People in Burkina Faso to Receive Food Vouchers via Text Message

On November 5, 2009, I wrote about United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launching a pilot project that allows Iraqi refugees in Syria to receive food vouchers electronically via mobile phone text messages. Another example of using information and communications technology in delivering sustainable solutions to underserved populations may be found in a report by Voice of America’s Kate Thomas. Ms. Thomas writes about a joint project between the WFP and The Vodafone Foundation, which is the charitable division of the UK-based mobile telecommunications company “that will allow shopkeepers in” two towns “in Burkina Faso to manage food vouchers by text message.” (Photo: WFP/Eva Stoffels)

Approximately 30,000 people receive food vouchers in Burkina Faso. “Until now,” explains Ms. Thomas, “the hologram-imprinted vouchers were distributed to families who need them. They are then exchanged for goods in shops and shopkeepers are reimbursed in cash by the World Food Program once a month. If the pilot is successful,” she added, “shopkeepers will be able to validate the vouchers by cell phone on the spot. In theory the World Food Program would then be able to reimburse them the next day, either by bank transfer or by check.”

It would be useful to know how much money the WFP will save in using text messages for food vouchers rather than traditional paper vouchers. Shopkeepers having the ability to instantly validate vouchers via mobile phones will see a reduction of fraud and misuse of the vouchers. Furthermore, shopkeepers, getting reimbursed more quickly by the WFP, will be able to manage their inventory and control costs more effectively. Click here to listen to Ms. Thomas’ report.

Decade of Vaccines: Gates Foundation Pledges $10 Billion to Fight Childhood Diseases

At the 40th annual World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, the Bill and Melinda Gates announced “that their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest countries,” according to a Gates Foundation press release. “The Gateses said that increased investment in vaccines by governments and the private sector could help developing countries dramatically reduce child mortality by the end of the decade, and they called for others to help fill critical financing gaps in both research funding and childhood immunization programs.”

The Seattle, Washington-based philanthropic organization said that it “used a model developed by a consortium led by the Institute of International Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to project the potential impact of vaccines on childhood deaths over the next 10 years. By significantly scaling up the delivery of life-saving vaccines in developing countries to 90 percent coverage—including new vaccines to prevent severe diarrhea and pneumonia—the model suggests that we could prevent the deaths of some 7.6 million children under 5 from 2010-2019. The foundation also estimates that an additional 1.1 million children could be saved with the rapid introduction of a malaria vaccine beginning in 2014, bringing the total number of potential lives saved to 8.7 million.”

An article by Seattle Times writers Sandi Doughton and Kristi Heim says that the Gateses’ pledge “ranks as the biggest philanthropic pledge ever to a single cause….The $10 billion pledge represents a doubling of Gates Foundation spending on vaccines. The Chronicle of Philanthropy said the amount is more than the entire assets of the Ford Foundation, America's second wealthiest foundation — after Gates.”

The foundation’s announcement notes that the new funding “is in addition to the $4.5 billion that the Gates Foundation has already committed to vaccine research, development and delivery to date across its entire disease portfolio since its inception.” The foundation's initial vaccine investments created an organization called the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, or GAVI, which was launched at the World Economic Forum ten years ago.

The GAVI Alliance, the Gates Foundation explained, “has reached 257 million additional children with new and underused vaccines, and prevented 5 million future deaths. In the coming years, GAVI will focus on rapidly introducing vaccines to tackle diarrhea and pneumonia.” Billions more are needed, however, “from other donors to achieve the goal of 90 percent coverage of childhood immunization. Critical funding gaps exist at GAVI and in the global polio and measles programs, and more support is needed for the research and development necessary to produce new vaccines.”

The Gates Foundation occasionally receives criticism for not doing enough to help impoverished adults in the developing world. Responding to this issue during the January 29, 2010 press conference, Melinda Gates said that the foundation, with the help of Warren Buffet’s financial support, contributed to the “Green Revolution” in Africa that increases the productivity of small farms, moving tens of millions of people out of extreme poverty and significantly reducing hunger. In addition, said Mrs. Gates, the foundation is supporting innovative microsavings programs to help those who do not have access to traditional financial services to deposit funds in safe and secure bank accounts. For additional information about the foundation’s support of microsavings, please read “Gates Foundation to Help Poor People Save Money.” The press conference may be viewed in its entirety in the video below:

worldeconomicforum03 on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

“Global Challenge” Competition to Reward Graduate Students for Developing Business Solutions that Support International Development

College students worldwide are receiving an education not to solely benefit financially in a future career, but to make a social difference as well. Aspiring business leaders are reevaluating success not on the basis of a financial return on investment, but on the social return on investment and the impact on the environment and surrounding communities. And more than ever are we seeing the need to understand the critical role of the private sector in international development. The Global Challenge, a collaborative effort by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will reward graduate students from across the United States to employ their creativity, research skills, business acumen and passion for seeking solutions that advance growth and reduce poverty.

According to a press release dated January 28, 2010, the Global Challenge is “a first-of-its-kind competition that challenges teams of MBA (Master of Business Administration) and other graduate students to develop business solutions that support international development. Teams will be tasked with devising a new public-private alliance that allows a private enterprise to meet its long-term business goals while contributing to international development initiatives in a specified region.”

G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business, said, “We invite MBA and graduate students from across the nation to employ their creativity, research skills, business acumen and passion for seeking solutions that advance growth and reduce poverty. It is our hope that future business leaders balance profit-making with social impact and take all stakeholders into account when making decisions, values we are committed to fostering at the Smith School.”

In describing the format of the innovate competition, the Smith School’s announcement explains, “In round one of the competition, teams will submit written proposal in response to a specified Global Challenge prompt, then up to eight groups will be invited to compete in the oral presentation final-round competition at USAID’s headquarters at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 2010. Judges will include representatives from USAID, industry-leading private sector companies, and academia.”

Teams will compete for $8,500 in cash prizes: $5,000 for first place, $2,500 second place, and $1,000 third place. Furthermore, students will have the opportunity to establish relationships and receive guidance from business leaders, international development experts, and other students. Winners of the Global Challenge will have their work published and distributed to international development professionals worldwide. Teams may register online through February 5, 2010.

The Global Challenge is sponsored by USAID’s Business Growth Initiative and the Smith School’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and Center for Social Value Creation. Launched in 2009, the Center for Social Value Creation’s mission is to engage students in courses and experiential learning programs to enable them to become global leaders who understand how to use business as a vehicle for both economic prosperity and transformative social change, and to support faculty research in related areas.

U.S. Government Allocates $320 Million for Rural Broadband Projects

I occasionally blog about the digital divide that exists in developing nations; namely, the issue of that many people in the world’s financially impoverished nations do not have access to the Internet. While the United States is certainly not financially impoverished, a digital divide does exist when comparing Internet access by remote or rural communities to those residing in urban areas. Many people and businesses located in rural America are increasingly becoming dependent on modern information and communications technology (ICT) services to obtain education, financial, and health services. Therefore, I was pleased to read a recent announcement by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve the ICT infrastructure in specific rural areas located throughout the United States. (Photo of Cherryvale, Kansas (population 2386) courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture)

In a press release dated January 25, 2010, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack “announced the selection of fourteen Recovery Act Broadband Infrastructure projects that will receive $309,923,352 through funding made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). An additional $3,551,887 in private investment brings the total to $313,475,239. Altogether, Congress awarded USDA $2.5 billion in Recovery Act funding to help bring broadband services to rural un-served and underserved communities.”

Here is a sampling of the 14 projects receiving grants and loans: Providing middle mile connectivity to 65 communities in Southwestern Alaska, expanding high speed DSL broadband service to remote, unserved households in rural Alabama and fiber-to-the premises broadband service to unserved homes and businesses in North Dakota. Furthermore, people residing in remote and rural communities in Tennessee will see an upgrade to the infrastructure that provide advanced voice, video, and data services exceeding 20 megabytes per second (Mbps), an expansion of fiber-based broadband access to approximately 1,500 households, local businesses and anchor institutions in central California, and extending existing fiber network by building out from the nearest fiber splice point through the funded service area in Oregon, which will provide broadband connectivity to residential and business end users.

USDA explains that “funding of individual recipients is contingent upon their meeting the terms of the loan, grant or loan/grant agreement.” While I continue to be concerned with the increase debt the U.S. government is incurring, I am encouraged to see some the funds provided by ARRA invested in ICT infrastructure to close the digital divide that exists in rural America.

EpiSurveyor: A Data Collection Tool Transforming Public Health for Underserved Populations

Mobile phones are widely used throughout the African continent and we are seeing unique services in health care, banking, and education. This blog has presented different telemedicine services and I think there is value in discussing an innovative solution that uses mobile phone technology and the Internet “to deliver more effective public health services throughout the developing world,” according to a Voice of America (VOA) report by Natalia Ardanza. This report provides another prime example of using information and technology (ICT) solutions in providing essential services for the world’s underserved populations. Click here to watch Ms. Ardanza’s video report. (Photos: DataDyne.org)

Joel Selanikio and Rosa Donna co-founded DataDyne.org, a nonprofit dedicated to providing sustainable information technologies in poor areas. Ms. Ardanza says that with financial support from the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation, Selanikio developed EpiSurveyor -- a free, mobile, Web-based and open-source data collection tool that is transforming the way public health is practiced in under-served areas of the world.” EpiSurveror was developed in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Health and DataDyne’s website notes that its “multiple-award-winning EpiSurveyor.org is the first web 2.0 application for international development and global health.”

Furthermore, according to Ms. Ardanza, “EpiSurveyor replaces cumbersome and costly paper-based data collection that can take months, and sometimes years to produce results. ‘Instead of collecting data today to plan for a campaign next year, changing from that to collecting data today to plan for what we do tomorrow,’ Selanikio explained. ‘That is a pretty radical change.’ Public health relies on the rapid collection of accurate data to track disease outbreaks, monitor vaccine supplies and other similar functions.” Watch a demonstration video of EpiSurveyor on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aS6R1fUCBU.

DataDyne provides consulting services combining information technology, mobile phones, epidemiology, public health, and clinical medical care into a valuable service in treating underserved populations in developing nations. According to DataDyne’s website, the Washington, D.C.-based organization creates and implements ICT solutions for a clinical setting, evaluating a public health program, or building a SMS-based drug notification system.

DataDyne’s EpiSurveyor is now used as a World Health Organization (WHO) standard method of data collection. In addition, more than 500 organizations in over 100 countries are using EpiSurveyor in areas such as agriculture and public opinion polling. In 2009, Dr. Selanikio was the recipient of the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability.

Gates Foundation to Help Poor People Save Money

In my blog post, Microfinance 101, I explain the different components of microfinance, which include loans, savings, money transfer services and microinsurance. From my experiences working in the developing world, microloans to help economically impoverished people climb out of poverty are the most common microfinance vehicle. While it exists in a few markets, I rarely see savings mechanisms in place to help underserved populations. Therefore, I was pleased to read that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is helping “microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide the poor with safe, affordable places to save their money” by allocating $38 million in new grants, according to a press release dated January 13, 2010.

The Gates Foundation’s announcement explains that “six grants will help 18 MFIs, which currently focus on microcredit, expand their portfolios and make savings accounts available to an initial 11 million poor people across 12 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America over five years. The grants will create new ways for the poor to make deposits and withdrawals, expand the availability of existing savings products, and fund savings-focused marketing campaigns.”

Why is the promotion of financial savings among the world’s poor important? Citing a National Bureau of Economic Research report, the Gates Foundation announcement says “that poor households with access to savings accounts are more likely to invest in education, increase productivity and income, and reduce vulnerability to illness and other unexpected events.” The challenge remains that very few MFIs offer “savings accounts, and more than 90 percent of the world’s poor still lack access to financial services and resort to risky, expensive, and inefficient ways to save.”

“Providing access to safe, affordable savings accounts has been a challenge because of the high costs for both banks and customers,” says the Seattle, Washington-based philanthropic organization. “For banks, the costs of physical buildings, with dedicated bank tellers, are expensive, especially in remote areas or where there is a limited number of clients with small deposits. Poor clients often live far from banks so the cost to reach a branch may exceed the amount of their deposits.”

Allocating to a diverse group of international MFIs, “the grants will use a variety of approaches to offer savings accounts to poor people. ShoreBank International, for example, will broaden its reach by sending staff on motorbikes with handheld devices to rural clients in India. Women’s World Banking will revamp its savings products to make them better fit the needs of the poor and fund marketing campaigns in the Dominican Republic. The Grameen Foundation will work with its partner MFIs to ensure they have the business systems and staff to manage emerging client savings programs.”

All Nonprofits Helping Haïti are Not the Same

It has been one week since a massive earthquake shook the Republic of Haïti, which has killed an estimated 200,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. It is with great sorrow that this entry follows the previous two entries outlining excellent examples to facilitate sustainable development in Haïti through innovation initiatives. While I am following the rescue and recovery efforts closely, I am also amazed by global response in financial contributions to assist the Haïtian victims. I commend the overwhelming positive response from people worldwide, but we must also be mindful to which charities to support and that our generous donations are properly allocated.

According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy article dated January 18, 2010, donors have contributed more than $210 million to major U.S. relief groups within six days after the massive earthquake struck Haïti. Despite the troubled economy, “The pace of giving for Haiti is running ahead of the amount donated in the same period after the Asian tsunamis in 2004, but slower than the outpouring of gifts after the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the six days after the flooding started in New Orleans, Americans gave at least $457-million for relief efforts. In the nine days after the Asian tsunamis, major U.S. relief groups raised $163-million.”

In PBS Newshour’s Ray Suarez interview on January 18th with Stacy Palmer, Editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Ms. Palmer discusses what questions a donor should ask about a nonprofit organization when considering making a financial donation. “One of the most important things to look at is, does the charity have experience working in a place like Haiti? And that's the most important research thing you can do. Have they already done things? Do they have a track record?”

Ms. Palmer then talked about the importance of a nonprofit’s experience and accomplishments. “There are plenty of Web sites that say, how much overhead cost does the charity provide? But, really, you want to look at results. What is it that the charity has accomplished? Have they been there before? This is not a tragedy where people can just come in and parachute in and do good, no matter how experienced they are. They have to have relationships with the community. And that's probably the most important thing that experienced aid workers say to look at.”

Donors should also question organizations who claim 100 percent of your donation goes to the charity. “Sometimes, that is too good to be true,” says Ms. Palmer. “And links in e-mail, people you don't know, go to the Web site, Google it yourself. A lot of people try to do copycat kinds of things. They will play on the name of the charity. So, be very careful about that. Do your research. And if you're being pressured into giving, don't give. That's a sign, again, of a charity that's not doing the right thing.” Ms. Palmer’s interview in its entirety may be found in the video below:



Recognizing my professional experiences in Haïti, many people have asked for my recommendation on which organizations to support. The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) posted its top-rated list of charities involved in Haitian earthquake relief efforts. While not on the AIP list, I highly recommend the Florida Association for Volunteer Action in the Caribbean and the Americas, Inc. (FAVACA), a Florida-based nonprofit organization serving the needs of the people in Haïti and throughout the Caribbean for over 25 years. Funds raised will go to support medical programs, disaster assistance, recovery and rebuilding programs in Haïti.

I am pleased to announce that I am participating in a fundraising event on January 21, 2010 hosted by Casuelitas Caribbean Café in Seattle, Washington. Casuelitas will be serving spicy Caribbean bites and Haïtian Rum Punch with 100 percent of the profits from food and beverage sales going to FAVACA for Haïti earthquake relief.

A Splash of the Caribbean, a Seattle-based unique triple bottom line Caribbean art import company that supports artists by purchasing directly and selling online and at restaurants throughout the Puget Sound region, will feature a Haïtian Steel Oil Drum Art Sale with 50 percent of net proceeds going to Haïti earthquake relief. Click here to view the official press release for the fundraising event. (Photo coutesy of Alyssa Johnson/A Splash of the Caribbean)

Why FAVACA? I have a relationship with the organization's executive staff and board of directors and as I stated above, the nonprofit organization has 25 years of working in Haïti. During these years, FAVACA has established a strong track record in delivering tangible results to thousands of underserved people. Having advised FAVACA on fundraising and strategic planning strategies, I am familiar with FAVACA's financial statements and I can attest that the nonprofit organization has kept their overhead expenses to a minimum leaving a large majority of funds raised to be used on effective programming.

For those who reside outside of Seattle, you can donate directly to FAVACA at http://www.favaca.org/?q=node/30. Thank you for your support.