Growing prosperity: Executive summary - Bain Brief - Bain & Company
Microdrip irrigation systems. Drought-resistant hybrid seeds.
Asset-backed microloans. These innovations can transform the lives of
those farming on less than two hectares of land and earning less than $4
a day. Yet until relatively recently, they were unknown in most
smallholder farmer communities.
What does it take to get the developing world’s smallholder
farmers to try one of these products? Importantly, what would it take to
get them to buy these products again and again? For many of the 2.5
billion people living at the “base of the pyramid” and relying on
agriculture for their livelihood,1 adopting these innovations could improve their lives and the lives of future generations.
To answer these questions, Bain & Company and Acumen, with
the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, undertook a
joint four-month research effort2
focused on South Asia (India and Pakistan) and sub-Saharan Africa
(Ghana, Kenya and Uganda) to understand what it would take to catalyze
the large-scale adoption of innovations that could lead to more secure
and prosperous lives for smallholder farmers.
Monarch Butterflies on the Decline
Please consider planting milkweed in the spring if you can. And teach
your kids about monarchs. The loss of monarch butterflies "should matter
to more than butterfly enthusiasts... The lost habitat also affects
ground-nesting birds and small mammals vital to the natural food chain,
and pollinating insects such as bees, who provide an essential benefit
to agriculture."
Monarch Butterflies on the Decline
Lansing State Journal
July 30, 2014
Monarch Butterflies on the Decline
Lansing State Journal
July 30, 2014
Look closely outside.
Something’s missing. Something orange, black, white and fluttery.
Monarch butterflies, once a ubiquitous spring and summer presence throughout Michigan, are again a rare sighting this year.
It’s the result of two factors: An ongoing crash in the migratory monarch’s populations due to the loss of habitat — particularly milkweed — and Michigan’s long, cold winter causing many returning butterflies to hang further south or to arrive much later than usual.
“It’s really a big difference. It’s a tragedy,” said Diane Pruden, a Milford Township resident who serves as a citizen researcher for Monarch Watch, a nonprofit education, conservation and research program based at the University of Kansas.
Monarch eggs normally can be spotted in late May and through June on Michigan’s milkweed — a wild plant named for the thick, milky liquid that flows within its broad, green leaves, and upon which the monarch is uniquely reliant. Pruden saw her first eggs two weeks ago, she said.
“The fact it’s so late, I think, is a big problem,” she said.
So are the monarch’s numbers.
One of few migratory butterflies, the monarch travels up to 4,000 miles every fall to a concentrated over-winter location in Mexico, where hundreds of millions hang in high-elevation, oyamel fir forests.
Monarchs covered nearly 21 hectares of the Mexican over-winter grounds in the winter of 1996-1997, and have averaged 6.4 hectares of coverage annually. (A hectare is about 2.5 acres.) This winter, their numbers covered only 0.67 hectare, said Orley “Chip” Taylor, the founder and director of Monarch Watch and a professor in the University of Kansas’ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
“The monarch population has been going down for the better part of 10 years,” he said. “It reached an all-time low this past winter.”
The butterflies that return to Michigan every year aren’t those fall vacationers — they lay eggs in Texas and Oklahoma and die off, and it’s their offspring that make the return voyage. The butterflies then may go through up to three hatching cycles in Michigan before the fall butterflies again make the southern migration.
The monarch has a worldwide range including Europe, Australia and Hawaii, so its overall population isn’t yet at risk of becoming threatened or endangered. But “there’s a great deal of concern that the monarch migration is on the verge of collapse,” Taylor said.
The northward migration, and the reproduction that occurs along it, is reliant on what Taylor calls “the milkweed corridor,” an area through the central plains states featuring the plant. But it’s this same area where agriculture has exploded, particularly expanded growth of corn coinciding with a push for ethanol fuel, and has reduced milkweed growth, he said.
Nearly 23.7 million acres of grassland, wetlands and shrublands were converted to agriculture in this corridor between 2008-2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“They’re taking milkweeds out of the system, and monarchs are totally dependent on milkweeds; they can’t raise their caterpillars on anything else,” he said.
It should matter to more than butterfly enthusiasts, Taylor said. The lost habitat also affects ground-nesting birds and small mammals vital to the natural food chain, and pollinating insects such as bees, who provide an essential benefit to agriculture.
“Ranger” Steve Mueller, a resident of Cedar Springs in Kent County, nature columnist and president of the West Michigan Butterfly Association, said those who want to help should try to compensate for the milkweed plants lost to agriculture and development. Groups like Monarch Watch in the spring offer milkweed plants for home gardens.
“Our yards are going to become increasingly more important as our population continues to grow and we monopolize more of the natural area,” Mueller said. “If we do the landscaping around our homes more intelligently, there’s a much better chance for the monarchs.”
Because the butterfly lays so many eggs, and has a number of reproductive cycles within a year, conditions that change for the better can provide a real boost to their numbers, Midland-based monarch researcher and enthusiast Denny Brooks said.
Bad winter storms dropped the Mexican over-winter population of monarchs to 2.83 hectares in 2000-2001, down from 9 hectares the previous winter.
But the next winter, the population was back up to covering 9.35 hectares, Brooks noted.
“We’re looking for that rebound generation,” he said.
Keith Matheny
is a reporter for the
Detroit Free Press.
Something’s missing. Something orange, black, white and fluttery.
Monarch butterflies, once a ubiquitous spring and summer presence throughout Michigan, are again a rare sighting this year.
It’s the result of two factors: An ongoing crash in the migratory monarch’s populations due to the loss of habitat — particularly milkweed — and Michigan’s long, cold winter causing many returning butterflies to hang further south or to arrive much later than usual.
“It’s really a big difference. It’s a tragedy,” said Diane Pruden, a Milford Township resident who serves as a citizen researcher for Monarch Watch, a nonprofit education, conservation and research program based at the University of Kansas.
Monarch eggs normally can be spotted in late May and through June on Michigan’s milkweed — a wild plant named for the thick, milky liquid that flows within its broad, green leaves, and upon which the monarch is uniquely reliant. Pruden saw her first eggs two weeks ago, she said.
“The fact it’s so late, I think, is a big problem,” she said.
So are the monarch’s numbers.
One of few migratory butterflies, the monarch travels up to 4,000 miles every fall to a concentrated over-winter location in Mexico, where hundreds of millions hang in high-elevation, oyamel fir forests.
Monarchs covered nearly 21 hectares of the Mexican over-winter grounds in the winter of 1996-1997, and have averaged 6.4 hectares of coverage annually. (A hectare is about 2.5 acres.) This winter, their numbers covered only 0.67 hectare, said Orley “Chip” Taylor, the founder and director of Monarch Watch and a professor in the University of Kansas’ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
“The monarch population has been going down for the better part of 10 years,” he said. “It reached an all-time low this past winter.”
The butterflies that return to Michigan every year aren’t those fall vacationers — they lay eggs in Texas and Oklahoma and die off, and it’s their offspring that make the return voyage. The butterflies then may go through up to three hatching cycles in Michigan before the fall butterflies again make the southern migration.
The monarch has a worldwide range including Europe, Australia and Hawaii, so its overall population isn’t yet at risk of becoming threatened or endangered. But “there’s a great deal of concern that the monarch migration is on the verge of collapse,” Taylor said.
The northward migration, and the reproduction that occurs along it, is reliant on what Taylor calls “the milkweed corridor,” an area through the central plains states featuring the plant. But it’s this same area where agriculture has exploded, particularly expanded growth of corn coinciding with a push for ethanol fuel, and has reduced milkweed growth, he said.
Nearly 23.7 million acres of grassland, wetlands and shrublands were converted to agriculture in this corridor between 2008-2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“They’re taking milkweeds out of the system, and monarchs are totally dependent on milkweeds; they can’t raise their caterpillars on anything else,” he said.
It should matter to more than butterfly enthusiasts, Taylor said. The lost habitat also affects ground-nesting birds and small mammals vital to the natural food chain, and pollinating insects such as bees, who provide an essential benefit to agriculture.
“Ranger” Steve Mueller, a resident of Cedar Springs in Kent County, nature columnist and president of the West Michigan Butterfly Association, said those who want to help should try to compensate for the milkweed plants lost to agriculture and development. Groups like Monarch Watch in the spring offer milkweed plants for home gardens.
“Our yards are going to become increasingly more important as our population continues to grow and we monopolize more of the natural area,” Mueller said. “If we do the landscaping around our homes more intelligently, there’s a much better chance for the monarchs.”
Because the butterfly lays so many eggs, and has a number of reproductive cycles within a year, conditions that change for the better can provide a real boost to their numbers, Midland-based monarch researcher and enthusiast Denny Brooks said.
Bad winter storms dropped the Mexican over-winter population of monarchs to 2.83 hectares in 2000-2001, down from 9 hectares the previous winter.
But the next winter, the population was back up to covering 9.35 hectares, Brooks noted.
“We’re looking for that rebound generation,” he said.
Keith Matheny
is a reporter for the
Detroit Free Press.
"The Fish We Eat"
This is a fascinating TED talk, one of many pointing to the dire need for people to pay attention to the world's oceans.
"There's a tight link between the ocean's health and ours, says marine biologist Stephen Palumbi. He shows how toxins at the bottom of the ocean food chain find their way into our bodies, with a shocking story of toxic contamination from a Japanese fish market. His work points a way forward for saving the oceans' health — and humanity's"
Watch Stephen Palumbi's TED Talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_palumbi_following_the_mercury_trail
"There's a tight link between the ocean's health and ours, says marine biologist Stephen Palumbi. He shows how toxins at the bottom of the ocean food chain find their way into our bodies, with a shocking story of toxic contamination from a Japanese fish market. His work points a way forward for saving the oceans' health — and humanity's"
Watch Stephen Palumbi's TED Talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_palumbi_following_the_mercury_trail
Save the oceans, feed the world!
What's a marine biologist doing talking about world hunger? Well, says Jackie Savitz, fixing the world's oceans might just help to feed the planet's billion hungriest people. In an eye-opening talk, Savitz tells us what’s really going on in our global fisheries right now — it’s not good — and offers smart suggestions of how we can help them heal, while making more food for all.
Listen to TED Talk
10 things you need to know about the global food system
There is enough food for everyone on the planet to lead a healthy and
nutritious life, but the global food supply is deeply inequitable
Evan Fraser and Elizabeth Fraser
Guardian Professional,
Evan Fraser holds the Canada research chair in Global Food Security in the department of geography at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Empires of Food: Feast Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. Elizabeth Fraser is completing her MA in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo
The food hub is funded by The Irish Food Board. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/food-blog/10-things-need-to-know-global-food-system?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Evan Fraser and Elizabeth Fraser
Guardian Professional,
1. There's enough food for everybody
The most important thing to know about the global food system is also one of the least appreciated: there is enough food for everyone on the planet to live a healthy and nutritious life. In fact, the UN tells us that there is about 2,800 kcal per person per day available. But, the global food system is deeply inequitable. There are about 842 million people hungry on the planet, while at the same time there are about 1.5 billion who are overweight or obese.2. Price volatility
The price of food is wildly volatile. In 2008, the United Nations Food Price Index almost doubled in less than a year before crashing in 2009. Prices then shot up again in 2010 and 2011. Despite this volatility, our supply of food stayed stable throughout this period. This suggests that the price of food is not determined by our ability to produce food at a global level.3. One third of food is wasted
Approximately one third of the world's food is wasted before it is consumed (pdf). In the developed world most of the waste happens at the consumer end, when food spoils in grocery stores or in refrigerators. Most of the waste in the developing world happens on the farm as a consequence of inefficient storage and processing facilities.4. Food for fuel
Not all food grown on our planet is being used as food. For instance, about 40% of the corn grown in the US is being turned into first-generation biofuels (pdf), such as ethanol. However, creating bioethanol only uses the sugar in the corn. This leaves a protein rich byproduct called dried distillers grain that can be fed to livestock.5. Land buy ups
The landscape of who owns our food system is changing. Since 2008, more than 56m hectares of land (the size of France) has been purchased in the global south by international companies. Some believe that this represents meaningful foreign direct investment in places such as rural Africa. Others are worried that the companies are exploiting the land and labour of Africa to make rich countries to grow richer.6. Corporate control
A very small number of corporations control the vast majority of the world's food trade: four companies produce more than 58% of the world's seeds; four global firms account for 97% of poultry genetics research and development; yet another four produce more than 60% of the agrochemicals farmers use.7. Impact of agricultural policy
While we all know that people are eating more junk food, dairy and meat, we don't always appreciate that one of the causes of this rise is US governmental farm policy. In the early 1970s, the US started paying maize farmers to produce grain, resulting in overproduction. Between 1995 and 2012 maize subsidies totalled more than $84bn (£49.8bn). Enterprising farmers learned they could feed this extra to cows, pigs and chickens. This drove down the price of these produces and created the conditions for intensive livestock production. It was also discovered around this time that the sugars from corn could be removed and turned into high-fructose corn syrup. This has given rise to the junk food industry.8. Environmental impact
The way we're producing our food is impacting our environment. Agriculture is responsible for 75% of deforestation worldwide, and is the largest contributor of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. We're also rapidly losing marine food sources. In 2010, 53% of fisheries were fully exploited (pdf), 28% were overexploited, 3% were depleted, and 1% were recovering from depletion.9. Adapting to climate change
While there may be enough food for everyone on the planet today, this may not be the case in the future. Recently published scientific work suggests that climate change may reduce crop yields by 2% per decade over the next 100 years. These reductions won't be the same everywhere. The poorest regions of the world are expected to be the worst hit. Whether these crop reductions happen, however, depends a lot on if farmers are able to use the tools they need to adapt to changing weather conditions.10. Increased demand
Recent studies suggest that the farmers of this world will have to produce 50% more food by 2050 in order to meet global population growth. This will have to be done against a backdrop of rising energy prices and climate change that is set to make food harder and more expensive to produce.Evan Fraser holds the Canada research chair in Global Food Security in the department of geography at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Empires of Food: Feast Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. Elizabeth Fraser is completing her MA in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo
The food hub is funded by The Irish Food Board. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/food-blog/10-things-need-to-know-global-food-system?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
The Futures of Food and the Futures of Farmers
UCLA Regents' Lecturer Charles C. Mann
Tuesday, May 13, 20145:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Public Affairs Third Floor Terrace
UCLA
By the time today's UCLA undergraduates hit middle age, the world will hold almost 10 billion people, most of them affluent by historical standards. Dinner for the 10 billion, agronomists say, will be a huge challenge: We are running out of arable land, water supplies are stretched, and the advances of the “green revolution” are fading.
Researchers have proposed two broad solutions: maintaining the current system of large-scale industrial monoculture or switching over, at least in substantial part, to a much more localized, diverse system. The former involves extensive deployment of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), heavy chemical use and even heavier computer monitoring. Meanwhile, the small, highly productive farms touted as a model require vastly more labor—that is, vastly more people working on the land. The choice of system, a key task of the next generation, will have enormous impact on the kind of lives people lead tomorrow.
Charles C. Mann is the author of 1493, a New York Times best-seller, and 1491, which won the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Keck award for the best book of the year. A correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, Science and Wired, he has covered the intersection of science, technology and commerce for many newspapers and magazines here and abroad, including National Geographic, the New York Times, Vanity Fair and the Washington Post. In addition to 1491 and 1493, he is the co-author of five other books, one of which is a young person's version of 1491 called Before Columbus.
http://www.asia.ucla.edu/asia/event/10635
Social inequity vs. the environment is a false choice
Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 05:00 PM EST
As he begins his last few years in office, President Obama is finally addressing the worsening inequality in this country. In his State of the Union speech, he declared: “Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead.” I’m thrilled the president is shining a light on inequality. But for environmentalists, the debate over inequality – not only here in the US, but also the chasm between wealthy and poor countries – raises serious tensions and forces us to look beyond the mainstream conversations for solutions.
On the one hand, inequality is a huge problem, with many people prevented from accessing the resources they need for dignified lives. Inequality is inherently unjust, and is the root of an array of environmental, health, and social ills. In Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, public health scientists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett show that high levels of inequality correlate with a stunning array of ills that reduce quality of life for all of society.
And inequality undermines the workings of our democracy, which is a problem since we need a functioning democracy to solve big problems – like climate change and even inequality itself. Under the post-Citizens United system of campaign finance in the US, inequality is a near-absolute barrier to significant political participation by all but the super rich, making it hard to advance goals on the environment, education, and workers’ rights. Reducing inequality is not a cause environmentalists can afford to watch from the sidelines.
On the other hand, it’s undeniable that worldwide, and especially in the US, we’re already using too many resources. We have only one planet, but globally humanity is using raw materials and generating waste at a rate that would take 1.5 Earths to sustain.
Yes, many people need more resources to meet basic levels of health and security. At the same time, humanity is consuming too much. If our strategy to address inequality focuses only on increasing access to consumption without seeking bigger changes in the way we consume resources, we’ll end up hastening our ride over the ecological cliff.
The leading solutions put forward to address inequality are “growing the pie” and “raising the floor.” In other words, increasing economic growth so there’s more stuff to go around and raising low end wages to make it possible for poor people to access the stuff they need. Wages are raised so that people buy more goods; businesses expand to meet the increased demand by hiring more workers; more workers equals more people buying more stuff; and the wheel keeps turning.
But are these our only options? Accepting vast inequities in the name of curtailing consumption, or expanding the take-make-waste system so that we can all trash the planet equitably?
Not only is this a false choice, but I’d argue that solutions to the ecological and inequality problems are inseparable. If we address inequality without considering environmental issues, we speed up ecosystem decline. If we focus on environmental limits without addressing inequality, we end up with resource apartheid. Neither is okay. So let’s ask a different question: How do we transform today’s growth-at-all-costs economy into one that sustains the planet and all its people, including those who are currently left out?
It’s a big question, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I do have some ideas of steps to get started.
First, we have to scrap the idea that GDP growth equals societal progress. New Economy thinkers and activists are working hard to develop a different economic model that serves people and the planet so that we’re increasing equity and living within the planet’s limits simultaneously.
Second, we need to get way more ambitious about using resources efficiently so we can meet more human need out of each unit of resource consumed. Our buildings, our cars, and our energy systems are all vastly inefficient and engineers tell us it’s possible to improve current efficiency tenfold. Instead of growing the pie, we need to ensure that none of the pie is wasted, freeing up resources that then could be divided more equally.
Third, we need to raise one of the most politically unpopular terms of the day: redistribution. If that word doesn’t fly in your circles, how about a more palatable version: share. Those of us who have more than enough can add more to our well-being by embracing sharing than by continuing on the treadmill of more, more, more.
Solving both inequality and environmental decline is possible, but only if we see the two struggles as one.
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/16/social_inequity_vs_the_environment_is_a_false_choice_partner/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
It's time we stop pretending that inequality and environmental decline are two separate problems
As he begins his last few years in office, President Obama is finally addressing the worsening inequality in this country. In his State of the Union speech, he declared: “Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead.” I’m thrilled the president is shining a light on inequality. But for environmentalists, the debate over inequality – not only here in the US, but also the chasm between wealthy and poor countries – raises serious tensions and forces us to look beyond the mainstream conversations for solutions.
On the one hand, inequality is a huge problem, with many people prevented from accessing the resources they need for dignified lives. Inequality is inherently unjust, and is the root of an array of environmental, health, and social ills. In Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, public health scientists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett show that high levels of inequality correlate with a stunning array of ills that reduce quality of life for all of society.
And inequality undermines the workings of our democracy, which is a problem since we need a functioning democracy to solve big problems – like climate change and even inequality itself. Under the post-Citizens United system of campaign finance in the US, inequality is a near-absolute barrier to significant political participation by all but the super rich, making it hard to advance goals on the environment, education, and workers’ rights. Reducing inequality is not a cause environmentalists can afford to watch from the sidelines.
On the other hand, it’s undeniable that worldwide, and especially in the US, we’re already using too many resources. We have only one planet, but globally humanity is using raw materials and generating waste at a rate that would take 1.5 Earths to sustain.
Yes, many people need more resources to meet basic levels of health and security. At the same time, humanity is consuming too much. If our strategy to address inequality focuses only on increasing access to consumption without seeking bigger changes in the way we consume resources, we’ll end up hastening our ride over the ecological cliff.
The leading solutions put forward to address inequality are “growing the pie” and “raising the floor.” In other words, increasing economic growth so there’s more stuff to go around and raising low end wages to make it possible for poor people to access the stuff they need. Wages are raised so that people buy more goods; businesses expand to meet the increased demand by hiring more workers; more workers equals more people buying more stuff; and the wheel keeps turning.
But are these our only options? Accepting vast inequities in the name of curtailing consumption, or expanding the take-make-waste system so that we can all trash the planet equitably?
Not only is this a false choice, but I’d argue that solutions to the ecological and inequality problems are inseparable. If we address inequality without considering environmental issues, we speed up ecosystem decline. If we focus on environmental limits without addressing inequality, we end up with resource apartheid. Neither is okay. So let’s ask a different question: How do we transform today’s growth-at-all-costs economy into one that sustains the planet and all its people, including those who are currently left out?
It’s a big question, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I do have some ideas of steps to get started.
First, we have to scrap the idea that GDP growth equals societal progress. New Economy thinkers and activists are working hard to develop a different economic model that serves people and the planet so that we’re increasing equity and living within the planet’s limits simultaneously.
Second, we need to get way more ambitious about using resources efficiently so we can meet more human need out of each unit of resource consumed. Our buildings, our cars, and our energy systems are all vastly inefficient and engineers tell us it’s possible to improve current efficiency tenfold. Instead of growing the pie, we need to ensure that none of the pie is wasted, freeing up resources that then could be divided more equally.
Third, we need to raise one of the most politically unpopular terms of the day: redistribution. If that word doesn’t fly in your circles, how about a more palatable version: share. Those of us who have more than enough can add more to our well-being by embracing sharing than by continuing on the treadmill of more, more, more.
Solving both inequality and environmental decline is possible, but only if we see the two struggles as one.
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/16/social_inequity_vs_the_environment_is_a_false_choice_partner/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
Climate Financing
Find funding sources that are available for both adaptation and mitigation projects that reduce impacts of climate change.
http://climatefinanceoptions.org/cfo/
Policy makers and project planners in developing countries at national and city levels need access to information on potential sources of climate finance, inspiring best practice examples, research results and tools for better investment decision making. The global climate finance gap demands increasing levels of financial flows along with coordination at a level previously unseen between those providing financial resources and those seeking those resources. Adding to this picture, there is a pressing need for up-to-date information on country projects and programs prepared in line with national priorities in countries seeking financing.
There is a growing menu of climate funds that can be used to catalyze other sources for integrated investments in climate-resilient and low-carbon solutions. Policy makers and project planners in developing countries at national and city levels need access to information on all aspects of climate finance.
The UNDP/World Bank Climate Finance Options (CFO) Platform addresses that need by providing a window to such information. The web platform is the go-to site for information on climate finance. Within the framework of global negotiations on climate change, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank Group have jointly developed the web-based knowledge platform, which a number of UN agencies and multilateral development banks (MDBs) use as a joint conduit of information on investment finance. It is also building an interactive community of practice to share South-South experience and best practices in climate action for better development impact.
This Platform provides the following: •
- A harmonised description of types of funds available, including (a) types of instruments, (b) eligibility criteria, (c) volume, (d) governance and administrative structures, (e) flows, etc.
- Examples of successful cases of blending different types of grant and concessional funds to leverage private sector financing, in addition to enabling environments conducive to climate action; all of which will be supplemented by examples provided by stakeholders through discussion forums of registered Platform users. •
- Knowledge centre with a glossary of terminology, a library with related publications, and a wide range of tools to enable project developers to analyse their own projects for better-informed decisions.
- User community collaborative space for users to connect, share ideas, plan projects, and facilitate South-South networking.
Promoting Entrepreneurship and SMEs Development in Africa
Eugene Nizeyimana, Director for Strategy and Growth
http://s-scg.com/promoting-entrepreneurship-and-smes-development-in-africa/
Sustainable development of African economy can only be achieved through further empowerment of entrepreneurs and small businesses, their integration into the multilateral trade system and strengthening of business environment, industry competitiveness, policies and institutions. Enhancing entrepreneurial activities in Africa is thus a decisive element of job creation and economic growth strategies.
SMEs are a vital backbone for every sector in a growing economy and are indispensable partners for MNCs investors and governments. Identifying promising business ideas, skilled entrepreneurs and provision of capital are the prerequisite for further development. However, to sustainably foster economic growth, SMEs do not only need support during their creation, but also throughout the processes of expansion, internationalisation and transfer of businesses. These processes bring organisational and bureaucratic burdens that require advanced managerial skills.
To encourage business creation and to enable entrepreneurs successfully respond to these challenges, we need to involve Africans in Diaspora, local businesses and entrepreneurs, who possess wealth of international experience, resources and networks. There is also a need to facilitate international trade through harmonisation of trade rules and policies, supported through specific capacity building programmes and effective institutions. In addition, set incentives for the creation of industry clusters to develop strong supply chains and vertical integrated trade links.
Furthermore, establishing incubation centres and Business Development Services (BDS) dedicated to nurture entrepreneurship culture, start-ups and sharing expertise on a professional basis is crucial. Successful entrepreneurs and businesses should invest in businesses that are either upstream suppliers or downstream buyers of their core products to settle production processes within regions and to profit from the benefits of established clusters.
African entrepreneurs face overwhelming market complexities and difficulties accessing capital to bring their business ideas into reality. To promote a credit culture in Africa and to foster investment in the SMEs sector, it is essential that infrastructural reforms are made in the banking system, collateral and bankruptcy laws are to be improved and the financing instruments strengthened through innovation. Key banking reforms include enhancing financial markets competition, pursue effective capital market integration, improve collateral and bankruptcy laws to facilitate lending, expand micro finance institution and develop financing instruments suited for SMEs , tighten security to curb fraudulent activities within financial system and corruption within supply chains.In addition, financial institutions should seek to improve macroeconomic management with a view to achieving sustainable economic growth, lower transaction costs, favourable interest and exchange rates, low rates of inflation and banking linkages.
Finally, governments and institutions should seek to foster entrepreneurship as key to creating employment opportunities and sustainable economic growth through the incorporation of entrepreneurship in the curriculum of education systems and training institutions. This is increasingly becoming important as global economy continue to shift, increase in youth unemployment, advancement of disruptive innovation, changes in prosumer and market characteristics. Thus, entrepreneurial thinking is not only necessary for those who want to become entrepreneurs but for everybody in a performing market society. All members of the society should be familiarised with the concept and spirit of entrepreneurship from primary school on and must have the opportunity to attend specific education and training programmes that correspond to real market requirements.
http://s-scg.com/promoting-entrepreneurship-and-smes-development-in-africa/
Sustainable development of African economy can only be achieved through further empowerment of entrepreneurs and small businesses, their integration into the multilateral trade system and strengthening of business environment, industry competitiveness, policies and institutions. Enhancing entrepreneurial activities in Africa is thus a decisive element of job creation and economic growth strategies.
SMEs are a vital backbone for every sector in a growing economy and are indispensable partners for MNCs investors and governments. Identifying promising business ideas, skilled entrepreneurs and provision of capital are the prerequisite for further development. However, to sustainably foster economic growth, SMEs do not only need support during their creation, but also throughout the processes of expansion, internationalisation and transfer of businesses. These processes bring organisational and bureaucratic burdens that require advanced managerial skills.
To encourage business creation and to enable entrepreneurs successfully respond to these challenges, we need to involve Africans in Diaspora, local businesses and entrepreneurs, who possess wealth of international experience, resources and networks. There is also a need to facilitate international trade through harmonisation of trade rules and policies, supported through specific capacity building programmes and effective institutions. In addition, set incentives for the creation of industry clusters to develop strong supply chains and vertical integrated trade links.
Furthermore, establishing incubation centres and Business Development Services (BDS) dedicated to nurture entrepreneurship culture, start-ups and sharing expertise on a professional basis is crucial. Successful entrepreneurs and businesses should invest in businesses that are either upstream suppliers or downstream buyers of their core products to settle production processes within regions and to profit from the benefits of established clusters.
African entrepreneurs face overwhelming market complexities and difficulties accessing capital to bring their business ideas into reality. To promote a credit culture in Africa and to foster investment in the SMEs sector, it is essential that infrastructural reforms are made in the banking system, collateral and bankruptcy laws are to be improved and the financing instruments strengthened through innovation. Key banking reforms include enhancing financial markets competition, pursue effective capital market integration, improve collateral and bankruptcy laws to facilitate lending, expand micro finance institution and develop financing instruments suited for SMEs , tighten security to curb fraudulent activities within financial system and corruption within supply chains.In addition, financial institutions should seek to improve macroeconomic management with a view to achieving sustainable economic growth, lower transaction costs, favourable interest and exchange rates, low rates of inflation and banking linkages.
Finally, governments and institutions should seek to foster entrepreneurship as key to creating employment opportunities and sustainable economic growth through the incorporation of entrepreneurship in the curriculum of education systems and training institutions. This is increasingly becoming important as global economy continue to shift, increase in youth unemployment, advancement of disruptive innovation, changes in prosumer and market characteristics. Thus, entrepreneurial thinking is not only necessary for those who want to become entrepreneurs but for everybody in a performing market society. All members of the society should be familiarised with the concept and spirit of entrepreneurship from primary school on and must have the opportunity to attend specific education and training programmes that correspond to real market requirements.
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