenda. We should be clear that agriculture is the solution. Economic growth generated by agriculture is more than twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. Agricultural development is also an effective means of assisting developing countries in building capacity and infrastructure as well as introducing innovation and technology.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, Poverty
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Grameen Foundation, KfW and CARE's Access Africa Fund Invest in World's First 100% Mobile Microfinance Institution

Source: PR Newswire/Market Watch
Grameen Foundation, KfW and CARE's Access Africa Fund announced they have each purchased a 25 percent stake in Musoni Kenya, the first microfinance institution to provide financial services to the poor entirely via mobile phones. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, it provides microloans largely to people who are underserved by the formal financial sector. This investment will help Musoni Kenya grow its operations, deepen its penetration in rural areas where financial inclusion is lowest, and pave the way for it to receive a license to accept savings deposits from the Central Bank of Kenya.
TAGS:Microfinance, mobile applications
Friday, May 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Owning a mobile phone does not move you to the middle class

Source: New Vision
James Ogule, who lives in Namugongo, a Kampala surburb, thinks the vendors selling matooke (plantains) by the road to his house should not be considered middle class. The vendors spend more than $2 (sh5,200) a day and Ogule who works with a government regulatory body thinks equating a middle class to sh5,200 a day is a pity.
TAGS:mobile phones, poverty alleviation
Friday, May 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Obama turns to private sector to feed world's poor

Source: Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Friday reached out to the private sector in hopes of lifting 50 million people in the developing world from poverty, as wealthy nations grapple with a budget crunch.
TAGS:farmers, nutrition, poverty alleviation
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Can mobile banking boost financial inclusion in Nigeria?

Source: How We Made It in Africa
In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with around 167 million people, mobile banking has been relatively slow to take off. This is, however, changing. Last year the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued the first operating licences to 11 companies to provide mobile banking services.
TAGS:mobile banking
Monday, May 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Social Innovators in Africa Awarded

Source: Justmeans
Five African social innovators have been included in the World Economic Forum's list of Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2012. The awards were announced at the Ethiopian summit of the WEF by Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of WEF.
TAGS:social entrepreneur
Monday, May 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Growth Isn't Meeting Needs of Young, Poor: Report

Source: Wall Street Journal
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Foreign investment and increasing exports are propelling high economic growth rates in Africa, but haven't established enough jobs to substantially reduce poverty or meet the high expectations of the continent's large number of youths and poor, according to an annual economic progress report released Friday at the World Economic Forum's meeting here.
TAGS:poverty alleviation
Monday, May 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Uganda's Middle Class Grows As Poverty Dips

Source: AllAfrica
Kampala — The number of absolutely poor Ugandans has dropped to 7.5 million (24.5%) from 8.5 million (31.1%) as of 2010, a Ministry of Finance status report released in Kampala shows.
TAGS:poverty alleviation
Friday, May 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Emerging markets forecast to drive dairy industry boom

Source: BusinessDay
AT A time when SA’s dairy industry is losing milk producers because of the sector’s limited viability, an international index has forecast growth for the industry from an expected rise in prosperity and buying power among consumers in emerging markets including Africa.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid
Friday, May 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The bank of SMS

Source: The Economist
AFRICA is the continent where “mobile money”—monetary transactions on mobile phones—is by far the most advanced. According to a new survey of financial habits by the Gates Foundation, the World Bank and Gallup, in 20 countries more than 10% of adults said that they had used mobile money at some point in the previous 12 months; 15 of those countries were in Africa.
TAGS:mobile banking
Friday, May 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Progress Panel calls on African governments to drive towards MDGs

Source: The Guardian
African governments and donor countries should launch a "big push" this year towards meeting the millennium development goals (MDGs), according to a high-level panel.
TAGS:social development
Wednesday, May 09, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Shopping for a Better World

Source: New York Times
To be successful in business today, a company must do more than just sell a good product. According to a recent study (pdf), 80 percent of Americans are likely to switch brands, if comparable in price and quality, to one that supports a social cause.
TAGS:corporate social responsibility, nonprofit
Thursday, May 03, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

This Man Can't Stop Innovating

Source: Inc.
Nothing beats the economics and ingenuity of a great dual-use product. On a scorching February day, Moses Kizza Musaazi stands behind the latrines at Mpigi UMEA Primary School, describing the features of his portable incinerator. The mud at his feet is red. So are the uniforms of the children who surge and subside in waves as he delivers his tutorial.
TAGS:social entrepreneur
Tuesday, May 01, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Scaling Social Enterprises

Source: The Huffington Post
At the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, we focus on helping social entrepreneurs build ventures that scale. My colleague and mentor Jim Koch, founder of the Center and one of the founders of both our signature Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) and The Tech Awards, returned from the Unite for Sight's Global Health and Innovation Conference effusive about his airplane reading. Jim's praise was for the Monitor Group's recently released report, From Blueprint to Scale: The Case for Philanthropy in Impact Investing.
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Buy More and Better Bednets for the Money, Says New Report

Source: The Guardian
On World Malaria Day, a new report analysis the anti-malarial bednet market and concludes that we could get better value, more innovation and even more nets from the same amount of funds.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, public health
Friday, April 13, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa: Brazilians to Share Experiences On Beating Hunger

Source: allAfrica
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini says sharing experiences with Brazil will help South Africa deal with the challenge of hunger.
TAGS:poverty alleviation, social development
Thursday, April 12, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Can Coffee Kick-Start an Economy?

Source: The New York Times
When he set out to wedge his coffee onto supermarket shelves in England and America, Andrew Rugasira didn’t start by making phone calls from his home in Kampala, Uganda. He didn’t begin by sending e-mails. The distance seemed too great for that. At one end of his business were farmers who, until he came along, thought their beans were purchased and carried off to make gunpowder. At the other were buyers at the corporate headquarters of chains like Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart. If he was going to succeed, he felt he would have to do it physically; it was as if he believed he could stretch himself to span the divide between the two worlds. So he got on a plane to London, without trying any advance contact.
TAGS:agribusiness, Base of the Pyramid, entrepreneurship, farmers
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Tony Elumelu Foundation, Co-Creation Hub in Partnership to Give Social Technology Entrepreneurs Boost

Source: WorldStage
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), an institution dedicated to the promotion and celebration of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship across Africa, is partnering with Co-Creation Hub Nigeria (CcHub), Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space dedicated to catalysing creative social technology ventures, in an effort to encourage innovative ideas that could help transform the social technology space in Nigeria.
TAGS:social enterprise, social entrepreneur, technology
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Tackling the Challenges of Urban Sanitation: A Social Enterprise Model

Source: The Guardian
A micro franchise initiative founded by SC Johnson in Nairobi aims to improve levels of sanitation in low-income communities.
TAGS:public health, sanitation, social enterprise, urban
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Why Designers Need To Stop Feeling Sorry For Africa

Source: FastCo.Design
Taking a patronizing approach to investing in Africa undermines both the country’s people and entrepreneurial promise, argue Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, consumer products, technology
Friday, April 06, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

A New Silicon Valley? Tech Hubs Spring Up in Africa

Source: FastCo.Exist
Internet access is expanding rapidly across the continent, and with it new organizations are coming to help foster a budding tech startup scene.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social business, technology
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Cape Town's Women Take the Lead in Farm-Focused Social Enterprise

Source: GOOD
Abalimi’s profitable social business, Harvest of Hope, relies on a community-supported agriculture model that provides customers (who pay in advance) a box of fresh, organically grown produce harvested from community gardens each week.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, skill development, social enterprise
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Investing in Agriculture Most Effective Way to Eradicate Poverty in Africa – UN

Source: UN News Centre
With the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) just three years away, a senior United Nations official today emphasized that spending on agriculture is the most effective type of investment for halting poverty in Africa.
TAGS:agribusiness, poverty alleviation
Thursday, March 22, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

One Acre Fund Helps Africa's Small Farmers Keep in Their Fields

Source: The Christian Science Monitor
The One Acre Fund provides access to microloans, training, insurance, and other hard-to-get help that boosts farmers' incomes and curbs flight from farms into cities.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, Microfinance
Friday, March 16, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Namibia: Chinese Enterprise in the Country - Panelised House Manufacturer

Source: allAfrica
It goes without saying that Chinese companies, be it a trade company, or a construction company or a service provider, or a manufacturer, are one of the contributors to Namibian socio-economic development with respect to poverty reduction, infrastructure improvement, employment creation, business vision, technical know-how, market and commodity competition system and working ethics among others.
TAGS:affordable housing, consumer products, social enterprise
Monday, March 12, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Enterprise Sets Up Service Centres for Livestock Farmers

Source: Business Daily
A social enterprise has opened 16 livestock service centres to help farmers improve production through better extension services.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, social enterprise
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Omidyar Network and ACCION Invest US $3.2 Million in Mobile Transactions International

Source: PR Newswire
Omidyar Network and ACCION International announced today that they have invested US $3.2 million in Mobile Transactions International, a Zambia-based company that leverages mobile technology and an agent network to enable financial transactions across the Zambian economy. The $4 million investment round also includes $500,000 in converted debt funding from Mennonite Economic Development Associates.
TAGS:investment fund, mobile banking
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Opinion: Bill Gates' Support of GM Crops is Wrong Approach for Africa

Source: The Seattle Times
Bill Gates' support of genetically modified (GM) crops as a solution for world hunger is of concern to those of us involved in promoting sustainable, equitable and effective agricultural policies in Africa. There are two primary shortcomings to Gates' approach.
TAGS:farmers
Friday, February 24, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya: Total's Solar Kits Target Poor Households

Source: allAfrica
Total Kenya is banking on portable solar kits for lighting and charging of mobile phones to break into the Kenyan renewable energy market.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, mobile phones, renewable energy, solar
Friday, February 17, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Quiet Revolution in Social Impact

Source: PandoDaily
There are currently 30 million African migrants who have left their home countries to find work elsewhere. They support more than 300 million people in their home countries, remitting essential food and goods, and in aggregate represent more than $10b in annual economic activity. This is an economy without an infrastructure, however, relying on informal channels and bribes to function. South African entrepreneur Suzana Moreira is working to change that. Her startup moWozauses SMS to help African migrants order, pay for, and select a place for parcel pickup.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, mobile applications, social impact, startup
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Truly Local Power: African Wind Turbines Built From Scrap

Source: FastCo.Exist
Wind power isn’t used much in the developing world, since a turbine is much more expensive than a solar panel. But Access:energy is flipping that equation by finding ways to build the turbines in the communities where they’re needed.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, renewable energy, skill development
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Accion MFB Considers Customers’ Plight, Out With Low Interest Products

Source: Business Day
Accion Micro Finance Bank has come out with cheaper and low interest rate products to meet the needs of its customers.
TAGS:financial inclusion, Microfinance
Friday, February 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Benin Makes Headway in Attempt to Reduce Deaths from Malaria

Source: The Guardian
Last year Benin announced free treatment for malaria, and has now followed up by cracking down on fake drugs and recruiting an army of outreach health workers
TAGS:health care, malaria, pharmaceutical industry, public health
Friday, February 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Mobile Phones Will Not Save the Poorest of the Poor

Source: Slate
Entrepreneurs, businesses, NGOs, and governments exalt mobile technology as a game-changing tool to fight global poverty. But what if our eagerness to connect the world is inadvertently exacerbating the global economic divide? The cost of cellphone-based services is hurting huge swaths of the developing world.
TAGS:mobile phones, Poverty, technology
Thursday, February 09, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

U.C. Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Lab Part of White House Poverty Push

Source: San Francisco Business Times
Both the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory above it on the hill are part of a public-private push to fight poverty around the world.
TAGS:health care, poverty alleviation, sustainability
Tuesday, February 07, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Microfinance Services in Ghana Greeted With Hope, Concern

Source: Voice of America
Microfinance, providing financial services to low-income clients, has gained popularity in Ghana in the past 20 years and has played an important role in helping the poor - especially women - improve their lives.
TAGS:financial inclusion, Microfinance, poverty alleviation
Thursday, February 02, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Is the Social Enterprise Bubble About to Burst?

Source: GOOD
Over the past two months, GOOD has profiled organizations in Africa using market solutions to solve water and sanitation challenges, improve agriculture, and promote public health. Social enterprises like these are transforming development work, and social entrepreneurs are being hailed as rock stars. But social enterprise isn’t the first trend to hit the development sector. From women’s empowerment to “sustainability” to microfinance, the aid community has moved through its stash of silver bullets. What makes social enterprise any different?
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social enterprise
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

East Africa: Boost for Agriculture

Source: allAfrica
The fight to secure food and income for millions of small holder farmers in eastern Africa, a region that experiences severe food shortages from time to time, is poised to get additional ammunition with the construction of a science research block by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
TAGS:agribusiness, smallholder farmers
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Can The iPad Revolutionize Rural Agriculture?

Source: FastCo.Exist
The iPad’s fairly steep price has kept it firmly entrenched in the developed world. That’s starting to change, however, as evidenced by efforts from Exprima Media and coffee importer Sustainable Harvest to bring the iPad to coffee co-ops and farmers in East Africa, Mexico, and South America.
TAGS:agribusiness, farmers, supply chains, technology
Friday, January 13, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Not Fit For Print; The 'Light' Side Of The 'Dark' Continent

Source: The Huffington Post
A Chinese, Latin American, and North American student are sitting in a classroom. The teacher pulls out a map of Africa, and asks 'tell me what you see". The Chinese student speaks of opportunity and business; South African steel, Congolese minerals, and Angolan oil to power his country's growth, and an endless list of future contracts for Chinese-built roads, bridges, and infrastructure to link the continent. The American reflects on Darfur, the Rwandan Genocide, thatched-roof villag...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, January 12, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Note From the Horn of Africa: Leveraging Mobile Technology to Link Somali Youth with Jobs

Source: KDID
Read the news, and initial reports about the Horn of Africa 1 are grim with famine and conflict dominating the headlines. But despite a food crisis and flare-ups of violence, key areas of the economy are growing steadily. Even ...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Training and Mentoring Give Boost to Uganda Clean Cookstoves Producers

Source: GVEP International
A five-year programme rewards entrepreneurship across East Africa by supporting micro-businesses to establish energy services and create employment opportunities in rural areas. Willy Bamwenyena, 25, stands out as a young resourceful entrepreneur, who has been able to identify the energy gap in his community, in rural Uganda, and turned the need into a business opportunity. The GVEP-led Devel...
TAGS:consumer products
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya Has Mobile Health App Fever

Source: Technology Review
Mobile health platforms are fast emerging in Kenya, where one startup's newly launched mobile health platform is attracting nearly 1,000 downloads daily, and the dominant telecom, Safaricom, has forged a partnership that will give its 18 million subscribers access to doctors. A World Bank official sees significant promise from such efforts, pointing to the fact that 50 percent of all Kenyan banking is already done on mobile phones-suggesting that the population is ready to go mobile...
TAGS:consumer products
Wednesday, January 04, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

How Biochar Will Help Kenya Go Green And Save Money

Source: Fast Company
Re:char is a pioneering company that sells kilns to farmers in Kenya that allow them to convert their farm waste into what's known as biochar, which can then be used for cooking. As an enterprise, Re:char seeks to deliver a "triple bottom line," expanding the uses of sustainable alternatives for energy, providing a cost effective solution for farmers in an effort to combat poverty, and stemming deforestation in Africa by encouraging use of biochar as cooking fuel instead of cutting down t...
TAGS:World Resources Institute
Wednesday, January 04, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa's Mobile Pricing Wars

Source: Think Africa Press
The increasing availability and ownership of mobile phones across much of Africa has brought numerous impressive benefits to ordinary Africans. And with the costs of calls, data-usage and handsets falling rapidly in many African countries, there has been a continuous rise in the number of mobile phone users across the region - in fact, the continent-wide growth rate of 20% makes Africa the fastest growing market for mobile phon...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Ethiopia Invests in Farmers to Achieve Country's Middle-income Ambitions

Source: The Guardian
Fields of red sorghum in terraced fields that stretch into the distance are a common sight in the scenic mountains of eastern Ethiopia , giving a misleading impression of bountiful harvests despite this year's drought in the east Africa . Farmers tie five or more tall sorghum stalks...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

ICT Vital in War Against Poverty

Source: allAfrica.com
THE application of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in gathering, analysing and disseminating market information to businesses and agricultural producers has been cited as a significant strategy in poverty reduction. The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing, Dr Shaban Mwinjaka, made the remark in Dar es Salaam over the weekend while opening a stakeholders' meeting on Management Information Systems (MIS) Strategy, operational Framework...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Sticky Challenge Facing Africa

Source: The Guardian
As the food crisis in the Horn of Africa continues, so do the campaigns asking for support and donations. Some of the money raised goes on the purchase of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), small packets of a sticky, peanut butter-like paste, fortified with minerals and vitamins, that can reverse severe malnutrition within six weeks. Products such as Pl...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, December 19, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Microfinance Banks to Construct 500 Houses

Source: Vanguard
Microfinance Banks in Lagos, under the auspices of the National Association of Microfinance Banks, Lagos State Chapter, NAMBLAG, have pledged to undertake a micro-housing project that will see them catering for the housing needs of a vast majority of the low income earners in the society. Chairman of the Association, Mr. Olufemi Babajide, in his address to members in the report for the 2010 financial year, said the association plans to build 500 houses for the active poor with flexible ...
TAGS:Acumen Fund
Friday, December 16, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Mobile Banking to Transform Nigeria's Economy, says GT Bank Boss

Source: This Day Live
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank), Mr. Segun Agbaje said Wednesday that the introduction of the mobile money- a mobile payment and remittance services, into the country would bring about positive transformation of payment system in the economy. Agbaje said this at the official launch of the bank's mobile money product, in partnership with MTN. He explained that the innovation was as a prompt step towards financial...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, December 15, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Ending Africa's Hungry Season: How Family Farms Are Driving Development

Source: GOOD
In rural sub-Saharan Africa, most people are farmers, and for part of the year, they go hungry. It's called the hungry season. I encountered it when I lived in a farming community in Malawi for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Families in my village subsisted off of the maize and beans that they harvested, but there was only one growing season, and making stocks last an entire year was difficult. Imagine growing all of your family's food for an entire year using just a hoe,...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

How to Make It in Africa? Unilever Listens to the Consumer

Source: How We Made It In Africa
"There is a growing realisation that the future of Africa is based around a consumer rather than mining. This is a consumer that has been under-served and over-charged," said Frank Braeken, Unilever executive vice-president for Africa at the High Growth Markets Summit at the end of September 2011. But Braeken pointed out that consumers in Ghana spend just one fifth ...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, December 12, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Beckons as the Next Pot of Gold for the Cellphone Telecoms Industry

Source: Taipei Times
Africa's lag in land-based telecoms infrastructure has propelled the continent directly into the mobile age, opening up unparalleled short-term growth prospects. Sector players have seen growth especially in mobile Internet and banking services, as people use cellphone technology for lack of landlines or cable Internet. "Africa is the last market to emerge. China's emerged, India's emerged. So where else outside Africa needs emerging? The growth opportunity is right he...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, December 08, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Chutes, Ladders, and Safety Nets: How Microinsurance Helps African Development

Source: GOOD
James Abuh-Prah had owned a used electronics shop in a small market in Accra for 17 years before a flood took everything. It was late one night in October, and the torrential rains hadn't stopped for hours. "By 5 a.m. the water was up to my chest," he says. He had taken out a $2,400 loan from his bank, Opportunity International, to use as capital to buy used televisions, stereos, and other electronics. Now, everything was destroyed. It's like a game of Chutes and Ladders,"...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, December 07, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Rising

Source: The Economist
THE shops are stacked six feet high with goods, the streets outside are jammed with customers and salespeople are sweating profusely under the onslaught. But this is not a high street during the Christmas-shopping season in the rich world. It is the Onitsha market in southern Nigeria, every day of the year. Many call it the world's biggest. Up to 3m people go there daily to buy rice and soap, computers and construction equipment. It is a hub for traders from the Gulf of Guinea, a region b...
TAGS:No Tags
Wednesday, December 07, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Frequent Flier Miles at the Base of the Pyramid

Source: The Huffington Post
OK, so you are a cell-phone user in rural Nigeria or Zimbabwe, and your provider is Econet Wireless. You've been a customer for a while, so you've accumulated loyalty rewards, just like airline frequent flier points. You live in a small hut in a village with no electricity, so you can't use your phone as much as you would like, because you can only charge it on market day at the district headquarters. But now you can get a big discount on a solar lantern, or if you hav...
TAGS:No Tags
Monday, December 05, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa Can Make Significant Progress Towards the MDGs

Source: Guardian.co.uk
Most African countries may not achieve all the MDG targets by 2015. What matters more is that they all make significant progress in all areas of the MDGs and sustain, or even accelerate, this progress in accordance with their national conditions. Arguably, the political and economic conditions in Africa in 2011 are a lot better than they were...
TAGS:No Tags
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The South African 'Wonderbag' Soon to be UNFCCC Accredited

Source: HEDON
A South African project that initially attempted to tackle poverty has shown potential to mitigate the effects of climate change and is expanding beyond the country's borders. By Kemantha Govender, BuaNews The Wonderbag project - a recyclable, insulated 'cooker' - focuses on developing countries and communities with high poverty, shortage of fuel supplies, high i...
TAGS:No Tags
Friday, November 18, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Spectacular Mobile Phone Revolution in Africa

Source: International Business Times
Mobile phone service is gaining by leaps and bounds in Africa. Indeed, so many Africans have subscribed to wireless service that the continent is now the second-largest market in the world - having supplanted Latin America -- and behind only Asia, the top market. The expansion of mobile phones is likely to revolutionize Africa, a land plagued by poverty, disease, war...
TAGS:No Tags
Thursday, November 17, 2011 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Microcredit - Women Demand More Than Incomes

Source: IPS
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