The democratic process is messy, complicated and often inefficient -- but across Africa, activists are redefining democracy by putting protest at its center. In an illuminating talk, political scientist Zachariah Mampilly gives us a primer on the current wave of protests reshaping countries like Tunisia, Malawi and Zimbabwe -- and explains how t...

Memory Banda’s life took a divergent path from her sister’s. When her sister reached puberty, she was sent to a traditional “initiation camp” that teaches girls “how to sexually please a man.” She got pregnant there — at age 11. Banda, however, refused to go. Instead, she organized others and asked her community’s leader to issue a bylaw that no...

In sub-Saharan Africa, power outages, low technology penetration, slow internet and understaffed hospitals plague health care systems. To make progress on these problems in Malawi, TED Fellow Soyapi Mumba and his team created a new system from scratch -- from the software that powers their electronic health records to the infrastructure used to ...

Memory Banda is a tireless leader for girls’ rights, in Malawi and around the world.

To power his family's home, young William Kamkwamba built an electricity-producing windmill from spare parts and scrap -- starting him on a journey detailed in the book and film "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind."

TED Fellow Soyapi Mumba creates technology solutions for low-resource environments.

Amy Lockwood is the deputy director of Stanford's Center for Innovation in Global Health, where she looks at new solutions to big problems.

By Courtney E. Martin & John Cary Pregnancy is supposed to be about life. And yet, every day, 800 women across the globe die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. In Malawi, which has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, a shocking 1 in 36 pregnant women die rather than become proud mothers. ...

The TED community is brimming with new projects and updates. Below, a few highlights. Malaria vaccine begins wide-scale testing in Malawi. RTS,S -- the only malaria vaccine to successfully pass clinical trials -- will be made available to 360,000 children in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana in the first round of implementation testing. Immunologis...

Since TED Prize winner JR launched his INSIDE OUT project in 2011, thousands of people have contributed their faces to the world’s largest public photo gallery. And now the project has made its way to the northernmost part of the Earth. A group of 16 environmental activists used the project to protest industrial destruction of the Arctic. They a...

Dr. Joia Mukherjee is dedicated to improving health care options in poor communities.

About this event: TED Global

Over the years, we’ve had so many wonderful and moving talks at the TEDWomen conference, but perhaps one of the most striking was Malawi activist Memory Banda. The amazing 18-year-old presented at last year’s event – and inspired us all with her story. Memory began her talk by reciting a poem written by another young woman she knows, 13-year-...

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About this event: TEDxBwaila will create a platform where various speakers will tackle prevailing issues, emerging thoughts, and ideas on a wide range of topics under the theme: Think. Believe. Act.

About this event: This event will feature a live stream from TED 2013.

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Through his organization, Baobab Health, Gerry Douglas has implemented a top-of-the-line electronic medical records system in Malawi. Many health centers in the developed world have not yet achieved what Baobab has. His secret weapons? Touch screen computers, super-high usability, and low power usage, just to name a few. Interactive Fel...

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William Kamkwamba built a windmill out of spare parts to provide electricity for his family in rural Malawi, after seeing a similar design in a library book. It’s an incredible story -- one that set TEDGlobal 2007 ablaze. Now, Kamkwamba is the subject of a new documentary, William and the Windmill, which makes its world premiere at the SXSW ...

Martha Payne may only be 9-years-old, but she is already a world-renowned food blogger. In a preamble to his fascinating TEDTalk about what governments can learn from open-source programming, Clay Shirky told Payne’s inspirational story. In April of 2012, Scottish schoolgirl Payne started the blog NeverSeconds.blogspot.co.uk, which documen...

About this event: As TEDxLilongwe, we understand that Malawians have been dreaming in color for so long, but we want to turn these dreams into reality hence we are demanding that ideas grow into tangible sustainable solutions. Demand can be described as an insistent and peremptory request made as if by right. What do you demand for? What should we demand for as a...

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About this event: Based on a video stream from TEDxChange, hosted, by Melinda Gates from Seattle

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Drones are the sexy, mysterious tech craze that are often a butt of a joke, a vague solution or an ominous threat. But no matter how flashy, good technology should still solve concrete problems. Amid the hype of getting packages and pizzas delivered in half the time, what if drones could revolutionize transportation networks, connecting peop...