The contest is open to anyone under thirty years old and is organized by the Youth Social Enterprise Initiative, which offers fellowships and start-up financing to youth social entrepreneurs.
The new deadline is September 9, 2007.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Microfinance & Development Technology Partnership
ACCION International, a pioneer and leader in global microfinance, recently announced that its Gateway Microfinance Infrastructure Fund (GMI) has completed an investment in United Villages, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Excerpt:
United Villages, Inc., a rural Internet Service Provider, provides people in the developing world with a lifetime phone number, email address, Internet access, and a stored-value account for under $1 per person in cost to the company. By installing its low-cost Mobile Access Points (MAPs) on existing vehicles (e.g. buses and motorcycles) that pass through rural areas, United Villages enables access for WiFi-enabled kiosks along village roads. Customer transactions are stored on kiosk computers that transfer information to the MAPs whenever they are in range. Then, the MAPs upload and download all of the data from and for those kiosks once they are connected to the Internet, creating a store-and-forward "drive-by" WiFi network.
Created in 2006, GMI is a unique equity fund designed to invest in technology and information service companies that support the microfinance industry. GMI's investment in United Villages will be accompanied by a board observer role for ACCION. In addition to the investment, ACCION and United Villages will work together to identify synergies between remote-access technology and the financial products and services offered by ACCION's 35 partner microfinance institutions throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
"United Villages' technology is a compelling platform that provides the rural poor with connectivity to economic opportunities that, until now, they've been unable to access," said Matt Thomas, senior director and manager of ACCION's GMI Fund. "This investment is an ideal fit for GMI, which seeks to develop companies that can help the microfinance industry achieve greater scale and efficiency."
Amir Alexander Hasson, founder and CEO of United Villages, added, "We look forward to working with ACCION to provide millions of villagers living in poor rural areas with access to locally-relevant products and services that can help them save time and money. The combination of United Villages' business model and ACCION's global microfinance expertise will create new opportunities for our customers as well as for microfinance institutions seeking to expand their reach to clients."
Venezuela Pledges 9 Billion in Foreign Aid
During 2007, Venezuela has pledged $8.87 billion in aid, financing, and energy funding to nations in the Caribbean and Latin America. Priority is given to socialist oriented economies.
Nicaragua received the most aid with a receipt of nearly $4.5 billion. Bolivia received the second most aid with approximately $800 million and Haiti with $320 million. Argentina received over $150 million in aid along with a $1 billion Argentina bond purchase by Venezuela which was included in the total.
The itemized list of funding can be found here.
In contrast, the OECD reports United States’ net ODA in 2005 was USD 27.6 billion, a rise of 36.5% in real terms. Its ODA/GNI ratio rose from 0.17% to 0.22%, its highest level since 1986. Apart from debt relief, most of the increase was due to reconstruction and other aid to Iraq (USD 6.9 billion), reconstruction and anti-narcotics programmes in Afghanistan (USD 1.3 billion) and aid to Sub-Saharan Africa (USD 4.2 billion). The combined ODA of the fifteen members of the DAC that are EU members rose 28.5% in real terms to USD 55.7 billion.
The bulk of Venezuela's aid, $6.4 billion, was targeted towards raising petrol production. It seems that Venezuela may be succeeding in creating significant and quantifiable economic returns from their aid. They are essentially vertically integrating their oil production through cross country aid agreements. Additionally, rather than creating a market for political corruption which is occurs when foreign aid is available to rogue nations, Venezuela is creating concrete investment projects that can help expand poor partner nation's ability to tap into natural resources.
Nicaragua received the most aid with a receipt of nearly $4.5 billion. Bolivia received the second most aid with approximately $800 million and Haiti with $320 million. Argentina received over $150 million in aid along with a $1 billion Argentina bond purchase by Venezuela which was included in the total.
The itemized list of funding can be found here.
In contrast, the OECD reports United States’ net ODA in 2005 was USD 27.6 billion, a rise of 36.5% in real terms. Its ODA/GNI ratio rose from 0.17% to 0.22%, its highest level since 1986. Apart from debt relief, most of the increase was due to reconstruction and other aid to Iraq (USD 6.9 billion), reconstruction and anti-narcotics programmes in Afghanistan (USD 1.3 billion) and aid to Sub-Saharan Africa (USD 4.2 billion). The combined ODA of the fifteen members of the DAC that are EU members rose 28.5% in real terms to USD 55.7 billion.
The bulk of Venezuela's aid, $6.4 billion, was targeted towards raising petrol production. It seems that Venezuela may be succeeding in creating significant and quantifiable economic returns from their aid. They are essentially vertically integrating their oil production through cross country aid agreements. Additionally, rather than creating a market for political corruption which is occurs when foreign aid is available to rogue nations, Venezuela is creating concrete investment projects that can help expand poor partner nation's ability to tap into natural resources.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Increasing Girls Enrollment Boosts School Performance
A new paper on the Mechanisms and Impacts of Gender Peer Effects in Schools indicates that "a higher proportion of girls in the classroom lowers the level of classroom disruption and violence, and improves inter-student and teacher-student relationships as well as students’ satisfaction with school. It also significantly alters teaching methods and lessens teachers’ fatigue and feelings of burnout..."
The improvements are measurable when the proportion of girls enrolled is above 55% and positively affects male student attitudes and performance at all levels at much higher rates than female achievement.
The data on school environment was based on self-reporting panel data.
On the subject of female v. male individual achievement, female students on average matriculated at a 22% higher rate and earned 10% more credits. Although in the early years covered in the study male students were more likely to enroll in advanced courses, after four years female enrollment eclipsed the number of males in difficult courses.
Thanks to Michael for finding this paper.
The improvements are measurable when the proportion of girls enrolled is above 55% and positively affects male student attitudes and performance at all levels at much higher rates than female achievement.
The data on school environment was based on self-reporting panel data.
On the subject of female v. male individual achievement, female students on average matriculated at a 22% higher rate and earned 10% more credits. Although in the early years covered in the study male students were more likely to enroll in advanced courses, after four years female enrollment eclipsed the number of males in difficult courses.
Thanks to Michael for finding this paper.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Roberto's Entries into the CGAP Microfinance Photo Contest
His full competition entry can be found here, but I have posted a few examples. These are all student who have received a Peacework education micro-loan.
As Roberto says, cheers.
Rakeem Flowers
As Roberto says, cheers.
Damien Alvarez
Whitney Obodozie
Rakeem Flowers
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Peacework Micro-loan Initiative Success
We've successfully implementing our micro-loan program in Belize City, Dangriga and Independence.
We are currently interviewing our loan recipients and their families as well as executing the final loan contracts. We will be posting video interviews and individual student/family biographies soon.
The loans are made on a case by case basis to each student and their family and provide Belizean secondary school students with capital to pay for registration fees, tuition, uniform, and books at a 12 -12.5% interest rate for a period of up to 18 months. The money is directly deposited in the school for tuition and registration and checks are sent to uniform makers and book stores upon reciept of an invoice for the student's materials.
Priority is given to female students who are more stable loan candidates and for who the return on education is higher. For example, at Anglican Cathedral College where the most loans were issued 1 in 3 male student drops out during the first form (8th grade) while only 1 in 12 female students leaves school.
Currently, we have made 17 loans in Belize City, 1 loan in Dangriga, and 1 loan in Independence.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
The Next Econ Nobel Prize...?
Dr. Greg Clark, believes that natural section is the explanation for the Industrial Revolution.
Basically, people with economic values gradually outlived those without them. He uses this thesis as a base to criticize "the 'cult centers' of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as similar to prescientific physicians who prescribed bloodletting for ailments they did not understand."
Since, institutions are not responsible for economic growth, his work indicates that we should do nothing to fight poverty and let nature take its course.
I've attached also replies from Mervin Jebaraj and Michael Nicodemus.
----------------------------------
Well there are some faulty sweeping inferences about England's industrial revolution. Fully knowing that I am mostly speaking to a World Bank and IMF hating audience (and I do reserve a lot of criticism for them), let me say that Clark forgot an important piece to his analysis.
The Industrial Revolution coincided with the exploration and conquests of other continents. England led the way with the East Indian Company and many such establishments that traded (which in the day meant raped and plundered) with other countries. This was one of the most important reasons for the success of the industrial revolution( ie the emergence of new markets to supply raw materials and dump produced goods).
The same model was followed by the rest of Europe in subsequent years and the US (without any conquests) a few centuries later. So in reality, without absolutely dismissing Clark's thesis, much of Europe was enriched by trading (plundering), which further goes to say that people in modern developing and under developed countries helped lift Europeans out of poverty.
It sounds a little pretentious of Clark to assume that Europeans were the first to evolve out of poverty. If I remember correctly, they missed the ball on things like developing a number system, developing a calendar, complex architecture, irrigation etc.
Without sounding like a misguided idealist (and I was born 50 years too late to be bickering about colonialism), shouldn't the developed countries now turn around and help those who really helped them out of poverty. The bane of democracies are institutions and bureaucracies, but they are necessary for democracies to function so therefore, by extension the IMF and World Bank (as reform needy as they are) should not cease to exist.
-Mervin
-------------------------------------------------
Mervin,
I would add that the increase in knowledge and rule of law had little to do with natural selection and more to do with improved communication through trade and society's trial and error with developing culture which had began to make legitimate gains during the enlightenment.
Trying to apply natural selection to human culture isn't practical since not only do self selecting biases occur, but it isn't feasible to judge evolution or universal paradigm changes in such a short chronological time period - it basically facilitate bigotry.
"Mankind's greatest error, the biggest deception of the past thousand years is to confuse poverty with stupidity...
Throughout history, religious leaders and other honorable men of conscience have always warned against this shaming confusion. They remind us that the poor have hearts, minds, humanity, and wisdom like everyone else. ...
People might feel sorry for a man who's fallen on hard times, but when an entire nation is poor, the rest of the world assumes that all its people must be brainless, lazy, dirty, clumsy fools. Instead of pity, the people provoke laughter. ...
In time the rest of the world may, some of them, begin to feel ashamed for having thought this way, and when they look around and see immigrants from that poor country mopping their floors and doing all the other lowest paying jobs, naturally they worry about what might happen if these workers one day rose up against them. So, to keep things sweet, they start taking an interest in the immigrants culture and sometimes even pretend to think of them as equals.
If I were in Germany, I'd worry that any man was looking down on me. I would instantly distrust him just for being a westerner. There's no escaping humiliation except by proving at the first opportunity that you think exactly as they do."
Excerpt from Snow by Orhan Pamuk
--------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Nicodemus replies,
Mervin, first and foremost that was a very well written res ponce. However I think it is important to note that we are discussing Darwinism and not Buddhism. Survival of the fittest. Though Clark leads us to believe it was economic savvy, it is merely greed. Apparently the Europeans were the most greedy and therefore were the ones with the highest propensity to prosper, be it by the most disgusting in most unspeakable ways.
I also wonder what effect religion had on the "evolution." Because historically that is how man justifies his carnage. Christianity is a very capitalistic religion (see the parable of talents) and had just come out of the crusades; whereas the east was populated by nonviolent religions like Confucianism and the earlier mentioned. The parable of talents says God likes a man who profits and it is sinful to not engage in this behavior. Where as Confucius spoke of self denial and generally socialistic ideals.
Basically, people with economic values gradually outlived those without them. He uses this thesis as a base to criticize "the 'cult centers' of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as similar to prescientific physicians who prescribed bloodletting for ailments they did not understand."
Since, institutions are not responsible for economic growth, his work indicates that we should do nothing to fight poverty and let nature take its course.
I've attached also replies from Mervin Jebaraj and Michael Nicodemus.
----------------------------------
Well there are some faulty sweeping inferences about England's industrial revolution. Fully knowing that I am mostly speaking to a World Bank and IMF hating audience (and I do reserve a lot of criticism for them), let me say that Clark forgot an important piece to his analysis.
The Industrial Revolution coincided with the exploration and conquests of other continents. England led the way with the East Indian Company and many such establishments that traded (which in the day meant raped and plundered) with other countries. This was one of the most important reasons for the success of the industrial revolution( ie the emergence of new markets to supply raw materials and dump produced goods).
The same model was followed by the rest of Europe in subsequent years and the US (without any conquests) a few centuries later. So in reality, without absolutely dismissing Clark's thesis, much of Europe was enriched by trading (plundering), which further goes to say that people in modern developing and under developed countries helped lift Europeans out of poverty.
It sounds a little pretentious of Clark to assume that Europeans were the first to evolve out of poverty. If I remember correctly, they missed the ball on things like developing a number system, developing a calendar, complex architecture, irrigation etc.
Without sounding like a misguided idealist (and I was born 50 years too late to be bickering about colonialism), shouldn't the developed countries now turn around and help those who really helped them out of poverty. The bane of democracies are institutions and bureaucracies, but they are necessary for democracies to function so therefore, by extension the IMF and World Bank (as reform needy as they are) should not cease to exist.
-Mervin
-------------------------------------------------
Mervin,
I would add that the increase in knowledge and rule of law had little to do with natural selection and more to do with improved communication through trade and society's trial and error with developing culture which had began to make legitimate gains during the enlightenment.
Trying to apply natural selection to human culture isn't practical since not only do self selecting biases occur, but it isn't feasible to judge evolution or universal paradigm changes in such a short chronological time period - it basically facilitate bigotry.
"Mankind's greatest error, the biggest deception of the past thousand years is to confuse poverty with stupidity...
Throughout history, religious leaders and other honorable men of conscience have always warned against this shaming confusion. They remind us that the poor have hearts, minds, humanity, and wisdom like everyone else. ...
People might feel sorry for a man who's fallen on hard times, but when an entire nation is poor, the rest of the world assumes that all its people must be brainless, lazy, dirty, clumsy fools. Instead of pity, the people provoke laughter. ...
In time the rest of the world may, some of them, begin to feel ashamed for having thought this way, and when they look around and see immigrants from that poor country mopping their floors and doing all the other lowest paying jobs, naturally they worry about what might happen if these workers one day rose up against them. So, to keep things sweet, they start taking an interest in the immigrants culture and sometimes even pretend to think of them as equals.
If I were in Germany, I'd worry that any man was looking down on me. I would instantly distrust him just for being a westerner. There's no escaping humiliation except by proving at the first opportunity that you think exactly as they do."
Excerpt from Snow by Orhan Pamuk
--------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Nicodemus replies,
Mervin, first and foremost that was a very well written res ponce. However I think it is important to note that we are discussing Darwinism and not Buddhism. Survival of the fittest. Though Clark leads us to believe it was economic savvy, it is merely greed. Apparently the Europeans were the most greedy and therefore were the ones with the highest propensity to prosper, be it by the most disgusting in most unspeakable ways.
I also wonder what effect religion had on the "evolution." Because historically that is how man justifies his carnage. Christianity is a very capitalistic religion (see the parable of talents) and had just come out of the crusades; whereas the east was populated by nonviolent religions like Confucianism and the earlier mentioned. The parable of talents says God likes a man who profits and it is sinful to not engage in this behavior. Where as Confucius spoke of self denial and generally socialistic ideals.
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