Entrepreneurship in the Developing World

e waste

mitchell ross — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:06:37 GMT

what do we do about it

the computers ,cell phones the mother boards are end up in 3 world country
infecting the earth and the people and children .

being taken apart for part wires with poisoning the earth and the people who take it apart for pennies a day

im a little dyslexic pardon poor grammar and any spelling mistakes

2008 Resolutions: Work

Sebastian Traeger — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:46:49 GMT

I was thinking last night about work and some principles / resolutions I'd like to see in my own life in the new year. Quick caveat: they are simply the 8 thoughts I had last night during a moment of inspiration, but I think they're still helpful. They are:

1) Pray for God's grace. He gives us the strength for the inputs as well as gets all the credit for the outputs. I need His grace for vision, wisdom and strength.

2) Focus on diligence. My hope is to be more consistent every day, realizing that we tend to overestimate what we can do in the short-term and underestimate what we can do in the long-term.

3) Act strategically. Rather than trying to be involved in every aspect of our business, I'd like to grow in my ability to think strategically and to focus on those areas of greatest leverage.

4) Prepare well. Daily, I'd like to plan and prepare for each day, taking the time to prioritize those things which are the highest priorities.

5) Celebrate small victories. Rome wasn't built in a day and while my mind might see the end game and be frustrated that we're not there yet, it will be important to celebrate the smaller steps on the way.

6) Build relationships. I'd like to place a greater emphasis on developing relationships with my staff so that I can be a greater encouragement to them, both personally and professionally.

7) Motivate through clarity. Motivating others is such a key component of my job and so I'd like to grow in providing clear direction and expectations as well as by offering better accountability and praise.

8) Confidently move forward. Start-ups can get you down, but with #1 in mind, I resolve to trust my instincts and to move forward in confidence, expecting and anticipating success.

Microfranchising

David Stoker — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:37:21 GMT

Microfranchising is a new buzz word that is catching some attention. I think it holds great potential as a model in this broader area of entrepreneurship in development. I personally blog about the issue, there are some books starting to come out and I set up a Razoo cause for good measure

Innovatorz

Stephanie - — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:51:10 GMT

If you are a social entrepreneur you may want to check out www.innovatorz.org.

They are story tellers that help entrepreneurs tell their stories through blogs/podcasts/etc.

I don't know them terribly well, but the little I do know I've been impressed with and thought they may be a great resource for entrepreneurs trying to get their story out.

FilmFest Now Open!

Jennifer McArdle — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:30:11 GMT

GlobalGiving FilmFest is open â€“ Start creating your video stories TODAY!

People around the world are improving lives every day through their community-focused health, environmental and human rights projects. Bring to life the story of a high-impact, grassroots project. The projects will provide the content and footage, you provide the creativity. The footage is available NOW, so you can start making your video today â€“ check it out at www.globalgiving.com/ggfilmfest

GlobalGiving FilmFest: Watch, Vote, Give

Jennifer McArdle — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:00:14 GMT

Are you interested in being a part of global change at the local level? Have you ever wanted to use art to communicate something really meaningful to you? The GlobalGiving FilmFest: Watch, Vote, Give is the perfect opportunity to bring to life the story of a high-impact, grassroots project. The projects will provide the footage, you provide the creativity.

People around the world are changing lives every day through their community-focused health, environmental and human rights projects. We need to share these stories and get them the support they need to continue their work. Sign up to be a film-maker now at www.globalgiving.com/filmfest.

Project footage will be available May 3rd (sign up now, and weâ€™ll send you an email when itâ€™s live). Video submissions will be voted on by the general public â€“ the top three voted film-makers will receive prizes.

Cellphones, Maxi-Pads and Other Life-Changing Tools

James Wheatcroft — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 08:20:04 GMT

Cellphones, Maxi-Pads and Other Life-Changing Tools
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: April 6, 2007
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
NAIROBI, Kenya

For decades, the world has asked: How do we free Africa from its yoke of poverty, disease and misgovernance? In asking Kenyans that question, Iâ€™ve been struck at the simple, common-sense solutions they offer. Four in particular stand out: transparency, telephones, Tergat and Kotex.

Naisiae Tobiko is a 28-year-old dynamo who grew up in Kenyaâ€™s Masai region. She runs a public relations firm, but when we met all she wanted to talk about was Kenyaâ€™s shortage of sanitary napkins for girls. Hereâ€™s why, she explained: Her family could afford to send her to school, where she thrived. As she got older, though, she started to notice something about the less well-off girls â€” they missed four days of class every month, â€œand I could not understand why.â€ When she finally asked, they confided that they did not come to school when they were menstruating â€” because their parents could not afford sanitary napkins.

â€œThey would say, â€˜How can I come to a place when I am bleeding?â€™ â€ she recalled. â€œSome were using rags or soil or mud.â€ Because of those lost school days, many eventually dropped out. So Ms. Tobiko recently teamed up with the Girl Child Network and other N.G.O.s here and started a project in the countryside to distribute free sanitary napkins. They have targeted 500,000 girls, and so far have reached 189,000. More school days means more educated women and better mothers.

â€œWeâ€™re keeping girls in school,â€ said Ms. Tobiko. If women get education, â€œwe want nothing else,â€ she added. â€œWe will fight our way into every field, but we need the main key â€” which is education.â€

Kenya first began holding multiparty elections in 1992, and its next national election is slated for December. (By the way, Kenyans love the fact that Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, is running for president of the U.S. since, they joke, someone from his Luo tribe could never get elected president of Kenya!) The field here is already crowded with presidential wannabes. But the most revealing conversation I had on this subject was with someone not running.

Vimal Shah owns an oil services company in Kenya, Bidco, and he was eager to tell me that with eight months until the election he had decided to make a big investment to expand his business. So what? I said. â€œPeople here never invest in the year before an election,â€ he explained. The fear is always that the new guy will change all the rules â€” often for his cronies. But Mr. Shah, like others here, believes Kenyaâ€™s evolution to democracy, with more transparent rules, has now reached a point where â€œeven if the government changes, it wonâ€™t change the rules. The politicians canâ€™t stop this.â€

It is striking how just the little improvement in governance here can start a torrent of cash flowing in. But so could more cellphones.

Rose Lukalo Owino, a Kenyan author, told me this story: â€œI was recently in Ngutani, east of Nairobi. I was reporting for a book and interviewing these women who raised goats.â€ The women complained that for years they had been swindled by middlemen who would get them to sell their goats for a pittance, because the women didnâ€™t know the price in the Nairobi markets. â€œBut when I interviewed them, these women were holding so much money,â€ said Ms. Owino. Why? Fourteen villages got together and bought one cellphone, which they now share to check the market prices in Nairobi for goats before they sell. â€œThey were talking to me about opening a microlending bank with their profits,â€ she said.

But Africa doesnâ€™t just need more phone models. It needs more role models. I met one of the best here â€” Paul Tergat, the great Kenyan distance runner whoâ€™s earned five world cross country championships and two Olympic silver medals. Mr. Tergat recently won a contract from the government to promote anticorruption themes. For starters, he organized some of Kenyaâ€™s greatest distance runners to carry a torch from Mombasa to the Ugandan border. The torch represented a spotlight on corruption. Kenyans turned out to cheer them all along the route.

He used Kenyaâ€™s runners, Mr. Tergat said, because unlike politicians, when they win a medal it â€œis open, and genuine, and clean, and they practiced for 10 years to get it. The message is to say to young people, â€˜Look here, you donâ€™t have to be corrupt. You can do it if you are patient.â€™ â€

Add all this up and you have what impresses me most here: the way Kenyaâ€™s emerging democracy is unlocking Kenyaâ€™s best minds to find Kenyan solutions to Kenyaâ€™s problems.