Posts

Posted on

The Economics of Poverty – the Top 10 Books

Amy Lockwood, the Deputy Director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford’s School of Medicine, has drawn up a suggested reading list for those wanting to start understanding development, aid, and poverty. Here are her suggestions:

The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006)
by William Easterly

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (2006)
by Jeffrey Sachs

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (2007)
by Paul Collier

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (2009)
by C.K. Prahalad

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (2009)
by Muhammad Yunus

Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (2009)
by Paul Polak

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009)
by Dambisa Moyo

Poor Economics A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011)
by Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo

Development As Freedom (2000)
by Amartya Sen

Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005)
by Jim Collins

To read the reasoning and short introductions to each, go to the original article at http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/the_top_10_books_on_the_economics_of_poverty

Posted on

Power for the Poor – Affordable Solar Power

10 January 2012

Men setting up solar panels in rural villageSolar power can be distributed to poor households by 2020

Poor parts of the world can be supplied with affordable solar power by 2020 through a combination of cheap technology and services provided by cell phone companies, argues Carl Pope, chairman of the US grassroots organisation Sierra Club.

Progress in technology, finance and business models is overcoming traditional barriers to getting renewable power to poor villages, he says. “The combination of dirt-cheap solar, the cell-phone revolution, and mobile phone banking has changed everything”.

Conventional grid power and fossil fuels will not reach those who need it by 2030, according to Pope, and they are becoming more expensive. But cheaper and more sophisticated new technologies create an opportunity to pull together the resources needed to finance solar power for the poor.

Cell-phone towers around the world are being converted to hybrid renewable power sources, offering phone companies a “powerful motivation to get renewable power into rural areas, to get electricity to their customers, and to charge for electricity through their mobile phone payment systems.”

Examples of innovative business models include Zimbabwe’s Econet Power, which provides its cell-phone customers with solar power at US$1 a week with bills tied to a user’s cell phone account.

Providing the poor with off-grid renewable energy requires capital to buy solar power; business models that allow households to pay for what they use, making electricity less expensive than kerosene; and supply chains and distribution networks. “The money is on the table. It’s just on the wrong plates,” says Pope.

He calls for Rio+20 negotiations to embrace distributed solar power and replace kerosene, an expensive and dirty fuel. This would save 1.5 million lives every year (kerosene emits almost as much greenhouse gas pollution as the UK economy), raise income for the world’s poorest fifth by 25–30 per cent, and create demand for expanding solar systems. And it could result in half of the world relying on renewable power, says Pope.

Link to full article in Yale Environment 360

Link to SciDev.Net’s Spotlight on Solar power for the poor

Posted on

The Rio+20 Nairobi Declaration

These are the main concerns of the Kenyan youths as per the  Kenyan Youth Strategy Meeting for Rio+20 Summit held in nairobi on the 13th and 14th October, 2011 at the UN complex, Gigiri.

Preamble

We, the delegates to the Kenyan Youth Strategy Meeting for Rio +20 at the United Nations Complex at Gigiri, Nairobi:

Acknowledge the African indigenous knowledge of the sacred value of the environment to biodiversity well-being.

Commit to promote innovations that will develop a green economy and promote the eradication of poverty.

Take note of the past declarations towards environmental sustainability both at the African and Global level, there is an urgent need for structural and infrastructural interventions in policy formulation, implementation and evaluation.

Recognize the current global environmental challenges, particularly climate change, which impact our common future and wellbeing, we commit ourselves to support of the following mechanisms:

  1. Good governance and transformative leadership.
  2. Promote Education, information exchange, communication and awareness
  3. Achieve sustainable agricultural practices to reduce hunger, starvation and enhance food security.
  4. Advocate for the development and implementation of sustainable development policies towards a Green Economy.
  5. Invest in and promote eco-friendly entrepreneurship and job creation.
  6. Attain sustainable green cities and villages.
  7. Promote public engagement and participation through culture and volunteerism.
  8. Promote Youth Development and capacity building

Download the Full Version of the Nairobi Declaration here: Nairobi Declaration 2

Posted on

Call for Entries: Children and youth Environmental Contest

Thank you to all who contributed to making this a success. The competition is now closed.

Africa Environment is offering Kenya Primary and Secondary school children and youth aged 6 to 19 years the opportunity to participate in a bi-monthly environmental education campaign focusing on sustainable development and environmental social responsibility entitled “My Future,My Environment”.

Participants are invited to submit their entries from the 1st to 30th of October 2011, and every second month throughout the running period of the campaign. Entries that reach us after the closing date will not be considered even in the next session of the educational campaign since the running question will be different.

For more information on how to enter log on to www.africa-environment.info/my-future-my-environment

Posted on

Environmental Education for Children and Youth

AFRICA ENVIRONMENT

MY FUTURE, MY ENVIRONMENT EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN

P.O Box 19499 – 00100

Nairobi.

http://Africa-Environment.info

 

Dear Children and Youths,

 

Wouldn’t you want to be appreciated every time you learn or do something new on your own for the good of the environment? Well, Africa Environment, an umbrella name for Educative environmental initiatives has launched a campaign, My Future, My Environment to reward children and youths as they discover more about their ecosystem.

 

The campaign, which will run once every two months starting 1st October 2011, aims at raising students’/pupils’ awareness of sustainable development and environmental conservation issues via self-study and practice. This we aspire to achieve through:

 

  • Disseminating information that promotes understanding environmental systems and environmental challenges.
  • Encouraging self-learning on environmental aspects through research amongst children and youth.
  • Influencing attitude change and promoting concern for the environment by means of incentives.
  • Impart skills to prevent and mitigate the environmental problems through encouraging participation in exercising acquired knowledge.

 

Pupils enrolled in Kenyan primary and secondary schools are qualified to enter the Educational contest in the three entry categories: Lower primary, upper primary and secondary/high school.

 

Campaign rules can be viewed at our website http://Africa-Environment.info/Rules.doc

Entrants are required to:

 

  • Fill in the entry form, downloadable from http://Africa-Environment.info/EntryForm.doc
  • Answer one question (found on the entry form)
  • Submit a painting or picture showcasing an issue in regards to the environment together with its brief description of not more than 300 words.

 

Winning entries will be awarded USD10 and USD15 for primary and secondary school entrants respectively. Winners in each session of the campaign will be featured in our website and contacted via phone and letter.

 

For more information view our website; http://Africa-Environment.info or write to us with your inquiries at EduCampaign@Africa-Environment.info

 

We look forward to working with you for the betterment of our environment.

Warm Regards,

Africa Environment Team

%d