Scojo
2007-03-29
Ashoka Changemakers
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Susan Davis of Ashoka chaired this session that was enlivened by the changemakers, innovators, and social visionaries. The ideas that were presented were inspirational – and even where they were not original technical solutions – the intentions and passion behind the people driving them were refreshing.
Bill Drayton, Founder of Ashoka, emphasized the critical need for changemakers to galvanize masses and trigger institutional success. He asserted that this could only be achieved by escaping repeated patterns of active inertia, and by hitting the jujitsu point.
Charlie Brown, Executive Director of Changemakers, and Greg Dees, director of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke, introduced the mosaic process that aims to release embedded knowledge from practitioners to help solve the “Knowing-Doing Gap”, cited by Jeff Pfeffer.
The presentations featured Ashoka fellows and competitors were primarily involved in pro-poor social enterprises, and in many cases rural development. All of these stood out although some were unforgettable. Dr. Jordan Kassalow has worked through the Scojo Foundation to distribute reading glasses in communities as worker productivity in impoverished communities has suffered from this basic void. Scojo has empowered bicyle repairmen, basket weavers, and other low-skilled laborers to do their jobs. Simple yet powerful!
MANTRA, KTC, and Oasis were all focused on rural development and health services models. Considering 90% of the world’s poor live in rural areas, this certainly seems like we are headed in the right direction.
The Peace Competition tackled some of the most challenging and cyclical conflict issues in the world. The Peres Center is utilizing economic development and integration to help mitigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Eric Brown of Impact Games has designed a video game to facilitate learning from multiple perspectives of the same conflict. This was a fantastic example of edutainment that enables one to step out of binding tunnel vision and into the “other” side.
The Independent Diplomat was yet another remarkable innovation in conflict prevention and management. Its aim is to resolve or prevent conflict by enabling disadvantaged and marginalised actors to engage effectively in diplomatic processes. Conflict often times occurs at the margins and such programs are useful in aiding direct impact.
The one gaping hole I saw in many of the peace models was the lack of focus on addressing behavioural problems. Conflict management is about more than engaging individuals, it is about character building, nurturing human values, and winning people’s hearts – not just their minds!
Bill Drayton, Founder of Ashoka, emphasized the critical need for changemakers to galvanize masses and trigger institutional success. He asserted that this could only be achieved by escaping repeated patterns of active inertia, and by hitting the jujitsu point.
Charlie Brown, Executive Director of Changemakers, and Greg Dees, director of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke, introduced the mosaic process that aims to release embedded knowledge from practitioners to help solve the “Knowing-Doing Gap”, cited by Jeff Pfeffer.
The presentations featured Ashoka fellows and competitors were primarily involved in pro-poor social enterprises, and in many cases rural development. All of these stood out although some were unforgettable. Dr. Jordan Kassalow has worked through the Scojo Foundation to distribute reading glasses in communities as worker productivity in impoverished communities has suffered from this basic void. Scojo has empowered bicyle repairmen, basket weavers, and other low-skilled laborers to do their jobs. Simple yet powerful!
MANTRA, KTC, and Oasis were all focused on rural development and health services models. Considering 90% of the world’s poor live in rural areas, this certainly seems like we are headed in the right direction.
The Peace Competition tackled some of the most challenging and cyclical conflict issues in the world. The Peres Center is utilizing economic development and integration to help mitigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Eric Brown of Impact Games has designed a video game to facilitate learning from multiple perspectives of the same conflict. This was a fantastic example of edutainment that enables one to step out of binding tunnel vision and into the “other” side.
The Independent Diplomat was yet another remarkable innovation in conflict prevention and management. Its aim is to resolve or prevent conflict by enabling disadvantaged and marginalised actors to engage effectively in diplomatic processes. Conflict often times occurs at the margins and such programs are useful in aiding direct impact.
The one gaping hole I saw in many of the peace models was the lack of focus on addressing behavioural problems. Conflict management is about more than engaging individuals, it is about character building, nurturing human values, and winning people’s hearts – not just their minds!
