Humanitarian Aid

Like this farmer in Kenya, the challenge in Tanzania is connecting smallholder farmers to larger markets. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/5366702717/sizes/z/">CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture</a>

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Value Chains

How a Tanzania NGO scrapped grants to build markets that last

When it comes to solving poverty, sometimes the best way to get more done is to move out of the driver's seat.

Two actors in the a new video that satirizes assumptions that Africans are destitute. (Video still by Africa for Norway.)

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Save a Norwegian child today! Mail her your radiator

Sure, hunger is bad. But frostbite kills too. Africa for Norway aims to help freezing Norwegians survive the winter, one radiator at a time.

Left: Patricia Wolff, founder and executive director of Meds and Food for Kids. (Photo: MFK.) Right: Paul Farmer, founder and executive director of Partners in Health. (Photo: <a href="http://flic.kr/p/csKJu9">Nyaya Health, Flickr</a>.)

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Social Enterprise

Devil take the hindmost? Haiti peanut battle puts NGOs head to head

When antipoverty nonprofits compete, it's not always clear who will lose more: the one whose business is threatened, or the people both nonprofits set out to serve.

Vegetables at Market <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bioversity/6672475021/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Bioversity International (Flickr)</a>.

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Social Enterprise

You can't solve poverty by supplying products not in demand

Are humanitarian aid groups really demand-driven? Development economist James Riordan, says NGOs, government agencies and consulting firms, overwhelmingly, are not.

The structure of foreign aid is about to change. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60881556@N05/5566653522/">Doctorwonder (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Dear traditional development assistance: The end is near

In a speech last week at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reminded development practitioners, politicos and philanthropists that their ultimate goal is to put themselves out of business.

A favorite pastime could be saving the world Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinbongart/3409828631/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Kevin Bongart (Flickr)</a>

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Youth Skills

Social Gaming 101: How digital fun is driving change

From world hunger to peace to economic development, a new tool is making a difference: video games.

As an insurance holder, she knows the next big storm won't wipe out all her assets. Photo: Fabiola Coupet/Mercy Corps

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Inside microinsurance, a view from Haiti

As Tropical Storm Isaac hit Haiti in late August, all eyes were watching to see whether the country would be overwhelmed by the latest storm.

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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.

Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer in Gaza. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps.

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Q&A with Mercy Corps CEO about market innovations to poverty

Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer and NextBillion's editor Scott Anderson discuss where Mercy Corps is heading and how its past has informed its future, especially when it comes to business development.

The joys of soccer balls stretch across the globe <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/35488521@N03/4687667767/”> chronowizard (Flickr)</a>

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Dear social entrepreneurs: Your consumers have to like your product

It is easy to get excited about a soccer ball. Add to it the ability to create electricity and light, all for $60, and it seems to be a developing-world dream.

NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof faces criticism that his coverage of war, poverty and violence is detrimental for Africa. Photo:Henry McInnes/Sunday Mail for Mercy Corps

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Twitter debate questions media’s impact on Africa’s prosperity

The Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic is a plan to deliver medical services by water to reach populations that would otherwise be restricted by their landscape. Photo courtesy LTFHC.

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Floating clinics, rolling medics: In Africa, the hospital goes to you

For those who live in some of the most challenging landscapes in rural Africa, two innovative models are expanding the distribution of health care to ensure consistent aid—a boat and a truck.

How aid programs affect women and girls depends on men and boy, too. Photo: Cassandra Nelson, Mercy Corps

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Why gender matters to every aid effort (Q&A)

For some aid organizations, gender isn’t just a women’s issue anymore. Sahar Alnouri, Mercy Corps’ Global Gender Advisor, is targeting gender dynamics—the roles men, women, boys and girls play within their communities—throughout Mercy Corps programs around the world.

Gisele Bundchen and Masai warrior Keseme Ole Parsapaet in Amercan Express (RED) advert. Photo: <a href="http://www.newint.org/features/2006/11/01/productred/">American Express</a>

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All the sinners saints? Why Bono's (RED) can't redeem Western consumers

Product (RED) is a flawed market-based poverty solution that distracts from the need for genuine innovation in corporate business models, argue Brand Aid authors Lisa Richey and Stefano Ponte.