South American countries are seeing a change in epidemiology profiles, that is to say, fewer cases of communicable disease, primarily associated with poverty, and increased cases of chronic diseases that require more costly long-term interventions and are often associated with richer communities.

“According to the latest OECD Development Center “Latin American Economic Outlook 2011: How middle class is Latin America?,” the relative size of the middle class in each country is: 55 percent in Uruguay, 49.9 percent in Chile, 47.7 percent in Brazil, 46.8 percent in Peru, 44.9 percent in Ecuador, 43.7 percent in Argentina, 38.5 percent in Colombia, and 36 percent in Bolivia. To determine those figures, the study established the median per capita income of the country, then defined 50 percent and 150 percent of that number as the range of the middle class.

Providing affordbale clean water to both urban and rural poor is a major problem throughout the globe. This is especially the case when we consider the ‘poverty premium’ poor households have to pay for clean water. Most slums and rural communities lack the proper infrastructure for piped clean water, and therefore have to pay a premium in order to get water, let alone clean water. Within West Africa Côte d’Ivoire has found a more effective method for providing equitable water services for poor and marginalized communities.

A few years ago the world reached 50% urbanization for the first time in history. The drive towards urbanization was perhaps primarily sparked by the rural poor moving towards ‘green’ or more concrete pastures, as it were. The reverse in starting to happen in West Africa however. As urban centers are now too congested, unsafe, unsanitary, and without employment opportunities, people are returning to the rural communities.

"[India] The Indian government will be providing unique identification numbers to all children above 5 years old. The UID number will help the government track the progress of each child and to improve the education system. Different agencies will compile biometric data on each child and supply it to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to keep track of indicators such as school attendance and grades."

Notes from IFTF:

"The Hindustan Construction Corporation (HCC) is building the city based on biomimicry: the idea that the best design can be borrowed from nature. The company hopes to complete phase 1 construction by the end of 2010, and the city of 25,000 acres will eventually be home to 300,000.
The city is being built using concepts of walkability and community‐centered town planning. While Lavasa is being marketed to high‐income Mumbaikers, HCC claims that the city will include people from all socioeconomic backgrounds, though measures to include the urban poor have not been specified."

"In Guwahati, Assam, one of the world’s 100 fastest growing cities, officials are... turning to the strategy of stemming growth using satellite towns. Guwahati is the largest city in India’s northeast region, and has three satellite cities in the works... The  strategy  is  part  of  a  plan  to  curb  the city’s transportation woes...  By  building  satellite  cities, officials  hope  to  plan  for  its growing population. These cities will be connected via two bus rapid transit corridors."

"A South African company, The Content Company, has piloted a device that will help rural scholars bridge the digital divide. The purpose is to connect
underprivileged schools to live online information, without the problems normally associated with using modern computers in these areas. The innovation is called Streetwise and does not require broadband, good access to power, decent infrastructure nor significant technical support to work and keep working. The devices communicate via GPRS enabling them to work everywhere."

"Social networking sites appear to be growing in appeal beyond their traditional use as platforms to inform people about what’s on and what’s happening. Given the growth of mobile technology in Africa, these platforms offer cheap and easy access to therapy/counselling/advice for many people, especially the rural poor, who often need it (for HIV/AIDS advice, domestic violence issues, etc) but don’t have access to traditional opportunities e.g. face-to-face counselling."

LKYSPP believes that "export regulations represent serious impediments to trade flows… Southeast Asian countries are in need of extensive trade facilitation measures in order to drive forward the complex process of regional economic integration and keep pace with
increasingly globalised production networks."