UNDP's innovative way on private sector development through Project Facilitation Platforms in Africa

I am excited to share with you UNDP's innovative way on private sector development through Project Facilitation Platforms to boost food production and job & income opportunities for farmers through advancing agriculture value chains.

UNDP's regional private sector project in Africa, the African Facility for Inclusive Markets (AFIM), is launching such platforms in East, West and Southern Africa. Stakeholders representing governments, UN agencies, private sector, farmers, financiers and civil society are discussing partnerships and value addition of the various partners in strategic agri-food value chains.

I am writing this from the first platform for East Africa launched this week in Nairobi convening partners from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia. Project promoters presenting planned interventions include Africa Harvest, East Africa Dairy Development Project and UNIDO/UNDP to advance specific projects of sorghum, soy and dairy value chains.

Aeneas Chuma, UNDP Resident Representative who opened the Nairobi workshop stated: “A new private sector is emerging in Africa with great potential for creating new jobs, generating higher incomes and delivering products and services for all. Agriculture value chains and agribusiness are critical to advance food security and economic opportunities”.

The platforms are unique by focusing on cross-border and regional value chains, bringing all relevant players together and building capacity of regional institutions to organize such platforms themselves in the future. Furthermore, bridges are built between public and private sectors as well as between policy and practical project implementation issues.

“UNDP’s African Facility for Inclusive Markets is brokering partnerships and building capacity to develop inclusive markets that contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive economic growth. The level of participation for this East Africa platform is very encouraging, and we will launch similar initiatives in West Africa and Southern Africa,” said Tomas Sales, AFIM Manager.

With the positive start and feedback from the East Africa platform, I am looking forward to tangible impact of the strengthened projects and to the platforms in West Africa (July 2012) and Southern Africa (end of 2012).

Lions on the Move - a new Africa being born?

Egypt freed itself from a dictator because people claimed back their power. Protesters shouted "we are the people", the same acclamation that brought down the Iron Curtain when people in former Easter Germany protested for their freedom. It also reminds me to the United Nations Charter starting with "We the People".

While Egypt culturally belongs to the Arab world, it is an interesting cross-roads also to Africa and the West. History is being written and it seems more and more people are awakening... what does it mean for Africa and the world?

As blogged earlier, since I arrived for a new project in South Africa last year, I felt that change is in the air. This was further confirmed during a trip to Ethiopia last month. A lot of development and construction is going on, the Chinese are building a new African Union complex and the diaspora is coming back from the USA to start businesses.

If we look at the bigger picture about events on and around the continent, the signs make up a puzzle, imperfect but nonetheless we can see a path, a journey towards freedom. Just some examples: independence of African states (mainly 1950s-70s), end of cold war 1989 (which affected many African countries), end of apartheid in South Africa 1994, "first African-American" US president Obama 1998, first FIFA World Cup in Africa 2010, South Sudan separation 2011, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Libya 2011. What next?

This list is of course incomplete to give a full picture of a very diverse continent with 53 states where poverty, disparity and dictators remain in several regions. However, with omnipresent communications technology and a rising collective consciousness the trend is clear: people increasingly take ownership and demand fair political leadership, jobs and economic opportunities.

Africa's economic and social outlook is positive: The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon just recently spoke about "winds of change blowing throughout Africa" and "the new narrative for Africa is a story of growth". Africa is expected to be the the fastest growing region in the world, only behind Asia. A recent McKinsey study paints a similar opportunity-rich picture calling African countries "Lions on the Move".

As the beginning 2011 is bringing change so rapidly, watch out for the rest of the year and 2012. Africa and the world are changing so fast, we better are open for it. As we have seen in the examples of Libya and Ivory Coast, the new era comes with some 'birthing pain' and old structures need to crack open for new energy to emerge. Rather resisting, can we embrace the coming change? As Mahatma Gandhi said: “You must be the change you want to see in the world”.

If you want to read more about the new, positive Africa emerging, you can for example follow Africa Good News, AfricanLoft and, of course, this blog Business4Good. Or best, see for yourself and visit the over 50 countries of Africa.

Starting new UNDP Africa Project - a dream comes true

I have just moved to Johannesburg to start a new United Nations development project. This blog post covers the project and my first week back with Mother Africa from two perspectives: 1) professional and 2) personal.

1) New UNDP Africa Project on Private Sector and
    Inclusive Business/Market Development
Together with my Mozambican colleague Tomas Sales, we are starting UNDP's first Pan-African project on developing vibrant private sectors that create jobs and enhance incomes by including low-income people into value chains. This can mean offering specialized and affordable products/services to them as customers (demand side) or working with them as workers, suppliers or entrepreneurs (supply side). Such business models at the "Base of the Pyramid" are also called inclusive business models contributing to poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The track-record so far and prospects to achieve the MDGs by 2015 are mixed. 10 years have passed and only five more to go. The recent financial and economic crises plus environmental challenges (foremost climate change) have not helped either. But the goals can still be achieved and increasingly the important role of the private sector - business and entrepreneurs - is realized. The project covers Regional Economic Integration, Value Chain Projects, Partnerships and Inclusive Finance. It's too complex to describe here in short, so I leave it with a slide carrying the spirit of the project.

2) Dreams do come true
Some years I had a dream: Using my business background for social human development. I wanted to make a change with my life and work for a better world, not just donate some money to ease my conscience. My heart was burning for big adventures and taking on big challenges. My aspiration was to work for the United Nations in Africa.

The road there has been winding but if things are meant to be and we believe in our aspirations and potential they do become true. My multi-stages path after leaving the " corporate rat race" included: unpaid volunteer at a Microfinance NGO in Peru (FINCA), grass-roots work in Mali (Mali-Initiative), an unpaid internship at the UN (Global Compact), earning Masters in International Development (UNSW) and getting a chance to work for UNDP in New York, hanging in there as a serial short-term consultant...

Now my dream to work for the UN on "business & development" in Africa is coming true. And the best is that it is just starting :) Imagine next? I already feel a sense of deep change here in Africa and globally consciousness is growing. Change is in the air, we can make it! Some inspiration to listen to your own heart and unleash your inner potential:

"Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!
Live the life you've imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

Leave a comment below.

Global Compact Leaders Summit 2010 and other things to look forward...

Let's start off with a positive note... I am happy :) out of several reasons: Summer is here, I am going on holidays soon and my 'new' work-life approach does make sense: Following my heart to explore timeless wisdom and to expand consciousness in my daily life and work. Might sound airy-fairy but it is actually very practical. It not only feels right but also bears fruits regarding work satisfaction and efficiency with very positive feedback from colleagues.

A break-through at work is that the major project I have been designing the last months is being approved and therefore I am going to move to Johannesburg in September 2010 for about two years! It's a big Africa UNDP project aiming at developing a vibrant private sector in multiple African countries. Why is this exciting? It's the first of its kind for UNDP in Africa and 'fresh' compared to traditional aid project as it intends to unleash people's inherent potential, specifically on entrepreneurship, which then leads to job and income generation. More as soon as the project is officially launched.

Already happening this week is the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2010 in New York City. The last Summit which happened 2007 was very interesting, see my article about it's outcomes. This week, more than 1,200 executives  from nearly 100 countries are confirmed to attend this historic event. Registration is closed (and was invitation-only to mainly CEOs), however you can follow it live via live on the UN Webcast site or read about it on the Global Compact blog or Crane and Matten blog.

Last not least, I just received confirmation that an article I wrote for the upcoming Thunderbird Business Review special issue on Entrepreneurship and Sustainability got accepted and will be the opening piece. This is great news as it is the first article for me of this kind and motivates me for more. Will link as soon as published...

Good luck and peace!

Why focussing on "the End of Poverty" reinforces Poverty - Energy follows Attention, so let's aim for Sustainable Prosperity

Some years ago my attention in a bookstore was caught be Jeffrey Sachs' book titled "The End of Poverty". Later at the UN I even had the chance to meet Jeffrey Sachs and his intelligence and passion are amazing. Doesn't ending poverty sound like a cause worth fighting for? It certainly does, the real question is how to achieve this.

Other passionate and intelligent people, such as William Easterly, strongly disagree with Sachs' grand UN-plan. Millennium Development Goal 8 "Develop a global partnership for development " goes into the right direction Easterly has a point. He argues that one big plan for so many different cultures and countries have never worked and in fact have done damage. In fact when you study international development there are no clear examples where 'aid' actually really helped a country to develop. In Mali I even have found cases where aid reinforced dependency and created a corrupt aid system.

Energy follows attention, this means that by focussing on poverty and pitying the 'poor' Africans (for example) and trying to 'help' them, it is actually contributed to reinforce the situation. The more we try to fix poverty the more energy it gets... why not talking about potential and sustainable prosperity?

I have blogged many times about examples how CSR and especially Social Entrepreneurship can contribute to sustainable prosperity, rather ending poverty. These concepts tap into potential, they unleashing entrepreneurship and responsible business pratcices by an increased awareness that there is 'more' than profit or poverty only. For example, I am sure Yunus is not running around in Bangladesh pitying 'the poor' but has been their potential and unleashed it with microcredits.

Fundamental problems such as poverty can not be solved until a shift in awareness helps our consciousness to go beyond the we-versus-them paradigm. We need to see the bigger picture, i.e. that we are all connected and therefore part of one whole (call it the planet, the universe etc.). Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer et. al., leaders in organizational learning, describe this well in their book Presence (more on this in a separate article).

Finally, there are certainly enough resources on earth to happily feed the planet's population. Why do 20% of the world population need 80% of the world's resources? So it's not about ending poverty but about sustainable prosperity for all. How can it be achieved? With real partnership with 'aspiring countries', it's about fair trade (hallo Doha round), it's about sharing and collaboration, it's about expanding consciousness. So let's give energy towards sustainable prosperity which will end poverty along the way.

As Ghandi put it: "The earth has enough for man’s need but not for man’s greed"

What do You think?