Social Entrepreneurs + Web 2.0 = betterplace.org

What do you get if you combine the functionality of web 2.0 with the objectives of social entrepreneurship? Probably a platform similar than betterplace.org.

I have blogged about social entrepreneurs several times. Using business acumen (economic development) for the public good (social development) is a hybrid I have centered my interest on for years. Imagine you add the outreach potential and functionalities of web 2.0 using the internet as a platform for web-based communities. The outcome might be a social platform to make the world a better place: connecting people who want to help with people who need support.

How does betterplace work?
Signing up is as simple as onto Facebook or match.com, however, at the center of this platform are development projects. On the one side, individuals and organization post projects which they are looking for support, while on the other side, individuals and companies offer their donations or in-kind contribution (see illustration below). A bit like match.com but rather a computer matching you, you are selecting suitable projects yourself and, rather going for a blind date, you can check the projects through a 'web of trust'.



The Web of Trust
How do you know which projects and project carriers are trustworthy? Trying to trust big brand names such as UNICEF has its limitations. Many local projects are directly posted by small organizations from developing countries. Therefore, people you know who have visited the project or have a relationship with the project carriers help to build up a trust relationship with the project. It is a bit like business networking where you would only recommend someone you trust. Below an illustration.



New generation of Social Entrepreneurs
A few months ago I met betterplace' CEO Till Behnke in Berlin and it is great to see a new generation of young social entrepreneurs emerging in a 'conservative' country such as Germany. Till, for example, left his well paid job at DaimlerChrysler Financial Services to set-up betterplace. He uses business skills not just to develop the platform but also to link it to Corporate Social Responsibiliy (CSR) by offering betterplace as a platform to companies allowing them to integrate their employees into the corporation's CSR activities.

Furthermore, recently the co-founders of betterplace visited us in Mali on their travels around the world meeting searchers and featuring projects. Joana Breidenbach is very active on the betterplace.blog and a helping the Mali Initiative a lot to spread the word, especially in Germany where we work on a joint event in May.

What are the benefits of betterplace' approach?

1. New ways in development are much needed as success stories of the last 60 years are hard to come by. Moreover, the aid system is full of fundamental flaws as I have observed in Mali and blogged about in "How corrupt is the development aid system?"
2. William Easterly, author of White Man's Burden, states, a platform such as betterplace "would bypass the narrow administrative funnel in the recipient government... it would avoid the strategic manipulation of aid by donor governments and the corruption of recipient governments."
3. Ultimately, my field observations in Mali and at renowed Ugandan Rural Development and Training Programme (URDT) support the argument that the so-called 'poor people' are key to their own development (rather the patronizing and often dependency-increasing efforts of us 'whities'). As Easterly states "Only the self-reliant efforts of poor people and poor societies themselves can end poverty, borrowing ideas and institutions from the West when is suits them to do so".
4. Therefore, it is great to see how different social entrepreneurs working together, from the betterplace founders in the heart of Europe to local searchers such as Youchaou Traore, the Mali Initiative's social entrepreneur in Africa.

Read an article about betterplace in Die Zeit (in German).
Check out the Mali Initiative's projects on betterplace.

The Mali Initiative launches to make Change through Education

(5 January 2008 Bamako, Mali) - The Mali Initiative, a not-for-profit network of committed individuals around the world aspiring to make change through education launches with the start of 2008. Nelson Mandela said “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world” stressing the fundamental importance of education for development.

Therefore, the initiative aims at improving the education of children to become an active generation for a better future. It facilitates global partnerships for local development projects which communities drive and own themselves. It focuses on improving access to quality education for the children in Mali where around half of all children have no access to schools at all.

Activities include facilitating the construction of new class-rooms as well as significant improvement and equipping of existing class-rooms, enabling an effective learning environment. Furthermore, teacher training and ongoing support is provided empowering teachers to use engaging and effective techniques, including laptop computers.

Education is seen as a priority at national and village levels in Mali, with good reason. Many children have no access to any schools at all. Class-rooms hold up to over 100 children where most children do not have tables and chairs or books and pens. With 81% illiteracy rate, 4 out of 5 adults can not read and write, according to UN data.

“How shall you learn or find a job without being able to read and write? Education holds the key for sustainable development in action, you see the difference child per child” says Youchaou Traore, Director of the non-governmental organization (NGO) that has been officially registered to undertake activities in Mali.

Youchaou was a street-child himself, without access to education for many years. He decided to leave the begging in the streets behind him when he got the chance to go to school where he learned enthusiastically. Education pulled him out of poverty and allowed him to become a renowned translator for international organizations. Now he runs the flagship school of the Mali Initiative in Bamako.

“A world is possible where all children have access to quality education” believes Elise Klein, Managing Director. “We know it is a long way but bringing together local communities in Mali with passionate individuals from Australia and around the world is powerful. Step by step we have been building friendships, developed class-rooms and given children the gift of education” she continues.

The Mali Initiative is based on the success of a project by young people and Malian Youchaou Traore who have fundraised and invested over 200.00$ since 2004. The pilot school in the outskirts of Mali’s capital Bamako has been expanded to now 12 class-rooms, a library and computer-room. The school is a quality-reference and considered one of the best in the country. Furthermore, a pilot with street children successfully educates these marginalized children.

By 2020 the Mali Initiative wants to have developed 1.000 class-rooms, trained 10.000 teachers and have facilitated the education of over 500.000 children in Mali. “Young people are the future. We are going to need a lot support to scale up the successful pilot schools. Individuals and organizations, please join the initiative!” calls Elise Klein, Managing Director who also is a UN Youth Spokesperson.

“Help is especially needed in raising funds for additional class-rooms which each costs up to 13.000$ in poor but expensive Mali. Adopt a class-room which is more than a donation, you get a great social return on investment: enabling quality education of 30 children per year” says Program Director Juergen Nagler.

So far the growing network consists of some dozens of committed individuals bringing in their passion, skills and time; Corporate supporters include National Australia Bank and Telstra. Express your interest to support the Mali Initiative by emailing to elise.klein@mali-initiative.org. For more information see www.reachmaliproject.org.au. To make a donation use PayPal, please.

About the Mali Initiative

The Mali Initiative is a not-for-profit network of committed individuals around the world aspiring to make change. We facilitate global partnerships for local development projects which communities drive and own themselves. We focus on improving access to quality education for the children in Mali. A non-governmental organization (NGO) is officially registered in Mali. Tax-deductibility status is also given in Australia through the Reach Foundation. Fore more information, please visit www.reachmaliproject.org.au.

About Mali

Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the 4th poorest country in the world with over 70% living of less than 1$ per day according to UN data. It has a population of 12 million people, of which over the half is under 15 years old and 81% are unable to read and write. However, Mali is also a positive example for African countries and the world as a stable democracy where Muslims, Christians and different ethnic groups live peacefully together.

Where would You be without Education? - A Journey into an African village

Let me take you onto a journey...

You fly into Africa... to Bamako, the capital of Mali. You leave the airport, board a rusty old Mercedes minibus which was dumped in Europe probably 15 years ago. The five hour journey takes you through red dust countryside and huts along the road. Whenever your vehicle stops woman who wait along the road in front of their huts out of handmade mud bricks, come quickly to your window trying to make a sell to generate some income. The journey continues sharing the road with even older trucks, people on rooftops, donkey-carts and Malians walking from village to village.

After hours witnessing some of Mali's rural life along one of its main roads between Bamako and Segou, you leave the (hardly) paved road and turn right into the Sahel, the semi-desert sister of the Sahara. There is no more maverick-dangerous traffic, no overloaded trucks or broken down cars; in fact there is no more motorised traffic at all. Farmers, too poor and uneducated to use advanced tools or fertilizers, are trying to make the best out of the meager land. Currently it is the "season of plenty" which means the soils have recently delivered harvests but how must it be to be here in the "hungry season" when there is no water and no food?

You arrive in the village Niamana. As soon as kids spot the vehicle (remember, no cars) they get very excited which quadruples when then see "tibbaboo". This is the friendly word in Bambara, the most widely spoken language in Mali, for white people. The kids scream loud due to excitement with an heart touching smile on their face. You arrive at Youchau's family's house. Niamana is inspiring, kind of sobering. Imagine you strip away the "matrix" of our busy life-style full of gadgets, information overload with TV and daily swamp of emails being always connected. No water coming from tap (there is a well) and no electricity (there is a solar panel powering a lamp at night) and no mobile phone reception (there is one landline). You feel like being transferred into a village 100 years ago, start feeling settled into an extremely poor yet friendly community.

The poverty bothers you and you start thinking how you could make a difference (next of being an attraction to the kids). A happy young kid comes up to you and when he smiles at you you feel happy and smile back. Amadou is a typical rural Malian kid. Although being 10 years old he looks much smaller due to not getting enough good food. You learn that he talks 5km each morning to get to school. There he squeezes himself into a small, old class-room together with 100 other kids. Most of the kids don't find a table and almost none of them has something to write. Many kids are hungry which makes learning even harder. You identify yourself with Amadou and ask yourself "could I have learned under these conditions?" You learn that 4 out of 5 people can not read or write. Teaching facilities are so basic, classrooms missing and overfilled that hundreds of the village's kids have no chance to go to school at all.

However, there is hope: Elders, teachers and families of the community see education as the key to provide their children with the chance of a better future. They free their kids from work in the fields or households, they try to safe money to be able to pay for the teachers' salary. You think of Amadou and the hundreds of kids without a chance to receive education. You imagine how the the next generation of this country could develop through education. You remember that, although school was not always fun for you, it allowed you to read your favorite books, to learn, to study, to vote, to get your jobs... Where would You be without Education?

Happy new year!
Elise, Youchaou and Juergen

PS: The Mali Initiative works to improve the education of children in Mali. Get involved. For more information see http://www.reachmaliproject.org.au/.
PPS: For more photos see http://www.flickr.com/jjnagler/tags/mali/show

WBCSD: New publication "Doing Business with the World"

The development focus area of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released a new flagship publication "Doing Business with the World - The new role of corporate leadership in global development".

The WBCSD's development focus area's objectives are:

1. Raise awareness of the business contribution to development, helping business and non-business stakeholders understand what is possible by providing case studies, guides and tools that advance our understanding of development challenges and opportunities;
2. Advocate for change by working collaboratively with multiple stakeholders to create a more enabling business environment and seek synergies between official development assistance (ODA) and foreign direct investment (FDI);
3. Act by working with our members, Regional Network partners and other stakeholders to broker new business ventures that are both good business and good for development.

The publication gives a very good introduction of the area of business and development working together. From a Marketing perspective (I still have this in my blood) it's a great peace, thouroghly researched information presented with plenty of graphs etc. From a more critical development perspective someone could say "all great talk... what's the real action?" I see it as a necessary stepping stone to bridge the gap between business activities and development requirements such as environmental protection, poverty reduction etc. What'syour take on it?

An interesting quote summing up nicely the role of business:

“Business is the most important engine of economic change. It brings employment, goods, revenues, knowledge and skills development. We must also recognize that the most important role is probably not that played by the multinationals, but by the small and medium enterprise sector, the SMEs.

We as global companies can provide the catalyst to partner with SMEs to mutual benefit. We can access their local expertise and markets; they can access our technologies and business skills for local momentum.”

Michael Pragnell, CEO, Syngenta

Read the full PDF report from WBCSD.

Mali Project Update

Just four more weeks until Elise and I will travel to Mali to support the Mali Project, very exciting. In the last months we gathered support to scale up the seed of amazing work that has been done since 2004.

Dynamic people have joined the project:
1) Tomas, my closest companion from the Masters at UNSW, Sydney, who left a safe job with the Canadian government to consult the World Bank in Sydney. He will join us in Africa in January!
2) Jeffrey, an amazing American working on a new model of sustainable development. He ran a big development/business endeavor in Armenia (CARD) and is writing his PhD in Melbourne, currently.
3) Manfred, a long time business friend and creative director of a marketing agency who is going to support us with our new internet site and communications.

Tomas' update on the Mali project on his unitedstates4africa blog:
"Almost the entire country lives off a little more than $1/day. Given all these factors it is not difficult to see why the average life expectancy in Mali is a shocking 48 years of age.

But all these negative factors is neither here nor there. Since March 2007 Elise, Juergen and I have (with the help of many supportive friends and family) discussed how we can take the Mali project to the next level. What does this mean? Well, at the present moment we have an amazing base to build from - two schools, a vocational school (No need to focus only on math/science when the country has a shortage of masons/plummers), healthcare centre, women's entrepreneurship project and street children social entrepreneurship project. We also have incredible drive, passion and vision from Youchaou on the ground in Western Africa. I was fortunate to meet Youchaou here in Sydney when he visited in June 2007.

The local and international personalities are key to this project - each one of us brings in something complementary to the overall team: Youchaou as community leader and founder, Elise as founder, program architect and successful fundraiser; my previous experience working for the UN in East Africa, and experience with government and international donor institutions and finally Juergen - dreamer, compassionate Buddhist and extensive private sector experience - key to securing donations from companies like Google and inculcating a business mindset in all of us!

So how do we scale up? Where does the Mali Project go from here - how does it grow? How do Elise, Juergen and I along with Youchaou - ensure the project is sustainable through 2010 and beyond? Western donors I have met with - World Bank, Canadian International Development Agency have provided some good advice on our scale up potential. ...

I think we can do this, and not just to satisfy donors funding requirements but because for the communities in Mali - ensuring a long-term vision and continuous funding for the project is sensible. There is hard work ahead for all of us to translate this into reality.

We will take the passion from Mali and nuance this to fit with Western donor expectations. However, all of us will certainly be mindful to never lose sight of the fact that this project remains driven by those in Mali. The goal has always been to reduce poverty and create new opportunities - Millennium Development Goal #1. The Mali Project began after a call for assistance from Youchaou. No one dreamed the Mali Project would be where it is now. Three years on the project has evolved and donors are showing interest. We will take this enthusiasm and draft a strategic plan with Youchaou and Kalabankoro that works - not to suit a bureaucratic requirement far away in the West but because this makes sense for the community and supports the livelihood of its people.

The day will come when Western funding is no longer necessary in Mali and Kalabankoro. This is still some time off but it is my hope in seven to ten years residents of Kalabankoro will have attained educational levels that attract and create more productive employment opportunities, increased investment in local infrastructure, better health care and ultimately, improved living standards. It can be done..."

Visit Tomas' unitedstates4africa.
Read The Mali Project: How it all began - the first school.
Read The Mali Project - Making a Difference in Africa.
See The Mali Project Video: Social Entrepreneurs building a School.

Me to We: Young individuals making a difference

Young individuals that try the make a bit of a better place inspire a lot. Yes, we all admire the Dalai Lama, Muhammad Yunus and Nelson Mandela. Young change makers have the advantage that it is much easier to identify with them. Seeing the (com)passion of young people not accepting the old apologies why the world is unfair and why it can't be changed, is refreshing and giving hope. One of the outstanding examples is Jeremy Gilley with his Peace One Day campaign and DVD I blogged about here.

The latest example I came across are two young Canadian brother, the Kielburgers. CBC featured them:

"Craig and Marc Kielburger have made headlines around the world. Craig organized students from his grade 7 class to start an awareness campaign about child labour.
'Free the Children' was born. Now just a year before, Craig's older brother Marc spent a year in Thailand at an AIDS hospital.

Since then, 'Free the Children' has gone from being a home-run organization to one that works around the world. They've received countless awards.. Had appearances - yes plural - on Oprah. And have an on-going partnership with her Angel Network. Conversed with Mother Theresa and the Pope. Done speaking tours with the Dali Lama, Bill Clinton and Desmond Tutu."

They also founded a business4good called Me to We Style selling organic fair trade clothing and doanting 50% of its profits to their charity. They even wrote a book 'Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World.'

Check out their interview on CBC!

Mobile phones: the single most transformative technology for development

Mobile phones are clearly business4good. I have read plenty of articles about specific solutions using mobile phones in the developing world - including the Kenyan mobile4good example. This this BusinessWeek article sums it up nicely:

"What would a Kenyan farmer want with a mobile phone?
Plenty, as it turns out. To the astonishment of the industry, people living on a few dollars a day have proven avid phone users, and in many parts of the world cellular airtime has become a de facto currency. The reason is simple: A mobile phone can dramatically improve living standards by saving wasted trips, providing information about crop prices, summoning medical help, and even serving as a conduit to banking services.

Mobile phones are changing developing markets faster than anyone imagined. Today there are some 3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, and that will grow to 5 billion by 2015, when two-thirds of the people on earth will have phones, predicts Finnish handset maker Nokia"

ile phones are changing developing markets faster than anyone imagined. Today there are some 3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, and that will grow to 5 billion by 2015, when two-thirds of the people on earth will have phones, predicts Finnish handset maker Nokia Corp."

Jeffrey Sachs even calls cell phones "...the single most transformative technology for development".

Read the full article in BusinessWeek.

The World needs a Global Marshall Plan

During Germany's G8 presidency I picked up an interesting initiative: The Global Marshall Plan. Their brochure featured the who is who on making globalization more fair, incl. Stiglitz, Yunus, Al Gore etc.

Coming from Germany which was rebuilt with the help of the Marshall plan after WWII it's very interesting seeing this idea taken onto a global level. It's certainly bigger and more complex but aiming for the right thing - a fairer globalization! Do you think it's possible?

"The Global Marshall Plan aims at a "World in Balance". To achieve this we need a better design of globalization and the global economic processes - a worldwide Eco-Social Market Economy. This is a matter of an improved global structural framework, sustainable development, the eradication of poverty, environmental protection and equity, altogether resulting in a new global 'economic miracle'."

Move your cursor over the animation to learn more about the initiative:

Bill Gates Calls for More Creative Capitalism to Reduce Inequality

Bill Gates is one of the best examples of business leaders changing their way to strive towards doing good. Earlier this year Bill Gates gave an interesting speech on tackling inequities at Harvard.

I like his down to business approach to reduce poverty:

"Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause—and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it? For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have?

The defining and ongoing innovations of this age—biotechnology, the computer, the Internet—give us a chance we’ve never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease... You know more about the world’s inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you’ve had a chance to think about how—in this age of accelerating technology—we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.

We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism—if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities. If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world.

Don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives."

What a final call for action: “From those to whom much is given, much is expected.”
Watch the video or read the transcript.

Thanks to Max Oliva from ie

The Economist & CSR: From Foes to Friends

What a difference two years can make. CSR has made it into mainstream:

Economist '2005 :
The respected conservative weekly was pretty much on the side of Milton Friedman's "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits". It dismissed CSR not only as a superficial PR exercise but even dismissed as counterproductive. "CSR cannot be a substitute for wise policies in these areas. In several little-noticed respects, it is already a hindrance to them...To improve capitalism, you first need to understand it. The thinking behind CSR does not meet that test."

Economist '2007:
It seems that the benefits that have been well documented (e.g. in Michael Porter's article) for some time, are becoming mainstream finally. In response to a CSR-critical book “Supercapitalism” the Economist writes:
"[D]one well, CSR can motivate employees and strengthen brands, while also providing benefits to society. Understanding and responding to the social context in which firms operate is increasingly a source of new products and services, observes Jane Nelson of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum. Telling firms they need not act responsibly might cause them to under-invest in these opportunities, and to focus excessively on short-term profits."

Simon Zadek, the boss of AccountAbility summarizes the state of CSR in a nice way: “The ‘whether in principle' conversation about CSR is over,” he says. “What remains is ‘What, specifically, and how?'”. Answers to these important questions is what the UN Global Compact with its local networks in over 70 countries tries to foster. And this blog highlights some of outstanding business4good cases.

Thanks to the Triple Bottom Line Blog