Economic Development Imports

Google's Push Into Africa via SMS

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:31:00 +0000

The post below is taken directly from Tech Crunch. I thought it was encouraging news for Africa and wanted to re-blog it here.

Google’s Africa Strategy: Search And Trade Via SMS

Not only does Google want to organize all the world’s information, it also wants to make all that information available to everyone in the world. For the majority of the world’s population, that means making it available on a cell phone, and not a fancy iPhone or Android with a Web browser either. I’m talking about $10 cell phones with not much more than voice and SMS capabilities. If Google can reach people, especially in developing nations, with SMS, it can reach everyone with a cell phone.

In Africa, it is launching a suite of SMS services today, including SMS search, Q&A-style tips, and an SMS-based marketplace. The first country to get these services is Uganda.

The search service works like Google SMS in North America. You text a search term, and it responds via SMS with the result. Searches can be narrowed by using specific keywords such as “local time,” “weather,” “news,” “maps,” “translation,” or “currency conversion.” For more complicated searches, the related SMS tips service offers answers in an automated Q&A format.

But the most interesting application is Google Trader, which allows people to post items for sale and jobs via SMS. Other people can search for them by texting the service with the word “BUY” preceding the search term. Google Trader connects the buyer and seller together (each listing contains the seller’s cell phone number).

Update: Google created these particular apps in partnership with the Grameen Foundation, through its newly-launched AppLabs project. The mobile suite of SMS apps also includes Health Tips, Clinic Finder, and a Farmer’s Friend database.

The President's Volunteer Service Award

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:54:00 +0000

Readers of this blog will recall that back in February of 2008 I wrote some posts about my trip to Turkmenistan where I worked with women artisans hoping to sell their goods in Western markets. The organization that sponsored and organized the trip, Winrock International, sent me a packet in the mail this week and in it was a very nice letter (electronically signed by President Obama) and a certificate indicating that I had won the bronze level President's Volunteer Service Award for the time I volunteered in Turkmenistan.

While I certainly wasn't expecting any sort of award or recognition, I have to admit that I thought it was a very nice way to recognize the efforts of volunteers. A total of 99 Winrock volunteers won the award. I particularly like this organization because among other things it has a strong focus on programs that support the establishment and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, which as I've said time and again is what I believe is the key to poverty alleviation.

The other cool thing about the award is that the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation encourages as many "winners" as possible - volunteering is not something that should be exclusive.

Sustainable Communities: The Local and Global Impact of Fair Trade and Responsible Sourcing

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:36:00 +0000

Tonight I'll be part of a panel discussing the global impact of fair trade and responsible sourcing.

The event is being hosted by ABC Carpet & Home in NYC and is being presented by New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE)This forum features leading women social entrepreneurs who will share their insights and experience on the guiding principles of fair trade, the pros and cons of certification, and the state of responsible sourcing in the face of an economic downturn.

The event will be facilitated by Marisa Guber, curator/ shop manager ABC Home&Planet and the other p[anelists include:

Patti Carpenter: Carpenter + Co., President and Founder

Amy Chender: ABC Home, VP of Social Responsibility

Rebecca Kousky: Nest, Executive Director and Founder

Should be an interesting evening. Will come back with some highlights.

"What is happening in Congo is the most brutal and rampant violence toward women in the world. "

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:45:00 +0000

The above statement was made by Eve Ensler in her poignant article posted on CNN today about what's happening to women not only caught, but specifically targeted in the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo - an enormous central African nation with loads of natural resources and few rules of law.

She not only highlights the brutal facts: "In 12 years, there have been 6 million dead men and women in Congo and 1.4 million people displaced. Hundreds and thousands of women and girls have been raped and tortured. Babies as young as 6 months, women as old as 80, their insides torn apart." But also asks the simple question of "Why?"

Anyone have any answers?

Is Water The New Oil?

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Read an interesting post today by Kim Miller on the Seeking Alpha website talking about the value of water. Traveling back and forth from Africa for several years truly drove home the value of this precious commodity and Miller makes the point quite clear when he surmises that it might be the next thing traded on an exchange:

"You can’t – at least not yet – buy water on any exchange in the world. As water supplies get tighter across the world, this could change. Water is the new oil – a precious commodity, increasingly harder to find, manage and distribute; and that supply is often subject to the whims of Mother Nature. Control of available water is subject to the whims of government. In some parts of the country, the availability of water is restricting the building of housing."

While Africans know all too well the value of water, Americans (at least North Americans) often take it for granted. Global warming has us focused on fossil fuels, but water will likely turn out to be worth much more "per barrel." I remember a couple years ago driving back to NY from DC in October during a freak heat wave and making an off-hand comment to a woman at a gas station that someday we might really have a severe drought, her response was "that's not a big deal for me 'cuz I don't wash my car and I drink soda." Clearly we need to do a better job educating people on the life sustaining value of water.

What a day in America!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:11:00 +0000

January 20, 2009 will certainly be a day to remember. Whatever the ultimate legacy of Barack H. Obama, now the 44th president of the United States, on this day people from both sides of the political aisle, of every race, religion and economic station came together (about 2 million in person!) to witness the first African-American take the oath of our highest office.

(Photo from CNN.com)

It will certainly be one of those "where were you when" moments. I'll remember being in a bar/cafe in SOHO (NY) with a work colleague and about 50 strangers, all of us with our eyes glued to the TV and all feeling like somehow we had a new lease on life as individuals and as a nation. Pretty cool.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Wishing my family, friends and colleagues around the world a very happy New Year! May 2009 bring you health, happiness, prosperity and really good chocolate!

I rang in the new year in traditional NY style...no, that does not mean I stood with the tourists in Times Square. Rather, I threw a party at my place and then did the New York Road Runners Club 4-mile midnight run in Central Park which was a total blast. A full fireworks display kicks off the event and many people run in costumes, making it very festive despite the freezing temperatures! And yes, I had plenty of food and drink both before and after the run so though I did not post my best time, I have to say it was one of my favorite "races" of the year! I just might have to make it an annual tradition :-).

Can't wait to see what 2009 brings!

Etsy Recognized as Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:11:00 +0000

On December 4, 2008 The World Economic Forum in Generva announced 34 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2009 for their accomplishments as innovators of the highest calibre, and whose technologies will have a deep impact on business and society.

After working in social enterprise for 5 years prior to joining Etsy (official start is in January) I'm really pleased to see Etsy's vision to empower people to change the world’s economy, one person and one community at a time being recognized.

Selection is the result of a vigorous process, for which the Forum received more than 320 applications from around the world that were evaluated by 44 global technology experts. The entire list of Technology Pioneers, with profiles and executive interviews, can be found here.

When Aid Can Make You Foolish

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:26:00 +0000

I've commented before that I've seen the affects of a generation of Africans who have been weened on the bottle of too much foreign aid. It can alternatively make people feel that they need not work hard for results or that no amount of work will lead to change as the deck is already stacked for others. BBC news recently posted an article and video on just this topic called The pitfalls of Afirca's aid addition written by Sorious Samura a BBC reporter from West Africa.

I encourage you to click over and read/view the whole report which touches on corruption, rewarding failure, dysfunctional lifestyle and graduates lost. The main solution offered in the article is for regular citizens throughout Africa to start demanding more from their leaders. While this may seem a tall task, we in America seem to have done just that in our last election. Maybe this is some foreign aid we can export to more positive and lasting results?!

Flag Counter

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:21:00 +0000

I've added a new flag counter to my blog which will track visitors from around the world. Check it out on the right side of the page.

Check Out Etsy

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Big changes are coming my way in January 2009! For a sneak preview check out Etsy!

Innovation Born From Constraints

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Ethan Zuckerman, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center, and an expert on how technology impacts the developing world, recently spoke with Nii Simmonds whose blog Nubian Cheetah I read regularly. The topic of their discussion was how innovation can thrive even where constraints are quite significant—as they often are in Africa. He offered seven rules about how innovation in the developing world happens, and I found that they ring quite true, particularly #2. Note: Comments/examples in parentheses are from Nii.

1. Innovation (often) comes from constraint (If you’ve got very few resources, you’re forced to be very creative in using and reusing them.)

2. Don’t fight culture (If people cook by stirring their stews, they’re not going to use a solar oven, no matter what you do to market it. Make them a better stove instead.)

3. Embrace market mechanisms (Giving stuff away rarely works as well as selling it.)

4. Innovate on existing platforms (We’ve got bicycles and mobile phones in Africa, plus lots of metal to weld. Innovate using that stuff, rather than bringing in completely new tech.)

5. Problems are not always obvious from afar (You really have to live for a while in a society where no one has currency larger than a $1 bill to understand the importance of money via mobile phones.)

6. What you have matters more than what you lack (If you’ve got a bicycle, consider what you can build based on that, rather than worrying about not having a car, a truck, a metal shop.)

7. Infrastructure can beget infrastructure (By building mobile phone infrastructure, we may be building power infrastructure for Africa - see my writings on incremental infrastructure.)

Environmental Stewardship is Not a New Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:26:00 +0000

One of my friends has the following Kenyan proverb below the signature line on her emails.

"The Earth was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children."

It's a good reminder that environmental stewardship is something that has been around for a long time and does not only reside so-called developed West/North (though we get the "credit" for causing a hugely disproportionate share of the damage).

Ecuador Gets It (Inalienably) Right

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:14:00 +0000

The following is from Grist (slightly modified by me)

Ecuador approved a new constitution last weekend that grants inalienable rights to nature, the first such inclusion in a nation's constitution, according to Ecuadorian officials. "Nature ... where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions, and its processes in evolution. Every person, people, community, or nationality will be able to demand the recognition of rights for nature before the public bodies..."

The specific mention of evolution isn't accidental; besides being an activity nature arguably likes to do anyway, evolution as we know it has close ties to Ecuador's territory of the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin formed his famous theory. Ecuador's constitution grants nature the right to "integral restoration" and says that the state "will promote respect toward all the elements that form an ecosystem" and that the state "will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems, or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles."

These Words Hold True

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:22:00 +0000

The following is excerpted from an email to students and alumnae from Drew Gilpin Faust, the current president of Harvard University.

One hundred years ago, Charles William Eliot, the nonpareil of Harvard presidents, began the last of his 40 academic years in office. He remarked that Harvard was a place "to observe keenly, to reason soundly, and to imagine vividly." In this time of financial, political and environmental turmoil these words are ones that should be embraced far beyond the banks of the Charles.

Something Great Is Happening in Rwanda

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:40:00 +0000

The dedicated members of the Business Council for Peace (BPeace) have undertaken a super new project in Rwanda to train hair salon professionals. As they state on their blog: "One of the first businesses to emerge when war ends is the business of beauty. Women return to the feminine community gathering in small salons to reconnect and feel good again. Rwanda has been no exception and four of Bpeace's Associates run bustling salons. So busy are these salons, and many others like them across the country, that supply cannot keep up with demand. Indeed despite high unemployment rates among Rwandans, salon workers are often not Rwandan. With no local training available owners must import skilled labor from nearby countries."

BPeace worked with two associates to help pursue their dream of launching The Beauty School of Rwanda, a first of its kind vocational school bringing a future to the youth of Rwanda. This is just the kind of business development that a country like Rwanda needs - it's self-sustaining, it meets a local need, and it is something that never really goes out of fashion even when the fashions change.

Kudos to BPeace for their efforts!

The Birth of Blue

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:36:00 +0000

I was sent a link to very interesting video of a speech given by Andrew Werbach at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Andrew, for those who don't know him, was the youngest president ever of the Sierra Club (at 23!) and has been working in the "green" space throughout his entire life. Note: Paul Hawken gives a nice intro on Andrew at the beginning. He had given a very powerful speech a few years earlier called the "death of environmentalism" and this was in a sense his follow-up to that talk. (for more on this background see Joel Makower's blog)

What Andrew is best known for now, however, is his work at Wal-Mart where he is working with the biggest retailer on the planet to help them meet their vast sustainability goals such as producing zero waste. Many people have vilified Andrew for essentially sleeping with the enemy, and he has responded by saying that if he can work with 1.2 million employees at Wal-Mart who influence more than 200 million shoppers, then he can have a far greater influence on sustainability than in almost any other venue.

What I particularly liked though was that Andrew has moved beyond "green" which is focused on the environment which lives in the world of politics (e.g., laws and regulations) to what he calls "blue" -- a concept which most certainly includes the environment, but also considers the social, economic and cultural elements of sustainability. He sees this as a lifestyle movement that allows people from all different backgrounds to join it through multiple touch points. Rather than fight against companies like Wal-Mart, he wants to create a consumer revolution and use buying power and consumption habits as tools rather than as weapons that need to be fought against.

In his words "blue is a way to integrate your green ideals into your broader ideals. We still can't get where we need to go without political change, but it's time to get serious about bringing our ideals to the way we live and the way we shop." With 1 billion people on the planet consuming $1 trillion worth of products, moving the needle even a little can cause a true revolution.

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:01:00 +0000

Each Friday I get an email from the Development Executive Group called the Global Development Briefing. It gives a quick summary of what has happened in the developing world. Today's briefing has a section called 2008 State of the Future:

The future continues to get better for most of the world, but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects, according to the latest State of the Future report by the Millennium Project. Half the world is vulnerable to social instability and violence due to rising food and energy prices, failing states, falling water tables, climate change, decreasing water-food-energy supply per person, desertification, and increasing migrations due to political, environmental, and economic conditions, it says. “With nearly 3 billion people making USD 2 or less per day, long-term global social conflict seems inevitable without more serious food policies, useful scientific breakthroughs, and dietary changes," the Millennium Project says. “However, advances in science, technology, education, economics, and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it does today."

I've highlighted the word "management" from this quote because it stood out to me. It's not often that you see management listed among disciplines such as science, technology and education. It's good to see that while applying macro-economic theory and improving telecommunications infrastructure, people are starting to realize that it will take skilled managers, likely from the private sector, along with government officials and NGOs to make development programs work. Let's hear it for the MBAs!

A Crazy Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:15:00 +0000

I am just back from a two week trip to Morocco that was fantastic. The country was amazing, the people friendly and I was so checked out that I missed the vast majority of the stock market craziness that has everyone in a panic.

Coming back relaxed and refreshed I took a deep breath and entered my overflowing email in-box to catch up on the latest happenings in the world of technology and social entrepreneurship. Once of the many newsletters pointed me to a blog by sustainability consultant Andy Savitz, author of a book called the Triple Bottom Line. Though I have not yet read his book (it's summer which is not business book season!) I thought his recent blog about his family trip to the Mall of America (MOA) as a great metaphor for the struggles we're facing today in the US as we face the energy crisis, environmental degradation, the recession, etc. In a well written, humorous piece highlighting his visit to MOA, home of "America’s Biggest Indoor Water Park" Savitz clearly shows the tension between being completely blown away by the amazing (and really fun!) engineering feat that pumps a gazillion gallons of water through endless tubes, pools and slides to entertain us, and feeling a tidal wave of embarrassment about the energy use (waste?!) and consumption that MOA so proudly displays 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

It's this struggle between what we want and enjoy in the short term vs. what we want for our future that is shaping our energy and other policies today. Let's hope that this summer's craziness makes a "big splash" of an impression on us as we consider our decisions on how we work, play and live.

Don't Forget Your Greenwash When Sporting Your Red, White & Blue

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:45:00 +0000

There's no doubt that people are really starting to pay attention to and in many cases really care about the environment - funny what $4/gallon gas can do to sway people! But among the real efforts to make positive change is a good bit of "greenwashing." I'm sure at some point this holiday weekend I'll hear about "natural" coals roasting organic vegetables and farm raised beef on the BBQ, while watching non-toxic fireworks explode in the sky. To this point, a very funny post was submitted to treehugger called "5 steps to effective greenwashing."

I wonder what this person will think of Waste Management's beta launch of "greenopolis.com" which they are calling "the first green, interactive, collaborative, educational website to bring together communities, environmental organizations, universities, foundations and corporations to reward individuals for making incremental positive environmental changes." I mean who better to build a site like this than the guys who collect your trash?! To their credit, they've partnered with several real environmental groups, but I have a hard time swallowing their claim that they an environmental company.

Who Says There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch?

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:21:00 +0000

Since we're all about to focus more on fireworks and BBQs than work, here's something from the lighter side. Last week in Crain's New York I read about the new "loyalty" program put in place by famed restaurateur Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group. Customers who shell out big bucks to throw a wedding, bar mitzvah, or corporate event through the catering company earn points which can be redeemed at places like The Modern (at the Museum of Modern Art aka MOMA) or Eleven Madison Park. Ok, let me get this straight, if I drop $25,000+ to make junior a man I get lunch for two at Gramercy Tavern?! This sure makes 50,000 miles on United to fly round trip NY/PDX look pretty reasonable--even with the $25 fuel surcharge!

Sustainable Profit and Social Returns Under "OneRoof"

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:17:00 +0000

I recently learned about a for-profit company called OneRoof that is building franchises (and company owned stores) throughout India with the goal of delivering "essential services" to the rural poor.

"We identify, train and provide ongoing business support to entrepreneurs who run their own OneRoof stores. A typical OneRoof franchisee builds his or her business around our central IT service—internet access, computer courses, printing, digital photography. The franchisee then provides valued-added services such as eLearning/distance learning, financial services, e-ticketing, and eventually employment generation that can allow talented young people the choice to stay in their rural communities."

This is a great idea that not only creates jobs in rural areas (where the are often few is any non-agricultural opportunities), but also educates people and provides a real opportunity to move a step up from the bottom of the pyramid - a kind of "micro-franchise" if you will. I hope their success in India will be a model for other developing communities around the world.

Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:30:00 +0000

There's quite a bit of talk about Web 2.0 and as a result there is of course now talk about Web 3.0. I recently came across a definition of the Web 2.0 platform on Gimme The Scoop that was pretty straightfoward: "Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies." Ok, so "folksonomies" is a bit of a silly word but the basic idea of "collaboration and community" is well described and that's what makes Web 2.0 so much more interesting than 1.0.

The tricky part is trying to understand Web 3.0 because definitions like "an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data" just doesn't do it for me. Neither does this: Web 3.0 "is perceived as part of digital media contribution to the evolutionary path to artificial intelligence that can provide access to information driven by laws of mathematical probability." Once this moves beyond the domain of the tech-heads and the marketing and advertising folks better understand 3.0, I'm sure we'll all start to see the light as well. For those of you want a more detailed explanation you can read/view more of what some "digital ethnographers" are saying.

Suffice it to say it may be like other media we've encountered, we'll know it when we see it!

Obama Victory Celebrated in Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:53:00 +0000

Global support for Barak Obama is starting to bubble up and this is clearly the case in Africa, particularly in Kenya, where Obama's grandmother was born. A CNN video shows people in Kibera slum celebrating (see an earlier blog post for a video clip that highlights life in Kibera) the presumptive nominee and I've heard from my friends in Rwanda that they too are thrilled to see an African American have the chance to be President of the United States.

It is indeed pretty amazing that despite plenty of evidence that the problems of racism in the US are a long way from being "solved," that millions of Americans can still come together behind the enthusiasm and energy of Barak Obama. We'll have to wait and see just how 'White" the House will be in November.

Sadly, another one bites the dust!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz Wald) — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:11:00 +0000

My last post was about knowing when to pull the plug - sometimes the plug is pulled for you. This seems to the case for the valiant outdoor apparel company, Nau, who according to a heartfelt post on Treehugger is forced to close their doors due to a lack of venture capital. This company tried to do it all in the sustainability space:

• Apparel that adhered to the credo of ‘Beauty, Performance and Sustainability’
• Multipurpose apparel equally suited to weekend in the hills or a night on the town
• No external logos or branding on apparel
• Impressive tailored designs and construction detailing
• No paper catalogues
• LEED Gold standard offices and retail shops
• Purchase of Forest Stewardship Council certified timber for fittings
• Third Party verification of workers rights and conditions through Verite
• Restricted Substance List of materials not to be used in products
• Over 30 custom designed fabrics, using only recycled polyester, certified organic cotton, PLA corn, lambswool or merino wool
• Purchase of equivalent yield conventional corn to offset any GMO corn that might be in their PLA
• Use of high grade componentry like RiRi zips and Prym fasteners
• 5% of purchase price donated to customer-directed not-for-profit organisations
• Webfront retail stores promoting direct-from-warehouse-to-customer shipping
• Recycled content flat pack shipping bags, instead of space wasting boxes
• Carbon offsets for shipping and corporate travel
• Renewable energy certificates (wind and solar) for office and shops
• Acting as an agent for change through their blog
• Sponorship of environmentally and socially oriented online videos.
• Customer prizes and Flickr postings for photos of the clothing in action.

They didn't compromise their values and as a result they engendered some great customer loyalty. They also ended up with pretty high prices for products that are "non-essential" in a market that is teetering on a recession. Does this mean they should have compromised? Maybe but then maybe they would have been like everyone else and their lack of differentiation would have taken them down. It's tough to know. Either way, retail is risky. "Sustainable" retail is really risky. Without high volume prices become prohibitive for most people and with the VC crowd being much more cautious with their pool of cash these days there was just no way to keep operations afloat. I have no doubt that the team involved go on to try something equally interesting, but it may be some time before another Nau gets off the ground. In the meantime, let's hope established players like Patagoina continue to have both financial and social & environmental successes.