Tiny Homes to Meet Global Housing Crisis

Two trends have dramatically altered the world: since 2007, the world has become a majority urban place, while the world's megacities in the global South are growing fast and facing the serious challenge of how to...

African Countries Re-branding for New Economic Role

With economic growth in Africa on the rise over the past decade, and significant investment flowing into the continent from countries like China, more and more countries are realising they need to re-brand to make...

Innovation Villages Tackling MDGs

With the deadline of 2015 fast approaching for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and many believing they are far from being achieved, concrete examples now exist of villages who are achieving...

New Appetite for Nutritious Traditional Vegetables

The global economic crisis and the global food crisis are forcing people to re-discover long-forgotten vegetables and other foods. These food sources often have another benefit: they are more nutritious as...

Kenyan Mobile Phone Innovations

A couple of enterprising Kenyan engineering students are showing how mobile phones are an inventor’s dream. Their two inventions – one a way to re-charge phones while bicycling, the other an aid for catching...

Bamboo Becomes Transport Option for the South

The sturdy bamboo plant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo) is enjoying a revival around the world as a building material. A strong, fast-growing and highly renewable woody plant, it is becoming increasingly...

Making the World a Better Place for Southern Projects

A new way to raise money for projects is changing how people interact with those who seek to do good. Good ideas are plentiful, but how to fund life-improving projects has always been a thorny issue. Judging how...

Crowdsourcing Mobile Phones to Make the Poor Money

The spread of mobile phones across the developing world is one of the great success stories of the past 9 years. They have become critical tools for the world's poor and are being used in many ways to earn an...

Protecting Threatened Fruits and Nuts in Central Asia

Many fruits and nuts on sale in supermarkets have their origins in the countries of Central Asia. But years of neglect has led to many of the original species coming under threat of extinction. These valuable and...

African Theatre Becomes European Success

The rich cultural experiences of Africa and Africans have now become a hit in London's theatreland. A flurry of plays are successfully drawing in audiences over the past year. In Britain, the country that gave...

Taxis Promote African Music Beats

Around the world, musicians are trying to find ways to make money and have sustainable lives in the new digital age. This struggle is even harder in countries where illegal copying of music is the norm and where...

Successful Fuel-Efficient Cookers Show the Way

The pressure on the environment from cooking is being blamed for a range of problems, from deforestation to creating gases contributing to global warming. And then there is people's health: many die in the...

A New Mobile Phone Aimed at the Poor

A new mobile phone from Venezuela has grabbed the world's attention for two reasons: its cheap price and how it is made for poor people. And its naughty name that shows the bravado of its business model. The rapid...

Kenyan Eco-Village Being Built by Slum-Dwellers

Around the world, many initiatives are striving to balance the needs of humans and the environment. Ambitious projects to build eco-cities have so far had mixed results. In Shanghai, China a joint project with a...

Rebuilding After Chinese Earthquake: Beautiful Bamboo Homes

It has been a year since the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China that killed more than 70,000 people. China’s strongest earthquake for more than half a century, with a magnitude of 8.0 (en.wikipedia.org),...