African Online Supermarket Set to Boost Trade

African Online Supermarket Set to Boost Trade Online retailing and marketing strategies are revolutionizing how people around the world buy products and services - but so far they have not benefited most of Africa's small businesses and traders. On a continent where trading for survival is the norm, very few people are reaping the benefits of selling on the Internet.

Not only has limited access to the Internet and the lack of high bandwidth in Africa impeded communication within the continent, it has restricted African businesses from taking advantage of the most profound change in global business for decades: e-retailing (also known as e-tailing or e-commerce).

But the African information technology pioneers of Ghana - a country that has already gained a reputation as an IT leader in West Africa (www.ghanaictawards.com) - are setting out to change this situation, and in turn to change the way people access African goods and services.

Pledging in its motto to reach "every African nook and cranny," ShopAfrica53 is an online shopping portal similar to famous brands like Amazon or eBay, but focused entirely on giving African traders the ability to sell across the continent and to the world online.

The one-stop shopping site - taking its name from the 53 countries on the continent - can be accessed by Internet users, or better still, by the enormous number of mobile phone users not only in Africa but around the world.

The number of mobile phone subscribers in Africa surpassed 300 million in 2008 (ITU), representing a significant market in their own right. Research group Informa Telecoms and Media estimates mobile networks now cover 90 per cent of the world's population - 40 per cent of whom are covered but not connected.

ShopAfrica53 works like this: merchants first fill out an online form on the ShopAfrica53 website. They are then contacted by ShopAfrica, and an account is set up.

People wanting to buy goods and services on the website use the African Liberty Card to ensure the transactions are safe and not at risk from hackers and fraudsters. The disposable pre-paid scratch card can be used on mobile phones and the Internet and is purchased from store outlets.

ShopAfrica handles the logistical hassles of shipping to customers around the world, facilitates payment transfers, and helps with record keeping for merchants.

ShopAfrica offers an eclectic selection of goods: apparel and accessories, books and stationery, groceries, handicraft, health and personal care, home and garden, machinery and tools, technology and entertainment. It promises to offer the "best selection of African products, anywhere, worldwide" - everything from building supplies, household items and electronics to processed foods and fabrics.

One Ghanaian merchant, Mohammed Salifu, promises to deliver in two days a "large brown cow for delivery or collection. The size, colour and weight of animal will vary. This merchant provides live goats, sheep, cattle for special occasions and festivities and can also provide a slaughtering service for clients."

Then there is Vera Ami Kpogli, who is selling a 'Beyonce' Electric Blue necklace. Tse-Lee Fashions offers Batik/Tie and Dye Print Shirt in aqua and navy. And for the 'king' of the house, Ama Afrique Designs is selling Men's Royal Rulers, sandals "worn many centuries ago by African kings."

The potential of this service to boost incomes is considerable: in the United Kingdom, online sales now make up 15 percent of all retail spending, reaching £43.8 billion (US $66.12 billion) in 2008 (IMRG).

As has been seen with other countries of the Global South, trade in high quality goods boosts incomes. South-South trade grew by an average of 13 percent per year between 1995 and 2007. By 2007, South-South trade made up 20 percent of world trade. And over a third of South-South commerce is in high-skill manufacturing. Making finished goods, rather than just selling raw materials, improves workers' skill levels and increases the return on trade.

The rapid changes to African countries - the tilt to being more urban than rural, and being home to a larger urban population than North America, with 25 of the world's fastest growing cities (International Institute for Environment and Development) - means there is an urgent need to boost incomes and better connect traders and manufacturers to the global economy.

ShopAfrica53 could be the start of a very big thing for African trade.

Links

• The red dot logo stands for belonging to the best in design and business. The red dot is an internationally recognised quality label for excellent design that is aimed at all those who would like to improve their business activities with the help of design.
  Website: www.red-dot.de
• BOP Source is a platform for companies and individuals at the BOP (bottom of the pyramid) to directly communicate, ultimately fostering close working relationships, and for NGOs and companies to dialogue and form mutually valuable public-private partnerships that serve the BOP.
  Website: http://bopsource.ning.com/
• Business Fights Poverty: Business Fights Poverty is the free-to-join, fast-growing, international network for professionals passionate about fighting world poverty through good business.
  Website: businessfightspoverty.ning.com
• Dutch Design in Development: As a matchmaker, DDiD puts together European clients, Dutch designers and small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries. The designers share their knowledge of European consumer tastes, product development, design and quality standards
  Website: www.ddid.nl
• Afriville is a Web 2.0 service and an African Caribbean social network. Afriville is a community website along the lines of the famous MySpace. Users are free to message and post profiles. The difference is that the user is able to choose how closed or open the networks are. The site features a state of the art music management system which allows African and Caribbean artists to get straight in touch with their fans.
  Website: www.afriville.com
• Business Action for Africa: Business Action for Africa is an international network of businesses and business organisations from Africa and elsewhere, coming together in support of three objectives: to positively influence policies for growth and poverty reduction, to promote a more balanced view of Africa, and to develop and showcase good business practice in Africa
  Website: www.businessactionforafrica.org
• Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) is a membership community for the e-retail industry, whose vision is to maximise the commercial potential of online shopping
  Website: www.imrg.org

Rebuilding After Chinese Earthquake: Beautiful Bamboo Homes

It has been a year since the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China that killed more than 70,000 people.

China's strongest earthquake for more than half a century, with a magnitude of 8.0 (en.wikipedia.org), it devastated large parts of the province of Sichuan. More than 10 million people were made homeless, most of them poor and elderly villagers (cities were not badly damaged).

Getting Sichuan back to normal is critical for not only the province's people, but for all of China. Sichuan is China's rice bowl, growing more food than any other province. But despite the abundance of food, Sichuan remains poor and has seen its working age population move away for work. If it is to have a viable future then its communities need to get back to normal as fast as possible - and its farming economy back to full production.

The unprecedented media coverage of the disaster meant people across China saw the scenes of devastation and have since contributed large donations to help with the reconstruction. The Chinese government has pledged to spend US $151 billion on reconstruction projects.

Finding ways to re-house people after large disasters has become an urgent issue over the last five years. From the Asian tsunami to Hurricane Katrina in the United States and multiple hurricane disasters in the Caribbean, restoring communities is critical for the health of the people and the economies they rely on. Experience has shown that temporary shelters have many drawbacks, being usually of poor quality for long-term habitation and a source of health problems.

The temporary shelters erected for the Sichuan homeless are unsuitable for long-term housing: the 12 square metre grey boxes - two sheets of aluminium sandwiching a polystyrene core for insulation - have no heating. The occupants roast inside in the summer and freeze in the winter. They are also located away from the main source of income: the farms.

The temporary shelters are slated for shutdown starting in August of this year. A massive reconstruction effort is underway and new villages are springing up. The Chinese government pledged to have everyone building their own homes by the one year anniversary of the earthquake, but for many, cash to do so is missing.

The dilemma is how to build new, long-term houses that will not cost too much. Inflation has increased the costs of conventional building materials: bricks, cement and steel.

But the use of traditional building materials and home designs offers an alternative. By drawing on the abundant bamboo and wood in Sichuan and by building to traditional designs, cheaper but sturdy and beautiful homes can be built.

An average home now costs around 80,000 yuan (US $11,688). The Chinese government estimates the price is now 820 yuan per square meter for a new home: bamboo homes cost between 300 and 400 yuan per square meter. Government compensation is between 16,000 yuan (US $2,337) and 23,000 yuan (US $3,360) per family. The bamboo houses range in size from 75 to 200 square metres, and in cost from 22,500 yuan to 80,000 yuan for a very large home.

In Daping village, Pengzhou Town, original homes destroyed by the earthquake sit at the edge of a forested hill. Their frames are more or less intact, but the walls and roofs have collapsed. The new houses replacing them are large, two stories high and have solid grey clay tile roofs. The beauty of the designs stands out and sits in stark contrast to the temporary shelters and concrete buildings.

"There are 43 houses and two public buildings being rebuilt in this project," says Hu Rong Rong of the Green Building Research Centre of Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology. "The design and the main building material are based on the ecological and sustainable habitat idea. The place (Sichuan) is rich in bamboo and wood. These natural materials are cheap and friendly to the environment. In some buildings we use light steel which can be also recycled."

The new homes are built to earthquake resistance standards. A team of 15 people from the research centre and two from a design institute developed the home designs and supervised the training of local people. They were joined by 10 people from an NGO called Global Village of Beijing, who managed the project to completion.

"All the designs were discussed with the local people," continues Hu. "We trained a local construction team, which means the local people would build their own houses by themselves. Both our research center and the local people were involved in developing the home design.

"To get the trust from the local people is a challenge in the project. We resolved it by showing our respect to the local people. Before we started our design we discussed with the local people many times to know what kind of house they like. We built the first house to make them believe us."

Hu believes it is possible to replicate the homes across Sichuan.

"The design is suitable for other villages in Sichuan which have a similar climate and culture with this village. To rebuild sustainable houses after a disaster we should know well about the local life, environment and culture - try to find the useful technique which was used in their traditional houses and upgrade the traditional house to meet the need of their modern life."

Others have not been as lucky as these villagers. In the village of Yuan Bao, Chen Jingzhong, 66, has had to build a makeshift shack: "They wanted to get us to build our own houses but they didn't give us enough money," Chen told the Telegraph Magazine. "All we could afford was this shack, which we built ourselves, with our own hands and without any help from anyone."

Links

• Architecture for Humanity: By tapping a network of more than 40,000 professionals willing to lend time and expertise to help those who would not otherwise be able to afford their services, they bring design, construction and development services where they are most critically needed.
  Website: www.architectureforhumanity.org
• Chinese Red Cross: The Red Cross Society of China is accepting donations for disaster reconstruction and is coordinating rebuilding efforts in Sichuan
  Website: http://www.redcross.org.cn/ywzd/
• Gerd Niemoeller has developed flat pack, cardboard homes that can be deployed quickly after a disaster and can become permanent homes.
  Website: http://tinyurl.com/6t6jtf and the company
  Website: http://www.wall.de/en/home
• Global Greenhouse Warming is a website that tracks extreme weather events around the world: drought, flooding, severe storms, severe winter, tropical cyclone, wildfires, and extreme heat waves.
  Website: www.global-greenhouse-warming.com
• The Building and Social Housing Foundation: An independent research organization promoting sustainable development and innovation in housing through collaborative research and knowledge transfer.
  Website: www.bshf.org

SOS Shops Keep Food Affordable for Poor, Unemployed

As the global downturn bears down on country after country, governments around the world are introducing austerity measures to try to keep their economies going. Many countries are now facing financial crisis and the need for loans and support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Formerly comfortable people are going from regular employment to unemployment or erratic employment, and growing numbers of people are finding it hard even to afford basics such as food.

In Balkan nation Serbia, trade unions have come up with a solution: they are called SOS Shops and they feature food and other products priced at as much as 70 percent less than regular shops. By cutting back on the profit margin for the products, the store can make drastic cuts in prices.

In the capital, Belgrade, the shops are run by trade unions in partnership with a local retail chain, Jabuka. The Association of Free and Independent Trade Unions uses Jabuka to run the stores. Anyone with an income below 20,000 dinars (US $280) a month can receive a special card to shop at the SOS stores.

In Jabuka’s other stores, the profit margin is 20 percent, and in rival stores it can be over 30 percent. Jabuka also makes savings by sourcing locally and suppliers offering discounts of between 15 percent and 25 percent.

"The prices there are 30 to 50 percent lower than in major supermarkets," Jabuka manager Milorad Miskovic told IPS. "It's a hard time for many people, so we decided to lower our margin of profit to only five percent at the SOS shops.

"SOS shops are intended for the socially handicapped. SOS shops offer goods at lower prices to Serbian citizens earning minimum wages or pensions lower than RSD 20,000, to the unemployed, to the displaced from Kosovo and the citizens on the dole (welfare)."

Hard hit by the global downturn, Serbia has seen its recent boom times disappear quickly. The country had enjoyed average yearly growth since 2000 of 6.7 percent.

The country is currently negotiating bridging loans with the IMF (www.imf.org). The conditions for the loan mean severe cuts to public sector wages and tax rises.

According to the Serbian Statistical Office, Serbia has lost 10,000 jobs a month since the beginning of 2009. The official unemployment rate is 14 percent, and the government believes half a million people now live below the official poverty line, out of a population of 10 million.

"Many people have lost their jobs and the main problem is that the middle class is now poor. That is the real problem," Nebojsa Rajkovic of the Association of Independent Trade Unions told the BBC. "The government prepared a social programme to deal with the economic crisis in Serbia, but it was not enough and that is the reason the union devised this project."

This month, the Jabuka trade company opened its third SOS shop in Belgrade. The shop, the largest SOS shop so far, will be opened in the Mirijevo neighbourhood of Belgrade, and it will offer a wider range of products.

The unions plan to open 100 social supermarkets this year. Basic staples like bread, milk and potatoes are the cheapest goods. Unlike other supermarkets, the stores feature local brands and products made in Serbia: a boost to local producers in the economic downturn.

In order to stop hoarding of the cheap food or people buying a lot and then selling it for a profit, the amount that can be bought on one shopping trip is limited. For example, just three bottles of cooking oil are allowed each time.

"Most people in Serbia are finding things difficult financially. We only have maybe five or 10 percent of the population who don't have financial problems," continued Rajkovic.

One customer, 26-year-old Milica Marjanovic , found the shops provided much-needed support to her unemployed family. "My mother, my sister and I are unemployed. We don't get any social benefits," she said to the BBC.

"There are a lot of unemployed people in Serbia, life is hard for a lot of people and they can hardly manage.

"Many families don't even have what is basic for living. So, these shops are welcome."

Links

• The Co-operative Food: This pioneering network of supermarkets offers both affordable food prices for customers and good prices and terms for suppliers. They are a founding member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). This is an alliance of companies, trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working together to improving working conditions in supply chains.
  Website: http://www.co-operative.coop/food/

Cleaner Stoves To Reduce Global Warming

The use of polluting fuel-burning stoves by half the world's population - including 80 percent of rural households - is a documented contributor to a host of health problems. Poor households not only have to contend with the ill health effects of dirty water and poor sanitation, the fumes from burning dung, wood, coal or crop leftovers lead to the deaths of more than 1.6 million people a year from breathing toxic indoor air (WHO).

The polluting stoves have also been identified as major contributors to climate change. The soot from the fires produces black carbon, now considered a significant contributor to global warming. While carbon dioxide is the number one contributor to rising global temperatures, black carbon is second, causing 18 percent of warming.

Getting black carbon levels down is being seen as a relatively inexpensive way to reduce global warming while gaining another good: cleaner air for poor households. The soot only hangs around in the atmosphere for a few weeks while carbon dioxide lingers for years, so the impact can be seen quickly.

A flurry of initiatives across the South are now designing, developing and testing clean-burning stoves to tackle this problem. The number of initiatives is impressive (see list of clean-burning stove initiatives by country: http://www.bioenergylists.org/en/country), but the test will be who can develop stoves that poor households will actually use and find the right model to distribute them to half the world's population.

In India, the Surya cookstove project is test marketing six prototypes of clean burning stoves with poor households. Developed by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, the six stoves are still undergoing field testing. Initial criticisms from users have focused on the stoves' durability and overly clinical appearance.

Cost will be critical to success no matter what the stove's final design: "I'm sure they'd look nice, but I'd have to see them, to try them," Chetram Jatrav in Kohlua, central India, told the New York Times. As her three children coughed, she continued that she would like a stove that "made less smoke and used less fuel" but she cannot afford one.

Envirofit India - founded in 2007 as a branch of the US-based Envirofit International - is at a more advanced stage, already selling clean-burning stoves across India and the Philippines. It claims to have already sold over 10,000 stoves to poor households.

They have developed high-quality stoves in four models: the B-110 Value Single Pot (a simple stove for one pot), S-2100 Deluxe Single Pot (a sturdier design), S-4150 Deluxe Double Pot (two burning surfaces), S-4150 Deluxe Double Pot with Chimney. They have been designed to be visually appealing for households - in tasteful colours like blue and green - and using high quality engineering for durability.

They have been tested by engineers at the Colorado State University's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory and are certified for design and environmental standards.

The stoves are on sale in 1,000 villages in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh. The stoves have already successfully undergone pilot testing in Chitradurga and Dharmapuri. The manufacturer uses a network of dealers, distributors, village entrepreneurs and not-for-profit organizations to make the stoves commercially available for purchase. They hope to have 1,500 dealer outlets by the end of 2009.

"Envirofit clean cookstoves have received an overwhelming reception in India," said Ron Bills, chairman and chief executive officer at Envirofit. "Our cookstoves are not only meticulously engineered to reduce toxic emissions and fuel use; they are also aesthetically designed and durable. Envirofit takes great pride in offering high-quality, affordable products to typically underserved global markets."

But once again price comes up as a major issue: Envirofit’s stoves are designed to last five years, and thus they cost more than other stoves for sale in India. An Envirofit stove costs between 500 rupees (US $10) to 2,000 rupees (US $40): existing stoves sell for between 250 rupees (US $5) and 1,000 rupees (US $20), and last a year at most.

As one blogger complained: “The envirofit stoves … are way beyond the capacity of the low income households who form 65% of the Indian population. Only the 10% of the middle to higher income segment can go for them... perhaps the price can be brought down by reducing the showy part of the stove to help the poorest.”

Envirofit is part of the Shell Foundation's Breathing Space program, established to tackle indoor air pollution from cooking fires in homes and hopes to sell and place 10 million clean-burning stoves in five countries over the next five years.  

Links

• A video shows the installation of clean-burning stoves in Peru, South America. It also has links to many other videos of clean-burning stoves and how to build and install them.
  Website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neZZvvnL8Lg
• Designing a clean-burning dung fuel stove.
  Website: www.bioenergylists.org

Window on the World

Training Opportunities

Ongoing

Grameen Bank Microcredit Training Programs

Website: www.grameen-info.org

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Courses

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the USA's best known private universities, has made all 1,800 courses in its curriculum (environmental sciences, computer studies, physics...) available free on-line, using an open source system called OpenCourseWare (OCW). Each month, some 1.5 million surfers, most of them based outside the USA, follow the lessons and lectures in PDF, audio and video formats, some are also translated into French and Portuguese. MIT is working with other universities to help them set up their own OCW.

Website: ocw.mit.edu

Sustainable Tourism Criteria

The criteria focus on four areas experts recommend as the most critical aspects of sustainable tourism: maximizing tourism’s social and economic benefits to local communities; reducing negative impacts on cultural heritage; reducing harm to local environments; and planning for sustainability. The GSTC Partnership is developing educational materials and technical tools to guide hotels and tour operators in implementing the criteria.

Website: www.sustainableTourismCriteria.org

Two Workshops Offered for Development Practitioners

The community-managed microfinance course deals with providing sustainable financial services for the very poor.  Although MFIs are well-established, they have mostly failed to penetrate remote rural areas because the costs are too high and the demand for credit too small.  Meanwhile, over the last 15 years, massive, sustainable programmes have emerged that reach this target group at very low cost, based on autonomous, small-scale savings and loan associations. Co-sponsored by the SNHU Community Economic Development Masters Program at the Open University of Tanzania and VSL Associates.

Website: http://rs6.net

Careers

Development Executive Group Devex Networking Website

Over 90,000 global experts can network and connect and learn about more than 47,000 registered projects.

Website: www.devex.org

New Website Offers Career Advice to Young Africans

Set up by the Commonwealth Secretariat, Africancareerguidance.com is aimed at providing career guidance to African youth and helping them to link with prospective employers. AfricaRecruit is a human resources organisation that provides skills training for African professionals in the Diaspora and on the continent. The website has an inbuilt email subscriber list for all its users and offers a searchable database of career profiles for job seekers and prospective employers. It also offers skills and interest assessments and advice on CV and résumé preparation. It provides tips about interviewing techniques, as well as information on internship and volunteer opportunities, and entrepreneurial skills.

Website: www.africacareerguidance.com

African Diaspora Skills Database

This database was compiled to provide an overview of qualified African Diaspora professionals with varied areas of expertise and experience. The African Diaspora contributes substantially to the social, economic and political development of Africa, and this database is set up to further mobilize this considerable potential.

Website: www.diaspora-centre.org

Aid Workers Network (AWN)

Aid Workers Network (AWN) is an online platform for aid, relief and development workers to ask and answer questions of each other, and to exchange resources and information. AWN is registered in the United Kingdom as a charity. You will find discussions about a range of questions and issues on the AWN forum from aid, relief and development workers all over the world and representing a variety of fields, with new threads or responses posted daily. The forum is a great way to get in contact with other aid and development workers in your geographic area or working in a similar area of work.

Website: www.aidworkers.net

Bizzlounge

Bizzlounge is where people committed to ethical behaviour meet, who want to establish and maintain business contacts in an exclusive and relaxed environment.

Website: bizzlounge.com

Business Action for Africa

Business Action for Africa is a network of businesses and business organisations working collectively to accelerate growth and poverty reduction in Africa.

Website: businessactionforafrica.blogspot.com

Business Fights Poverty

Business Fights Poverty is a professional network for all those passionate about fighting world poverty through the power of good business.

Website: businessfightspoverty.ning.com

Business in Development Network (BiD)

The BiD Network Foundation runs the BiD Challenge to contribute to sustainable economic development by stimulating entrepreneurship in developing countries.

Website: www.bidnetwork.org

Catalogue of Poverty Networks

UNDP is organizing an online catalogue of Poverty Networks as a means to facilitate access to knowledge and sharing this to a wider audience in 189 countries. Poverty Networks are web-based platforms that provide space for sharing and disseminating development-related information and initiatives. Below you will find information on IPC’s collaborating networks, which help foster dialogue between researchers, policymakers, civil society and multilateral organisations.

Website: www.undp-povertycentre.org

Connections for Development (CfD)

CfD is a UK, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) led, membership based organisation committed to ensuring that UK BME communities, and the organisations they are involved in, are supported in the process of shaping and delivering policy and projects that affect their countries of origin or interest – collectively ”our world”

Website: www.cfdnetwork.co.uk

Development Crossing

Development Crossing was set up in 2006 by a small group of friends with diverse backgrounds ranging from business consulting to international development. In a world where the environment, corporate responsibility, and sustainable development are becoming increasingly intertwined, our goal was to create a site where individuals that shared our passion could keep up-to-date with relevant happenings in the world and connect with like-minded individuals. The idea behind Development Crossing is to provide a social network that brings together people from a variety of sectors, countries and professions to discuss corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.

Website: www.developmentcrossing.com

DevelopmentAid.org

The one-stop-information-shop for the developmental sector, DevelopmentAid.org is a membership organization that brings together information for developmental professionals, NGOs, consultancy firms and donors.

Website: www.developmentaid.org

dgCommunities on the Development Gateway

dgCommunities, a free online service by the Development Gateway Foundation is devoted to knowledge-sharing and collaboration for people working to reduce poverty in the developing world.

Website: topics.developmentgateway.org

Diaspora African Forum

This Forum exists ''to invite and encourage the full participation of Africans in the Diaspora in the building of the African Union, in its capacity as an important part of the Continent''. We will provide the vital linkage for Diaspora Africans to become involved in Africa's development as well as reap the fruits of African unity.

Website: www.diasporaafricanforum.org

Eldis Communities

Eldis aims to share the best in development, policy, practice and research. The Eldis Community is a free on-line community where you can meet others involved in international development and discuss the issues that are important to you.

Website: community.eldis.org

Enterprise Development Exchange

The Enterprise Development Exchange links related communities of practice to advance sustainable poverty eradication. It is facilitated by The SEEP Network through the Value Initiative.

Website: edexchange.seepnetwork.org

Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) Forum

The FSN Forum is a global community of FSN practitioners. It bridges the knowledge divide among the different communities involved in FSN policies and strategies - such as academics, researchers and development practitioners - to improve cooperation and impacts; members in many countries across the world’s five continents.

Website: http://km.fao.org/fsn/

Global Development Matters

Global Development Matters is designed to engage U.S. citizens and leaders in examining how rich world policies affect global poverty reduction. There is an Election '08 blog.

Website: www.globaldevelopmentmatters.org

GTZ-Communities Sustainable Economic Development

The GTZ-Communities Sustainable Economic Development are open to all practitioners, counterparts, research institutions, donors and interested consultants worldwide facilitating an inter agency exchange of experiences and best practices. This weekly updated website provides you with recent news and lessons learned from GTZ as well as from other development agencies and research institutions in the field of economic development. Its core is a comprehensive database. Participation in this open community is free of charge. However, registration is necessary.

Website: Africa | Middle East and North Africa | Asia

LED knowledge

This website is an online space for sharing the experiences and resources of people and organizations supporting local economic development processes at the local level. LED Knowledge is the result of a joint effort of the ILO-LED programme team based in Geneva, and the ILO training arm, the International Training Centre, based in Turin, Italy.

Website: www.ledknowledge.org

Network of Networks Impact Evaluation Initiative (Nonie)

Nonie is a network of networks for impact evaluation comprised of the DAC Evaluation Network, The United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG), the Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG), and a fourth network drawn from the regional evaluation associations. Its purpose is to foster a program of impact evaluation activities based on a common understanding of the meaning of impact evaluation and approaches to conducting impact evaluation.

Website: www.worldbank.org/ieg/nonie/

TakingITGlobal.org

TakingITGlobal.org is an online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities.

Website: profiles.takingitglobal.org

XING Group Microfinance Industry

In this new XING Group, microfinance professionals from all over the globe link and discuss topics of interest. Use this forum to discuss financial technology, find employment, identify training opportunities and events, and share knowledge resources with fellow members of the microfinance industry. XING is an online networking tool to manage all personal contacts and to find interesting new business contacts. It's amazing how quickly it facilitates contact with key people.

Website: www.xing.com/

AfDevinfo - African Development Information Service

AfDevinfo tracks the mechanics of political and economic development across Sub Saharan Africa. They draw together a diverse range of publicly available data and present it as an accessible and ever expanding online database.

Website: www.afdevinfo.com

Growing Inclusive Markets (GIM)

The Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative has created a set of data, information and analytical products that will increase understanding of the markets of the poor, including existing opportunities and challenges.

Website: www.growinginclusivemarkets.org

Fellowship Opportunities

Africa Entrepreneurship Platform

This ground breaking initiative is created as a forum to showcase innovative ideas and businesses from Africa that have the ability to scale internationally driving job creation and sustainable economic development between Africa and the Americas.

Website: www.sacca.biz

Piramal Foundation in India

Has established a US $25,000 prize for ideas that help advance full access to effective public health care in India. The Piramal Prize is a $25,000 Social Entrepreneurship Competition focused on democratizing health care in India that seeks to encourage and support bold entrepreneurial ideas which can profoundly impact access to higher standards of health for India’s rural and marginalized urban communities. The award recognizes high-impact, scalable business models and innovative solutions that directly or indirectly address India’s health-care crisis.

Website: www.piramalprize.org/

The Pioneers of Prosperity Grant and Award

This competition is a partnership between the OTF Group and the John F. Templeton Foundation of the United States, and promotes companies in East Africa by identifying local role models that act as examples of sustainable businesses in their country/region. It is open to businesses from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Website: pioneersofprosperity.org

African Writers Fund

Together with the Ford Foundation, the Fund supports the work of independent creative writers living on the continent. The Fund recognizes the vital role that poets and novelists play in Africa by anticipating and reflecting the cultural, economic and political forces that continuously shape and reshape societies.

Website: www.trustafrica.org

Joint NAM S&T Centre - ICCS Fellowship Programme

Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre) and International Center for Chemical Sciences (ICCS), (H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry and Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research), University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.

Email: namstct@vsnl.com

Website: www.scidev.net

Development Executive Group Devex Networking Website

Over 90,000 global experts can network and connect and learn about more than 47,000 registered projects.

Website: www.devex.org

Oxford Said Business School Youth Business Development Competition

Open to youth between 16 and 21 across the world, the competition is run by students at Oxford University to promote social enterprise. A prize fund of £2,000 in seed capital is up for grabs. It calls itself the ‘world’s first global youth development competition’.

Website: More Information

US$250,000 for Best Lab Design

AMD and Architecture for Humanity have announced a prize of $250,000 for the best design for a computer lab that can be adapted and implemented in third-world countries.

Website: www.openarchitecturenetwork.org

PhD Plant Breeding Scholarships at the University of Ghana

The University of Ghana has been awarded a project support grant by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (a joint venture between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, for the establishment of a West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI). This is available to scientists working at NARIs, universities and international centres in West Africa. Women scientists are especially encouraged to apply for a fellowship under this programme.

Website: www.acci.org.za

Institute of Social Studies in The Hague

A collaboration between 25 international think tanks in international development, www.focuss.info is a search engine for indexing and social book marking online resources in international development.

Website: http://focuss.info/

Genesis: India’s Premier Social Entrepreneurship Competition

A social entrepreneurship competition aiming to bring together social entrepreneurs, students, NGOs, innovators, incubators, corporations and financiers and encourage them to come up with innovative ideas which are socially relevant and feasible.

Website: http://genesis.iitm.ac.in

Echoing Green: Social Entrepreneurs Fund

They are looking for social entrepreneurs developing new solutions to social problems. They are accepting applications for their 2008 fellowships (two-year funding of up to US $90,000 for 20 entrepreneurs.

Website: www.echoinggreen.org

Funding

UNESCO: International Centre for South-South Co-operation in Science, Technology and Innovation

The International Centre for South-South Co-operation in Science, Technology and Innovation was inaugurated in Kuala Lumpur in May 2008. The centre functions under the auspices of UNESCO. It facilitates the integration of a developmental approach into national science and technology and innovation policies, and provides policy advice. In parallel to organizing capacity-building and the exchange of experience and best practices, the centre conducts research and tackles specific problems in science, technology and innovation policy-making in developing countries.

Website: www.unesco.org

Funding - Google.org

While SMEs in rich countries represent half of GDP, they are largely absent from the formal economies of developing countries. Today, there are trillions of investment dollars chasing returns – and SMEs are a potentially high impact, high return investment. However, only a trickle of this capital currently reaches SMEs in developing countries. Our goal is to increase this flow.

Website: www.google.org

Challenge InnoCentive

A challenge to the world’s inventors to find solutions to real scientific and technological problems affecting the poor and vulnerable.

Website: http://www.innocentive.com

Global Social Benefit Incubator: A US $20,000 Bottom of the Pyramid Scholarship

Offered by Santa Clara University’s Global Social Benefit Incubator, it selects 15 to 20 enterprises from developing countries and provides an eight-month mentoring process. This ends with a 10-day process in Santa Clara, where entrepreneurs work with their mentors.

Website: http://www.socialedge.org

Job Opportunities