Peace Dividend Trust

Okay, last one for tonight....

Link from fast company. com  article about a new initiative to help aid $ get spent locally rather than in the usual rich places that donated it... building local economies as they are being helped through gifts...

The idea is to deliver 5 services:

• Training local entrepreneurs on how to find and bid on international contracts
• Translating and distributing international tenders locally
• Maintaining an online database of local entrepreneurs who we have personally verified
• Matchmaking large scale international procurement needs (like bottled water for a big UN mission) to local vendors
• Advocating for the concept of buying local with our "Buy Local - Build Afghanistan (or Timor or Haiti) campaigns

So, the key is linking local people with the contracts to be fulfilled, hiring local people to help their neighbours.  It's one of those "why didn't I think of that sooner" ideas...

The Peace Dividend Trust website looks to have a large data base of reports and papers about development and peace building ideas... maybe another night i'll dig into it more...

The Peace Dividend Market site links local businesses with international contracts, and currently is operating in Afganistan, Timor and Haiti

New Cassava Varieties

From the Worldwatch Institute, this article talks about some new varieties of cassava that have been developed in Zanzibar.  For those similarly geographically challenged, Zanzibar is an island in the Indian Ocean, just of the coast of Tanzania.  Apparently there have been some bad diseases affecting the cassava crops across Africa in the last few years, but these varieties are resistant.

Being Unreasonable

I love this site, and would love to help take some of these ideas to reality.   

http://www.unreasonableinstitute.org/
The purpose of the institute is to act as an incubator of new ideas (and businesses) that could change the world for good.

The episode that got me here was #4 about Ben Lyon and FrontlineSMS:Credit.  His idea is to develop the software to link mobile phone money transfer and bank loan systems.

Props to Ken Banks for pointing this one out: (kiwanja.net)

http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/2010/07/celebrating-the-enabling-environment/

Coming Soon: International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development

So, here's another event to watch for.  13 to 16 of Dec this year in London, UK.  Ken from kiwanja.net
will be there. Details: http://www.ictd2010.org/

Watch to see what papers come up.  Supposed to bridge the gap between academics and practitioners better than previous conferences.

Association for agriculture and rural development - Ghana

http://www.ecasard.org/

International Interdependance

Here is an interesting statement from one of our friends in the states:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1661846/a-modest-proposal-the-new-declaration-of-interdependence

It talks about how nations are no longer independent, and how americans must make better decisions about what they value and consume.  I think it applies to a lot of wealthy people all around the world.

Africa: Just ask

Here's a well written article from Worldwatch Institute: Thinking Big by Starting Small. It talks about listening to farmers on the ground to find out what they need to provide food and a living for themselves.