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Africa Gathering – Thoughts

July 4, 2010 By 4 Comments

As with the previous two Africa Gathering’s I have attended, there was a common theme running through. Don’t spoon feed Africa, don’t patronize Africa, leave your ego behind so you can partner with communities to find ways to co-create solutions to their objectives. Julia has written a rather good summery of the event. You should read it here

Technology was the focus, but the emphasis was definitely on the people aspect of technology, and the recognition that technology is just one element within a much larger picture.

Africa is asserting itself. It is about time and it is right. It is becoming a pervasive message.  So pervasive that it is having the effect of creating some uncertainty among a group of people who are dedicated to the sustainable development in Africa and who not only have valuable skills, thoughts and approaches to Africa, but also an amazing amount of genuine good will towards the continent.

I had a few conversations where Non African people, who clearly had an interest in working in development, for the right reasons, (attending Africa gathering in itself puts them in the right context) where questioning their goals and wondering if they should indeed bother as Africa clearly wanted to go it alone.

Yet how else are we to get people to listen? How else are we to get the message across? People love controversy and they love to label. We all do it; it is the way we are structured. Shifting the debate from “Africa is poor, I have a photo to prove it, the West is not, therefore we need to show Africa how to not be poor,” to “Hey, don’t discount me, I have a valuable contribution to make” has to be a good thing.

The crucial element here is either getting drowned out or lost within the momentum of the message. Partnerships. It is about partnerships. This brings with it notions of respect, trust, understanding and equality. Effective partnerships are built upon a multidirectional knowledge transfer and mutual participation. A partnerships objectives are shared objectives.

Thank you to all the speakers from this year’s event. I truly learned much. It is wonderful to be caught up in the collective conscious, movement and vision of an empowered Africa.

Filed Under: Africa Tagged With: ,

IN AFRICA, IT IS NO LONGER BUSINESS AS USUAL – It is about doing business with heart

July 1, 2010 By 3 Comments

With Africa Gathering London this weekend, I wanted to share with you some thoughts on development in Southern Africa from Charlene Hewat CEO of Environment Africa. Environment Africa is a 100% African owned and operated NGO operating in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. I am truly humbled by the work they have done over the last 20 years.

IT IS NO LONGER BUSINESS AS USUAL -  It is about doing business with heart. By Charlene Hewat, CEO, Environment Africa

Our world, our planet is changing and the time has come for Zimbabwe thinkers and policy makers to think of new innovative, environmentally and sustainable ways of doing business, business is no longer based on ‘business as usual’.

When  public systems breakdown,  governments often look to the private sector to save the day.  In many developing countries such as India, a range of services that were in the public domain – housing, water, energy, transportation and communication have been or are being privatized.  This may lead to greater efficiency, but even the most die-hard neo-classical economist understands that it can also spell environmental and social disasters.

Public-private partnerships are a good way to divide responsibilities among different sectors of society. But they are fraught with danger, since they can become another way for the private sector to internalize benefits and externalize costs.

If we are to reorient the economy’s path to sustainability, what we really need is a totally new sector, perhaps termed the Community Sector,  which would combine public sector objectives with private sector strategies.   We need to create businesses that have a heart.  Environment Africa (EAfrica), a truly African non-for-profit, private voluntary organisation (PVO) has developed a concept called (PPCP) meaning Public, Private, and Community Partnerships.  EAfrica believes that this is future for businesses in Africa and that this approach, PPCP, would contribute not only toward sustainable development but also to poverty alleviation.

PPCP is not about an NGO, private sector, public sector coalition or a once off partnership, it is about corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in practice.  EAfrica, through it’s not-for-profit company, is seeking to become a social, environmental investor in companies and take out a shareholding which it will hold in trust for communities and social and environmental development projects.  The not-for-profit company, is looking at an alternative to the typical donor route of one off grants and handouts and aims, through the PPCP approach to uplift the livelihoods of communities in a sustainable business like manner.   The PPCP concept has now been included in the Medium Term Plan for Zimbabwe as well as the Zambezi Transfronter National Parks document.  EAfrica is also in the process of establishing a PPCP Forum and if you are interested in assisting in any way, please do not hesitate to contact EAfrica’s CEO, Charlene Hewat:  charlie@eafrica.utande.co.zw

What is Corporate Social Responsibility then?

The International Standards Body ISO, are developing a Social Responsibility guideline called ISO26000.  This is a guide for all types of organisations to follow.  The Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) is the ISO representatives here in Zimbabwe and has an ISO26000 working group, which organisations have been participating in.  Environment Africa has played a key role in the development of this standard not only in Zimbabwe but Internationally, under the banner of SAZ and as an NGO representative from a developing country.   EAfrica is also working closely with the Business Council For Sustainable Development Zimbabwe (BCSDZ), on CSR.  The ISO26000 Standard Guidance document is due to be released this year.

Social responsibility has continued to become a topical issue for all sectors, the private, the public and the government sectors as it is considered one of the key drivers to sustainable development. Social responsibility despite the name is not inclined to social development alone; it spans the operations of organizations internally all the way to the community or consumer level. Being socially responsible is considered a sustainable way of doing business and most often it boils down to trust. How can the various sectors trust each other? Can business trust communities? and can communities trust business to address their concerns in a manner that is beneficial for both. When looking at the corporate sector, it is important to examine the extent to which they are integrating social and environmental concerns throughout their business.

Some of the social concerns currently being experienced in Zimbabwe, as is the case in developing countries, include poverty, HIV/ AIDS; gender inequality; limited access to health, sanitation and education facilities and food security.  Its is evident that the developing countries have serious social concerns in comparison to the developed world and the question in the developing countries is how to include these concerns within the business frame work and still make a profit at the end of the day.

Internationally Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is being mainstreamed by many corporates and is now considered the key component to long-term survival. There are several companies now in Zimbabwe who have adopted CSR and have partnered with Environment Africa to implement some of the 7 core areas of SR.  Some of the activities include:

  • Development and implementation of a CSR Policy
    Looking at a companies carbon footprint and offsetting carbon emissions
    Partnerships on CSR projects and programmes

    CSR is more than just business, it is a part of your business and remember, it is not philanthropy or cheque book PR, it is about commitment, involvement and action. Get involved today and help rebuild our beautiful country Zimbabwe.

    Filed Under: Africa, Guest Posts, Sustainability Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

    Development Aid’s Bitter Little Pill

    May 23, 2009 By 7 Comments

    Net Efekt bitter pillAuthor: Alasdair Munn

    The West currently lives within a prescriptive mentality. The road to efficiency is paved with check boxes and packaged solutions. Robust and complicated infrastructure props up bad decisions and resources are used like wallpaper to paper over the cracks. Relative excess generally allows people to live well within this framework.

    I was struck by two pieces of writing recently. The first was from Dr. Geoffrey Douglas the CEO of the charity HETN (Health Empowerment Through Nutrition). Dr. Douglas in his blog “An Epidemic of Rickets” was commenting on a recent Channel 4 News report on the alarming increase in the prevalence of Rickets in the UK. The news report thought it was shocking that Calciferol; the pharmaceutical treatment for Rickets was in short supply. At no time did the news report mention nutrition and lifestyle. Rickets is increasing in the UK because of a change in diet and attitudes towards exposure to the sun, not because of a shortage of pharmaceutical Calciferol.

    The second piece of writing was by TMS Ruge on the website Project Diaspora. In “Celebrity Stunts of Altruism are Killing Livelihoods In Africa”  Teddy argues that the current trend of sending mosquito nets to Africa, while neat and tangible for the giver, is actually doing little to tackle the underlying malaria eco-system.

    Neither is saying that pharmaceutical Calciferol or malaria nets do not have a role to play within their relative eco-systems. What they are saying is that effective solutions and understanding come from looking at the entire eco-system, not through a single magic bullet.

    When development projects fail in Africa, Africa is blamed for its lack of infrastructure, for its lack of understanding and for not having the right systems in place. By their very definition, developing countries do not have robust infrastructures as defined by the West. They do not have an excess of resources to paper over the cracks. Bad decisions cannot be propped up. A prescriptive mentality cannot work within development projects. Checkboxes, packaged solutions and predetermined paths lack efficiency and relevance in these conditions.

    Perhaps the West needs to change its approach? Prescribing solutions based upon their ideals, norms and values has not worked in Africa. Belligerently trying to change the way Africa deals with these prescribed solutions so that she can then develop in a way that is pleasing to the West seems a little crazy to me. Would it not be easier to change the way the West approaches development in Africa? And perhaps a little more effective?

    Photo by Net_Efekt

    Filed Under: Africa Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

    What can Africa teach the World about Technology?

    April 26, 2009 By 8 Comments

    321px-terrestrial_globesvgAuthor: Alasdair Munn

    tcg: The Communication Group

    After attending Africa Gathering this weekend, the central key words and phrases I gained were:

    • Relevance
    • Solution based approach
    • Context
    • Understanding your stakeholders.
    • Sustainable (All four cornerstones)

    In the West, particularly the US, the most publicised and most visible business model for the development of collaborative and people-connecting technologies have been the social network models.

    There is a perception (right or wrong) that the model to replicate is the one that is built on ‘the great idea that takes off’.

    • Have a great idea
    • Obtain funding
    • Build it using smart technology
    • Gain user buy in and critical mass
    • Figure out the business models later
    • New, unexpected business models will appear as you go along.

    What these models have proved to us is that there is power in connecting people, in collaboration and allowing people to add value and perspectives. Some amazing technologies have resulted from this and new ways of looking at how we can use these tools have been unexpected by products. There is no denying that these have changed the way we do things, and have a huge capacity to ensure the way we do business changes for the better.

    These models came about in a time of comparative wealth and excess. As resources become increasingly scarce, people are looking towards business models based upon relevance and context.

    It has always been the case within Africa that development resources have been scarce. One thing the people of Africa understand is how to make the most of their limited resources. AfriGadget, a blog that explores the way in which the people of Africa solve everyday problems with ingenuity illustrates this very well.

    In the West there is a tendency to try and replicated what is out there. There is a preoccupation on talking about the various ways in which existing platforms or networks can be best “leveraged”. Hands up those who have not written or read numerous blogs on how to get the most out of twitter?

    Technology solutions coming out of Africa are built with purpose, against objectives and within the boundaries of their resources. It is a solutions based approach. It is also a stripped down approach where only the relevant resources and tools are used. Simple works because less can go wrong and if it does go wrong, simple is easier to fix. There is a shift in the way tools and technologies are looked at.

    A good example of this is what Ushahidi did in Kenya. Ushahidi is an opensource platform that crowdsources crisis information. They took a widely used and available piece of technology, texting on mobile phones and applied it to a Google Maps mashup. This was built in Kenya using local knowledge and technologists in response to post election violence. This provided a real time map of violence hotspots with an understanding of the types of violence in those areas. The interesting part is they quickly recognised that citizen reporting leads to an overload of incoming information. Using social media tools most people take for granted, or seldom consider outside the context of specific social networks, they are creating a crowdsource filter. Using tools such as rating, both content and people and word, language and phrase filters, for example, sense can be made out of this overload. Considering profiles to have a deeper significance than a means to tell people who you are, real value can be added to content. Check out Erik Hersman’s TED talk here. 

    As the West, and the developed world continue to struggle against scarcity of resources, they can learn from Africa’s approach. Shifting the way resources are looked at and challenging old business models are essential. Context and relevance are no longer just buzz words.

    I have just found these links to blogs on Africa Gathering thanks to Juergen Eichholz

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