Social Impact Talks — be there or be square!
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Many of the births of the children of the poorest of the poor will be unregistered. This lack of a legal identity complicates opening up a bank account, and creates problems for distribution of vital goods and services during natural disasters and conflicts. The leaders of the initiative have also recognized the need for a financial benefit ($100) to incentivize families to register the births of their children. Fraud will be avoided in two ways: the money will remain in the child’s bank account until adolescence, and as they continue to develop, bioidentity metrics will further reduce the incidence of fraud. Furthermore, and possibly most importantly, the initiative will force banks to become more inclusive.
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Did you know that…
More than a billion people in emerging and developing markets have cell phones but no bank accounts. Talk about leapfrogging.
(Source: mckinseyonsociety.com)
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BRICs: Per Capita GDP and Life Expectancy
In a 2001 paper “Building Better Global Economic BRICs,” Jim O’Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, famously dubbed Brazil, Russia, India, and China the “BRIC” countries. This grouping was meant to represent the growth potential of these nations, and to predict their rising share of global economic output. Given the correlation of economic growth with economic development, including rising life expectancy and literacy, the economic emergence of the “BRICs” represents possibility as well. While we are primarily concerned with microlevel solutions to development issues, it is important to keep macro trends in perspective. This interactive graph shows the positive correlation between GDP per capita in current US dollars and life expectancy in the BRIC nations. Enjoy!
(Source: data.worldbank.org)
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While Think Tank will be producing original videos and podcasts shortly, we thought we’d share with you one of our favorite source for social impact and entrepreneurship podcasts, the Stanford Social Innovation Conversations: http://sic.conversationsnetwork.org/. Enjoy!
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An innovation conceived in the Stanford Engineering and Business course Design for Extreme Affordability. The Embrace team is in the final stages of product development for their baby warmer for low birth weight babies. The product costs less than one percent of a traditional baby incubator.
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Rethinking Education
In 2000, United Nations member nations set eight targets for sustainable development called the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), including ending poverty and hunger, gender equality, and universal education. With respect to the latter, the objective was to ensure universal primary education by 2015. While progress has been made, with enrollment increasing from 83 percent in 2000 to 89 percent in 2008, it appears as though the goal will not be realized by 2015. While universal primary education is an admirable goal, merely measuring enrollment is not sufficient. For example, that World Bank research found teacher absenteeism to be 27 percent in Uganda and 20 percent in rural Kenya illustrates that merely having a school for children does not ensure that they will learn anything. For these reasons, educational programs in developing countries need to be rethought to ensure that they enhance the “capabilities” of the underprivileged. Two models that focus less on the easy-to-measure metrics like enrollment and more on the specific conditions that promote survival and success are School for Life and Fundacion Paraguaya.
School for life uses a two-pronged approach that combines western-style education with practical business and health knowledge. The pioneers of the model, Professor Mark J. Epstein of Rice University and Professor Kristi Yuthas of Portland State University, have recognized the inadequacy of traditional metrics of performance, such as standardized test scores, for educational institutions in the developing world. For example, the opportunity cost of attending school—in terms of money for school fees or a uniform, or time not spent working—may be a barrier to the sequential school attendance needed to learn the critical thinking skills so highly valued in the west. Given this high opportunity cost and the relatively low marginal returns from additional schooling, School for Life attempts to maximize practical learning per time spent in school. For instance, an integral part of School for Life’s pedagogy is raising awareness about the importance of hygiene and teaching students how to diagnose common maladies and diseases. While the dearth of medical facilities in developing countries is the main reason for premature death, unawareness of sanitary guidelines and illness is also a contributor. In the case that there are medical facilities, recognition of symptoms can help people decide when they really need to go to the doctor, thereby preventing sickness from progressing. Furthermore, students learn about resource allocation, money management, and other basic business skills that they can apply to their future work in order to maximize income. For both the training in health care and entrepreneurship, School for Life employs a hands-on model, in which students constantly practice what they learn. This approach inculcates in students important knowledge and skills that promote longevity and higher incomes.
Similarly, Fundacion Paraguaya focuses on building up the productive human capital of its students to allow them to flourish in the workplace. The organization’s San Francisco Agricultural School is a high school that offers two degrees to poor Paraguayan youth: one in agriculture and the other in rural tourism. Both programs aim to teach students business skills that are relevant to the local economy. Fundacion Paraguay’s motto, “learning by doing and earning,” is illustrated by the school’s seventeen on-campus enterprises, including a cheese and yogurt factory, a roadside store, and a small hotel. Students have the opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom through these businesses, thereby acquiring the skills that will allow them to operate their own enterprises in the future. Furthermore, these activities generate income for the school, which covers all operational costs and fees for the school. Thus, Fundacion Paraguaya has found a sustainable method for educating students in areas relevant to their likely future employment.
What both of these models highlight is the need for a nuanced approach to educational programs in the developing world that considers the practical skills and needs of impoverished students. While these two models have not been tested by randomized control methods, their systems are appreciated, given the shortcomings of current measures, such as enrollment and standardized tests. That all United Nations member nations signed the Millennium Development Goals declaration demonstrates the universal belief in the power of education. However, its power can only be unleashed if programs are devised and formulated with a recognition of contextual differences.
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Grameen’s business empire: Grabbing Grameen
Check out this article in The Economist about the Bangladeshi government’s persistent pursuit of control of Grameen Bank. A good example of how poor institutions can undermine progress towards alleviating poverty.
