Film technician Jock Brandis is a man with a mission: to design and build a simple, hand-operated peanut sheller that will enable villagers around the world to more easily grow peanuts for food, which in turn will also help them cultivate cotton as a cash crop. Jock is a living example of the difference that one person, with good will and determination, can make in the lives of countless others.
Life isn't easy for Haitian migrants living in the Dominican Republic. Mostly women and mostly undocumented, they are easy targets for trafficking and exploitation, and face the constant fear of deportation. But, given a digital camera to record their stories of hope and struggle, some of the woman have begun to find a stronger voice for themselves.
What is social innovation? Solving some of the world's most pressing problems -- including global poverty and development -- requires innovative thinking, unusual partnerships, and entrepreneurialism. And it's already working. Find out how in Unleashing Innovation.
Grace Lwemamu is manager of the family business Mulya Maize in Uganda. Mary Kaddu runs her own supermarket business. But both felt their lack of management expertise was holding them back. Now they have taken part in a new national mentoring scheme, pairing experienced businesswomen with would-be entrepreneurs in Uganda, equipping them with new confidence and negotiating skills.
Written by Jordan Roberts (March of the Penguins) and narrated by Academy Award®-winner Morgan Freeman, Where the Water Meets the Sky tells the inspiring story of a group of women in a remote region of Northern Zambia who achieve the unimaginable: they learn how to make a film as a way to speak out about their lives, raising an issue that no one will discuss - the plight of young women orphaned by AIDS.
India has a foot on both sides of the world's growing digital divide: it is home to a thriving high-technology industry as well as some of the world's biggest slums. So computer scientist Dr. Sugata Mitra created his first "hole in the wall" as a way to answer an interesting question: What would happen if he could provide poor children with free, unlimited access to computers and the Internet?
The Dharan Information and Communications Technology Center in Nepal offers free training on computer basics for children of poor and marginalized communities. Umesh, Manamaya Darji and Bhakta Shrestha are a few of the many young people whose lives have been changed by the ICT center. Here, they share their experiences.
The Rural Youth's Voices Project is a community-based youth radio station and music production studio in Magwi, South Sudan. The radio station fosters an open dialogue within the community through the exchange of information, opinions, and experience. It allows youth to become active citizens, disseminating information crucial to supporting development and peace in Magwi.
Capturing the game-changing power of cellular telephones to deliver financial services to the poor in earthquake ravaged Haiti, teams are building on models developed in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa. This film highlights the potential of low-cost cellular technology to serve the poor.
Kampala, Uganda, is emerging as a new hub for Information and Communication Technology firms. Companies are providing training and assistance to young people interested in technology and entrepreneurialism. Can the ICT industry create a new horizon for the next generation of Ugandans?
Water scarcity has become one of the world's greatest challenges. In less than 20 years, nearly two billion people could face shortages. But Azerbaijan, which sits between Europe and Western Asia, has come up with an ingenious solution to its water crisis by looking to its past for inspiration.
Safe drinking water and household electricity were well out of reach for the rural communities of Candelaria and Malacatoya, Nicaragua, until the arrival of AsoFenix, a nonprofit organization that provides renewable energy projects to improve the lives of rural Nicaraguans.
The Tokyo International Conference on African Development is more than just a conference. It has become a major global framework for Asia, Africa, and the UNDP to collaborate in promoting Africa's development. Here are five projects working to improve people's everyday lives throughout the continent. Produced by UNDP.
Nathan Myhrvold and team's latest inventions—as brilliant as they are bold—remind us that the world needs wild creativity to tackle big problems like malaria. And just as that idea sinks in, he rolls out a live demo of a new, mosquito-zapping gizmo you have to see to believe.
Teachers in Morocco need basic resources and up-to-date information to face the fifty-five percent illiteracy rate. UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, has joined forces with ITU, the International Telecommunications Union, to introduce electronic instruction via satellite technology for eleven thousand teachers.
A cacophony of songs and radio reports drift from the tented camp; thousands of radios are providing entertainment and, more importantly, information. A UNICEF Public Service Announcement on nutrition blares out of several radios tuned into Port-au-Prince's Radio One. The station is one of many that work with Internews, an organization that is distributing information to earthquake victims.
