People Fixing the World

If you had a rare disease and the only drug that could help you suddenly shot up in price how would you feel? What if your health service or insurer decided it was too expensive and they wouldn’t fund it any more? This is the problem facing some patients in the Netherlands.In order to encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in developing drugs for rare diseases, the EU allows them to have a 10-year monopoly. The number of these drugs has risen as a result, but the way the rules are written has created a problem. Pharma companies have been able to re-register old drugs that were used for other diseases and then, with their legal monopoly, raise the price significantly. While some countries might accept the price rise, the Netherlands hasn’t, and small-scale pharmacists there are stepping in. They’re making small quantities of some of the drugs themselves and giving them to patients, at a fraction of the cost. People Fixing the World hears from the patients, pharmacists and big pharma companies who are trying to find a way forward.Reporter: Charlotte Horn(Photo Credit: Marleen Kemper)

Using lasers or asteroids to move our planet away from the sun may sound extreme, but a few scientists have come up with plans to do just that. The sun’s power is slowly increasing. Over the next billion years or so, the extra energy is going to boil off the oceans and make the earth inhospitable. Given the timescales involved, you might think this is someone else’s problem. But such is the human enthusiasm for problem-solving, potential solutions have been found - from shooting asteroids past the Earth to creating a gigantic solar sail. We meet the scientists who are trying to figure out how to save the planet from the sun.Presenter: Kat Hawkins Reporter: Tom CollsImage: The Earth in space. Credit: Getty Images

Catch up with the goats fighting forest fires in Spain and discover where else in the world they’re being used. This programme looks at what happened next to some of the people and projects we have featured in past episodes. We also revisit a scheme in Greece that’s helping people give their leftover medicines to those who can’t afford to buy them. And we check in with Majd Mashharawi who had found a way of creating brand new concrete blocks using ash and the rubble from old buildings. Image credit: Getty Images

We look at four clever ways to reduce carbon emissions from deliveries. Shops, offices, restaurants and homes all get lots of them every day, and this so-called “last mile” in the logistics chain can be responsible for up to 50% of our goods’ shipping carbon footprint… so what can we do to reduce it? While technology may provide part of the answer, there are also ways to radically reorganise the flow of stuff into cities. William Kremer looks at four innovative projects which attempt to solve the problem by grouping parcels together more intelligently. There are things we can all do about this problem too - William also has some tips for you to reduce the carbon cost of your deliveries.Reporter: William KremerPicture: Getty Images

Rapists often avoid conviction and people they’ve attacked can face a traumatic journey through the legal system. But special reporting centres and courts in South Africa are improving things.The country has set up Thuthuzela Centres which are named after a Xhosa word meaning comfort. The centres aim to create a safe, empathetic and comfortable environment where people who have been raped can get all the medical and legal care they need in one place. Most of the centres are linked to specialised sexual offences courts, which are designed to reduce the trauma survivors often face in court. Staff there are trained to understand how sexual violence affects people.We meet rape survivors and legal experts to find out how this approach is helping.Reporter Lily FreestonPicture: Praise Kambula, South Africa Department of Justice.

Uganda has a very young population – the median age is 16 and young people find it hard to get a job. So now children are being taught how to run their own businesses before they leave school. They learn about profit and loss, how to get investment, leadership and practical skills, such as making bags and charcoal briquettes for the communities where they live. Uganda has a reputation as an entrepreneurial country but, as in most places, lots of its start-ups don’t last. The organisation behind these lessons, Educate!, hopes that its programme will give children everything they need to make their businesses a success when they leave school. Now the scheme has also spread to Kenya and Rwanda. Reporter: Reha Kansara Photo credit: BBC

Global warming is melting the world's glaciers and sea ice. In Iceland the effects can already be seen - people there recently held a funeral to mark the death of the Okjokull glacier. So scientists and engineers around the world are trying to come up with ideas to cool the planet and stop the ice from melting. One wants to spray sea water into clouds to make them whiter so they reflect more of the sun’s rays back up. Another plan is to make sea ice more reflective by spreading layers of tiny silica beads on it. Others are devising massive geoengineering projects, such as building giant sun shades in the sky and walls around sea ice to stop warm water wearing it away. But sceptics warn that projects like these are too expensive and are a distraction from the cause of the problem - and we should be focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions instead. Producer Hannah McNeishPhoto: Getty Images

Almost 30% of women experience violence from a partner at some point in their lives. If they manage to escape the immediate crisis, it can be hard to get long term support to rebuild their lives, and survivors often continue to be harassed and threatened for years after leaving their abusers. A security dog firm in Spain is giving these people the confidence to restart their lives by pairing them with special protection dogs. The women train the animals, which then act as a deterrent to keep former partners away. Some critics say this tackles a symptom rather than the cause of domestic abuse, while others argue it’s a practical solution where societies are slow to change. This podcast has been updated to correct a statistic that appeared in the original version.

Fires are common in South Africa’s informal settlements - it’s estimated that there are about 5,000 every year. They’re often caused by faulty wiring or open flames used for cooking or heating. Because the shacks are crammed in so tightly the flames can spread with frightening speed and destroy hundreds of homes. So a group of entrepreneurs invented a smart fire alarm for just these sorts of places. It has a sensor that spots fast increases in heat and then sends alerts to all the neighbours so they can quickly take action. They also designed insurance to help people who are affected by these fires rebuild and replace what they’ve lost. We go to one of these settlements in Cape Town and find out what difference it has made to the lives of the people living there. Reporter: Richard Kenny

Bananas are one of the most popular fruits on the planet - more than 100 million tonnes of them are eaten every year. But on banana plantations on four continents, a deadly fungus is creeping through the soil and destroying the plants. Some say the end is nigh for the banana. But from Australia to Colombia and from the Philippines to the Netherlands, work is going on to stop that happening. We meet the farmers, scientists and gene technologists trying to find a way to save the fruit.Reporter: Daniel Gordon (Photo Credit: BBC)