Imports/Exports

Heinz sells 80 percent of British beans. That may be exactly why they passed on a chance to do so in a more innovative way. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vek/4226781275/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Kevin Spencer (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Why the biggest brand sometimes isn't the best innovation partner

A new case study of the Ethiopian bean industry includes a depressing anecdote reminding us that innovation rarely starts at the top of the market.

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.

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Soft power, Gangnam style

PSY's single could hit a billion YouTube views.

Chinese agriculture is shifting away from some traditional products like gingko to capture Western markets<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/5416212301/lightbox/">World Bank Photo Collection (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

As Chinese farming goes global, some see risks

The reorientation of Chinese agriculture to an export-centric model is creating unprecedented domestic growth, but there may be a hidden cost to developing nations.

Africa should be able to grow enough staples to feed itself. Why isn't it? <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/7826351630/sizes/z/in/photostream/">World Bank (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

How broken value chains prevent Africans from feeding Africa

Africa has plenty of rich agricultural land but millions of starving residents. The problem is that too much money is going to the wrong places along the way.

Deep in the foothills of Darjeeling. Photo: Mercy Corps

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Teatime chat with Tazo and Starbucks

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.

Waiting to cross an Israeli checkpoint can take hours, if you can cross at all. Photo:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8253950@N02/512467749/"> Michael Loadenthal (Flickr)</a>

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Youth Skills

The solution to Palestine's border problem? Exporting bits and bytes

This article was republished by The Christian Science Monitor

Hauling a load of jute to market may lose some luster if Bangladesh fails to cope with global trade fluctuations <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelfoleyphotography/392624379/sizes/o/in/photostream/">Flickr, Michael Foley Photography</a>

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Globalization at work: Sanctions on Iran threaten Bangladesh's cash crop

Hanging from the world trade network by a thread: developing economies are easily rocked by regional events that profoundly alter the marketplace.

Why the wait? The World Bank investigates Sub-Saharan port turnover. Photo: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/vithassan/284900957/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Vít Hassan (Flickr)</a>.

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Anticompetitive collusion is silently choking Africa's ports

A new study by the World Bank has found a complex answer to a simple question: why does cargo spend weeks in Sub-Saharan ports?

A child eats Plumpy'nut in Ethiopia. Photo: Bija Gutoff/Mercy Corps.

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Franchised manufacturing: For social enterprises, an idea worth copying

How do you get poverty-fighting products to the furthest corners of the globe the way that Coca-Cola gets its products there? Use the same strategy, obviously.

Africa's emerging markets are the fastest growing in the world. Photo: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/attawayjl/3335549312/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Jeff Attaway (Flickr)</a>

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The African Century? Multinationals gear up for a sub-Saharan boom

Africa now holds an unfamiliar title: Continent with the fastest growing economy in the world.

Failure to adapt to global climate change led to unrest across the Arab World. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/6argoo3a/6253592631/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Saleem-Homsi (Flickr)</a>

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How climate change puts the heat on governments

Incompetent, unjust governance by some of the Middle East’s worst despots brewed a recipe for disaster before the Arab Spring, but it took climate change to turn up the heat.

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange helps farmers know what their crops are worth, and earn a fair price. Photo by Erin Gray/Mercy Corps.

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Ethiopia's Commodity Exchange fights hunger through fair prices

"If more and better information within agricultural markets can make uncertainty recede like darkness in front of a candle, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange is a bank of high-powered floodlights," writes Tate Watkins in GOOD magazine.