This post is part of our ongoing partnership with GOOD Magazine. Post by Alex Goldmark.

It’s not easy solving poverty, reducing global child mortality or achieving pretty much any of work international aid workers take on every day. Look at our lagging progress with the Millennium Development Goals for evidence of how much work lay ahead.

So what’s to be done? Who’s getting it right? Where’s hope to be found? » Continue reading “The World’s Top 40 Development Innovators : Local, Tech Savvy May Be Key to Improving Aid”

This post is part of our ongoing partnership with GOOD Magazine. Post by Alex Goldmark.

Tuesday was World Water Day. This year’s theme was “Water for Cities.” Yes, you can still attend all manner of walks, photo contests, screenings and other events supporting global access to clean water. We’ve highlighted some noble projects for delivering drinking water in the past, but for this year’s World Water Day, we bring you news of a new technology designed especially for disasters.

The HTI HydroPack is like an empty Capri Sun pouch with powdered nutrients inside. But it’s really a filter you can drop in any water source—a swimming pool, a mud puddle, a contaminated aquifer—and eight to twelve hours later the pack has filled itself with potable, fortified water. » Continue reading “The HydroPack Is Like a Capri Sun Pouch for Disaster Relief”

This post is part of our ongoing partnership with GOOD Magazine. Post by Alex Goldmark of GOOD Magazine.

Much has been written about the CellScope, a device that turns your cell phone into a microscope, thereby enabling all manner of enhanced diagnosis for rural and poor communities around the world. And for good reason. The idea has all the hallmarks of hopeful innovation: New technology applied simply, it tackles a serious social problem, and boy does it have potential for scale. So what now? The team behind the tech is at a phase where they have to innovate in areas other than science if they want a real impact.

“We’re getting this out of the lab and into people’s hands,” says Dan Fletcher, professor of bioengineering at University of California at Berkeley and principal investigator for the CellScope project. » Continue reading “Can the CellScope Cell Phone Microscope Revolutionize Rural Health Testing?”

A recent article in GOOD magazine touched on an interesting aspect to the clean energy debate. Developing nations are in a unique situation when it comes to adopting alternative and clean energy. These countries are in a position to develop the right way from the start.

Currently, developed countries, such as the United States, depend on “dirty” energy—oil, coal, etc. Old habits are hard to break. For countries such as India, China and Brazil, using clean energies from the start can save them from having to change these bad habits in the future. » Continue reading “How to “Leapfrog” Dirty Energy”