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Science Technology Business Development

The main problems in Peru as poverty, low productivity, inadequate infrastructure and poorly integrated markets are often exacerbated by an under-developed agro-industrial sector. Little attention has usually been paid to the value chain through which agricultural commodities and products reach the final consumers in Peru and abroad.

Cool apps that surprise and delight mobile users, built by developers like you, will be a huge part of the Android vision. To support you in your efforts, Google has launched the Android Developer Challenge, which will provide $10 million in awards -- no strings attached -- for great mobile apps built on the Android platform.

Background to the debate: PLoS Medicine is participating in the Council of Science Editors' global theme issue on poverty and human development on October 22, 2007 (http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/globalthemeissue.cfm). Over 200 scientific and medical journals are taking part. For our theme issue, we asked a wide variety of commentators worldwide—including clinicians, medical researchers, health reporters, policy makers, health activists, and development experts—to name the single intervention that they think would improve the health of those living in poverty. We also asked four individuals living in poor, rural agricultural communities in the Santillana district, province of Huanta, Ayacucho, Peru to give us their response to the question, “What do you think would do the most to improve your health and the health of your family?” (The four community members were Severino Rojas Poma, Mercedes Vargas Soto, Julián De La Cruz Chahua, and Martín Rojas Poma)

The Ashden Awards -- annual honors for inspirational and innovative local sustainable energy projects from Asia, Africa and Latin America -- are looking for nominees for the 2008 awards. The projects recognized by the Ashdons help spread renewable energy generation and energy efficiency in the developing world, using technologies that are appropriate to challenging settings like poor rural communities: small but scalable, based on local needs and often on locally available techniques and resources.

While most MFIs report on their financial performance, few report on their social performance as they feel that social performance is too vague and difficult to report on. Now the Social Performance Task Force has developed a common reporting framework that will help. The framework is a set of indicators that institutions with a social mandate can use to report on their social performance.

Learn about the social performance movement and concrete tools for reporting on social performance in CGAP's latest Focus Note, Beyond Good Intentions: Measuring the Social Performance of Microfinance Institutions

Poverty remains the main challenge facing the countries that will be the home of 85% of the world's population in the decades to come. Some 2.7 billion people worldwide continue to subsist on less than US$2 per day. The challenge facing the global community is to eradicate extreme poverty and to foster economic development that benefits all while preserving natural habitats and biodiversity. Business is a core human activity, and it will be instrumental in bringing about sustainable development.

This new publication ( 3.2 MB) by the WBCSD Development Focus Area shows how companies can contribute to global sustainable development through their core businesses in a way that is profitable for the companies and good for development. It offers a business perspective on key challenges and opportunities for the development of poor countries, as well as key messages for companies and governments on how to promote sustainable business solutions that benefit the poor and the societies and environments in which they live.

The issues selected are not exhaustive, but they reflect both traditional areas for development actors and business. The issues are Ecosystems, Education and Training, Energy, Enterprise Development, Financial Flows, Governance, Health, Mobility, Trade, and Water.

This MobileActive Guide focuses on using mobile phones in fundraising campaigns. The guide features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in fundraising, and a how-to section for organizations considering using mobile phones to generate support for their work.

We describe the current state of fundraising via mobile phone, it's promise, and shortcomings at this point. We feature a number of case studies from around the world, what we learned about effective fundraising via mobile phone, what the state of the technology is at this point, and where it's headed. We provide useful tips and resources for those who want to try using mobiles in their fundraising campaigns.