Global Envision | The Confluence of Global Markets and Poverty Alleviation

Maendeleo installing solar panels on Uganda's libraries. Photo: EIFL

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Sustainable Energy

Solar panels meet Android tablets in Uganda, and farmers win

Basking on the equator, Uganda catches plenty of rays. A library database and solar power project is using them to connect rural farmers.

Youth Spark works to support youth education, especially in the tech sector. Photo: <a href=”http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/youthsparkhub/”> Youth Spark (Microsoft)</a>

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Social Enterprise

Microsoft's new core philanthropy: Training kids to make software

Microsoft is rethinking its charity strategies to spread the spark of high-tech education—and maybe to train its own future employees.

Nigerian farmers head to a meeting for the latest information.Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatesfoundation/5782066016/">Gates Foundation (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Nestle: Food security is not a philanthropic activity

Poverty and hunger in Central and West Africa can't be solved by donated food. Nigeria needs to rebuild and boost its own agricultural economy. Nestle has a plan to do just that.

Nairobi is home to the first of a UN-created system of incubators for green business. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2629335476/in/set-72157605940042670/">World Bank (Flickr)</a>

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Sustainable Energy

Can Kenya's new climate center pull green investors to Africa?

In an attempt to reposition developing economies “towards low carbon, green growth paths,” the World Bank has opened its first Climate Innovation Center in Nairobi, Kenya.

Filipino farmers plant rice. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/20119750@N00/2680751025/">Schubert Ciencia (Flickr)</a>

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Social Enterprise

On World Food Day, praise for a humble business structure: The co-op

For agriculture cooperatives, this year’s World Food Day has been a day in the sun.

Money is pouring into Africa, but where is it landing? Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/5094797180/lightbox/"> World Bank (Flickr)</a>

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Does African investment only help the investors?

Some African communities are realizing the recent surge in international investment isn't all good news.

Addis Ababa-based entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun at the World Economic Forum in May 2012. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/7169657482/sizes/z/in/photostream/">World Economic Forum (Flickr)</a>

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Quotable: 'People don't want to be not poor'

Bethlehem Tilahun, Ethiopian entrepreneur and founder of SoleRebels Footwear, in the New York Times:

“As I entered college ... it had become clear to me that ‘poverty alleviation’ is a myth.”

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Mobile, solar schools literally bring power to the powerless

Beep beep! For some students, hopping on the school bus is hopping into the classroom. Four communities are using solar-powered mobile classrooms to overcome inaccessibility to the power grid.

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SOCAP Recap: Biggest announcements from this year’s conference

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Save the Children CEO on getting the most out of business + charity partnerships

The "Conservation Note" should protect large parcels of land from commercialization <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkercleaveland/1190467586/">Flickr, Adam Walker Cleaveland</a>

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Buy this forest! The Nature Conservancy puts idle capital to work for the planet

With its new "Conservation Note" initiative, the Nature Conservancy is giving back to those who give—with a guaranteed return on investment.

Dancing, an innovative way to teach Latin American youth financial literacy. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lluisr/195541498/sizes/m/in/photostream/">lluisribes (flickr)</a>

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Pirouettes and other new tricks help teach financial literacy to Latin American youth

The Multilateral Investment Fund is turning Latin American governments' agendas into action to improve financial literacy among youth.

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Quotable: Mobile-only in Africa

Africa is not just a mobile-first continent. It is mobile-only.

-Toby Shapshack

By the numbers in Shapshak's CNN article on Africa's mobile revolution:

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From Chitradurga, India: A magical, solar-powered school

A dearth of energy resources and skilled teachers in rural India means students lack access to modern computer technology. A traveling, e-learning school bus powered by the sun might roll its way to a better rural education solution.

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