The Acton Institute has won the Templeton Freedom Award for its documentary film "Poverty, Inc. [...] The feature-length documentary challenges the prevailing culture of charity and promotes entrepreneurship as a positive alternative to ending world poverty.

Botho University engaged in an international research conference [...] ‘The future dynamics of higher education in a global society’ […] The U.S. ambassador to Botswana, Earl Miller, articulated that the US Embassy is committed to the development of the education system of Botswana citing that since last year there has been a 6 % increase of Botswana students studying [...] in the U.S.

Young women [in Uganda] there confided in [Diana Sierra]: It was difficult, they said, to go to school while on their periods […] Today, Sierra’s company Be Girl is working to ensure that all girls who want to go to school can—even when they’re menstruating. Be Girl’s underwear and reusable sanitary pads include waterproof pouches that can be stuffed with any absorbent material, like cloth, cotton or toilet paper.

Several years ago, Erin Zaikis was working in rural Thailand. She was surprised to see how many children in the village didn’t wash their hands with soap, much less know what soap was. In 2013 Zaikis founded Sundara, a nonprofit working to improve hygiene and prevent disease in poor communities in India, Uganda and Myanmar by recycling used bars of hotel soap. 

One of the big questions in both politics and economics is whether government development aid actually produces economic growth in the recipient countries. [...] And, as the finding above shows, it doesn’t work. Not only doesn’t it work, the aid we give for political reasons works less well than that. We should, therefore, simply stop doing this. Which is as some of us have thought for a long time. The last 40 years of globalisation have shown that the finest poverty reduction technique we have is trade

Angus Deaton, who was yesterday awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics, is a strong critic of foreign aid, arguing that it does more harm than good, damaging the opportunities for poor people to grow richer.  Deaton, who was awarded the prize yesterday for “his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare”, argues that aid actually stifles development in poorer countries and can help prop up brutal dictatorships. 

The UN’s sustainable development agenda for the next 15 years can be used as a model for businesses. [...] “[The SDG] requires very big partnerships, and the growth engine of the world economy is business,” she said.  Conversely, she pointed out, the SDGs have vast potential for improving the global business climate. By encouraging a “solid enabling environment”, she explained, they also provide the basis for corporate growth.

In 1972, a young Geography professor named Christian Jung started the only U.S.-based research center for the study of Afghanistan at the university in Omaha. [...] A few years later, after graduate school in Indiana and a return to Afghanistan under a Fullbright fellowship, Gouttierre took up basketball coaching again for Kabul University.