Africa

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Agricultural Policies in Africa Could Be Harming the Poorest

Press Release | University of East Anglia | February 8, 2016

Published this month in the journal World Development, the study finds that so-called ‘green revolution’ policies in Rwanda - claimed by the government, international donors and organisations such as the International Monetary Fund to be successful for the economy and in alleviating poverty - may be having very negative impacts on the poorest. One of the major strategies to reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is through policies to increase and modernise agricultural production...

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Aid Workers Turn To Text Messaging To Improve Food Aid Delivery To Refugees In The Western Sahara

Rosa Akbari and Ken Banks | National Geographic | June 26, 2013

Communication between beneficiaries and food aid providers in the Western Sahara refugee camps in Algeria suffers as the number of food distribution points increases. Read More »

Alone And Forgotten, One American Doctor Saves Lives In Sudan’s Nuba Mountains

Alex Perry | TIME | April 25, 2012

[...] There’s generally little truth to those stories of Africa — a continent of more than 50 countries and a billion people — which contrive to lionize Westerners. But in the case of Daniel and hundreds of others, the only reason they are alive to tell their stories is because of the attentions of a single American surgeon, Dr. Tom Catena, who has lived in the Nuba Mountains since 2008. Read More »

An Interview with Open Source Health IT Project: LibreHealth

Andy Oram | EMR & HIPAA | December 7, 2016

LibreHealth is the largest health IT project to emerge recently, particularly in the area of free and open source software. In this video, Dr. Judy Gichoya of the LibreHealth project explains what clinicians in Africa are dealing with and what their IT needs are. Both developed and developing countries need better health IT systems to improve patient care. In the developed countries, electronic records and other health IT systems sprout complexities that reflect the health care systems in which they function...

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Antibiotic Use for Travelers' Diarrhea Favors Particularly Resistant Super Bacteria

Press Release | University of Helsinki | February 9, 2017

Every year, millions of travellers visit countries with poor hygiene, and approximately one third of them return home carrying antibiotic-resistant ESBL intestinal bacteria. Most of them remain unaware of this, as the bacteria cause no symptoms. High-risk areas for contracting ESBL bacteria are South and South-East Asia, Africa and Latin America. Diarrhoea is the most common health complaint for people who travel to poor regions of the world. Those contracting diarrhoea have an increased risk of ESBL acquisition, and if they choose to they treat it with antibiotics, the risk becomes multiplied...

Appropriate Technology, Open Source Blueprints

Daniel Krotz | Carroll County News | May 7, 2012

Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, Missouri farmer Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. And that's only the first step he's taking to write instruction sets for an entire self-sustaining farm operation with equipment costs of under $10,000. Read More »

Apps: The Afro Revolution

Adam Bychawski | The Guardian | August 25, 2012

Five mobile apps that are putting key information into the hands of ordinary Africans Read More »

Are Innovation Hubs The Future Of Open Government In Africa?

Chris R. Albon | TechPresident | September 18, 2012

Set alongside one Nairobi’s main roadways, the Bishop Magua Centre looks on the exterior no different than any other mid-rise office building. However, inside its drab khaki walls are some of the most innovative technology projects in Africa... Read More »

Beijing, a Boon for Africa

Dambisa Moyo | New York Times | June 27, 2012

In 2009, China became Africa’s single largest trading partner, surpassing the United States. And China’s foreign direct investment in Africa has skyrocketed from under $100 million in 2003 to more than $12 billion in 2011.

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Berlin 'Open Access' Conference Recap

Abby Clobridge | Information Today | November 15, 2012

As open access (OA) and other “open” movements become more of a part of the mainstream consciousness, conversations surrounding OA continue to evolve—moving from whether OA is a good approach to far more provocative questions such as, how do we move past the legacies of the print publication world and what is a journal in today’s environment? Read More »

Bill Gates Won’t Save You From The Next Ebola Outbreak

Robert Fortner and Alex Park | HuffPost | May 1, 2017

In late August 2014, Tom Frieden, then director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, traveled to West Africa to assess the raging Ebola crisis. In the five months before Frieden’s visit, Ebola had spread from a village in Guinea, across borders and into cities in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Médecins Sans Frontières, the first international responder on the scene, had run out of staff to treat the rising numbers of sick people and had deemed the outbreak “out of control” back in June...

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BlueEHS™ Attracts 1,100 New Medical Practices Each Month

Press Release | ZH Healthcare | February 23, 2016

ZH HealthcareTM (ZH), the leading provider of Health IT as a ServiceTM (HITaaSTM), today presented its 2015 report card and announced major initiatives for 2016...In 2015 ZH defined its mission: “to make health information technology and electronic medical records affordable and accessible to everyone.” Mr. Hameed declared that, “The path to achieving ZH’s mission is by delivering a platform that enables healthcare providers and innovators to quickly build and deploy their Electronic Health Solution, using a set of tools and modules available on the cloud, with minimal time and cost...

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BRCK Founders Embark On Epic Roadtrip To Promote African Connectivity

Stuart Thomas | VentureBurn | November 24, 2014

This is pretty cool: the folks behind BRCK — the device that allows you to connect to the internet, no matter where you are and without electricity — are embarking on an epic roadtrip from Nairobi to Johannesburg...

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BRCK: World’s Most Kick-Ass Internet Modem

Simon Allison | Daily Maverick | June 19, 2013

Nairobi-based Ushahidi, better known for its crowd-sourcing software that helps map violence, has just entered the hardware business. Sticking to their populist roots, it crowd-funded the start-up capital to produce a new type of Internet modem that’s designed by Africans, for Africans. Read More »

Broadband Spreading Across Africa

Santosh Anchan | IDN-InDepthNews | February 26, 2012

Africa has been the world's fastest growing region over the last decade in terms of mobile penetration. While fixed line penetration has stagnated at 4% in the continent, mobile has grown at an astonishing rate to 45% with North Africa leading at 73%. However broadband is lagging behind considerably when compared to other continents.

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