News in brief

MasterCard Foundation supports financial services in Africa

1 March 2009
Alliance magazine

The MasterCard Foundation and Bangladesh-based BRAC announced in November last year a $19.6 million programme to bring financial services to poor people in Uganda. As part of the programme, BRAC will explore the feasibility of becoming a regulated deposit-taking institution in Uganda, a role it has not yet played in Africa. Sixty-two per cent of Uganda’s population does not have access to financial services and the Ugandan government has made expanding financial services to the rural poor one of its top priorities.

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Japan overhauls laws governing non-profits

1 March 2009
Alliance magazine

Japan has reformed its outdated public benefit corporation (PBC) rules, in force since the late 19th century. The reforms usher in a new legal framework for ‘general not-for-profit corporations’, to include the present general public benefit corporations (koeki hojin) as well as mutual benefit organizations (chukan hojin).  The new legislation will be incorporated in the Civil Code and will apply to all organizations that seek to become legal entities irrespective of whether they wish to apply for recognition of ‘public benefit status’.
 

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Persuading corporations to ship condoms to Africa

1 March 2009
Alliance magazine

In August 2008, Troy Kennedy, aged 20, asked the question: if large multinationals can distribute products like drinks or cigarettes to every corner of Africa, why are condoms and other HIV preventatives not as widely available? Since then he has become a campaigner on the UK’s Channel 4 multimedia project called Battlefront, which follows nineteen 14-21 year olds as they turn an issue they care deeply about into a fully-fledged campaign.

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