The invisible ‘giant nets' that catch the smallest songbirds

Many organizations are building distribution systems to get surplus items in one place to those who need them in another. For example, an organization in Brooklyn collects the surplus medical equipment from United States hospitals and ships it to hospitals in poor countries.

Many different people are inventing health devices for resource-poor settings, but some organizations - like M.I.T.’s Little Devices group - are empowering developing communities and increasing access to healthcare by building medical devices that nurses and doctors in very poor settings can adapt themselves — or kits for making their own, often harvesting parts from toys to cleverly rig up medical equipment. It’s part of a major idea shift, one that’s transforming the design of foreign aid.

Rapid Results Initiatives are micro social change projects that a village, government office, or business will work accomplish in just 100 days. They have proven to be sustainably effective at various tasks because they create a sense of local ownership and empowerment within the community that inspires additional change and improvement.

Two columns on microconsignment, a new variation on microcredit that helps poor people living in developing countries - particularly women in rural villages - start small social businesses without taking on debt or requiring previous business skills. The organization, Soluciones Comunitarias, partners with a non-profit and a university student program to manage the supply chain and other components of the business necessary to support the social entrepreneurs in successful micro-ventures.

The Green Revolution in Asia and Latin America never spread to Africa, due to the continent's varied climate, degraded soil and lack of infrastructure. Now, scientists look to develop a high grossing wheat seed to bring a new green revolution to Africa. The seeds are extremely promising, but there are still some challenges to getting farmers to implement the seeds.

Though poverty rates are dropping worldwide, the 'ultrapoor' tend to stay where they are. BRAC works to break the poverty cycle by donating money-making assets mixed with cash and food grants.

A successful program in Uganda trains village women to sell medicines, fortified foods and other important goods using the Avon model, aiming to create a self-sustaining system for delivering essential health products.

Many health professionals choose to not live in poor, rural areas that lack access to healthcare. The Society for Education, Action, and Research in Community Health, and the Comprehensive Rural Health Project are training local women in rural parts of India to fill this gap. These women visit families in their community and offer services like education on breastfeeding to new mothers and vaccinations to children.

Different programs in various nations are training ordinary people and creating community groups to effectively satisfy the mental health needs of their communities. In many of these regions, "treatment gaps" – where there are little to no mental health treatment plans or resources – exist, but this new informal infrastructure helps to fill that.

The second of two columns on how ordinary women trained to become their village doctors are making rural villages much healthier. Financial incentives, supporting workers, and encouraging cooperation from governments are just some of the strategies being implemented.