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Value Chains

Q&A: What it takes to feed 842 million people worldwide

Ending global hunger will take more than handouts. The Mercy Corps team thinks outside the box to overcome complex barriers to food security.

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Value Chains

Water partners: Teaming up to solve shortages

Mercy Corps works with a private company, Xylem, to address urgent water needs in some of the toughest places on Earth. Why work with a partner?

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Value Chains

Why the process is the program: Building peace in northern Uganda

In the dry, northern Karamoja region of Uganda, 50 years of humanitarian aid has left the region entrenched in a culture of dependency. Underlying long-term peace and food security is a need for strong local governance, but donors often don’t find that as exciting as emergency relief.

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Value Chains

Profiting from poop: How selling human waste could revolutionize sanitation

Dealing with human waste has become a health crisis in many poor communities, but residents of a Kenyan slum have found a solution that turns poop into profit.

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In wake of Philippines typhoon, climate change talks produce only squabbles, finger-pointing

On the same day as the UN-sponsored Warsaw Climate Change Conference, thousands of Filipinos' communities were destroyed by the most powerful storm in recorded history. Where do the talks go from here?

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Global Ideas News Brief: Big names weigh in on global inequality

Bill Gates on global poverty, the case for global aid and rising to the challenge of youth unemployment. Staff Picks: what we're reading this week.

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Social Enterprise

How to build a market for eyeglasses

Nearly 700 million poor people in the world need eyeglasses. Why don't we just give them away? Turn's out that's not a scheme that can be scaled up to reach more than a tiny fraction of the people who need them. Here's a model that can.

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Social Enterprise

Quotable: Designing low-cost products that save lives isn't easy

“We thought if you design a good product, it will scale on its own,” Ms. Donaldson said. “That works in efficient markets, but most developing communities don’t have efficient markets.”

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Global Ideas News Brief: Doha deal + Banking on the world's poorest

Banking on the world's poorest, the first Doha deal, and how the promise of prosperity may be the key to foreign policy. Staff picks: what we're reading this week.

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Twitter and international development: Who to follow and why

Here's a list of three interesting users to follow for each of Global Envision’s six beats.

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Social Enterprise

EcoZoom: A Three Part Model For Doing Business in Africa

EcoZoom is bringing safer, cleaner cookstoves to relief, development, and commercial markets in Somalia, Rwanda, and Kenya.

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Mobile Technology

Mobile health targets women, yet many don’t have mobile phones

Health care organizations say they can save lives by providing maternal health services via mobile phones, but they have to close the gender gap on mobile technology first.

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Sustainable Energy

Free trials and payment plans: Innovative ways to market clean energy products in rural Uganda

Families in rural northern Uganda who cook over open fires and use kerosene as their primary light source face numerous health and safety issues - they should be rushing to buy fuel efficient cookstoves and solar units. Why aren't they?

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Global Ideas News Brief: Should business solve society's biggest problems?

Why business can be good at solving the world's problems, escaping the cycle of scarcity, and the data revolution reaching further. Staff picks: What we're reading this week

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Financial Inclusion

Insurance against financial catastrophe? The poor aren’t buying it

Microinsurance is the darling of economists looking for a new way to alleviate poverty. For a pittance, they argue, the very poor can be saved from financial ruin in the event of a medical emergency or crop failure.