Tag Archives: Kenya

Bringing American Music to Belarus / A Leader in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS

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A New York professor takes American music to Belarus. A doctor in Kenya is having some success in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Live from COP-16, climate change webcasts. The stakes are high in the global fight against corruption. Looking for information on Iran? Try the Encyclopaedia Iranica. Since last year, the number of partnerships between American and Russian universities has nearly doubled. And finally, learn what a group of students did to raise awareness and money for flood victims in Pakistan.
 

American Music in Belarus
New York choral conductor, baritone, and music professor Ira Spaulding has traveled to over 55 countries, spreading a passion and appreciation for American jazz and traditional American Negro spiritual songs. Recently returned from a concert and teaching tour to Belarus, Spaulding called his latest visit a “truly wonderful experience.” At right, Spaulding performs with the State Chamber Choir of Belarus in Minsk.
 
 

The Fight Against HIV/AIDS
Dr. Frederick Sawe is deputy director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Walter Reed Project HIV Program, a prevention, research and treatment project run jointly by his home country of Kenya and the U.S. military’s international HIV program. Reaed about his success.

Webcasts: Cop-16, Climate Change
Through its webcasts, CO.NX is providing you access to dozens of live, 90-minute programs taking place at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP-16. Programs — hosted at the U.S. Center at COP-16 in Cancun, Mexico — run from November 29 through December 10.

A Global Effort Against Corruption
Officials attending major international gatherings have vowed to turn anti-corruption commitments into action as the stakes in the global fight against bribery, graft and embezzlement have grown greater.

Iranica: An Online Encyclopedia
Encyclopedias have been around for 2,000 years, but websites like the online Encyclopaedia Iranica are reinventing them. With Encyclopaedia Iranica, the reader can click on any of hundreds of featured entries that pop up randomly on the online version’s home page and also jump from one article to another with a click.

U.S.-Russia University Ties
Since the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission was formed by Presidents Obama and Medvedev in July, 2009, the number of partnerships between American and Russian universities has nearly doubled.

Flags for Flood Awareness
To increase awareness of conditions in Pakistan and encourage support for its 160 Pakistani alumni, Plymouth State University student leaders covered the New Hampshire campus lawn with 25,000 neon green flags, each representing 800 persons displaced by flooding. They call the display the “Flood of Flags” and it helped raise more than $3,000 for flood relief. At left, student leaders Bryan Funk (left) and Sam Wisel (right) were among the organizers.

U.S. Seeks Unified Condemnation of N. Korea / The Global Fight Against Corruption / Flags for Pakistan

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The U.S. calls for a unified condemnation of North Korea’s attack on South Korea. The stakes are high in the global fight against corruption. The online Encyclopaedia Iranica is putting Iranian history at your fingertips. Since last year, the number of partnerships between American and Russian universities has nearly doubled. And finally, learn what a group of students did to raise awareness and money for flood victims in Pakistan.

U.S. Wants A Unified Message to N. Korea
The Obama administration says China and other countries need to join the United States in sending “a clear, direct, unified message” to North Korea’s leadership that its attack upon the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong was “unwarranted, unhelpful and should cease.” The State Department Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip J. Crowley says the attack “was a clear premeditated action by North Korea specifically intended to inflame tensions in the region.”

A Global Effort Against Corruption
Officials attending major international gatherings have vowed to turn anti-corruption commitments into action as the stakes in the global fight against bribery, graft and embezzlement have grown greater.

Iranica: An Online Encyclopedia
Encyclopedias have been around for 2,000 years, but websites like the online Encyclopaedia Iranica are reinventing them. With Encyclopaedia Iranica, the reader can click on any of hundreds of featured entries that pop up randomly on the online version’s home page and also jump from one article to another with a click.

U.S.-Russia University Ties
Since the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission was formed by Presidents Obama and Medvedev in July, 2009, the number of partnerships between American and Russian universities has nearly doubled.

Flags for Flood Awareness
To increase awareness of conditions in Pakistan and encourage support for its 160 Pakistani alumni, Plymouth State University student leaders covered the New Hampshire campus lawn with 25,000 neon green flags, each representing 800 persons displaced by flooding. They call the display the “Flood of Flags” and it helped raise more than $3,000 for flood relief. At left, student leaders Bryan Funk (left) and Sam Wisel (right) were among the organizers.

From Kenya to California, Empowering Women

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Rehema D. Jaldesa is one of many entrepreneurs coming to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship April 26-27, from countries with sizeable Muslim populations. She owns three companies in the construction, telecommunications and distribution sectors in Kenya, and she chairs a nonprofit for the empowerment of rural women.

Linda Rottenberg is chief executive of Endeavor, a nonprofit that identifies and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

Anita Dharapuram is interim director of C.E.O. Women, a nonprofit that creates economic opportunities for low-income immigrant and refugee women in California.

Rehema D. Jaldesa

Rehema D. Jaldesa

Rehema D. Jaldesa:
Every day brings a new challenge, an interesting opportunity or an exciting enterprise for me. One of the most important projects my companies have worked on was drilling boreholes for water exploration in the arid lands of Northern Kenya. Running my companies is rewarding as they have a strong culture of corporate responsibility. Inspiring women with an entrepreneurial spirit is a major element of that culture.

In fact, my life revolves around placing women in control of economic matters, thereby giving them more power on issues that matter to the entire society. This vision comes from the examples of people like Melinda Gates and Dr. Yunus Muhammad, who have improved lives of people around the world.

I have mentored women from marginalized communities for years. I encourage them to discover business opportunities that will drive them toward self reliance and economic empowerment. I often subcontract work to women or companies associated with women, encourage women to participate in the tendering process by lending them my company’s equipment, and act as a loan guarantor for women running small businesses. I particularly care about the empowerment of rural and nomadic women as they face the most difficult obstacles.

I begin my day by searching newspapers for work-project advertisements (tenders for work to be done) by government agencies and private entities. Next, I call my field workers and engineers to learn what they are doing, and then discuss operational matters with other staff. The rest of the day is for meeting prospective clients and following leads to attract new ones. In between, I must find time to work on new business ideas. I plan to expand my business, taking advantage of the trade links created by the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa to export goods and services to the Horn of Africa and Central Africa.

Linda Rottenberg

Linda Rottenberg

Linda Rottenberg:
Rehema is an excellent example of an entrepreneur with high-impact potential—someone with big ideas and a scalable business, who creates opportunities for others and serves as a role model for success.

When it comes to supporting women entrepreneurs in emerging markets, too often we think of microfinance. Indeed, microloans have played an important role helping lift people out of poverty. But Rehema is thinking bigger. She recognizes that to achieve true economic empowerment and social mobility, women entrepreneurs need to build scalable businesses and this in turns requires structured mentoring and access to role models.

For over a decade, my own organization Endeavor has been connecting entrepreneurs in emerging markets (with Kenya on the near horizon!) to successful local business leaders, who serve as mentors. Too often in emerging markets, wealth and opportunities are controlled by few top families and powerful interests, resulting in networks closed off to new entrepreneurs. Innovators like Rehema (an excellent example of an entrepreneur who is also a mentor) are dismantling this tradition, building bridges between the business community and the next generation of entrepreneurs. When entrepreneurs achieve high impact, everyone wins. In addition to creating jobs and wealth locally, an investor community takes root and young people are inspired to think big.

The point is clear: to reduce inequality and ensure shared economic growth, women entrepreneurs must be empowered to take their small businesses and scale them into successful, high-growth companies. They must become High-Impact Entrepreneurs.

Anita Dharapuram

Anita Dharapuram

Anita Dharapuram:
We increasingly see the roles of women changing across the globe, in some places for the better, in others for the worse. It is in the best interest of us all to foment a positive change.

I am inspired to see women such as Ms. Jaldesa making an extra effort to empower women through entrepreneurship. By embracing social entrepreneurship as second nature, Ms. Jaldesa can provide access to economic opportunities to many women business owners who otherwise might have had none.

At C.E.O. Women (Creating Economic Opportunities for Women), we, too, create economic opportunities for underprivileged women, in our case, low-income immigrants and refugees to the U.S. We teach them English and communication and entrepreneurial skills, so they can establish successful livelihoods. They also can count on mentoring, coaching and access to capital when they are ready to start small businesses. C.E.O. Women believes that all women who come to the United States have unique skills and intellectual assets, which, with the right support, can be used to improve their lives.

I believe that every woman in Kenya also is unique in this sense. Similar to women I work with in the United States, many Kenyan women may simply need tools to navigate the local educational and legal systems to be successful.

Most of our graduates register increases in their incomes and participate more actively in their communities. Some become the pillars of their families and communities similar to those whom Ms. Jaldesa mentors and supports. That’s why it is so important to invest in the advancement of women around the world. Without doing so, we often deny entire communities a chance of development.

Kenyan Portal Could Give Small Firms Access to a Big Market

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[guest name="Kinoti Gituma, Imran Qidwai and Herman Nyamunga" biography="Entrepreneur Kinoti Gituma is the founder and chief executive of KinConsult, an Internet business consulting firm. He lives in Santa Clara, California. Expert Imran Qidwai is president of Zaviah, a high-tech consultancy firm in Boston. Expert Herman Nyamunga is an independent development consultant and a blogger."]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

Kinoti Gituma, entrepreneur:

Kinoti Gituma

Kinoti Gituma

Living and working in Silicon Valley has exposed me to many facets of e-commerce: from selling rugby apparel on eBay to marketing high-end servers on Google. Having been born and raised in Nairobi, I am excited about recent developments in the Kenyan technology sector, particularly the launch of broadband.

Within KinConsult, a U.S. online and e-commerce consulting firm based in Sunnyvale, California, I have envisioned Johari, a Web and mobile portal that will bridge the digital divide in Kenya by providing a platform for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to tap the potential of broader markets. It is currently under development.

By marketing their products and services on Johari such businesses will gain access to a consumer market that transcends local boundaries. And I believe that giving SMEs the platform for information gathering and collaborative technologies will help them grow and prosper. This, in turn, will boost business generally in Kenya by giving consumers a greater choice.

The biggest risk is fraud. Initial challenges include attracting, vetting and listing a large number of SMEs and persuading them to use Johari to list their products on a continuous basis. It will take time for the Kenya society at large to embrace new technologies to reach a critical mass.
Questions for experts:
1. How do you mitigate the risk of fraud in operations of a mobile and Web portal in a developing country?
2. How do you create an effective viral marketing campaign for a quick roll out in a region that has high mobile penetration but very low Internet penetration?

IMRAN QIDWAI, business expert:

As I was reading your blog post, the paramount issue of fraud was dancing in my head. It was good to see you identify that as a major challenge yourself.

Identifying the target market segments that will benefit the most from your business will be a key to your success. You need to identify the type of products that would be best served by your online market within the targeted region, both for the buyers and sellers. Thus, commodities may not be the best unless you are sure that buyers will achieve significant overall savings or benefit from the convenience. You also may need to hand-pick a few merchants for such products that pass through a strict selection filter. You may launch the business with few such merchants and closely monitor the transactions for overall customer satisfaction. Using the best practices learned during the early phases, you may have to come up with your own Better Business Bureau type seal of approval. You will then be ready to scale up the business with more merchants and a greater variety of products. You will need to be vigilant throughout and set up a fair process to vet the merchants. You also may need to encourage buyers to provide their satisfaction ratings for merchants and products upon the completion of transactions. Once you have a well-oiled marketplace that is also profitable for the merchants, I am sure that other merchants will be dying to get in.

As for viral marketing, there is a technique called Word of Mouth Marketing being promoted by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. You may wish to check out their site [http://womma.org/main/] to learn and adapt this and other techniques to the local market.

A Johari promotional photo of a Kenyan Masai warrior

A Johari promotional photo of a Kenyan Masai warrior

HERMAN NYAMUNGA, business expert:

The impact of fraud on businesses across the globe is phenomenal. Although every effort is being taken to find a lasting solution to this problem, there is no silver bullet yet. However, there are industry-tested strategies that developing countries can employ to mitigate the risk of fraud in operations of mobile and web portal. They include these:
1. Developing a secure platform for information exchange,
2. Effective and efficient electronic verification system supported by well trained fraud analysts,
3. Rolling the portal in phases to permit system modification,
4. Utilizing mobile financial systems like Kenya’s M-PESA – which are transforming the way people save, use, and transport money in poor countries – for most of the transactions,
5. Educating consumers on how to protect themselves against fraudulent activities,
6. Developing and applying due diligence in verifying sellers’ identity before listing them in the portal,
7. And information sharing between credit card companies, businesses, law enforcement agencies, and consumers.

As to a viral marketing campaign, due to limited availability of the Internet, mobile phone networks have proven to be a vital piece of technology for Africa. The technology is ubiquitous and plays an important part in bridging the infrastructure divide. As a cheap alternative, it presents a great opportunity for creating an effective viral marketing campaign to assist businesses in connecting with consumers. The strategy involves recruiting a group of trusted people in every target market, earning their trust and using them as a platform to transmit your message to their network of friends. This strategy has been successfully used in Africa to support initiatives such as Mapping stock-outs, Mobile learning, Mobile search, Mobile Banking, etc.

A Virtual Marketplace for Small Farms in Kenya

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[guest name="Raymond Rugemalira, Barry Moltz and Imran Qidwai" biography="Entrepreneur Raymond Rugemalira is from Tanzania and lives in Crestline, California. He runs his own, 4-year-old E&M Capital Tek Corporation, which designed a national fiber optic network for Rwanda. Barry Moltz is a small-business expert, teacher and the author of three books on entrepreneurship. Expert Imran Qidwai is president of Zaviah, a high-tech consultancy based in Boston. "]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

RAYMOND RUGEMALIRA, entrepreneur:

Raymond Rugemalira, who hopes to pursue a business venture in Kenya, visits his home village Rubya in Tanzania.

Raymond Rugemalira, who hopes to pursue a business venture in Kenya, visits his home village Rubya in Tanzania.

Our Uza-Mazao™ venture aims to become Africa’s biggest, 24/7 virtual marketplace. (Uza-Mazao™ means “sell agricultural products” in Swahili.)

Buyers are not interested in purchasing small quantities from farmers who are dispersed among different villages. But during my trips to Kenya, I saw an unrealized trade potential of crops, quality produce and livestock from small plots.

We have developed a sophisticated text messaging system for matching small farmers with potential buyers and transporters. Our software will aggregate small batches from a number of sellers and determine the best sellers-to-buyer match by product, quantity, price, location, and availability dates. Then it will inform the farmers and the buyer about a possible transaction, which can be completed through an existing mobile-phone wallet system.

Registered farmers will form virtual cooperatives according to geographic locations. Revenue for E&M Capital Tek, which manages Uza-Mazao, will be generated from commissions and a small percentage of sales.

Because the idea is so novel, we put much effort in persuading farmers and buyers about its value. As we proceed, we are finding out how difficult it is for entrepreneurs from the African Diaspora, who come with good ideas but without big money, to be taken seriously in an African country. Our Kenyan partner – James Mwangi, who runs a food-supply-service company – helps us establish a presence in the country. But dealing effectively with numerous parties there remains a challenge.

BARRY MOLTZ, expert:

A farmers' market in Kenya.

A farmers' market in Kenya.

All marketplaces need buyers and sellers. The problem is how to get them both to come. Most successful marketplaces start with the buyers since, if you have them, the sellers will definitely come.

The entrepreneur should focus on 1. Finding buyers to participate in his marketplace. 2. Testing a small group of transactions to see what issues happen as the marketplace becomes active.

IMRAN QIDWAI, expert:

It is good to see you share your challenges after describing the interesting business idea. Some of the feedback would depend on Uza-Mazao’s business model which is not included in the above description. One obvious challenge in developing a marketplace is that it will only be successful with a significant participation: I.e. more buyers and sellers will help set fair market prices.

Trust is always an issue when promoting a new business, and it is especially a challenge for someone from the outside entering a closed circle in an under-developed region. A simple parallel is that, even in Western markets, we talk of trusted brands and are willing to pay a premium for those brands. A way to success is to identify a few people who already are trusted in the local environment and to focus on gaining their support. Depending on your business model, you may want to offer these people direct compensation or results-based incentives to work with you.

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes how a maven — in this case an entrepreneur with a business idea — may achieve success by collaborating with “connectors,” people who know “everyone.” Given the wide network of people by whom they are trusted, connectors can easily convince the target population about the maven’s ideas.