Category Archives: EDUCATION
Ashoka Launches Global Search for Innovations in Farming and Rural Communities
WASHINGTON, Mar. 3, 2009 – Ashoka’s Changemakers announced today the launch of “Cultivating Innovation: Solutions for Rural Communities,†a global, online competition to seek out the most innovative solutions in farming and rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and around the world. The competition is funded as part of a grant awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Using the Changemakers’ open-source online platform, the competition will be open to anyone striving to stimulate rural development and agriculture.
Today, three quarters of the world’s poorest people—the 1 billion who live on $1 a day or less—live in rural areas, and most rely on agriculture for their food and income. Many small farmers cannot grow enough food to sell or even eat. Innovative solutions like the ones Ashoka is seeking offer hundreds of millions of the people the opportunity to overcome hunger and poverty.
Over the next two months, people from around the world will be nominating those who are making a difference in farming and rural communities, or submitting their own innovative projects. The Changemakers community will be continually commenting on the initiatives entered in the competition. Entrants and nominators will be able to network with media, academics, and thought leaders. A panel of judges—Roy Steiner, Senior Program Officer for Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Gene Kahn, Global Sustainability Officer for General Mills; Beatrice Gakuba, CEO of Rwanda Flora; Suzana Padua, Founder of the Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute of Ecological Research); and Raj Patel, activist and author, Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System—will narrow the entry pool to 10 to 15 finalists. The global Changemakers community will then vote for three winners, who will each receive a USD $5000 award from Changemakers to fund their initiatives. The finalists and winners will receive media attention and are showcased on the Changemakers website. All entrants will gain increased access to a global network of innovators, supporters, and investors with the means to help them fund and/or scale their projects.
The Changemakers community is an open, online forum for anyone who is passionate about social change to participate in a vibrant exchange of ideas and friendship,†states Charlie Brown, Changemakers Executive Director. “This competition is the opportunity to expand our reach even further, into the rural areas of Africa and India, to work with those innovators who may or may not have online access.â€
These innovations have many faces and can come from anywhere. For example, we are motivated by people like C.K. “Bablu†Ganguly, an Ashoka Fellow whose innovations have regenerated farmland and created jobs via organic farming and marketing cooperatives in southern India. Or, people like Adrian Mukhebi, another Ashoka fellow who created a virtual trading floor via radio and SMS messaging to link thousands of farmers and buyers and sellers in Kenya. Ganguly and Mukhebi’s work not only helped to revitalize the local farming economies but also directly met many of their communities’ education and health needs, in addition to empowering local women to actively participate in farming and business development.
The online competition will showcase innovative solutions, encouraging members to comment, network, and assist one another in making a difference. Nominations and submissions are welcome until May 13.
Changemakers is powered by a strong network of partners, Ashoka Fellows, and everyone who has a desire to change the world.
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About Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Founded in 1980, Ashoka is the world’s working community of approximately 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs. It champions the most important new social change ideas and supports the entrepreneurs behind them to start, grow, succeed, and collaborate on their ventures. As Ashoka expands its capacity to integrate and connect social and business entrepreneurs around the world, it builds an entrepreneurial infrastructure comprised of global initiatives that supports the fast-growing needs of the citizen sector. Ashoka is creating change today, for an Everyone a Changemaker™ society to become the reality of tomorrow.
For more information, visit www.ashoka.org.
About Ashoka’s Changemakers
Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka, an organization with over three decades of finding, funding and expanding the work of social entrepreneurs across the globe. The Changemakers online community builds on this history and expands the Ashoka vision by creating an “Everyone a Changemaker†world through networking, online competitions, and relationship-building. Changemakers creates opportunities for those who want to be at the centre of social change by offering competitions that are supported by philanthropic organizations. The competitions and the community connect those who are passionate about change and make ideas come to life.
For more information, visit www.changemakers.net.
NGO management courses 2009
Outdated post – check http://www.ngoms.org/coursedates.htm for latest info.
The NMS course programme March-November 2009 is now open for registration. To learn more about course objectives and course programmes, please click on the course of your interest at www.ngoms.org/coursedates.htm.
For the March-April courses, the early bird deadlines for reduced fees are indicated below.
March-April
Geneva
30 March – 3 April: Essentials of NGO Management (5 days; early bird deadline: March 3)
6-8 April: Project Planning and Management with Logical Framework Approach (3 days; early bird deadline: March 9)
16-17 April: Exit Strategies: Effective Programme Disengagement (2 days; early bird deadline: March 19)
28-30 April: Financial Management for Non-Finance Executives (3 days; early bird deadline: March 31)
May
Geneva
4-5 May: Working Successfully in a Team (2 days)
6-7 May: Building and Leading Effective Teams) (2 days)
11-15 May: Community Stakeholder Engagement (5 days)
18-22 May: Essentials of Human Resource Management) (5 days)
25-29 May: Monitoring and Evaluation (5 days)
Nigeria
Courses in Nigeria are jointly organised with our partner organisation Life Impact Foundation International.
4-8 May, Abuja, Nigeria: Essentials of NGO Management (5 days)
11-15 May, Lagos, Nigeria: Essentials of NGO Management (5 days)
June
Geneva
3-5 June: Financial Management for Non-Finance Executives (3 days)
8-12 June: Essentials of NGO Management (5 days)
15-17 June: Project Planning and Management with Logical Framework Approach (3 days)
18-19 June: Exit Strategies: Effective Programme Disengagement (2 days)
August-September
Geneva
31 August – 4 September: Monitoring and Evaluation (5 days)
7-9 September: Financial Management for Non-Finance Executives (3 days)
14-18 September: Essentials of NGO Management (5 days)
21-22 September: Working Successfully in a Team (2 days)
23-24 September: Building and Leading Effective Teams) (2 days)
October
Geneva
5-9 October: Community Stakeholder Engagement (5 days)
19-21 October: Project Planning and Management with Logical Framework Approach (3 days)
22-23 October: Exit Strategies: Effective Programme Disengagement (2 days)
November
Geneva
2-4 November: Project Proposals for Results (3 days)
9-14 November: Essentials of Human Resource Management) (5 days)
For enquiries, please contact the course organiser at courses@ngomanager.org.
Africa Development Indicators 2008/9
Development data
Free resource : Open Survey Pilot
Opensource software
You might be interested in Open Survey Pilot : http://sourceforge.net/projects/osp/, opensource software webbased system for generating and managing online surveys, polls, etc.
This could be useful for conducting research and monitoring and evaluation work.
Potential of Traditional Medicine should be Fostered
Fostering potential
A recent press release from the UN Economic and Social Council 2009 Organizational Session Panel Discussion reports on the discussion about fostering the potential of traditional medicine in developing countries. Several issues were raised, particularly the integration of traditional medicine into main stream medicine and the legal protection and mainstreaming of traditional medicines. The development of a ‘traditional knowledge digital library’ in India which is ‘a database containing 30 million pages of scientific formulas derived from traditional medicinal substances’ was of particular interest.
The library’s creator further believed that traditional medicines would be prone to misappropriation by third parties if they were not properly codified, Mr. Rao said. Moreover, he believed that a central database would engender wider use of the medicines contained within it, while helping to preserve the attendant knowledge and skills associated with producing those medicines. The scientific formulas contained in the digital library were comparable to modern medical formulations, and were based on information gleaned from old texts. The library was the product of several hundred scientists. He said the digital library was now being used to facilitate international trade negotiations between India and other countries. So far, the Indian Government had reached an agreement with the European Patent Office so that herbal medicines originating from India could not be patented in Europe without first referring to the database. Negotiations on a similar arrangement with the United States Trademark and Patent Office were currently ongoing. He also said that access to information from the digital library was helping to lower the cost of producing medicines — for example, medicine to treat psoriasis was being produced at a cost of $50 per patient per year, as compared to $20,000 per patient through conventional means. The concept of a digital library for traditional knowledge was currently under consideration by authorities in South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Nigeria, Malaysia as well as countries of the Middle East.
Small and medium forest enterprises in Mozambique
Forestry in Mozambique
(IIED, January 2009) Small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) in Mozambique account for 95.8% of the formally registered enterprises in the forest sector. Despite their significance to the economy SMFEs are poorly catered for by national policies. At present, the two formal channels for commercial timber production are inaccessible to community-based SMFEs that might bring about greater sustainability and poverty reduction. Legislation still views community based natural resource management as a process of subservient partnership between external forest enterprises and community management committees. Despite these challenges, there are a wide range of Mozambican programmes spanning government, civil society and private sector initiatives that support SMFEs. This report argues that a more coordinated effort is urgently needed between these programmes to develop business skills and capacity among SMFEs.
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=13546IIED
Public Participation and Oil Exploitation in Uganda
The oil production sector
Public Participation and Oil Exploitation in Uganda
(IIED, December 2008)
This paper first analyses the adequacy of the existing legal framework on access to information and participation. Its findings show that although law and policy in Uganda indicate certain efforts to open up environmental decision-making processes to public influence, this is not the case in the oil production sector. The culture of secrecy within government bodies, weak civil society structures as well as the politics of patronage remain substantive challenges for the fair and equitable management of natural resources in Uganda.
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=14574IIED
Malawi green gold: Challenges and opportunities for SMFE in reducing poverty
Challenges for the governance of forests in Malawi
Malawi’s green gold: Challenges and opportunities for small and medium forest enterprises in reducing poverty
(IIED, December 2008)
This study surveys a thriving, albeit largely informal, SMFE sector in Malawi. It looks in detail at four promising subsectors: timber, cane furniture, tree fruit juices and woodcarving. It describes both the challenges and opportunities for the governance of forest services in regards to SMFE, and ways of organising SMFEs to better meet market demand while sustaining the resource.
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=13545IIED
Adaptation in Africa – the global failure to deliver funding
African climate change
Will Africa be steamrollered by climate change? The continent harbours 33 of the Least Developed Countries, is heavily reliant on agriculture and has limited economic resources to finance adaptation. Its geographic position and high sensitivity to climatic variability make it vulnerable. Large swathes of Africa already see more frequent and severe flooding and droughts, shrinking agricultural production, the spread of diseases and the rise of conflict over scarce resources. meanwhile, African governments are poorly equipped to respond. Overcoming these challenges demands concerted international effort – yet a huge gap yawns between the global promises, and timely action on them.
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=17047IIED
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) publications can be downloaded along with over 4,000 other resources, from thewebsite www.iied.org/pubs
(IIED, December 2008)
Poverty data : A supplement to World Development Indicators 2008
Country-level estimates of poverty
This booklet looks like it could be very useful.
This booklet, published by the World Bank, provides the country-level estimates of poverty that were first released in October 2008. Using the international poverty line of $1.25 a day, estimates of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines. The report includes explanatory text and tables on national poverty estimates, international poverty estimates, and purchasing power parities (PPPs).
Download the supplement to the World Development Indicators 2008 booklet
Suggested Books
- World Development Indicators 2008
- World Development Indicators 2009
- World Development Indicators 2010
World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography
Transformations along the dimensions of economic geography
Report available from: http://go.worldbank.org/RBDWKOYC90
Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions–density, distance, and division–are essential for development and should be encouraged.
The conclusion is controversial. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. A billion people live in lagging areas of developing nations, remote from globalization’s many benefits. And poverty and high mortality persist among the world’s “bottom billion,” trapped without access to global markets, even as others grow more prosperous and live ever longer lives. Concern for these three intersecting billions often comes with the prescription that growth must be spatially balanced.
This report has a different message: economic growth will be unbalanced. To try to spread it out is to discourage it–to fight prosperity, not poverty. But development can still be inclusive, even for people who start their lives distant from dense economic activity. For growth to be rapid and shared, governments must promote economic integration, the pivotal concept, as this report argues, in the policy debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration. Instead, all three debates overemphasize place-based interventions.
Reshaping Economic Geography reframes these debates to include all the instruments of integration–spatially blind institutions, spatially connective infrastructure, and spatially targeted interventions. By calibrating the blend of these instruments, today’s developers can reshape their economic geography. If they do this well, their growth will still be unbalanced, but their development will be inclusive.
Go here for more information: http://go.worldbank.org/RBDWKOYC90
Podcast : Africa Past and Present Episode 21 available
A new perspective on Islam in Senegal
A while ago no-one had heard of podcasts, but now they are frequently being used as a teaching tool. Episode 21 of Africa Past and Present – the podcast about history, culture, and politics in Africa – is now available at: http://afripod.aodl.org
In this episode, anthropologist Mara Leichtman (Michigan State University) unveils her new book  New Perspectives on Islam in Senegal (co-edited with Mamadou Diouf). She then discusses transnational Shi?a Islam in Dakar among Lebanese migrants and Senegalese converts, and in London at the Al-Khoei Foundation. A fine example of why we cannot properly analyze ?globalization? without including Africa.
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Africa Past and Present is hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb. It is produced by Matrix — the Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online (http://matrix.msu.edu).