From the category archives:

Senegal

Launch Week: Skoll Associate Fellows

February 12, 2010

Many times over the past couple years have I answered the questions: why an MBA, why Oxford?
Today’s launch of the Skoll Associate Fellows program indicates why I chose to come here. Recognizing that there was a large and and passionate social entrepreneurship community, far beyond just the Skoll Skollars, the Skoll Centre has kicked off [...]

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6 Great Development Blogs

January 18, 2010

No longer living in Ethiopia or Senegal, I’m not as tuned into the workings of on-the-ground development. Thankfully we have some good folks who keep us in the loop and help us learn more. Here are my favorites.
Blood and Milk. Alanna Shaikh writes all over the place, but her own Blood and Milk blog is [...]

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Shot of the Day: Celebration

December 23, 2009

Whether your cause for celebration is getting home through the chaos of bad weather, seeing friends and family again, or a necessary change of pace, I wish everyone all the best over the holidays.
I’ll be taking a break from Cashewman for a few days, but feel free to have a read through last year’s Christmas [...]

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Shot of the Day: Through the Looking Glass

December 19, 2009

Fascination is always endearing.
B
(Atia and friend in Senegal, 2006)
       

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Shot of the Day: The Rice Machine

December 11, 2009

Technology development and teting can be messy. But usually pretty fun stuff. Here we were trying to build a portable rice dehuller to process local rice in smaller villages, back in 2006 in Senegal. I was working with EnterpriseWorks, an organization that is particularly good at this type of thing. The idea was that entrepreneurs [...]

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‘We need to educate them on…’

December 1, 2009

I’ve heard this used more than a few times.
I’ve heard it in development: ‘We just need to educate them on the benefits of clean water, then they’ll buy our pumps.’ ‘If only they’d understand how immunizations can help them be healthier, they’ll come in and get them.’
I’ve heard it in marketing: ‘We have a killer [...]

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More Love for Kiva and Awareness for Pneumonia

November 2, 2009

Good news in the kicking ass against poverty front today: Kiva has surpased 100 million dollars in funding for entrepreneurs around the world after less than 4 years of operation. 100 million dollars lent to people, by people. I love it.
While we’re talking about Kiva, it’s worth mentioning their recent response to criticism that they [...]

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A Better Bednet Approach

October 26, 2009

It’s easy and often justified to be critical of aid and development. I do it. Others do it. But sometimes it helps to remind ourselves that it can work well. Take this example, of a market generation project to set up a mosquito net industry in seven countries (via Alanna Shaikh).
“In a decade-long initiative to [...]

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From the Mouths of Photojournalists

September 17, 2009

David Hume Kennerly posted yesterday on the NY Times Lens blog about a crop Newsweek did on one of his shots - cropping out Dick Cheney’s family and leaving only him with a carving knife to illustrate an editorial. He felt is was a gross violation of his work:
“…Newsweek’s objective in running the cropped version [...]

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Forget Needs. Design for Wants.

August 13, 2009

We’re pumping out a lot of really good technical support material within Practica right now. Helping people understand aspects of what we do, such as new technology development, training manufacturers, quality control, as well as information on all of our products. It’ll be freely distributed once we’re done.
But one thing I keep coming across is [...]

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