almost anything, infuse new ideas and possibilities into global solution networks and give a boost to local entrepreneurship and job creation? That’s exactly what a network of “Fab Labs” is aspiring to do by providing access to powerful manufacturing tools—including laser cutters, milling machines, and 3-D printers—to an increasingly broad range of users at educational institutions and local community centers around the world. Incubated at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), the Fab Lab Network now consists of 270 independent manufacturing centers in 70 countries around the world.
{"title":"The FAB LAB Network: A Global Platform for Digital Invention, Education and Entrepreneurship","authors":"M. Stacey","doi":"10.1162/inov_a_00211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/inov_a_00211","url":null,"abstract":"almost anything, infuse new ideas and possibilities into global solution networks and give a boost to local entrepreneurship and job creation? That’s exactly what a network of “Fab Labs” is aspiring to do by providing access to powerful manufacturing tools—including laser cutters, milling machines, and 3-D printers—to an increasingly broad range of users at educational institutions and local community centers around the world. Incubated at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), the Fab Lab Network now consists of 270 independent manufacturing centers in 70 countries around the world.","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"148 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131562119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
lished in Innovations in 2011, in which he described the actions taken in the first year of the project and the early results. He has continued to track the project since then to learn about the challenges of managing massive technological, organizational, behavioral, and societal change, and this article provides an update on Aadhaar in five parts: (1) a description of the situation in March 2014 prior to the Indian general elections held in May 2014; (2) a comparison of the actual outcomes from the Aadhaar project as of March 2014 versus the assumptions made when conceiving its theory of design and change in the fall of 2009; (3) a similar comparison of the actual results versus the initial plans for addressing the Aadhaar execution challenges; (4) a description of the situation in June 2014 immediately after the general elections and; (5) the situation a month later, in July 2014, when the newly elected prime minister of the rival BJP political party, Narendra Modi, announced his plans for Aadhaar, given all the controversy surrounding it prior to and during the general elections in May 2014. The author invites the reader to pause after reading the first three parts of this case narrative and to consider what is likely to happen next, based on the dynamics of the unfolding drama, before reading what happened next. This may make the story more interesting and also more instructive in terms of learning about the challenges of managing massive change. This case narrative is based on information in the public domain, and on interviews with observers both inside and outside UIDAI, the government agency responsible for Aadhaar, some of whom were interviewed for the original case study. Professor Sathe wishes to thank them all for their time and their insights.
{"title":"Managing Massive Change: India's Aadhaar, the World's Most Ambitious ID Project (Innovations Case Narrative: Project Aadhaar)","authors":"V. Sathe","doi":"10.1162/INOV_A_00204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_A_00204","url":null,"abstract":"lished in Innovations in 2011, in which he described the actions taken in the first year of the project and the early results. He has continued to track the project since then to learn about the challenges of managing massive technological, organizational, behavioral, and societal change, and this article provides an update on Aadhaar in five parts: (1) a description of the situation in March 2014 prior to the Indian general elections held in May 2014; (2) a comparison of the actual outcomes from the Aadhaar project as of March 2014 versus the assumptions made when conceiving its theory of design and change in the fall of 2009; (3) a similar comparison of the actual results versus the initial plans for addressing the Aadhaar execution challenges; (4) a description of the situation in June 2014 immediately after the general elections and; (5) the situation a month later, in July 2014, when the newly elected prime minister of the rival BJP political party, Narendra Modi, announced his plans for Aadhaar, given all the controversy surrounding it prior to and during the general elections in May 2014. The author invites the reader to pause after reading the first three parts of this case narrative and to consider what is likely to happen next, based on the dynamics of the unfolding drama, before reading what happened next. This may make the story more interesting and also more instructive in terms of learning about the challenges of managing massive change. This case narrative is based on information in the public domain, and on interviews with observers both inside and outside UIDAI, the government agency responsible for Aadhaar, some of whom were interviewed for the original case study. Professor Sathe wishes to thank them all for their time and their insights.","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130917704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this white paper, we provide an overview of a new emerging economic sector: sustainable agricultural technology or, more simply, “AgTech.” This sector has the potential to completely reshape global agriculture, dramatically increasing the productivity of the agriculture system while reducing the environmental and social costs of current ag production practices. Given that we must produce more food in the next forty years than during the entire course of human history to date, and must do so on a planet showing signs of severe environmental stress, AgTech innovations will be absolutely essential. We believe humanity can rise to the occasion and overcome these monumental global challenges, but to do so will require sustained attention, significant investment, and AgTech-specific entrepreneur support systems to help spur innovation in the field.Our purpose in writing this paper is threefold. First, we seek to increase awareness of the productivity and sustainability challenges of the food system and inspire entrepreneurs to enter the field. Total demand is expected to rise 70 percent by 2050, and current growth rates in agriculture are not sufficient to meet this goal. However, the ag sector faces an even greater challenge because of the uncertainty posed by climate change on future production and constraints posed by the limited availability of land, water, and other key resources. These twin challenges of productivity and sustainability translate to countless opportunities for innovation across the complete value chain, from inputs and agricultural production to transport, processing, distribution, storage, and waste disposal. Visionary entrepreneurs will have the ability to solve pressing societal challenges while capturing the economic value of their new AgTech products and processes.Our second purpose is to help increase the flow of capital to investments in AgTech. The agriculture sector as a whole is one of the world’s largest economic sectors, with net farm income of around $120 billion and farm assets at around $2 trillion with little leverage. Yet there has been relatively little investment in AgTech compared with other industries like clean energy. Venture capital firms compiling portfolios of new AgTech companies are seeing more startups seeking funding than available capital, and other investor groups thus far have not entered the field in significant numbers. Given the size of the potential market and the vital societal need for agricultural innovation, we expect that investors soon will realize the opportunity of AgTech and invest substantially in this emerging field.Our third purpose is to highlight the need for regional AgTech entrepreneur support systems to accelerate innovation. We believe that the American heartland provides an ideal example of a region poised to make great strides forward in developing an entrepreneurial sector for AgTech. The heartland has some of the world’s best growing conditions and natural resources, an
{"title":"AgTech: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Growth","authors":"Suren G. Dutia","doi":"10.1162/inov_a_00208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/inov_a_00208","url":null,"abstract":"In this white paper, we provide an overview of a new emerging economic sector: sustainable agricultural technology or, more simply, “AgTech.” This sector has the potential to completely reshape global agriculture, dramatically increasing the productivity of the agriculture system while reducing the environmental and social costs of current ag production practices. Given that we must produce more food in the next forty years than during the entire course of human history to date, and must do so on a planet showing signs of severe environmental stress, AgTech innovations will be absolutely essential. We believe humanity can rise to the occasion and overcome these monumental global challenges, but to do so will require sustained attention, significant investment, and AgTech-specific entrepreneur support systems to help spur innovation in the field.Our purpose in writing this paper is threefold. First, we seek to increase awareness of the productivity and sustainability challenges of the food system and inspire entrepreneurs to enter the field. Total demand is expected to rise 70 percent by 2050, and current growth rates in agriculture are not sufficient to meet this goal. However, the ag sector faces an even greater challenge because of the uncertainty posed by climate change on future production and constraints posed by the limited availability of land, water, and other key resources. These twin challenges of productivity and sustainability translate to countless opportunities for innovation across the complete value chain, from inputs and agricultural production to transport, processing, distribution, storage, and waste disposal. Visionary entrepreneurs will have the ability to solve pressing societal challenges while capturing the economic value of their new AgTech products and processes.Our second purpose is to help increase the flow of capital to investments in AgTech. The agriculture sector as a whole is one of the world’s largest economic sectors, with net farm income of around $120 billion and farm assets at around $2 trillion with little leverage. Yet there has been relatively little investment in AgTech compared with other industries like clean energy. Venture capital firms compiling portfolios of new AgTech companies are seeing more startups seeking funding than available capital, and other investor groups thus far have not entered the field in significant numbers. Given the size of the potential market and the vital societal need for agricultural innovation, we expect that investors soon will realize the opportunity of AgTech and invest substantially in this emerging field.Our third purpose is to highlight the need for regional AgTech entrepreneur support systems to accelerate innovation. We believe that the American heartland provides an ideal example of a region poised to make great strides forward in developing an entrepreneurial sector for AgTech. The heartland has some of the world’s best growing conditions and natural resources, an","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121725567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Researchers have generally found that entrepreneurs are more optimistic and more confident than non-entrepreneurs. While it may help entrepreneurs persevere in the face of potential business failure, we cannot mistake their confidence for always knowing what to do with their business idea. Entrepreneurs in fact seek out mentors and other useful connections to help them succeed throughout the growth of their businesses, particularly at the start. Many entrepreneurs seek advice informally and in a piecemeal manner, but some seek more formal assistance through structured or semi-structured entrepreneurship programs. Indeed, we currently are witnessing the rise of the “support ecosystem,” which offers a plethora of entrepreneurship education and training programs. These programs vary in their design and operation; some, for example, are run by universities and colleges, some are offered by nonprofits or the government, and others are offered by for-profit entities. They might operate just a weekend in length, or last several months or years. The scope of a program’s intervention and how closely it works with each entrepreneur or startup varies widely. With this increase in the number and scope of program offerings, we wonder if adoption is outpacing evidence of their effectiveness. In this article, we examine various types of programs, with a primary focus on the accelerator, provide some context for current research and research concepts in this area, and discuss some implications of collecting data for program operators and policymakers.
{"title":"Accelerating into Control","authors":"J. Konczal","doi":"10.1162/INOV_a_00192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_a_00192","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers have generally found that entrepreneurs are more optimistic and more confident than non-entrepreneurs. While it may help entrepreneurs persevere in the face of potential business failure, we cannot mistake their confidence for always knowing what to do with their business idea. Entrepreneurs in fact seek out mentors and other useful connections to help them succeed throughout the growth of their businesses, particularly at the start. Many entrepreneurs seek advice informally and in a piecemeal manner, but some seek more formal assistance through structured or semi-structured entrepreneurship programs. Indeed, we currently are witnessing the rise of the “support ecosystem,” which offers a plethora of entrepreneurship education and training programs. These programs vary in their design and operation; some, for example, are run by universities and colleges, some are offered by nonprofits or the government, and others are offered by for-profit entities. They might operate just a weekend in length, or last several months or years. The scope of a program’s intervention and how closely it works with each entrepreneur or startup varies widely. With this increase in the number and scope of program offerings, we wonder if adoption is outpacing evidence of their effectiveness. In this article, we examine various types of programs, with a primary focus on the accelerator, provide some context for current research and research concepts in this area, and discuss some implications of collecting data for program operators and policymakers.","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131279099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
infrastructure. As a former aide to a mayor of New York and as deputy chancellor of the New York City Public Schools (the largest public school system in the United States), my chief concern—and a significant concern to IBM and other companies interested in global economic stability—has been the impact of global economic forces on youth employment. Across the United States and around the world, youth unemployment is a staggering problem, and one that is difficult to gauge with precision. One factor that makes it difficult to judge accurately is that many members of the youth population have yet to enter the workforce, making it hard to count those who are unable to get jobs. What we do know is that the scope of the problem is overwhelming. Youth unemployment in countries such as Greece and Spain is estimated at over 50 percent, while in the United States the rate may be 20 percent, 30 percent, or higher in some cities and states. Why is this problem so daunting? Why does it persist? And, most important, how can communities, educators, and employers work together to address it?
{"title":"Innovating to Strengthen Youth Employment","authors":"Stanley S. Litow","doi":"10.1162/INOV_a_00162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_a_00162","url":null,"abstract":"infrastructure. As a former aide to a mayor of New York and as deputy chancellor of the New York City Public Schools (the largest public school system in the United States), my chief concern—and a significant concern to IBM and other companies interested in global economic stability—has been the impact of global economic forces on youth employment. Across the United States and around the world, youth unemployment is a staggering problem, and one that is difficult to gauge with precision. One factor that makes it difficult to judge accurately is that many members of the youth population have yet to enter the workforce, making it hard to count those who are unable to get jobs. What we do know is that the scope of the problem is overwhelming. Youth unemployment in countries such as Greece and Spain is estimated at over 50 percent, while in the United States the rate may be 20 percent, 30 percent, or higher in some cities and states. Why is this problem so daunting? Why does it persist? And, most important, how can communities, educators, and employers work together to address it?","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127601108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ular by 19-century American newsman and politician Horace Greeley. At a time when the East Coast was plagued by unemployment and economic stagnation, the West offered plenty of land and opportunity to those with ambition and a willingness to work. Two centuries later, the economies of many developed countries are also plagued by unemployment and economic stagnation. Unlike the American West, however, in these countries opportunity is no longer tied to land but to human talent, productivity, and innovation. It is knowledge, not geography, that will make or break an economy—and a young person’s economic future. Universities are by no means perfect and clearly are not the only places a person can acquire knowledge. However, although there is much today’s universities need to do to respond to society’s new demands, they remain the surest, most effective path for most young people who want to pursue a prosperous and impactful career. In the United States, concerns about the skyrocketing cost of attending college have led to a wave of criticism in the media. With state support dwindling, public universities have swiftly transferred the economic burden of getting an education to the students. At our university, for example, as state tax revenue appropriations per student have declined by more than half over a decade, in-state tuition and fees have more than doubled, even though our expenditures per student have remained almost flat. Other factors driving tuition inflation include investments in facilities and equipment, increases in long-term debt, and growth in administrative and support services. The result, according to a recent study by consulting firm Bain & Company, is that the average American family now has to dedicate 38 percent of its annual income to pay for a year of college, up from 23 percent a decade earlier. As a consequence, students are borrowing more and more to pay for college, and U.S. student loan debt ballooned to nearly $1 trillion in the third quarter of 2012, which for the first time is larger than either credit card or auto loan debt. These trends have sparked a plethora of arguments against obtaining a college degree. Citing examples like tech giants Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and the late
{"title":"“Go to college, young men and women, go to college!”","authors":"Angel Cabrera, Callie Le Renard","doi":"10.1162/INOV_a_00161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_a_00161","url":null,"abstract":"ular by 19-century American newsman and politician Horace Greeley. At a time when the East Coast was plagued by unemployment and economic stagnation, the West offered plenty of land and opportunity to those with ambition and a willingness to work. Two centuries later, the economies of many developed countries are also plagued by unemployment and economic stagnation. Unlike the American West, however, in these countries opportunity is no longer tied to land but to human talent, productivity, and innovation. It is knowledge, not geography, that will make or break an economy—and a young person’s economic future. Universities are by no means perfect and clearly are not the only places a person can acquire knowledge. However, although there is much today’s universities need to do to respond to society’s new demands, they remain the surest, most effective path for most young people who want to pursue a prosperous and impactful career. In the United States, concerns about the skyrocketing cost of attending college have led to a wave of criticism in the media. With state support dwindling, public universities have swiftly transferred the economic burden of getting an education to the students. At our university, for example, as state tax revenue appropriations per student have declined by more than half over a decade, in-state tuition and fees have more than doubled, even though our expenditures per student have remained almost flat. Other factors driving tuition inflation include investments in facilities and equipment, increases in long-term debt, and growth in administrative and support services. The result, according to a recent study by consulting firm Bain & Company, is that the average American family now has to dedicate 38 percent of its annual income to pay for a year of college, up from 23 percent a decade earlier. As a consequence, students are borrowing more and more to pay for college, and U.S. student loan debt ballooned to nearly $1 trillion in the third quarter of 2012, which for the first time is larger than either credit card or auto loan debt. These trends have sparked a plethora of arguments against obtaining a college degree. Citing examples like tech giants Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and the late","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128589861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
more visible, and enhancing their economic opportunities. In 1992, I created Take our Daughters to Work Day (TDWD); in 1999, I launched Count Me in for Women’s Economic Independence (CMI), to reach women and girls with messages and programs that promote economic empowerment. CMI is the leading national not-for-profit provider of resources, business education, and community support for women entrepreneurs seeking to grow micro-businesses into million-dollar enterprises. To me, these efforts are a natural progression in the women’s movement. Once we won human and legal rights for ourselves, financial independence was the logical next step. This is because girls learn everything from watching women, including watching them be active, successful players in the economy. These decades of momentous change in women’s economic lives have been exhilarating. Quite simply, women and girls are now critical players in the global economy; as a 2009 report from Boston Consulting notes, the $20 trillion of consumer spending currently controlled by females could reach $28 trillion over the next five years. The economy relies on women’s ability to make and spend money. And that is why women must do everything in our power to show girls by example how to make, save, give, and invest money. The issue is no longer cracking the proverbial glass ceiling; we’ve done that mightily. Now we must raise the roof altogether and expand the pie to make room for all the innovation and creativity that women and girls can bring to the global marketplace. The four women I profile here are examples of how we do that, and their stories embody several crucial themes: growing one’s self-esteem after being abused, drawing on military experience to succeed in business, and the importance to women of role models, mutual support, inspiration, publicity, and financial guidance.
{"title":"Cracking the Glass Ceiling and Raising the Roof (Innovations Case Narrative: Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence)","authors":"Nell Merlino","doi":"10.1162/INOV_a_00167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_a_00167","url":null,"abstract":"more visible, and enhancing their economic opportunities. In 1992, I created Take our Daughters to Work Day (TDWD); in 1999, I launched Count Me in for Women’s Economic Independence (CMI), to reach women and girls with messages and programs that promote economic empowerment. CMI is the leading national not-for-profit provider of resources, business education, and community support for women entrepreneurs seeking to grow micro-businesses into million-dollar enterprises. To me, these efforts are a natural progression in the women’s movement. Once we won human and legal rights for ourselves, financial independence was the logical next step. This is because girls learn everything from watching women, including watching them be active, successful players in the economy. These decades of momentous change in women’s economic lives have been exhilarating. Quite simply, women and girls are now critical players in the global economy; as a 2009 report from Boston Consulting notes, the $20 trillion of consumer spending currently controlled by females could reach $28 trillion over the next five years. The economy relies on women’s ability to make and spend money. And that is why women must do everything in our power to show girls by example how to make, save, give, and invest money. The issue is no longer cracking the proverbial glass ceiling; we’ve done that mightily. Now we must raise the roof altogether and expand the pie to make room for all the innovation and creativity that women and girls can bring to the global marketplace. The four women I profile here are examples of how we do that, and their stories embody several crucial themes: growing one’s self-esteem after being abused, drawing on military experience to succeed in business, and the importance to women of role models, mutual support, inspiration, publicity, and financial guidance.","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133906882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
technology. As she entered the world, I was struck by how quickly she managed to stand on her feet. For such a delicate animal—when she lay in the grass her skinny legs looked like a pile of sticks—she was impressively strong. Our new addition was a breath of fresh air, but more than that, she was the tangible result of the several years I’d spent conducting research on the internet and reading articles about animal husbandry— studies that no one in my family had thought to undertake before that. She represented a progression toward greater self-sufficiency and more dependable revenue for the farm, and thus toward greater stability for those of us who depend on the land. A year earlier, we had lost my heifer to East Coast fever, a common disease affecting farm animals in my home region of Kayunga, Uganda. It’s hard for anyone who did not grow up on a small family farm to understand how much loss and devastation such a death causes in terms of potential income generated from the farm, and all the effort expended in taking care of the animals. Also, it greatly affects the family’s ability to pay school fees, which come through the sale of farm animals. We agonized over the details. Which warning signs did we miss? Could we have intervened if we had recognized them? No doubt this sort of unpredictable stress, a hallmark of farming life, is the reason many of my peers sought paths to more “professional” careers in sectors like technology, government, banking, and business. At 25, I am one of the very few in my age group who want to stay on the farm. Though my family has managed the farm—troubleshooting and performing daily crisis interventions—for three generations, my grandfather and father still lacked the expertise to respond to East Coast fever. They fit into a wider culture of
{"title":"Finding the Word for Entrepreneur in Luganda","authors":"Arnest Sebbumba","doi":"10.1162/INOV_A_00159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_A_00159","url":null,"abstract":"technology. As she entered the world, I was struck by how quickly she managed to stand on her feet. For such a delicate animal—when she lay in the grass her skinny legs looked like a pile of sticks—she was impressively strong. Our new addition was a breath of fresh air, but more than that, she was the tangible result of the several years I’d spent conducting research on the internet and reading articles about animal husbandry— studies that no one in my family had thought to undertake before that. She represented a progression toward greater self-sufficiency and more dependable revenue for the farm, and thus toward greater stability for those of us who depend on the land. A year earlier, we had lost my heifer to East Coast fever, a common disease affecting farm animals in my home region of Kayunga, Uganda. It’s hard for anyone who did not grow up on a small family farm to understand how much loss and devastation such a death causes in terms of potential income generated from the farm, and all the effort expended in taking care of the animals. Also, it greatly affects the family’s ability to pay school fees, which come through the sale of farm animals. We agonized over the details. Which warning signs did we miss? Could we have intervened if we had recognized them? No doubt this sort of unpredictable stress, a hallmark of farming life, is the reason many of my peers sought paths to more “professional” careers in sectors like technology, government, banking, and business. At 25, I am one of the very few in my age group who want to stay on the farm. Though my family has managed the farm—troubleshooting and performing daily crisis interventions—for three generations, my grandfather and father still lacked the expertise to respond to East Coast fever. They fit into a wider culture of","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127225876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
words, softly spoken by an 18-year-old Zimbabwean woman, describe the absence of money in her life, aside from its role in creating conflict and anxiety at home. She spoke at a Camfed workshop held for young rural women who had just graduated from secondary school to help them seek solutions to the lack of productive livelihoods open to them in their rural area. Her words were her starting point, and they needed to be ours. Camfed is an organization founded in 1993 and dedicated to the advancement of rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa by investing chiefly in the education of girls and the strategies that grow their leadership and status. Young educated women living in poor communities are Camfed’s teachers. They are members of a vast group whose potential to transform their own lives— and those of their families, communities, and nations—is limitless. Programs that are built on listening to and learning from such women have the best chance of achieving progress. This paper describes Camfed’s journey of investment in designing, implementing, and measuring programs to achieve the financial inclusion, with all its attendant benefits, of young rural women in five countries of subSaharan Africa. In 1999, Lucy Lake and I, along with the first four hundred secondary school graduates of Camfed’s program in Zimbabwe, launched Cama (the Camfed Association). It was designed as a rural membership organization and support network to extend into young adulthood the friendships these women had made during their secondary school education. At the program launch in Harare, young women graduates from all participating districts came together and recognized, for the first time, that they were a national presence. Over three days, the members designed their organizational structure, including the process for selecting officers. They elected the first Cama chairperson, Angeline Murimirwa, who is now executive director of Camfed Zimbabwe and Camfed Malawi. The members decided that Cama would be an organization of young women united by a background of rural poverty and a commitment to improving lives in their communities. Today,
{"title":"Who Teaches Us Most About Financial Programing in Africa?","authors":"Ann J Cotton","doi":"10.1162/INOV_a_00175","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_a_00175","url":null,"abstract":"words, softly spoken by an 18-year-old Zimbabwean woman, describe the absence of money in her life, aside from its role in creating conflict and anxiety at home. She spoke at a Camfed workshop held for young rural women who had just graduated from secondary school to help them seek solutions to the lack of productive livelihoods open to them in their rural area. Her words were her starting point, and they needed to be ours. Camfed is an organization founded in 1993 and dedicated to the advancement of rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa by investing chiefly in the education of girls and the strategies that grow their leadership and status. Young educated women living in poor communities are Camfed’s teachers. They are members of a vast group whose potential to transform their own lives— and those of their families, communities, and nations—is limitless. Programs that are built on listening to and learning from such women have the best chance of achieving progress. This paper describes Camfed’s journey of investment in designing, implementing, and measuring programs to achieve the financial inclusion, with all its attendant benefits, of young rural women in five countries of subSaharan Africa. In 1999, Lucy Lake and I, along with the first four hundred secondary school graduates of Camfed’s program in Zimbabwe, launched Cama (the Camfed Association). It was designed as a rural membership organization and support network to extend into young adulthood the friendships these women had made during their secondary school education. At the program launch in Harare, young women graduates from all participating districts came together and recognized, for the first time, that they were a national presence. Over three days, the members designed their organizational structure, including the process for selecting officers. They elected the first Cama chairperson, Angeline Murimirwa, who is now executive director of Camfed Zimbabwe and Camfed Malawi. The members decided that Cama would be an organization of young women united by a background of rural poverty and a commitment to improving lives in their communities. Today,","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128697940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
a conference table trying to understand why, in a period of rapid economic growth, personal bankruptcies continued to escalate. Someone suggested that recent financial deregulation had engendered the proliferation of increasingly complex financial products, making it difficult for consumers to understand exactly what they were buying. This led to the hypothesis that the increase in consumer distress during good economic times probably resulted from consumers’ lack of financial literacy. From this meeting emerged the Jump$tart Coalition, a group of academics, government officials, financial institutions, and NGOs with a shared interest in promoting financial literacy. Since several of us were educators, we naturally felt that the problem of financial illiteracy could be overcome through financial education. The most logical place to begin this type of education would be the high school, where students presumably were old enough to be concerned with this type of problem and also logistically reachable. The consensus was that financial education, focused on older high school students, could solve the national problem of financial illiteracy in 10 years. We decid-
{"title":"Financial Education and Financial Access: Lessons Learned from Child Development Account Research","authors":"T. Shanks, Lewis Mandell, Deborah Adams","doi":"10.1162/INOV_A_00171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_A_00171","url":null,"abstract":"a conference table trying to understand why, in a period of rapid economic growth, personal bankruptcies continued to escalate. Someone suggested that recent financial deregulation had engendered the proliferation of increasingly complex financial products, making it difficult for consumers to understand exactly what they were buying. This led to the hypothesis that the increase in consumer distress during good economic times probably resulted from consumers’ lack of financial literacy. From this meeting emerged the Jump$tart Coalition, a group of academics, government officials, financial institutions, and NGOs with a shared interest in promoting financial literacy. Since several of us were educators, we naturally felt that the problem of financial illiteracy could be overcome through financial education. The most logical place to begin this type of education would be the high school, where students presumably were old enough to be concerned with this type of problem and also logistically reachable. The consensus was that financial education, focused on older high school students, could solve the national problem of financial illiteracy in 10 years. We decid-","PeriodicalId":422331,"journal":{"name":"Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124594391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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