Yesterday the winner of the World Challenge 2007 was announced via BBC TV. Below is a summary of innovative projects in developing countries, the 12 finalists in the World Challenge 2007 “..by BBC World and Newsweek, in association with Shell is all about rewarding individuals or groups that truly make a difference through enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level.”
NO, it is not e-learning, BUT e-learning can disseminate and communicate these successful cases as inspiration and learning for other groups and organizations.It is not really relevant to compete in this field, all are winners, but the competition, highlights initiatives + give incentives to communicate and present projects.
These projects are entrepreneur and business approaches making them sustainable.
Innovative grassroot projects fighting poverty: http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2007_finalists.php
1. COOKING WITHOUT GAS - Foundation for Sustainable Technologies (FoST) - NEPAL Developed simple solar cookers and briquette presses to make smokeless fuel from waste materials.
2. STEAMING AHEAD INDONESIA - The Masarang Palm Sugar Factory Uses waste steam from the power plant to heat the sugar palm sap. A sustainable alternative to the destructive Palm Oil trade. All profits going direct to the farmers’ cooperative. Some 6285 poor farmers and their families.
3. S.O.S: SAVE OUR SEAWEED Ider Project - BRAZIL, Sustainable Algae Cultivation and Marketing Seaweed seeds are attached to anchored ropes. Within two months they have grown into full-size plants ready for harvesting. The seaweed is then dehydrated using solar-powered cleaning and drying machines. Recovery in seaweed-dependent fish stocks.
4. TOP OF THE CROPS Arghand - AFGHANISTAN By creating a market for crops such as almonds, apricots, pistachios and liquorice root, the company reduces opium production without depriving farmers of an income…strike at the chains of poverty and violence that bind the region to the opium poppy.
5. LIMBS FROM LEFTOVERS Mend - NEPAL Develop artificial limbs, tools and other mobility devices within the price range of the poorest Nepalese. An innovative cost-cutting solution – to use everyday wastes as their raw materials. Moulds for artificial legs, for example, are cast from aluminium cans, while the legs themselves are made, in part, from recycled plastics.
6. HALF PRICE HYGIENE Maka - UGANDA The price of imported sanitary pads puts them beyond the reach of Uganda’s poorest families. Keeping costs down by using locally sourced materials – papyrus and paper – and manufacturing the pads on a cottage industry basis.
7. HERBAL HEALING Sa Pa Essentials (SPE) - VIETNAM Sustainable cultivation of the medicinal species. Extracts, processes and markets essential oils from the plants, ensuring at every stage that the communities’ intellectual property rights are respected
8. HIGH SWEET FASHION Mitz - MEXICO Fighting poverty by income-generating weaving of trendy bags and accessories from recycled sweet wrappers.
9. SCHOOL FOR SUCCESS Ecole Paradis des Indiens - HAITI Poverty reduction activities include beekeeping, embroidery, woodworking and fruit-drying schemes. Environmental efforts are focused on reforestation. A microfinance scheme to foster local businesses and lift individual families out of poverty and ten small schools.
10. PEACE WOODS Maderas Para La Paz - COLOMBIA The Peace Woods timber company: keeping former militiamen out of trouble; by offering a way out for those still involved in Colombia’s various militias; and by uniting one-time enemies. Sustainable harvest of wood.
11. POTATO GOLDMINE T’ikapapa – PERU The farmers of Peru’s high Andes are among the poorest in the country, with average incomes of under US $1 per day. Yet these farmers are sitting on something of a goldmine, for the region is home to some 3000 varieties of potato. T’ikapapa was set up to bridge the gap between the Andean farmers and the potato market.
12. OUT OF THE FOREST Brasmazon and Coopemaflima - BRAZILOn the Marajo Island in the Amazon, fish is vital, but half of the year, the fish migrate and the population suffers. During this period the Andiroba tree deposit its water-born seeds. The Brazilian company Brasmazon saw an opportunity to turn them into an alternative income source. They established a cooperative, Coopemalfilma, to collect the seeds and extract their oil for sale to the cosmetics industry. Brasmazon now buys around 500 tonnes of seeds from the cooperative every year, benefiting around 1000 islanders.
And the winner was…., the potato framers in Peru, nr 11 above!
