Kenya

African communities are becoming increasingly mobile-centric. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/70292973@N07/7192931934/">The Reboot (flickr)</a>

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Youth Skills

Windows to the world: Why Microsoft's $75 million mobile drop matters

Microsoft will spend $75 million to put tens of millions of smart devices into the hands of African youth by 2016, the company announced Monday.

Encouraging youth to pursue farming may be the answer to both unemployment issues and fading crop yields. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatesfoundation/5075935331/in/photostream/">Gates Foundation (Flickr)</a>

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Youth Skills

Rural youth seek greener pastures in the city, but farming could get hot

Even on the farm, it pays to be young, but every year, young people are "escaping" their hometown rural communities to seek the "greener pastures" of city life. Meanwhile, global buyers of commodities such as coffee and cocoa beans worry about the aging farming workforce.

Kenyan dairy farmers using iCow saw an increase in profits and milk production. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatesfoundation/6775839248/">Gates Foundation (flickr)</a>

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In Kenya, a mobile dairy app drives profits skyward

A relatively new mobile app has helped dairy farmers in Kenya increase their profits by 42 percent.

In Kenya, young people open small businesses to improve their communities such as this tea nursery and mushroom farm. Photo: <a href="http://www.mercycorps.org/photoessay/2012accomplishments#photo-10">Salma Bahramy/Mercy Corps</a>

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Youth Skills

Youth-led programs: A fresh perspective to solve youth unemployment

A new set of youth employment programs is built on the proposition that the best people to design such programs are young people themselves.

A farmer in Manthralaya, India plows his field. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58925091@N00/136310496/">Ananth BS (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Farmers invest 50 times more in farms than their countries get in aid

Two Kenyan school boys play soccer. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/teachandlearn/2861273492/sizes/l/in/photostream/">Teachandlearn (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

UK retailer John Lewis is the latest to implemement a buy one, donate one program in Africa - with a twist

A small African company that got its seed money from a grant has just received a major endorsement. Alive & Kicking will now have their brand, Balls for Africa, sold by a major retailer in the UK.

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.

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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.

Kenyan flower farmers are making more money thanks to a new middleman. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2629345354/">Photo: World Bank (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Your Walmart bouquet may have been grown by these Kenyan farmers

Flower growers in Kenya have plenty to sell, but no buyers. Meanwhile big-box retailers in the U.S. and UK want more flowers. New research reveals that a middleman connecting them could be profitable for both.

A Malawian farmer in her groundnut plot. Photo: <ahref:http://www.flickr.com/photos/44760652@N05/7337617292/">CIMMYT (Flickr)</a>.

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Value Chains

Farm growth fights poverty twice as fast as other growth

The most equitable way a country can stimulate a post-conflict economy is to invest in agriculture, an African nonprofit says.

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Cardiogram by tablet, Cows by phone: 3 new innovations for Africa

From tablets that diagnose cardiovascular disease to potatoes that reduce childhood blindness, The Guardian’s list of 15 innovations that are helping transform Africa has a little something for everybody.

Youth around the world want to trade in their piggy banks for the real thing. Photo: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosscrawford1/2738104237/sizes/m/in/photostream/”>rosscrawford1 (Flickr)</a>

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Youth savings: Why the new piggy bank is an actual bank

The draw of the piggy bank stretches to children of all income levels; the need for security and the promise of their dreams makes kids save.

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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.

Mobile money transactions are now much easier in Zimbabwe - perhaps easier than cash - thanks to EcoCash. Photo: Erin Wildermuth for MercyCorps

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How a mobile airtime vendor became Zimbabwe's fastest-growing bank

Money is whizzing through the airwaves and cell towers of Zimbabwe, as a mobile cash transfer system is on track to become the country’s biggest bank.