Social Entrepreneurship

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Comment by Drew Tulchin on May 1, 2010 at 2:05pm

For the sake of argument, if there is not enough food to feed people, isn't the region unsustainable and people should not be living there? I work in development and see the challenges and hardships poor people carry all the time. It is heart breaking. When are we as a people and race going to advance ourselves, rather than trying to just advance individuals or some of us in some parts of the world?



Andrew (Drew) Tulchin
drew@socialenterprise.net
cell 202-256-2692 *** wk 505-715-6927

Social Enterprise Associates
www.socialenterprise.net
Financial Performance *** Social Impact *** Environmental Sustainability

New Mexico's only B Corporation

Comment by P. Uday Shankar on May 1, 2010 at 10:44am

Dear Rachel,

I just read EVERY word of your experience in Sudan. It is quite interesting.

The main points which impressed me very much are:

1) The "fusion farming " concept. I too believe that there is lot of local wisdom which needs to be tapped. Give the farming families a chance to innovate and they will come out with amazing ideas!!!

2) The concept of family farming. As a student of agriculture and as a rural banker for two decades and then a decade of microfinance, I have always had a feeling that we had split families in the name of development. In order to overcome this gender segregation within the family I had introduced a Family Loan under microfinance. We had extended adequate amounts for agriculture and had also given the option of repayment within one to three years. It was so heartening to see both the husband and wife in the farming family coming forward to avail a Microfinance Agri Loan.
I wish your effort all the best. Try to rope in a good MFI which finances Agricultural activities. If none is there try to motivate a MFI to finance agri activities.

P.Uday Shankar
Coimbatore-INDIA.

Comment by Rachel Zedeck on May 1, 2010 at 8:04am

Agri-preneurship, A Solution to Africa's Food Crisis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-zedeck/agri-preneurship-a-soluti_b_535004.html

In 2007, I arrived in Southern Sudan to research new agriculture development models designed to stabilize South Sudan's development. Despite having previously worked in other post-conflict regions, such as Kosovo and Iraq, my experiences in East and the Horn of Africa have both inspired me and brought me to the verge of emotional bankruptcy. Africa's stability and independent success lie not with solutions imposed upon her by well-meaning internationals; rather by providing modern technologies and techniques to rural farmers.

Over the past three years, I have worked in East Africa incubating new Base of the Pyramid (BOP) programs, encompassing income generation, food security and sustainable value chains. My goal has been to tap the latent potential of East and the Horn of Africa's rural farmers.

I represent a new breed of "agri-preneur" in Africa. By clarifying the links between drought, food security, malnutrition and food aid, we can incubate practical solutions to a preventable genocide.

At the moment, droughts have severely impacted the region's grain belts; fields lie barren. According to UN data, 24 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia (Horn of Africa) and Kenya, Tanzania, and parts of Uganda (East Africa) now need food aid, up from 20 million in early 2009. Coupled with wildly fluctuating grain prices, drought adversely affects regional trade patterns. If one country is affected by diminished rainfall and a weak harvest, then the region as a whole suffers, with the most vulnerable--children and nursing mothers - suffering most.

Since May 2009, the number of children in need of emergency assistance in the Horn of Africa has grown by nearly one million - an increase of nearly 25%. According to Save the Children, the average child needs 40 vital nutrients to grow. Absent that, their brains and bodies suffer permanent damage.

Admittedly, living in Kenya, I am perhaps numb to the reality of children starving in plain view. For the average American, though, the reality has been further masked by a deluge of fundraising campaigns and images of starving children in refugee camps. Unfortunately these campaigns fail to adequately explain the causal realities of malnutrition or the inadequate programs supported by both international NGOs and UN agencies, such as World Food Program (WFP).

Last week, Friends of the WFP published a blog post, Nutrition: 10 Reasons to Face the Challenge. It uses language like "poor nutrition," as if children in Darfur's refugee camps are sneaking a Twinkie instead of a well balanced meal. According to the World Bank, $3.6 billion would feed all the undernourished children (under the age of 5). Such campaigns concern me for three reasons:

1. Not enough food is being produced to supply these programs. Currently, not enough grain exists in East Africa for WFP to meet the needs of refugee camps in Darfur. How ethical is it to commit to this goal?
2. Food aid does not address nutrition. According to UNICEF, from 2004-2007 only 1.7% of interventions reported as 'development food aid/food security' and 'emergency food aid' actually addressed nutrition needs." Our taxes are wasted on programs that that fill stomachs with empty calories.
3. What about the malnourished children over 5 years suffering from severe malnutrition? Instead of addressing a global picture, it seems WFP has spent millions of dollars to design "Sprinkles," a micronutrient power with no mention of more sustainable food production models.

With an estimated 80-100 million small-landholder farmers in East Africa and 25 million in South Africa, farming is a tangible and practical solution to the food insecurity catastrophe in both East and the Horn of Africa. Additionally, it will impact rural incomes and national GDPs, independent of new trade agreements with countries exporting eco-friendly agro-technologies, such as India, Israel, Holland, and the United States.

75 years ago the British Empire envisioned Sudan as a global breadbasket. It still could be. The solution: empowering rural farmers. This can be accomplished, where the UN and so many NGOs have failed by financing commercially viable value chains in cooperation with available agro technologies.

In April 2009, I and my team of wonder team of agriculture experts launched the Backpack Farm Agriculture Program (www.Backpackfarm.org). The program supports rural farmers in East and the Horn of Africa with cutting-edge agricultural programs, training, and monitoring to support regional food security and income generation through sustainable value chains.

Programs such as mine are imperative because small-landholder farmers still lack the technical capacity and financial equity to enter wholesale markets. Their yields are typically poor, estimated at one-quarter of the global average. To counter this, we designed a "fusion farming" model, eliminating the need for traditional DAP/CAN fertilizers. My team has married it with cost- effective drip irrigation and a training program on eco-friendly farming, including modules on rain water harvesting, perma-culture, non-tillage, and composting.

We are actively working with rural farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and Rwanda. One of our recent successes is a joint venture agreement with Mt. Kenya Gardens to help expand their out-grower network with 5,000 new farmers in the next 18 months. There is too much work to be done; however every milestone has been accomplished without a single dollar of international donor finance. I truly believe that agro-based, social enterprises like the Backpack Farm can and will play an essential role in solving East and the Horn of Africa's food crisis.

The international community appears to be taking note. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO_ and World Bank have recently rediscovered rural 'family' farming as the most important source of development, and target for investments to fight hunger. The [published by whom?] 2008 "International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD)," produced a single, relevant message: small-scale family farming is the best available option to change the perverted global system of commodity trade and production and to limit the use of fossil fuels and chemical inputs. It is now the 'the best hope we have for not exceeding the limits of this planet, while still feeding the population.'

The Backpack Farm has just been named by Sotokoto Magazine in Japan as one of their "100 Green Fighters," as successful social enterprise due to our commitment to eco-farming and community development..

I deeply respect the professionals who are committed to emergency relief and humanitarian development programs. These men and women are some of the bravest souls living in unbelievable conditions exposed to disease, kidnapping, rape and attack from rebel groups, local security forces. I don't question their commitment to such noble work The problem is that the system they work within is deeply flawed and is incapable of providing sustainable food security for the worlds most vulnerable; women and children.

Comment by Rachel Zedeck on October 15, 2009 at 3:43am

Hello fellow entrepreneurs

Please come follow the Backpack Farm on http://twitter.com/backpackfarm - www.backpackfarm.org

The Backpack Farm represents a practical, sustainable and commercial development model all rolled into one. I regularly post on development, food security, women's issues, water and of course microfinance.

Look forward to seeing you online.

Rachel

Comment by rama on August 29, 2009 at 5:07am

Hi everyone!
I am putting together an event to connect social entrepreneurs in the Middle East to each other, to supporters from the community (corporate, research, funding, volunteers). I would appreciate if you know any or if you're one, to contact me please.

Comment by Andreas Hoffmann on August 16, 2009 at 4:56pm

Green Light New Orleans is looking for 10000 people to help New Orleans become green!
www.10000peopleforneworleans.org

Please spread the word!
Thanks,
Andreas
www.greenlightneworleans.org

Comment by Prakash Chhangani on August 9, 2009 at 4:45am

Hi Genice,
We are impressed with the kind of work you have undertaken for rural poor. We in Rajasthan, India are working with rural poor - who doesn’t have any resources and are classified as non bankable. We have formed groups identified their needs and made available funds as loan to them under soft loan schemes. This one is a more elaborate scheme very successful in our case and has been replicated many in India and South Asia. Shall all other necessary information if you are intrested in. Please advise if you need them.
Prakash

Comment by Genice Jacobs on August 7, 2009 at 12:42pm

I would love to connect with anyone who has written a business for a startup venture to benefit impoverished rural women. I am working with a CBO called Uganda Space and a student run group at The Cooper Union in New York City to launch a solar lighting microenterprise for women in Uganda. We are going to train 20-25 women in a rural collective to build self-assembled solar lighting systems for their own use and to sell to their neighbors at a profit. I am raising money friends to purchase the first few systems to get the women up and running. Once they are established, they will apply to MFI's for sustaining credit.

I would love to connect with someone who has written a business plan for a similar project or would be willing to share a sample of one.

Thank you for considering and best of luck on your ventures.

Genice Jacobs
Oakland, CA USA
510-530-6687
genice@blueflexsolutions.com

Comment by Rachel Zedeck on July 10, 2009 at 5:53pm

Hello all....

I was hoping you could help vote for my agro development project which I have just registered as a contestant of the IdeaBlob contest. The project is the ideal model of social entrepreneurship. This is a chance for the Backpack Farm to win 10,000 USD. The money doesn't go into our pockets. Instead, the money will be used to launch a demo farm of the project in Nanyuki, Kenya directly impacting the incomes of local farmers while helping to prove our business model building sustainable food production in Africa by empowering rural farmers as entrepreneurs rather than aid recipients.

http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/5820-Backpack-Farm-Program-African

This competition only last one week, so please take a minute and vote. Please forward this e-mail to friends and colleagues!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your support!



Rachel

Comment by Prakash Chhangani on June 13, 2009 at 11:40pm

We are in process of setting up Green Banking and I am greatful for making me part of this group

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