Anna Akter, a nine-year-old student at a floating school in Bangladesh’s remote Natore district, says she might have missed out on her education during annual monsoon floods without her boat-based classroom. The same goes for Khushi Khatun, who also studies at the boat schools where she gets free tuition and materials. “Had there been no such school, she would have had to walk two kilometres along a muddy path or take a boat journey during monsoon which may have discouraged her to study,” said her father Nazir Uddin, a farmer in Pangasia vil...

In January 2014, I was in Tonga working with the Government on recovery efforts following Tropical Cyclone Ian. While there, I heard about Digicel’s interest in supporting the recovery effort at the community level. This piqued my interest about the prospects for Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) and how they could work in the Pacific around the topic of Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management (CCDRM). Why don’t governments and development partners work more closely with private sector? Why aren’t such working arrangements part ...

A joint US and Bangladesh company called SOLARIC has developed a grid product solution for small-scale rural areas. The company calls its product “Nano-Grid,” which is an inverter-less solar power system with a battery bank, optimizer, and solar PV panels that manages electricity generation and distribution for about 50 homes. At the same time, Nano-Grid can provide power for irrigation pumps, which are of critical importance for agriculture. Each Nano-Grid also converts electricity produced by solar panels to 220...

Presently in the green tech and clean energy communities, solar energy has been getting a much-needed boost in both research and advancement. As a result, said fruits of labor have yielded tenfold, especially when the Inquisitr reported that Peru provided power to 2 million of its poorest residents by giving them free solar panels. The South American country’s endeavor is just a prime example of how current electrical power systems may become fully dependent on the sun, especially if they start looking like windows. However, P...