In 2019, well before covid-19, the world saw 202 natural catastrophes and 115 were man-made. Natural disasters resulted in $52 billion in losses and man-made disasters accounted for the remaining $8 billion in losses. 11,500 people worldwide perished or were missing in such disasters. Adding to this, the coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by storm since the end of 2019 and we are still facing the wrath of it.
As we settle into the 21st century, the world population is taking a dramatic shift. Today, we have the largest ever number of individuals transitioning from childhood to adulthood. At 1.2 billion, youth aged 15-24 years make up 16% of the global population. This number is expected to rise further as developing countries plow their way into the industrialisation process.
During the past few months I had the opportunity to work on a project as part of Amarante ,through which, I got a deeper understanding of the West and Central African (WACA) region. In this blogpost, I would like to speak of some of the key learnings that I took away and where I think we can bring about some of the necessary policy changes.
The coronavirus pandemic has become all too familiar in the last 5 to 6 months. This crisis started as a health one and is morphing into a recession affecting global economies. The high transmissibility of the virus has caused countries and cities to lock down. However, from an alternate perspective, this situation has presented many opportunities and transformed the way we function, as humans and societies.
Mirembe sits under the shade of her fish stall at the fresh market covering herself from the sun. She sells delicious fresh Mukene and Tilapia. She is just one of the many key actors in the fish value chain which allows this fresh catch to reach customers all over the world. This intricate fish value chain provides a primary source of income and livelihood to 1.5 million Ugandans.
goMediCAL is a m-health service, accessible via a mobile application, that helps manage the patient-doctor relationship. Available for now only in Benin, it allows people to make an appointment with a doctor, and pay either for themselves, relatives or friends. It also allows doctors to access the patient’s medical file.
As a pioneer in the m-Health industry in Benin, goMediCAL was launched about two years ago by OPEN SI,
Tontines are traditional, informal savings groups that allow groups of women across Francophone Africa and other regions in the world to set aside money on a regular basis with the aim of accessing a larger amount through loans after a certain period of time. Each month women contribute their share of money to the tontine. At the end of each month one of the women in the group will gain the pot as a loan.
The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has been so dramatic that it has changed the way we live – how we interact with each other, how we work and how we do business. It is likely that nothing will ever be quite the same, even once we get it under control. Governments in many countries have put in place rules on social distancing to stop the spread of the virus.
Superplatforms like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Alibaba are transforming the global financial marketplace with “big brands, big budgets and big data.” As a “platform of platforms,” a superplatform holds immense disruptive power and can pave the way for a new-generation financial sector, one with smarter payment and lending models and wider outreach. In Nepal, where the smartphone penetration rate is 75% and poised to reach 90% by 2025,
There are reportedly 570 million farms in the world of which more than 500 million are family farms. Among these farms, an estimated 475 million are small farms, less than 2 hectares in area, cultivated by smallholder farmers. About 3 billion rural people live in these farms, working on their plots to supply food to a substantial proportion of the world’s population while also producing food for household consumption.