Indonesia

Indonesian farmers can benefit greatly from information on how to make their products thrive. Photo <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theworldfishcenter/8199313364/">WorldFish (Flickr)</a>

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Good show! How an NGO convinced commercial TV to serve the poor

Information is power, but only if people have access to it. In 2006, a Swiss NGO teamed with Indonesian media to bring that power to small businesses.

Mobile phones are one of the ways ADB says will increase microfinance availability among the poor. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimmyt/8048414699/">CIMMYT (flickr)</a>.

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Financial Inclusion

MFIs should offer more than just microfinance, study finds

Despite the surging popularity of microfinance in the last several decades, access among the poor in Asia and the Pacific remains low. A new report says technology and livelihood programs will put it in the hands of more people.

A Jakarta street vendor sells fried tofu. Informally employed tofu and tempeh workers are a major force in Indonesia's economy. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyna/5311474069/in/photostream/">Tommy N. Armansyah (Flickr)</a>

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Better tofu and tempe labels give Indonesian food firms a reason to clean up their act

As the world gets richer, competition for resources like water and livestock will likely increase. Photo: Erin Gray for MercyCorps

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Extreme poverty could end by 2030, but the planet might pay for it

The world’s soaring wealth will nearly wipe out poverty worldwide by 2030, according to the National Intelligence Council.

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Mobile phones: A jaw-dropping decade of success (INFOGRAPHIC)

The mobile revolution has taken over the world: 75 percent of the population now has access to phones. The applications are seemingly endless, from health care to agriculture. Check out the World Bank’s new infographic to see mobile phones' progress—click on either image to enlarge.

SWEETLab director Evan Thomas shows an example of the remote sensors developed in his lab. Photo: Evan Thomas/Portland State University

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How a Portland lab uses remote sensors to measure how aid projects work

Sensors on latrines, cook stoves and water filters help monitor aid projects, and a carbon credit financing scheme generates revenue to scale-up of future projects.

Drawing from Indonesia's rich cultural heritage, HONF marries art and technology in search of development solutions <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkseema/1378851855/ ">Seema Krishnakumar</a>

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Applied art: How a few of Indonesia's creative pros are helping fix poverty

Who said art wasn’t an exact science? In Indonesia, an artists' collaborative is driving innovative technological solutions to some of the most difficult issues facing developing nations.

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Who makes up the global middle class? Economists aren’t sure

We know that economists don’t always agree on the best path to prosperity.

An improved sanitation system allows private sanitation companies to access new customers in narrow urban slums, where some of the 94 million Indonesians live without access to such services. Photo: Mercy Corps

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Value Chains

Disruptive sanitation: Can 3-wheeled carts and better septic tanks clean up Jakarta?

This article was republished by The Christian Science Monitor.

<a href="http://www.mercycorps.org/photoessay/landownershipyieldsstrongerhealthiercommunities">View the full Guatemala photo essay. By Jamie Grant for Mercy Corps.</a>

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More than an argument, land conflicts stall economic growth

As battles over land rights increase and intensify, development stalls.

Highly populated, poor urban areas are particularly susceptible to disasters that result from climate changes. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps.

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Four ways an Indonesian city is planning for climate disaster

As the Planet Under Pressure conference wrapped up in London last week, MercyCorps’ Indonesia team explains why you want to be in Semarang when the next major climate change related disaster strikes.

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19 Ways We Innovate

Reporting in collaboration with Yadira Gutierrez.

More than 800 staff members in 47 countries cast a vote for their favorite innovation. Which is your favorite?

A simple solution makes a big impact for Ethiopia's farming families. Photo: Erin Gray/Mercy Corps.

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19 Ways We Innovate: Winners Announced

And the winner of Mercy Corps’ internal innovations competition is...(drumroll, please)... Ethiopia! Despite—or very well perhaps because—of the massive drought that's hit the Horn of Africa, community members and Mercy Corps staff have hit on a solution that's both simple and cheap.

The use of technology in humanitarian aid planning is on the rise. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22015699@N00/343384475/">Esther Gibbons (Flicker)</a>

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Technology against poverty: Three inspiring new successes

2011 is over, but the impact technology had on humanitarian aid planning last year could be just beginning to emerge.

Humanitarian issues demand immediate solutions. In 2011, a lot of solutions to crises placed heavy emphasis on technology. Here are three notable examples: