Africa's Moment

Just read a rather provocative and hopeful paper, that follows the same line of thinking as Michael Clemen's The Long Walk to School, which I posted about in December. Researchers Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Maxim Pinkovskiy argue that Africa's poverty is falling faster than we imagine, and goals such as the Millennium Challenge may be missing the point. Consider:

• Africa's poverty rate--at number of people living on $1/day--increased over the two decades 1970-1990, from 39.8% in 1970, to 42 percent in 1985 and 41.6% by 1990.
• Beginning 1995, the trend reversed. Poverty rates began declining
• Poverty rate in 2006 was 31.8%.  That's 28% lower than 1990 levels and 30% less than rates in 1995.
• Gini coefficient--a measure of economic inequity, 0-1, where 0 is perfect income equality-- has needled from 0.66 in 1990 to 0.63 in 2006

Impressive, right? Now, consider why poverty rates would have started a downward swing beginning 1995. The authors offer sustained economic growth as the cause. I would say there's a correlation, because one has to wonder what caused a sudden expansion of the economy when the lost decades made Africa's tragedy seem irreversible. So, what do we know about economic growth rates over the same period?

• GDP growth rate slumped an average negative 1.3% during the lost decade of the 80s and took a further hit to -1.8% between 1990 and 1994
• Beginning in 1994/5, the African economy caught a spark. Finally, painful macroeconomic reforms were starting to bear some fruit.
• By 2004, average real GDP growth rate was 5.2%, and 5.7 percent by 2006

If Africa maintains 1995-2006 economic expansion rates, Sala-i-Martin and Pinkovskiy anticipate Africa will hit the Millennium Development goal of regional poverty rate reduced to 21% by 2017, two years after the target date.

What to make of all this data? Two key takeaways:

1. Africa's poverty rate is falling. Sure, not the enviable rates of Asia, but let's not nullify the hard work that's gone into something worth merit in the past 10 years
2. Private sector-led sustained economic growth reduced poverty. Inequity is rife throughout Africa, so its justifiable when people argue that big-ticket investment on the continent only beefens the bellies of a handful fat-cats. Yes, the rich are definitely benefiting from surged commodity prices and a more active private sector, but so have the poor.

Does it make me uncomfortable that to pull masses out of poverty, we essentially have to line the pockets of some already outlandishly wealthy people? Arguably. But let's consider the alternatives: an Africa on life-line ad nauseum...not an option. So, lets start embracing (eyes wide open--see ILO's research on pro-poor economic growth) what magic economic growth, ie. business, can sprinkle on the poor. 

Note: If you check out the paper in its entirety, definitely read some thoughtful critique. A good place is start is World Bank Chief Economist for Africa Martin Ravallion's blogpost. Remember though, this is a working paper--despite the bold title, be forgiving.

This is not a political post, so don't get excited. Just a note on African leadership and an open-ended question--Do Fools Rise Faster in Africa?

Take South Africa, easily one of the most colorful, budding democracies in the developing world with the most celebrated Constitution and an embarassment of top-brass leadership. Apart from the Stephen Bikos and Nelson Mandelas, there have been the Zackie Achmats--leading HIV/AIDS advocate--the Mark Shuttleworths--venture capital pioneer and celebrated entrepreneur--and the likes of Ashoka Fellow Charles Maisel. And then there was Julius Malema.

Asked during a TV interview by noted journalist Debrah Patta if he would have considered suicide had he failed South Africa's famous series of high school exit exams, Matric, Julius replied, "Me commit a suicide?... I'd rather kill myself than doing such a horrible thing."

Hilarious, disturbing. But is the joke really on him?  Julius has become something of a celebrated political whip in South Africa, offering fraught, public advice at every opportunity and benefiting from government contracts which have secured him a flashy lifestyle. During President Zuma's infamous trial for sexual assault, Malema offered a mass assault of his own, "When a woman didn’t enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money....In the morning, that lady requested breakfast and taxi money. You can’t ask for money from somebody who raped you."

Standup comedians love Julius, who practically writes his own satires verbatum. Who doesn't laugh at buffonery? But given our continent's history and the pressing demand for sound leadership, shouldn't alarm bells sound when a loud empty voice clogs public discourse? And exactly why are we captivated when that voice seizes the mic? How do African societies prevent the rise of a noted buffoon or crazy campaigns?  Note Uganda's current proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. You will recall both Idi Amin and Mobutu Sese Seko rose to power from behind the curtains.  How do you guage the aspirations and ultimate destination of someone regarded harmless because of seeming ignorance? 

Last week, I spoke at NYU Law School's Law & Social Enterpreneurship Association.  LSEA has a nifty learning lab--"Inside The Social Entrepreneurs' Studio"--essentially a round table open discussion between a featured practitioner and law students. What I love best about this model is it's emphasis on process and dialog, so many conferences and events make the false assumption that there is only one expert in the room, showcasing the speaker's work as a polished product without much analysis of the daily frustrations, challenges and tiny, incremental challenges any must entrepreneur face. 

The conversation focused on my work with Zenzele Circle. Naturally, we spoke at length about the law and its role in social entrepreneurship. I was struck by two things:

1. Student lawyers are hungry to go beyond pro-bono. Many people asked hard questions about how to employ the law to remain committed to an enterprise's social mission. For example, at Zenzele Circle, we measure our impact by the number of living wage jobs created for Africans. But is any job a good job? How do we raise the bar of expectations and remain competitive? A perfect example of this characteristic is embodied in LSEA Co-Founder and Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow, Keren Raz. Keren has been asking how to bridge the gap between her interest in law and social entrepreneurship since I met her.  This first led to forming LSEA, one of the first organizations of its kind in the US, focusing on how to align the legal field with the advances of social entrepreneurship.  As she prepares to take the bar this year, Keren is beginning a second phase of pushing and informing law's boundries...she may be the first person you'll want to turn to with your hybrid legal matters in a year or two.
2. The For-Profit model for social change remains a new concept. I was asked repeatedly why we've decided to incorporate as a for-profit social enterprise. I gave our reasoning, our most fundamental logic being our philosophy. If we believe that scaled social change depends on market-based solutions that create incentives for people to respond in a particular manner, shouldn't we walk all that slick talk? Apparently not. 

Both in my conversation with LSEA students and beyond, I've found there is still resistance to the idea of a company like Zenzele making money and pocketing it. Never mind that we in fact make it harder for ourselves to get going--nonprofits typically benefit from a menu of grant funding unavailable to for-profit ventures--and never mind that in most cases, by virtue of being a social enterprise, fixed operating costs are higher, undermining gross profits. So I wonder, why? And in expecting more social solutions to go the non-profit route, to what extent are we curtailing the growth of a post-social entrepreneurship entrepreneurship?

You may recall a blog post here that quoted Pamela Hartigan, probing the issue of how to get every business venture to embed blended value returns so that there is no distinction between a social entrepreneurial startup and any other. In pushing so hard for nonprofits, are we moving ever slower toward that point of entrepreneurship, where blended value is an unspoken obvious--a prerequisite to plain good business sense?

A healthy stable of conferences focusing on Africa are cropping up. Some just have a relevant African component, but isn't it high time we started turning to the continent for best case models and fresh ideas...

What am I excited about?

• 2010 Harvard Social Enterprise Conference. Yes, Ethiopian beauty Liya Kedebe will be there (all anti-celeb mania activists sigh) but White House Office of Social Innovation heavyweight Sonal Shah will deliver the keynote. Feb 27-28
• Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference Miami. Conference organizer John Rosser is filling a niche in the Latin American soc-ent space with this LA focused super-conference in Miami. 130 speakers and a mini-conference dedicated to Haiti. Better still, yours truly will moderate a panel on South-South cooperation and cross learning, Investment Lessons Latin America can glean from Africa. March 17-19
•  Africa Economic Forum, SIPA @ Columbia University. Seems high glamour is on the agenda this year. The conference includes a panel on "African Fashion Going Global" not to mention Arise Magazine Editor Helen Jennings and Nigerian Supermodel Oluchi. I love Arise and think the brand is doing bucket-loads of good to counter the belly-bloated image of Africa, but I wonder--do we miss the bull's eye for making real social change if we go to the other extreme, spotlighting Africa's uber-wealthy and a lifestyle foreign to most but a handful few? March 26-27.

I've left out some other favorite stop-points--Africa Business Conference at Harvard Business School and Wharton's Africa Business Conference too--for good reason, I think. Shouldn't African conferences, whose mandate extends to tangible impact, beyond information sharing be held in Africa? As Co-Chair of the Africa Social Enterprise Forum, I struggle with this dilemma and am working to bring value to and in Africa. I'd also like to profile high-value conferences and events on the continent people should know about. If you know something I don't (as I'm certain you do), do Tell.

King's College London has a fantastic new opportunity for young leaders--Peace, Security and Development Fellowships for African Scholars--to begin September 2010, at King's College at University of London.

The fellowship's purpose is to increase the pool of African experts on peace, security and development and working to generate African-led ideas to address the security and development challenges on the continent. Program components include:

• A strong mentoring program
• Institutional visits throughout Europe + Africa
• Training in London + the Africa Leadership Center in Nairobi
• Research projects + policy work

Please find more details here: link

It seems counterintuitive. Societies with a strong emphasis on community are not necessarily more philanthropic than individualist ones.  In the US for example, there is a pervasive culture of private giving--foundations alone have $300 billion under management according to The Ford Foundation. By contrast, a book titled "Giving & Solidarity" reports that while giving is alive and well in South Africa, institutional, nonstatal giving accounts for only R5 billion/year, about $646 million. Interestingly, state grants are included in "Giving & Solidarity" as a form of philanthropic capital. South Africa spends R80 billion, $10.33 billion, on such cash transfers annually.

These figures resonate with my experience of giving in South Africa and the US. A conversation with a fellow South African recently led to the question of philanthropy among Black Diamonds--South Africa's new class of black elites, young professionals whose rise follows decades of apartheid suppression. Black Diamonds are infamously consumption driven. They drive posh cars, live in exclusive gated communities and boldly display their new wealth in the face of quite some want. Do these Black Diamonds give? How can South Africa harness their collective buying power and professional smarts to really build the country? 

Many are grappling with this question. Institutions such as Cape Town-based Inyathelo are dedicated to promoting a culture of giving in South Africa. But I wonder, are they misdirected? Is the philanthropic approach of private foundational giving a relic of the West that cannot be transplanted to communal societies? Growing up, I don't recall an African relative of mine ever writing a check for a charitable organization or even supporting anything such as a social enterprise verbally.  And why should they? The transparency necessary to building trust was not characteristic of the institutions they would have known. But this is not to say they didn't build social safety nets.

They don't write checks but the extended family was a charitable organization of sorts. One of my relatives was visiting a sick loved one at Chris Hani Baragwanath, at least 10 years ago. She noticed two kids roaming about mindlessly. They were very young, so she took them home with her. Mind you, this woman lives in a three roomed house and already shared it with her children and extended relatives. A few months on, her state inquiry about the kids finally came up, so she went to court to investigate their welfare. Their mother was present but not fit to parent. The state gave my relative a choice--either you adopt them legally or we take over. Without ever intending to, she became a legal guardian. Just like that. Two children who were otherwise complete strangers. 

If we are going to unlock Africa's potential to bank-roll it's own philanthropic initiatives, shouldn't we shift the focus on how we perceive giving and how we measure philanthropy? There are countless women like my relative. Too many. Their giving does not show up easily in statistics. How do we account for that? And how do we start institutionalizing the way they give? Shouldn't a Black Diamond get a tax break every time she pays for a lower-income cousin's school fees?

The search is on and nearing a close (Jan 31, 2010) for the 2010 Schwab Foundation Africa Social Entrepreneur of the Year.  The Schwab Foundation is among the most respected philanthropic groups in the global social sector and affiliated with the World Economic Forum.  No wonder then, the competition draws such high-calibre social entrepreneurs whose work has collectively changed the lives of millions. 

Take Mitchell Besser and Gene Falk, founders of mothers2mothers (m2m).  In Kayelitsha last year, I met a woman who first found out she is HIV positive status when she discovered her pregnancy.  Can you imagine the devastation of learning you are not only HIV positive, but the child you are carrying may also become infected?  This woman turned to m2m.  She got counseling and mentoring throughout her pregnancy from another HIV+ woman just like her, a mother who knew her pain and related to her life as daily struggles.  By the time she addressed us, she had become a mentor to other mothers through m2m.  She was also the very proud mother of a beautiful bright boy--he has to be at least 6 years old this year.  HIV- and starting life with a strong, healthy mother. m2m describes the type of social venture the Schwab Foundation is interested in:

• Stellar performance record
• Excellent, visionary leadership and,
• A venture model that can benefit exponentially from Schwab Foundation/The World Economic Forum networks

If you know a social entrepreneur in Africa--apart from South Africa which has a separate competition--who fits the bill, the clock is ticking. Share this link with them asap: http://www.schwabfoundseoy.org/africa

This week I attended Indego Africa's Investing in Women reception.  The non-profit social enterprise works with women in Rwanda who create useful handicrafts (food basket/wine coaster) which Indego Africa markets in mature economies through their websites and distributors such as art museum stores.  Nothing new, so far. Clean, straight-forward model.  But this is just the beginning of Indego Africa's story.  The true innovation is that 100% of profits are reinvested in training  programs in entrepreneurship, financial management, computer and literacy.  This not only sets Indego Africa apart, but also what makes the venture the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.  Fascinating too is how Co-Founder, Matt Mitro and Senior VP & General Counsel , Ben Stone, built the organization.  

Both Matt and Ben are lawyers.  Really affable guys who first met as undergrads in college. They are the type you can imagine kicking around a soccer ball with the international students, showing the internationals something about American hospitality at the local bar till 3am and still scoring the type of grades that get you into NYU Law. Matt's family spent more than a decade in Africa--Nigeria, Angola and Rwanda.  After law school, both Ben and Matt landed legal firm gigs, Ben at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Matt at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.  In 2006, Matt co-founded Indego Africa and got his friend onboard. Fast-forward to 2008.  

Matt Mitro, Indego Africa Co-Founder, speaking at 2009 Africa Social Enterprise Forum

Ben visited Rwanda and saw first-hand the impact of Indego Africa's work and how much more could be done.  He handed in a letter of resignation to Orrick and began working at Indego Africa full-time.  That's when an unusual corporate Aha! moment happened.  Instead of letting Ben go, Orrick kept him on the pay-roll books to support his work in the social sector. The firm went far beyond the comforts of pro-bono counsel and took on Indego Africa as something of an investment. 16 Orrick attorneys have contributed to Indego Africa in some format--10 of the 16 provided pro-bono legal services. A deferred first-year associate is helping the team as Ben's right-hand woman. In the world of corporate social responsibility, such a symbiotic relationship would be rare. In the legal field, Orrick's approach to  the social sector is almost unheard of.

At the 2009 Africa Social Enterprise Forum, Ben and Matt met Elchi Nowrojee, Director and Counsel at Credit Suisse.  Elchi confirms just how exceptional Orrick's pro-bono approach is, "This involvement by Orrick is really infrastructure building, and that's rare. It's necessary, and it happens less often." 

As I listened to the event's featured speaker  and noted author Stephen Kinzer--A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the man Who Dreamed It--talk about the star of Africa, Rwanda (can't let this one go, anyone heard of South Africa...LOL?) I wondered what life would be if more businesses took on CSR as Orrick has.  PepsiCo just launched a cool platform investing dollars in social ideas and enterprises--The Pepsi Refresh Project--but imagine if every company you've worked for approached CSR with this same out-of-box thinking.

Maybe it's time you had a little chat with the boss about how things really ought to run around there... 

I just caught a tweet from Ashoka's Social Media Director, Tom Dawkins: 

@tomjd: What's a good topic for the next #4change chat? One suggestion I like is "cause fatigue". What else should we cover this year?

What catches my attention is "cause fatigue".  I love having language to describe something inevitable working in the social entrepreneurial space.  How many times have you avoided someone on the street selling you their cause for a cleaner environment or global children's hunger? How much can you afford to be side-tracked by causes that are unrelated to your own? And how do you make that judgement call?

I am especially interested in this topic today, in light of the earthquake that's struck Haiti. Interested because of the very primal and raw response I have to do something about Haiti's natural disaster. I'd be lying if I said the Tsunami of 2004 struck the same chord in me.  There is something about Haiti that feels particularly close and unsettling to me. Perhaps it's how fragile the country's infrastructure is.  There are too many similarities to Africa.  How prepared was Haiti for an emergency response of any kind before the quake? If we accept that Haiti's improverished state is similar to Africa's, perhaps this disaster is something of a proxy for how prepared an African nation would be in the face of such an emergency.  Of course, an emergency is exactly that--unforseen and catastrophic. No amount of preparation is ever adequate, even in a wealthy country.  Remember Katrina?

To Do Something for Haiti: 

• Donate to Partners in Health and other trusted NGOs.
• Great post about what to and NOT to do for disaster relief help: http://bit.ly/6oIvyo 
  
   

I once read in a high-gloss magazine that of all global citizens, Africans are most optimistic about the future.  The article presented its hypothesis with a "despite it all, they are still happy" tone.  There are many reasons I should be unsettled by this broad stereotype (and I am) but as I take stock of Africa's first twenty first century decade, I find plenty to be hopeful about:

1. We're Making Money.  On average, African economies grew at a 5 percent clip for the first half of the decade.  Despite the 2008 financial hallabaloo, the African Economic Outlook reports Uganda still managed a 7 percent GDP expansion.  Of course, no one is immune to the credit-crunch infused economic recession, overall the continent's economy was projected to grow 2.8 percent over 2009.  Especially for the most vulnerable of society, there is little to be sanguine about, but decades of economic reform have seeped somewhere into the social fabric.  As Chief Economist of the African Development Bank Louis Kasekende says, "We should not despair, the decade of reform has introduced efficiency in macroeconomic management and made African economies more competitive."  Yes, our purses may hurt a little now, but African living standards improved more during this decade because of economic expansion than at any other point in modern history. 
2. We're Educating Children Faster Than Anyone Ever Has.  Center for Global Development's  Michael Clemens argues in “The Long Walk to School” that despite some African countries falling short of the ambitious Millennium Development Goal of universal primary school education by 2015, these same African nations have surpassed the historic performance of developed countries in implementing universal education. Take The Gambia, a country with primary school enrollment rate of 68.7 percent in 2000.  By current trends, The Gambia should reach levels of 86.2 percent by 2015.  A wealthier nation following post-WWII historic enrollment trends would only attain a 79.5 rate by 2015.  A rich country following 19th century trends would only hit 76.7 percent enrollment by 2015.  According to Clemens, African countries are surpassing the historic example of the average wealthy nation and they are attaining these impressive results with less education expenditure.  Of course, heightened enrollment speed says nothing of the quality of education, but surely more kids learning to read, write and basic math (at unprecedented levels) is worthy of some applause?
3. We're Holding Leaders Accountable. Prof. William Easterly posted an amusing, if scathing, parody titled, "African Leaders Advise Bono on Reform of U2" in 2009.  Our fixation with what celebrities are doing to drum up progressive public policy in and for Africa may be far from over, but this decade, Africans created and launched watchdog organizations that promise to cultivate accountability from those charged with the continent's development--African leaders.  In 2006, The Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced the biggest award for sound African leadership, recognizing and encouraging good governance in Africa.  And the award is not just a masquerade.   The foundation uses its platform to X-ray the current quality of leadership and call a spade exactly what it is--no leader was named a leareate in 2009 because none made the cut. Grassroots organizations are also holding elected officials accountable.  Ory Okolloh founded Mzalendo in Kenya, a portal that allows citizens to "keep an eye on parliament" by keeping abreast of and reporting parliamentarians' performance.
4. We've Got The Mobile Phone Madness.  You'd have to have been an ascetic nomad on Mars to miss what mobile phone technology did for Africa in the past 10 years.  Everything from mobile banking (MPesa), SMS crowd sourcing for crisis (Ushahidi), mobile TV (MTN Ghana) to HIV/AIDS education and prevention (Pop!Tech's Project M) made life easier in the fastest growing mobile phone market worldwide.  Countries such as Kenya went from approximately 15,000 handsets in 2000 to over 15 million today.  The mid-2009 launch of SEACOM  brought the promise of more affordable broadband connection, expanding opportunities for smart mobile tech innovation that integrates the holy grail of the internet know-all with a handset. Last year, Google launched its Google SMS suite of applications in partnership with Grameen Foundation, MTN Uganda and a host of local organizations in Uganda.  The most exciting app is Google Trader, an SMS based marketplace--you can now list your wheelbarrow for sale through SMS Text, or find a painting job in Kampala for free from your phone.  I must be blogging back to the future in 1999 writing these lines--can you believe it, excitement over a virtual marketplace (heard of eBay) or job posting board (was Monster first?)--but the truth is Africa lagged behind in the digital divide for much of the 1990s and mobile phones are changing that.  Moreover, mobile phone innovation holds the promise of African technology leadership.  Remember, the first borderless network was launched 2006 by Celtel (since acquired by Zain) in East Africa.
5. We Make Things Happen.  Seriously, the first innovator must have been an African fashioning something from nada--Africans make things happen, despite it all. Of course you've heard about the Malawain Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kwambamba and other superstars like him at the African Leadership Academy, but have you heard of Maker Faire Africa, a platform spotlighting Afrigadgets? And what about The Silicon Cape Initiative launched last year to catalyze high-tech entrepreneurship and investment in the Western Cape, South Africa?  Speaking of South Africa, did someone say World Cup 2010?  The continent is abuzz with innovation and smart heads are nodding in recognition.  The Africa 500 and the South Africa 100 are collaborative efforts --Endeavor and Harvard Superstar Prof. Michael Porter among others--to rank and list Africa's 500 fastest growing companies. 

There are 100 plus more reasons to anticipate a truly African moment in 2010.  I think of the World Cup fans, I think of high-gloss touches helping to rebrand Africa--ARISE Magazine's 2009 launch and a second showcase of African fashion design at New York Fashion Week--I even think of a new Zimbabwe.  I'd love to hear why you think the next 10 years hold Africa's Moment (or not).  Here's To 2010!

I love language.  Something haunting, rich and raw lives in words.  And so, my fascination with writing and writers.  I have a particular fondness for African men and women of letters, who are not as widely distributed as I'd like and whose myriad stories are often boiled down to a casual high school encounter with Things Fall Apart.  A beautiful writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke quite eloquently about this "danger of the single story" at TED 2009.  Highly recommended listening: here.  

While you are at it, check out Half of A Yellow Sun, her very moving novel.

My gift to you this holiday season is the African contemporary word. Hopefully words you have seldom come across.  I highlight four South African poets, all political activists. Before social entrepreneurship spun itself in a coveted web of sexiness, these philosopher-kings channeled art as a sharp weapon for social change.  Dennis Brutus is first, a man who put others first through his life's work.  He passed away December 27. Celebrated and saluted. A great NYT article about his life and times: here.

Antjie Krog is the fifth, an Afrikaner woman who writes with the rich forcefulness of Afrikaans itself. 

On the Road by Dennis Brutus

The moon is up; the trees detatch                                                                  

themselves from formless landscapes                                                                          

to assume a courtly grace,                                                                                          

cloud-bank scatters are light-edged blades that pale the sparse occasional skies

The wide night sighs its sensours                                                                            

openness, stirring my mind's delight                                                                              

to a transfiguring tenderness                                                                                        

as stars harden to spearpoint brilliance                                                                        

and focus fierce demands for peace.

January 1963

I feel a poem by Don Mattera 

Thumping deep, deep
I feel a poem inside
wriggling within the membrane 
of my soul;
            tiny fists beating,
            beating against my being
            trying to break the navel cord,
                                    crying, crying out
                                    to be born on paper

                                    Thumping 
                                    deep, so deeply 
                                    I feel a poem,
                                                inside

Fragment from Recollections by Keorapetse Kgositsile

Though you remain
Convinced
To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive...

Dizzy says:
It's taken all my life 
To learn what not to play
How long will it take you
To learn what not to say? 

Fragment from Heat and Sweat by Mongane Wally Serote

so you keep looking back
if you did not listen when the past was breathing
the present erases your name
child don’t let laughter from insane strangers snatch our faces
the present is surprised at our songs

Fragment from the indigent by Antjie Krog

the poor are coming toward her

from the four corners of the earth

they crowd on the plains

and climb into mountain terraces

whatever she does they will be with her

and her inability to live a life in proportion to them

even her smallest action will be without honor

(Bertolt Brecht said that it was only those who knew hunger

who would feed the hunger

- the rich feed only each other)

will her larynx ever become bone

enough to stand with the poor and shout:

'Destroy the ramparts the barricades the walls the malls

let us build shacks in the backyards, plant maize in the parks

sleep in the cases, eat in the stoeps, appropriate and populate flats and hotels

yes, let us stir pap in the cable car

sell wares in the gorge

let us possess this city

we, who know what starving is

will feed the hungry.'

As always--thank you for stopping at my little station on the edge. Happy Holidays. 

Last week, we (Zenzele Circle) were ungracefully dropped from a high brow business plan competition.  It was not fun.  It stung.  I should be diplomatic and say it was a great learning experience.  In part, yes, but when you are trying to get a business on its feet, juggling side shows like business plan competitions often adds to risk by doubling distractions. 

I remember listening to an Endeavor Entrepreneur last fall who described how much his partner was against the idea of pursuing Endeavor's highly competitive Entrepreneurship track.  Thing is, if you win, payoff can be spectacular for a budding venture.  Cristian Adamo, the Endeavor Entrepreneur, described how his took off after working with Endeavor.  He heads up ArchPartners, a firm that creates 3-D animation and illustration for the architecture/design market.  ArchPartners used Endeavor as a launching pad to take the company to the next level.  But if you lose, you've arguably wasted something intangible, even while you benefit from yet another pitch exercise.

For any young company, nothing substitutes seed capital.  That's what makes these business plan competitions exciting.  Who doesn't want $100k to jumpstart their bright idea.  But how to strike a balance between the horse and pony ride of competitions (and there are countless out there) and spending time actually executing the plan?

Who do you work for and Why?

Pockets and potholes of social injustice. We all see them as change-makers.  At some point, you identified a need, a hole in the cog, and adopted it as your personal schtick.  Maybe it's healthcare as a universal birthright, it could be ending genocide once and for all, or providing girls education so they are self-empowered.

My schtick is economic justice and empowerment.  I like to think that I'm working for underserved Africans.  I'm starting a quasi investment bank that will harness capital so African small medium enterprises can thrive, these are enterprises which will support living-wage jobs. I help create jobs. 

But why do what you do? What is it about these issues that draws me in?  What do I gain doing this that cannot be made whole elsewhere?

As social entrepreneurs, I don't think we are honest enough about why we do what we do.  Strip down all that altruism--it's the right thing to do/it makes me feel good to do good for others--and what's left standing?

If you read the subtitle above, you'll notice reference to a book Empire, by Negri and Hardt.  It's something of the post-modern Communist Manefesto. As I interpret it, Empire is the post-imperialist/cold war/globalized world state benefitting from the pockets and potholes of social injustice you may already have identified. Fuzzy, I know, but the book is recommended reading, especially if you can then offer a clear definition of Empire. Anyways, my conversation this morning led to thinking about Empire.  If you've read it, you'll appreciate why understanding who you work for and why is so critical. Does the work you do contribute to Empire?  In other words, does the work you do ultimately advance the same opressive forces that may be at work creating your pocket or pothole of social injustice?

How can an investment bank profit ordinary Africans at the very base of the pyramid? How different is this from imposing western ideals of development on foreign communities and calling it advancement? Will new jobs created benefit Africans or will Africans' newly created wealth merely benefit capitalist consumption and corporate expansion? 

I'm reminded of a story President Clinton told about Coca-Cola in South Africa.  In respose to high incidents of HIV/AIDS among its employees in the 1990s, the company provided progressive in-house testing and supportive services.  This saved lives. Clinton chuckled here saying that of course, this also ensured Coca-Cola kept Africans alive so they could keep drinking (and buying) Coke for many more years.  Should it matter what incetiviced Coke--keeping consumers alive to buy more Coke or investing in and saving its people?  I think so.

I don't think we can be our most effective selves unless we are attuned to what motivates us to do any specific good.

So, Who do you work for and Why?

There's a good chance you're not wise to this so I'll dish straightforward: the poor are not waiting for your rescue plan.  In fact, I have it on good source that among Africa's estimated 80 percent subsistence farmers, thousands have already discovered ways to empower themselves and sustainably pull out of poverty. How? It's simple.  If you're poor, making money is top priority. If you're a farmer, you can make more money selling produce when market prices are high. But if you depend on rain, you'll only produce when your neighbors do too, undermining potential market demand for your produce. What if I sold you a KickStart Super MoneyMaker Water Pump? Then, your sad harvest story may begin sounding like Janet Ondiek's.

Janet Ondiek is a Kenyan farmer.  When her husband and co-wife died HIV/AIDS positive, she inherited the co-wife's children and was expected, by custom, to marry her husband's brother.  She refused this second marriage, understanding the risk of infection--a rarity in her community.  Brave move, but she now had 9 children to support on 2 acres of poorly irrigated land.  Her farm is a common story in Africa, where only 4 percent of land is irrigated, compared to 42 percent in Asia. So, what to do?  Janet got wind of the Super MoneyMaker Pump, a human-powered micro-irrigation system designed by KickStart that can draw water up from as far below as 7 meters. She saved whatever she could to buy one of these machines--the most expensive model retails for $200.  Within the first year, Janet made $3,200 profit.  KickStart reports 1,000% average annual income hike after the first year with a micro-irrigator.  Janet made enough money not just to support her 9 children, but also to pay for their tertiary education.  KickStart estimates it has reached at least 83,000 farmers just like Janet who have initiated 1,300 new businesses monthly.  As an aggregate, KickStart claims such businesses contribute 0.6 percent of Kenya's GDP. World Bank figures indicate Kenya's 2008 GDP was roughly $35bn. That means Janet and other farmers created $6 million economic value for Kenya. Hardly worth snuffing at.

KickStart's Raison d'être is providing tools for the rural poor to make money. The tools must generate income, be human-powered (no electricity), affordable and easy to operate/fix. KickStart's work is concentrated in rural Africa precisely because most of the world's poor--80 percent in subSaharan Africa--are smallhold farmers.  The tools are sold, not donated; typically at a profit to local retailers who form part of a cultivated supply chain.

Listening to KickStart Cofounder Martin Fisher's jam-packed pitch, I started hearing an awful lot that sounded like microfinance. Pulling people sustainably out of poverty.  Meet Janet, she can now pay for her children to attend college. This model is highly scalable, etc, etc. So, what exactly is "out of poverty" to KickStart? And can a business generating $3,200 annual profit be considered the start of a small business, or is it a micro-enterprise that can reliably provide income for Janet and her children and little else beyond? Can we ultimately claim that KickStart's innovation will help create sorely-needed jobs in Kenya or Tanzania, boosting the middle class?

Apparently, you have to make the road by walking and the road to rural prosperity is quite long, perhaps even steep.  Martin defines "out of poverty" as not worrying about survival--having enough extra cash to invest in the future.  Investing in the future is building a new house without leaks perhaps, starting a new business or yes, you guessed it, sending your kids to school. KickStart's definition of a small business--a family run enterprise making enough money to grow the business from income earned--may only be the first stepping stone. 

To be frank, it is an awful lot like microenterprise to me and I have doubts about how many Janets will graduate to creating sustainable jobs beyond family hands. To me, KickStart is an improvement on microfinance--helping the rural poor acquire income-generating assets seems a step up from giving access to credit.  Of course, one could argue that borrowed loans can be used to invest in wealth-creating assets, but research suggests that most poor people tap credit much the same way wealthier counterparts do--to smooth consumption, not to start a business.

But, there is the simple truth of Janet's reality.  If she moved to the city, she would most likely have landed in a slum like Kibera, where unemployment is as high as 50 percent. This would have left her eventually landless and poorer still. Starting a profitable KickStart MoneyMaker Pump-irrigated farm on her land is perhaps, to borrow from Churchill, not an end in itself but "the end of the beginning". 

Martin speaks of middle classes as the backbone to good governance. When Janet's first learned her husband and co-wife died of HIV/AIDS and she had to support 9 children, it's arguable that it would not have taken much to sway her vote. As a politician, perhaps all I'd have to offer is a free meal for everyone and promises of a bright future to win Janet's vote. Today, as the owner of a thriving business, Janet is a rather expensive vote.  She may skip the free meal I provide and demand I deliver school books to her children on time before winning her vote.  Janet is the start of a middle class. Sure, Africa needs larger businesses extending beyond agriculture, but what if we re-imagine the rural farmer as a seed herself, the end perhaps, of our modest beginning.

 Note: Please visit KickStart's site at http://www.kickstart.org

This summer I met a man whose hand was blown to smithereens by a car bomb from the South African apartheid government. He amused us with what comedy circulates the South African Supreme Court, talking about a copyright law suit SABMiller brought against T-shirt company Laugh It Off.  Apparently, Laugh It Off thought it tickling to print tees sporting Black Label beer's trademark with added punch--"Black Labor-white Guilt".  Needless to say, Black Label's parent company found nothing entertaining about the tees. The man, the Honorable Justice Albie Sachs, spoke quite movingly about room for humor in the public space--how the South African Constitution must make room in law and life to laugh. I had to ask the Justice what else the Constitution can do for us.  If laughs are part of the package, what about the rights the Constitution promises--including every citizen's right to descent housing, to education, to healthcare--how do we make these rights actionable?

Another man I met this fall, Father Michael Lapsley, addressed the issue of our right to human dignity through the work he does and his life-story.  Father Lapsley also lost his limbs to a parcel bomb from the apartheid regime. He talked about the process of healing after the attack--his pain and the violence done to him were acknowledged and tended to by everyone around him including random strangers. He painted this picture in contrast to the violence apartheid imposed on ordinary people and the emptiness in our collective psyche and space created by not fully acknowledging this normalized violence. Yes, there was the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.  But the TRC addressed the most heinous strains of violence, limiting the number of participants to a mere sampling of society and creating the illusion that only a handful of (black) people were directly violated. Not so. Regardless of color, what was stripped from us was violent and deserves the acknowledgement Fr. Michael heard on the lips of strangers and neighbors alike. Lapsley's work through the Institute for Healing of Memories creates a space for "ordinary people"--who were so extraordinarily wronged and violated by just by citizenship in their country--to be heard and acknowledged in their pain. So we can heal.

Fr. Micheal's lecture was peppered by comments from Shared Interest's Donna Katzin. Donna spoke about apartheid's violence in economic terms and how part of healing is making people whole. She described Sibongile, whose community Shared Interest and Thembani International Guarantee Fund helped secure business loans. They farm sugar. Standing amid the sway of tall sugarcane, this woman told Donna her human dignity was restored by the agency she discovered working the land and discovering her economic power. "Now I know I have power.  My power is in these canes."  

Sure, money is not power. It would be a farce to think economic empowerment results in healing. But if part of a restorative and just Constitution is to make right what has been wronged, shouldn't we ask how to make good on the promises of our very brave and inspired Constitution? What is the purpose of that beautiful language on paper if descent housing, education and healthcare remains an elusive hope for some South Africans? How do we create more Sibongile's in our day with the economic tools we have?

Please Note: You can find a copy of the South African Constitution here: http://bit.ly/5G1uM7. It is truly an inspired document, rich in both language and emotional undertones, speaking to a complex heritage and hopeful future. Listen to Justice Albie Sachs here: http://bit.ly/8MHHdA

Woody Tasch thinks "we're in danger of imbalance as a species". I suspect it's because people like me relish eating meat and have friends who swear their Zulu-essence would be up for grabs if they commit vegetarianism.  But I also suppose he's right.  My body seems smart enough to know the difference between farmer's market fresh and fleshly-polished food. And my head has always questioned why I continue eating anything if it necessitates more feed for its dead meat and less food still for others who are human. He's right, I'm wrong.  Yes, but what exactly does this have to do with angel investing and his experience chairing one of the most successful angel networks--Investor's Circle doled out $133 million to 200 plus early stage companies since 1992--how exactly, Woody, are "genetically modified organisms (GMOs) like derivatives"?

Well, market derivates are the product of smart engineering--pile on returns and spread out risk. HIgh return less risk.  Similarly, GMOs trick the soil to get more product yield minus the risk by cross-breeding plant varieties. As in the financial markets, Woody argues as that we are headed for a biological correction.  Nice alignment of analogies here, but what does it mean?

1. Money moves fast--$3 trillion speeds through currency markets alone daily, the derivates market is valued at an approximate $50 trillion, global GDP was $66 trillion in 2007
2. Food production is also moving fast, to the detriment of our bodies. Think Peak Oil. We may actually run out of dirt--"we are losing more than 10 million hectares arable land annually... resulting in loss of 0.5 percent or more of the world's soil fertility annually"
3. We don't invest in what we eat. Annually, US philanthropic foundations spend less than $50 million on sustainable agriculture, o.1 percent of total philanthropic dollars. Investor's Circle invested $27 million of $133 million in good food since 1992, in the likes of Honest Tea, Ethos Water, Stonyfield Organic Yoghurt.  
4. Slow Money Connects it all.  Woody's Slow Money Alliance is building the resources to help local consumers connect directly to local food sources as both consumers and investors.  What if our food is sourced from 100 Butterworks Farms instead of (and complimenting) one super-brand that happens to be organic/local?

I brought up the obvious during dinner with Woody.  This model makes many assumptions about global food challenges, most glaring to me the assumption that most people are fed, just poorly.  The UN World Food Program estimates 1.02 billion people do not have enough to eat, 1 in 6 of us is malnourished.  Malnutrition is not isolated to the developing world.  In North America, blighted urban areas are often described as "food deserts", where food markets are few and fresh produce scarce.  Should our efforts be feeding those hungry in the desert or diversifying Whole Foods'/Woolworths' (insert your elite supermarket of choice) product lines?

I know we need Woody Tasch and his likes to push the agenda from a different angle, but it seems worthwhile raising the question because the implications are real and demand attention now.

A friend of mine builds schools in Southern Sudan.  She was in the field this summer completing prospect work for a girls' school.  Part of the school's plan includes a vegetable garden.  She was working in the garden alongside a Kenyan and Sudanese. The Kenyan thought it crazy to refuse pesticides--they would fortify the crops and help produce more yield. Feed more people. The Sudanese objected.  Pesticides kill pests, yes, but also erode the soil--we want to plant and harvest next year too, not just now.

Feed many mouths today or Eat for many more moons to come?  Is this even an either/or argument? What I want to know is how and can we feed more now also plant and eat more later?

Note: Stats quoted here are from Woody Tasch's lecture or book, Slow Money (2008), unless otherwise noted.  Mr. Tasch was a guest of the NYU Reynolds Program for Social Entrepreneurship Speaker Series.  Next featured speaker Dec 3 is Karl Hofman, President & CEO of Population Services International, a health care giant with a global footprint targeting malaria, child survival, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health diseases.

So, you're the genius child chock-full smart ideas that will make yours truly sound like a cute girl who couldn't spell Africa if the country was a continent?  Equipped with the right tools, your brand of social entrepreneurship will redefine how art is used as a tool for catalyst change, reconfigure institutional infrastructures ground-up, inside-out or introduce a crazily obvious concept that will challenge our approach to improving education.  You are a social entrepreneur, tinkering with how to expand yourself for your next phase--where to build the right networks, how to engrain yourself in a supportive community?  In short, how will you make things happen?   

Have you heard of the Reynolds Program for Social Entrepreneurship?  The program offers fellowships to grad students and scholarships at the undergrad level to talented people like you who possess the vision and passion to implement pattern breaking change to intractable social problems in sustainable and scalable ways.

Who are Reynolds Fellows and Scholars anyways?

• Dr. Brian Levine, 2006 Fellow and Founder of MDNet, a free mobile network linking doctors in Africa.  MDNet launched in Ghana in 2008, has spread to Liberia (100% adoption rate) under an MTN subsidiary and will expand to Kenya and Uganda by 2010, Rwanda by 2011.  
• Jessica Mason.  A 2008 Scholar who co-founded Babies First Home, a shelter for homeless NYC teen moms who have few places to turn.  Since inception, BFH has won $10,000 seed funding from Youth Venture/Be A Change Maker, secured a building and will welcome its first transitional residents this year. 
• Cody Brown, 2008 Scholar and Founding Publisher of NYU Local--the most high-traffic website at NYU that PBS recently spotlighted as a next generation publication. Cody's latest venture, Kommons, challenges traditional assumptions about what's newsworthy by creating a space that allows a public to speak to itself.  Word?
•  Ralph Vacca, 2009 Fellow and Co-Founder of Kognito Interactive. Kognito has developed several award winning games and simulations for learning and education. A recent product, At-Risk, was designed with Mental Health Association of NYC and has been adopted by several US colleges, including CUNY.  Village Voice ran an interesting article last week about At-Risk, read more here.

As a Fellow, the Reynolds community has been seminal to my growth as a social entrepreneur.  I should tell you that the fellowship comes with $50,000 toward a mountainous NYU bill, but that would miss the invaluable experience Reynolds will throw at you.  You will be challenged.  Are you, a white woman, the best person to lead a secondary school for African girls in rural Tanzania?  You will be schooled--Technical How Tos so you can tear a business plan apart and rebuild it like a pro.  You will not be bored.  Please do not repeat or post about what you saw (or heard) at a social bar-hopping night out followed by Sunday laziness soaking it out at the Russian Baths...

There are many more impressive stories and sorts--did I mention the founding President of the Hip Hop Association, H2A or Lauren Servin, who built a school in Southern Sudan and is currently working on a new boarding school for girls in the same region?  I could go on here and drop another bragging right--Reynolds Fellows have claimed Stern's Social Venture Competition (yes, that's a $100,000 award) every year since the program launched in 2006--but if you're serious about your social entrepreneurial venture and are considering graduate school 2010 as a test-drive, do your homework and bring your A-Game.  Reynolds is accepting applications.  More info: www.nyu.edu/reynolds or e-mail reynoldsprogram@nyu.edu.

Iced tea usually presents a problem for me.  Don't like the taste.  Lost on the art of tea canned/bottled tea.  In perfect frankness, tea that's anything but milk-frothed, heated and high disorients all my South African sensibilities. I actually remember an amusing guessing game my sisters and I played as girls drinking in far too many TV scenes of American porches, rocking chairs and iced tea--who knew what this American iced tea was?  My baby sister's guess amused us most.  She proposed iced tea was in fact hot water infused with sugar and tea leaves allowed to chill and served with ice.  We broke into hysterics over her adorable naivete (she was no more than 6) and could not have been further tickled when she put her little recipe to test and produced Five Roses tea bags swimming in cold water. This could never be the American TV hit sensation fancifully coined, Iced Tea.  Imagine then, not only learning that iced tea is in fact just that, but, years later, sitting in conversation with the co-Founder and TeaEO of a bottled tea sensation, Honest Tea.

I could not offer how much I loved the product, in fact I'd actively avoided it.  And I could not wax about the honest social goodness poured into each bottle-- I know so little about the company.  So I listened.  And Seth did not disappoint.  He walked us through the making of a social entrepreneur--from a Yale MBA, to AmeriCorp, to a successful stint with the Calvert Foundation, to the long telephone silence that greeted him when he asked co-Founder Barry Nalebuff, "We can actually make this tea commercially, right, Barry?" mere minutes before submitting his resignation letter to Calvert. Seth also spoke about Honest Tea's imminent sale to Coca-Cola and how the giant's minority stake impacts Honest Tea's blueprint, as well as the bizzare and inspiring voice-mails dropped for your benefit when you are growing a $50 million revenue machine to a billion dollar mega-quencher. 

Interesting thoughts from the lecture worth pondering:

1. Do what Resonates With You and Your Audience

Seth caught the entrepreneurial itch early and toyed with a number of ideas, including how to raise money for public schools--building on the alumni-donor model employed by private schools-- as well as a company devoted to urinary tract infections.  It turns out, urinary tract infections make for good business and lousy excitement boosters, at least so for Seth. He latched on the beverage thing after a sequel of events that included a case study in B-school and searching for the perfect, all-natural drink after a run in Central Park (insert dimmed lights and eureka music). It stuck because its exciting and resonates with Seth.  He pulled through more than 10 years operating and pushing sales because he could get up daily to sell tea, products for urinary tract infections on the other hand...

But he's also learned that you must align what personally resonates with what your audience craves.  Telling the story of Haarlem Honeybush Tea, Seth reports, "we pushed too hard on the mission". The product was exciting for SRI--great supply side story, working with a farm coop in the Cape area of South Africa, fantastic organic and all-natural product, honeybush--but totally missed the market mark. Haarlem Honeybush Tea was pulled off shelves, never mind that Seth was ga-ga about it, because it did not resonate with the audience--not enough sugar, funky different taste and just plainly not commercial. 

2. Evolve and Respond

Another telling story is of the new packaging design, a hollowed bottom 16.9 oz bottle that carries the same quantity of liquid but in a eco-smart package that is 22 percent lighter than the previous model.  Honest Tea failed to communicate why the new bottles were hollowed, assuming customers would trust the label that honestly indicates, "its still 16.9 oz". That assumption cost sales a nosedive. Seth even shared an e-mail complaint from a fuming customer who saw through the deceitful gimmick of a not so Honest package. The company evolved and corrected their misstep with a simple response--new bottles now include a word about the hollowed bottom and why using a product that's 22 percent lighter leaves a better environmental footprint.

3. Lead

Seth co-founded something quite crazy in 1998.  When dot.coms were the rage, here's a man who insisted that the old economy still had merit and was often challenged for his thinking-- "Why not start Honest Tea.com?"  Today, Honest Tea is the best selling bottled tea brand sourcing all ingredients from global organic farms, most of which are also fair trade.  Honest Tea offsets all carbon footprint with renewable tax credit purchases.  In Honest Tea's hometown of Bethesda, MD, the team established (BE)thesda Green--entrepreneurial ventures are offered incubator support and there are even plans to turn local restaurants' grease into biodiesel. Annual sales growth is 66 percent and even Coca-Cola sees a sunny future, the global distributor bought a 40 percent equity stake in Honest Tea last year and is expected to buy remaining shares next year. Sure, Coke may take over and replace every ingredient with cheap chocolaty stuff, but consumers know their stuff and would make Coke pay dearly in profits. The stuff is honestly made by descent people who believe you can do more good by baking in social returns from ingredient-sourcing right up the value chain than what you can writing feel-good CSR checks. And it works. Someone had to lead this engine when it was nothing. Someone had to sell the crazy old-economy idea to skeptical investor suits and make them believe that honesty is good, cook it into a tea recipe and you may have something even better. In Seth's own words, someone had to lead by helping to "create the future you want to live in".  

To sum, I'll leave you with Seth's wise words as well as those borrowed from a Chinese proverb.  "If we don't change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going." and "The mission is only effective if we're in business.  As a for profit company, we have to be able to deliver."  I'll let you guess which is which.

And so, finally, what's the verdict?  Did I try Honest Tea?  Am I a convert to something so simple, so silly and fun, it's quintessentially American? I grabbed a bottle of Honest Black Forrest Berry as I sat down for lunch with Seth and a group of Reynolds Fellows.  The first bottle may have been out of courtesy, but I have to admit, the second bottle was all about taste buds. The stuff is good.  And who knew, Honest Tea is ten steps ahead of hot-tea snobs just like me--there's a whole line of organic tea bags for civilized sips of something hot, sweet, milk-infused and do-good high.

Note: The Catherine B. Reynolds Program for Social Entrepreneurship at NYU hosts a vibrant speaker series open to the public. Next featured speaker is Investor's Circle Chair, Woody Tasch. November 5.  RSVP: http://bit.ly/19KeMc The program is also currently Accepting Applications for 2010 Reynolds Fellows & Scholars--one perk of many is an intimate, private lunch/dinner with the speaker after open lectures. Follow RSVP link. Photo credits: Honest Tea and David Goldman for USA Today.

I want to write about risk.  About how scary it is to start a venture with little promise of success.  Prof. William Easterly quotes a daunting statistic--more than half all US firms will fail within four years of founding--in a paper detailing how crazed and risky development really is.  

Most of us are bound to fail. In the social sector, some NGOs may be shielded by altruistic inefficiency--who wants to see an ineffective youth program shut down if there's no alternative in a depressed neighborhood? For social enterprises rooted in capital markets' efficiency (if there is such a beast anymore), risk is an acute and inherent shadow, looming between the subsidized promise of your social impact and your numbers-only ROI. 

Why would anyone normal and sane defy all reasonable logic to start a social venture that is doomed, by statistics at least, to fail (95 percent confidence interval)? What makes you believe you will be the exception, what makes you think you can win? I ask myself this often and openly. Honestly, the only solace I take is a resigned faith in my marginal insanity, a perfect knowledge that I've always been off-skelter anyway. 

I co-Founded Zenzele Circle in the summer of 2009. The seed was sown by a simple quest--considering how to create sustainable jobs in Africa. The idea remains simple. Entrepreneurs are catalyst forces who can, where nurtured and assuming a viable business model, transform communities by creating jobs and the beginnings of a middle class. Entrepreneurs need seed and growth capital, but they also need relationships with the right people. Enter Zenzele Circle.  Tidy on paper, but daunting in practice. There are a million internal infrastructure pieces to consider, operating capital to raise, not to mention buy and sell side relationships to tend.  Understandably, my mother wants to know why? Why choose such a life? 

The answer is complicated. On the worst days I really don't know... because my Co-founder told me to? On the best days, I'm certain--how much more validation do you need after a Rock.Found Managing Director tips his hat in your direction? Try explaining that to an African mother, especially when you could be earning a dependable salary at a respectable outfit with all the trimmings--insurance, bragging rights, a couple odd dollars to throw into the African social security blanket, ie. the extended family, and oh, did I mention that you're not predisposed to failure? 

I have the cushion of a full-ride master's degree plus stipend right now. Come May 2010, the plan is Zenzele Circle 200 percent. I have stomach cramps considering what I'll eat if I don't start hunting for a reasonable job. I feel selfish considering a path that may render me useless to a very real quasi-social security system that has afforded me the privileged position I now hold, a position my Western sensibilities insist a product of personal perseverance and self-sacrifice.

Rubbish, Absolute hogwash!

Nobody makes it alone, much less a humble African girl from a still humbler family. Countless sacrifices have been made in my name. Perhaps this, ultimately, is the true dilemma for any would-be African entrepreneur--how to balance the urgent and real financial demands of a supportive family with the patience needed to see an entrepreneurial dream through. How to take on the crazed risk of entrepreneurship knowing failure is a possibility and that its cost will bear not just on oneself, but more pointedly, on a larger interdependent familial ecosystem?  

Rightfully, you should counter that there's so much more to lose than fear of failure itself and that in the most desperate circumstances, all to lose is only failure.  You may also add that no bird would ever fly beyond fear if it never spread its wings for fear of falling. 

I'm reminded of a beautiful challenge Zohar Atkins-- 2009 first prize winner of the Elie Wiesel Prize for Ethics--describes, "to recognize that each of us is the being for whom the whole world was created and simultaneously, to see that we are nothing but dust of the earth." In pursuing social impact through any venture, there's a captive universe that's been created precisely for this moment just as surely as this moment and our impact will dissolve with time to nothing more than sand dunes of dust.

Atkins, Z. (2009). The Duty of Cock-Eyed Angels. http://bit.ly/7vljQ                  

Easterly, W. (2006). Freedom versus Collectivism in Foreign Aid, Chapter in Economic Freedom of the World, 2006 Annual Report. http://bit.ly/1TK5tP

Funny that I spent last night with a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Professor Elie Wiesel, after the news we all woke up to this morning--President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. There's a lot swarming around about Obama's merit, given the very limited time he's spent in office.  But could one argue that even if Obama lost the presidential race, the movement he inspired--the international chorus of hope and the faith (if still fragile) he restored in diplomacy-- merits applause and acknowledgement of a peace-making feat?

Could one also argue that although much still lies ahead to be written and told, Obama's peace prize is something akin to a world insurance policy for peace--we are guaranteed nothing by hedging our losses but isn't it worth a shot if it buys us a safer world? I think of the Entangled Giant, an eloquent New York Review of Books piece by Garry Wills that asks precisely how sound this global insurance policy is--how can we ask so much of a single man, who looms gigantic in our times, but nonetheless entangled in the cobwebs of our making? 

Perhaps wisdom from an Elder, Professor Elie Wiesel, best sums a collective hope against hope for President Obama, "Mr. President (Obama), we have such high hopes for you because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place, where people will stop waging war--every war is absurd and meaningless; where people will stop hating one another, where people will hate the otherness of the other rather than respect it." 

Nobel Peace Prize laureates are game changers and their messages change the lives of millions, yet the prize also serves as an endorsement, spreading the best messages even wider. As Chief Albert Luthuli, the first African Nobel Peace Prize laureate noted in 1960, "the award is a democratic declaration of solidarity with those who fight to widen the area of liberty...As such, it is the sort of gesture which gives me and millions who think as I do, tremendous encouragement."

Last night, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Elie Wiesel Prize for Ethic, was testimony to this.  Essayists from as far back as 1990 shared stories about how Elie Wiesel's life example and work of words changed their lives. Younger writers from the 2008 and 2009 years described how encountering Wiesel's teachings informed a life of service. I cannot help but think of how many people I know who's lives have been similarly, irreversibly touched by the example of Barack Obama.  Perhaps what seems so crazy to us today--awarding a man with less than a full year in the presidential seat the highest humanitarian honor--will become obvious to us tomorrow. Thinking of the work that lies ahead, this has to be our most fervent hope. 

Full Transcript of Professor Elie Wiesel's speech, in which he addresses President Barack Obama, here: http://bit.ly/D0LR9

Also The Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics is open and accepting essays for 2010--a highly recommended exercise: http://bit.ly/1NNash 

Full Transcript of Chief Albert Luthuli's Nobel acceptance lecure: http://bit.ly/zrAHK