innovation

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Sustainable Energy

Poverty and climate change: An interview with Eliot Levine, Mercy Corps senior climate change advisor

When Cyclone Nargis ravaged Myanmar in 2008, inundating its lowlands and killing some 138,000 people, experts blamed the severe weather conditions on climate change.

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Financial Inclusion

Day 1 at Mobile Money: Technology to Transform Transactions

What’s the best way to deliver on the promise of mobile money to bring financial inclusion to the BoP? The Center for Effective Global Action hosted dozens of telecommunications, banking, research and mobile money experts to explore that question.

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Global Ideas News Brief: The 5 stages of innovation at scale

Staff Picks: What we're reading this week. Lessons on scaling social innovation, the business of beer meets the ugliness of war, and Google Translate adds African languages.

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Youth Skills

Ask our youth: How can we farm for billions?

Agriculture offers promising employment opportunities for Africa’s youth-- if they can be convinced the work is worth the reward.

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Value Chains

How to survive on less than five acres in India: Three ways farmers can go mobile

Smallholder farmers are overwhelmingly poor and have little control over the ups and downs of the marketplace. Three organizations are helping smallholder farmers turn the tables through mobile technology.

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Mobile Technology

Quotable: Internet for the next 5 billion people

Will extending Internet access to the world's poorest solve all social problems? Yunus and Zuckerberg think so.

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Value Chains

Is charity: water the Expedia of philanthropy?

Aid agencies and their donors debate: Is it more effective for a charity to build and maintain wells or help people get loans to buy materials for wells and their upkeep? The decision might be made by the charity with the biggest coffers.

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Value Chains

How to make markets work for the poor--and measure the results

Despite local demand for hay, Kenyan dairy farmers face milk shortages due to lack of quality supply. But instead of handing over the hay, why not bring the hay market to the farmers?

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Global Ideas News Brief: Measuring shared value + Cash transfers

Staff picks! What we're reading this week: Corporate leaders struggle to implement shared value, two views on cash transfers to the poor, and how to donate.

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Youth Skills

The missing link: Transforming vocational skills into employment for young women

Faced with a widening gender gap in unemployment, international and nonprofit organizations are providing young women with marketable skills through vocational training programs. But when the girls' skills don't transform into jobs, many wonder - what’s the missing link?

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Sustainable Energy

Unlocking Uganda’s potential market for fuel-efficient stoves

There’s significant demand for fuel-efficient stoves in northern Uganda, where 76 percent of the population relies on open fires for cooking. But tapping into that market is easier said than done.

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Mobile Technology

Testing the future of emergency assistance

A quiet revolution is underway to streamline the delivery of assistance to people in crisis — using the most prolific technology in the world. And it could help people become more financially literate and secure for the long-run.

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Youth Skills

A new way to finance education: Pay what you earn

Would you sell a stake in your future for a college degree? Oregon just joined a number of private companies making the idea a reality, and the solution could mean more underprivileged youth get the education they need to get ahead.

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Social Enterprise

The William Davidson Institute announces its Bottom of the Pyramid Summit

Set for October 21, the three-day event takes stock and charts a course.

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Mobile Technology

No app for that: Why tech won’t solve global poverty as intended

Social entrepreneurs have trumpeted apps and technology as the knockout blow to poverty, but they may not provide the punch needed to make a lasting impact.