Today, one in eight people on the planet are undernourished.780 million people around the world lack access to clean water – that’s more than 2.5 times the population of the United States, and our current energy consumption rate of 13 trillion thermal watts, is straining the environment and depleting our energy resources. In a world of 7 billion, our resource scarcity has already reached unprecedented levels.

The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival started March 8, covering all the new topics and releases in film, music and interactive. This week-long event is big on hype, crowds, food, drinks and celebrities. The do-gooder events get tucked in here and there – and when you find them, they are usually fascinating and informative.

Over the past few years, so many apps have popped up that there are thousands of jokes about it. In the development space, many of these apps are filling different vacuums. Some provide information that has the potential to make development more transparent, others facilitiate feedback loops where they wouldn’t have existed before, or provide information that allows citizens to hold elected officials accountable.

There is no doubt that Kenya is all about being mobile. Between money transfer system MPesa and the interactive mapping tech company Ushahidi, among others, it seems that every social entrepreneur in the country is honing in on the vast potential that the portable web holds for development and entrepreneurship.

Here’s another reason to love Ushahidi, the crisis-mapping organization. They helped set up iLab Liberia, an interactive workspace in Monrovia, to bring local tech junkies and Web developers together to collaborate on ways to share information using open-source tools. There are workshops on everything from starting your own blog to developing Android apps. And the

Martin Cooper, the inventor of the first cell phone, had high hopes of people using their cellular devices anywhere in the world. But, what Mr. Cooper could never have anticipated is that new and advanced technology is allowing for mobile devices to do way more. If you’ve been keeping up with our blog series, “Digital

Prosper Biche is a yam farmer from Eastern Ghana. Until recently, he relied on an antiquated system to sell and transport his goods to the market. This archaic system meant that Prosper would sell his wares to individual buyers, who travel across the countryside on bicycles. These buyers would then provide the goods to processors

Please welcome Meghan O’Hearn to the ONE Blog. She is the global policy’s summer intern and we look forward to reading more posts from her. Sure, Angry Birds may be the hippest app on your iPhone screen, but who knew that mobile and wireless technologies are revolutionizing health care quality and delivery around the world?

This post is part of “Digital Africa”, a mini blog series on the programs and products using technology and innovation help fight poverty. A man food shopping at his local market walks up to the counter to pay. But instead of taking out his wallet, he whips out his phone, and within seconds his groceries

It’s astounding to think that mobile technology has changed the world we live in. Africa, a place where some countries have more cell phones than toilets, farmers can receive real-time market updates on their crops. That’s why I was excited to attend the launch of a new partnership last week that will harness the power

This post is part of “Digital Africa”, a mini blog series on the programs and products using technology and innovation help fight poverty. Brian Herbert, a director and lead developer at Ushahidi, a tech company at the forefront of the crisis-mapping movement, talks to ONE about citizen journalism and its impact on global disasters. Crowdsourcing

This post is part of “Digital Africa”, a mini blog series on the programs and products using technology and innovation help fight poverty. Work is currently underway for a new cable that will boost internet access in Africa. With four times more data, West Africa Cable System (WACS) will boost bandwidth for the world’s least-connected

This post is part of “Digital Africa”, a mini blog series on the programs and products using technology and innovation help fight poverty. It seems that we’ve seen phone apps for just about everything these days. But here’s one you probably never saw coming -– iCow. Yes, you read that correctly. iCow is a voice-based

This blog post is part of our “Digital Africa” series on programs and products that are using technology and innovation help fight poverty. For decades, people living in poverty have not been able to have secure access to their finances simply because commercial banks avoid serving them. This is especially the case in rural areas,

During the next few weeks, I’ll be running a blog series on African innovation and technology, “Digital Africa” to showcase creative programs and products that are using the Internet and mobile technology to help reduce poverty in Africa. Even low-tech innovations can have a huge impact on individuals and communities in Africa. By having access