Alleviating poverty is more guesswork than science, and lack of data on aid's impact raises questions about how to provide it. But Clark Medal-winner Esther Duflo says it's possible to know which development efforts help and which hurt—by testing solutions with randomized trials. 

Cleto Choque is a Bolivian shoeshiner who's fighting the negative stereotypes surrounding his profession. As he struggles to pay his way through school and support his younger brothers, he's being helped by the Nuevo Dia Foundation.

In the middle of a global recession, Kenya's Equity Bank is booming. Microloans as small as $10 are helping the country's budding business people. Can Wall Street learn a lesson from these rural entrepreneurs?

Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations on the planet: half of its population lives on less than a dollar a day. But in the tiny semi-rural village of Dholla, microfinance loans from the Grameen Bank are empowering locals to create thriving small businesses.

The Great Ones Pre-School in northern Zambia is no ordinary pre-school. Not only does it educate vulnerable children who may otherwise not have a chance to learn, it's also run by young women from a similar background who have seized the opportunity to improve their communities.

Despite being rejected by society since birth, millions of so-called "Untouchables" in India are beginning to win the battle against the prejudice that has denied them basic human rights for centuries. 

The Sulabh toilet is self-composting and requires no drainage, and already serves some 4 million people daily in India. What's more, this revolution in public sanitation—with help from the Sulabh movement's leader, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak—is empowering some of the country's poorest people.

Sushma, a 24-year-old single mother of four from a remote village in Nepal, was taken to India and sold to a brothel for $250. Unlike most victims of sexual slavery, however, Sushma managed to escape her captors and return home. In this film we meet some of the women trying to staunch the flow of an estimated 12,000 young women who are trafficked across the open Indian border every year, and follow Sushma as she sets out to find the man who lured her to Kolkata. 

Sampat Pal is a campaigner with a mission: to ensure that those born into the lowest caste have an education, avoid child marriages, and earn a decent wage. But, while Mahatma Gandhi famously preached non-violence, Pal believes that India's long history of patriarchy, abuse, and corruption demands a new style of justice.

In the shantytowns of Cape Town, South Africa, the local healthcare system has been stretched to near breaking point by the impact of HIV. But volunteers from both the healthcare profession and the local community, are fighting back and giving hope to ordinary people.