Ideas/Model/Paper
- Charter cities by Paul Romer, economics professor at Stanford University
Powerful, bold "outside of the box" idea/approach to economic development.
There are two parts to the idea: 1) uninhabited land and 2) a charter granted and enforced by an existing gov't or collection of gov'ts. With the right rules from the charter, the city attracts people, infrastructure, business. Hong Kong is a modern day example of city that has these characteristics. Romer gives three examples of possiblities: 1) Canada develops a Hong Kong in Cuba 2) Indonesians flock to a manufacturing hub in Australia
3) States in India compete for the chance to build a charter city. #LAW #BUSINESS
http://www.chartercities.org/concept
http://www.chartercities.org/faq
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_romer.html (about 20 min)
Person/Thinkers
- Hernando de Soto - Peruvian economist famous for advocating property rights for the poor.
Main idea - impossible to have a strong market economy as long as most of the people remain on the outside looking in. There are two types of economies in a country: 1) legals - an elite minority who enjoy economic benefits from laws & globalization & 2) extralegals - majority of many possible entrepreneurs who are stuck in poverty. Assets of extralegals amount to almost $10 trillion worldwide and not fully utilized - "dead capital" in shadow of law. Extralegals create own rules to protect assets, but these are not enforceable. Property rights allow extralegals to have stake in economy, allow for information sharing, limited liabilities for businesses, access to credit and mortgages, provision of housing & infrastructure. Common framework/language/transparency of conducting business. #LAW # BUSINESS
de Soto heads Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) located in Lima, Peru
http://www.ild.org.pe/who-we-are
Author of "The Mystery of Capital"
Newsweek interview from Feb 2009
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/02/19/slumdogs-vs-millionaires.html
Group/Organization
1. Doing Business - World Bank initiative to give investors/business people an understanding of a country's business regulations and practices. Doing Business issues pdf's on each country and breaks down barriers to doing business in the developing world. # LAW # BUSINESS
http://www.doingbusiness.org/
2. Books for Africa - since 1988, this nonprofit has worked with publishers, businesses, libraries, and individuals to bring books to Africa to fight illiteracy. Ship books in containers with a cost of $0.50/book. BFA selects books that are sensitive to Africa and do not perpetuate Western superiority. #EDUCATION
(aside - often wonder how ebooks will change literacy; imagine setting up "kindle libaries" in the developing world; through donations of amazon & publishers, set up small libraries of 20 tablets with basic books)
https://www.booksforafrica.org/about/about-bfa.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/06/17/impact.books.for.africa/
3. One Home Many Hopes - Many Boston people may be familiar with this nonprofit started by Thomas Keown who goes to Park Street Church. OHMH is a novel approach to orphanages and works with girl orphans in Kenya. Three distinguishing characteristics : 1) create family units for girls through emotionally devoted caregivers 2) stresses, values, incorporates education into program 3) vision is to support girls through college and hopes the girls will be agents for change for their peers. #EDUCATION
(aside - I have been impressed with their grassroots financing model to build the orphanage home and their next project of a school. People creates teams of fundraisers in big cities like Boston, New York, Washington DC, and London. Amazing financial mobilization)
http://www.onehomemanyhopes.org/faqs.html
http://breakinggroundkenya.org/about.html
4. Photoshare - service from public health nonprofit K4Health that uses photography to communicate health and development issues. #ART
http://www.photoshare.org/about.php
http://www.k4health.org/about
5. EMI - Engineering Ministries International; Christian development organization bring together teams of engineers, architects, and design professionals to help build schools and churches and help with other small development projects around the world. #ENG
(aside - I love this group. I heard about them during my senior year at MIT. Neat model of mobilizing volunteer students/professional on two weeks, one month, and longer project. Often the team goes to site area and produces drawings & plan for builders to carry out. Love it)
http://emiworld.org/
News/Prayer
Pray for Uganda and Somalia - there was a terrorist attack in Uganda two weeks ago. A Somalian terrorist group called Al Shabab were responsible.
Economist news article - http://www.economist.com/node/16592642?story_id=16592642
Nytimes news article - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/world/africa/13uganda.html?scp=4&sq=uganda&st=cse
Interesting opinion column from British reporter who interacted with Al Shabab in Somalia
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/opinion/25hartley.html?pagewanted=1
Opportunity/Grant/Contest
Photography competition with SevenFund - ongoing through 2010, $100 for monthly winner and $1000 for the 2010 winner. #ART
http://www.sevenfund.org/entrepreneur-image/
Random/Fun
- a fun/practical list of things to bring to development field; love the adventurous side : )
http://chrisblattman.com/2010/07/24/what-to-bring-to-the-field/
original list http://chrisblattman.com/2009/04/21/field-work-in-the-tropics/
- Nike concludes their "Write the Future" World Cup campaign with "The Future has been Written" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkNH-RZavms
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