To Profit or Not to Profit?

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has announced that it will forgo a "normal" profit for the sale of a malaria vaccine it is currently testing and will instead limit itself to "about" a 5% profit.

Why not give the drug away? Well, it's costly to produce new medicines and Glaxo wants to recoup expenses. But GSK Chief Executive Andrew Witty argues that companies need an incentive to work in this field (tropical diseases or diseases of the poor) and that a small profit margin provides the needed incentive. Whether a 5% profit is enough of an incentive to get more companies to work in this area is an open question (though the potential of damage to what economists call "reputational capital" might well convince other drug companies to follow the GSK lead).

If field trials, which are being conducted now in Africa are successful, GSK will have the first malaria vaccine. Given that millions of people suffer from this disease, the drug has the potential to make an enormous difference in terms of human well-being (not to mention productivity for Africans and others). It also has the potential to make GSK a pretty penny, but less pretty than it might otherwise be. Witty says he'd like to see developed countries band together to buy the vaccine in large numbers for poorer countries: this might further lower costs--buying in very large volume should mean additional price discounts for the vaccine.

GSK, this story reports, is also opening up some of its laboratories to academic researchers. This kind of partnership should lead to further innovation and hopefully, more creative approaches to dealing with neglected diseases.

(The photo of the malaria mosquito is from the West Baton Rouge Parish website).

- Karol

The Women of Cocoki Support Haiti

One of the most extraordinary aspects of working in a globalized world at the grassroots level is how easy it is to forget that our partners in Rwanda are equally touched by the global media and eager to contribute to the alleviation of suffering.

The recent earthquake in Haiti has a special connection to Rwanda because of Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health, which started in Haiti before setting up shop in Rwanda’s north. PIH was quick to set up a benefit event for Haiti at a local restaurant. The benefit includes items donated for an auction to benefit the quake victims.

One of the organizers came to Indego asking if we would be willing to donate products for the auction. Given that the products are produced by our partner cooperatives, not us, we took the idea to them—it also seemed like a double gain in that the cooperative would get free publicity for their local market.

When we mentioned the earthquake, all of the women had heard about it. Amazing the power of globalized radio programming. We described the idea of an auction and how the proceeds would be going to benefit the survivors of the quake.

Our team was imagining that they would donate a few of their best-selling items as a strategic publicity move. We were blown away when they emerged from their stock room with their arms full of their most popular products—yoga bag, apron, oven mit, computer case, sling bag, wine bags, coffee bags, coasters and even sports bags. A few items is publicity, this could be described only as generosity.

For the women of Cocoki these products are their livelihood. The sales they make are how they feed their families. Yesterday they reached beyond their own needs to contribute to assist victims half a world away.

- Amity

Kagame's Influence

The Financial Times recently named Rwandan President Paul Kagame one of the 50 most influential people of the past decade.

He is named with an ecletic list that includes Mo Ibrahim, Beyonce, and the founders of Twitter. To access the Financial Times article you need to register with the paper. Or, you can find a related article on this story here.

President Kagame has his share of critics, primarily from the human rights community. As the Financial Times notes, he rules in the style of an East Asian leader, such as Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew (less regard for civil and political liberties, more for economic freedom and growth). Supporters point to his ability to largely keep the peace in his country and to rebuild an economy shattered by the 1994 genocide. He has also created an elaborate plan to move the country from low to middle-income status by 2020. The country's efforts to lessen poverty and create opportunity for many has, the editors argue, been an inspiration for other nations.

Critical of many foreign aid efforts, President Kagame routinely advocates "trade not aid." As the story from The East African notes: "His vision is not only to produce a stable Rwanda but a competitive, productive African continent, a phrase he continually reiterates."

That vision is important: a competitive, productive Africa will mean economic growth and prosperity for more of the world's bottom billion, millions of whom live in Africa.

- Karol

Launch of Indego Africa Micro-Documentary

"The Color of Indego Africa: Empowering Women in Rwanda"

This video was shot and produced by the innovative new social change video platform Nomadsland, a "new destination built by nomads - professionals who have spent much of their lives traversing the globe – gathering, recording and sharing in our collective human experience." They are "video producers, filmmakers, activists, nonprofit staffers and social entrepreneurs who are joining forces to curate, create and distribute visual media that raises awareness and support of worthwhile international projects and important global issues."

Indego Africa extends to Nomadsland our deepest and most sincere thank you for this video. We believe strongly in their innovative mission of joining forces with social entrepreneurs and nonprofits to curate, create and distribute visual media that tells inspiring stories in the age of Web 3.0. Please take a moment to explore the Nomadsland website (http://www.nomadsland.com/). This is a crucial platform for spreading the stories of organizations and people driving social impact and social change. And, beyond its interactive video player, Nomadsland is also leading the field in affordable production, great storytelling, and cutting-edge cinematography.

Please re-tweet, comment, Facebook, blog, email, telegraph, carrier pigeon, or otherwise SHARE this video and the Nomadsland story!

- Ben

Abod: Housing South Africa's Poor

Given recent news out of Africa I was beginning to think that I'd have to write a story about either cricket or soccer and no one wants that.

Fortunately, I opened my email and found the perfect story: successful entrepreneur confronts a whopping challenge and develops a creative, beautiful solution.

Whopping challenge: better housing for South Africa's poor. Largely as a result of apartheid-era policies there is a huge shortage of formal housing so millions of poor South Africans live in shacks in informal settlements on the outskirts of cities. The ANC governments of the past 15 years have tried to address the complex problems of housing the poor with only limited success.

One thing the governments have done is build something called RDP houses -- more than a million of them. But lots of people hate these poor quality houses and actually leave them to return to informal settlements (I've written about this here).

Greg Sharp of BSB Design in Des Moines, a successful architecture firm, was asked by a South African minister if he could help address the country's acute housing shortage. His company dove into the problem, interviewed local people and came up with Abod -- a low cost, low mainteance house that even someone like me could probably up together. Can't tell how many have been shipped to South Africa so far (doesn't seem like many) so I'm not sure if it's a truly scalable project or not. But, it certainly is lovely one.

- Karol

HBS Immersion Experience Program & Indego Africa

As part of Harvard Business School's Immersion Experience Program (IXP), Indego Africa is honored to welcome a fantastic team of HBS students and professors to Kigali for a ten-day visit to work with our staff, interns, and the women at our partner cooperatives. The students (Tawanda Sibanda, LaToya Stallworth, and Jacqueline Sandberg) and professors arrived in Rwanda last week where, among other things, they are helping Indego Africa further develop local market strategies, conduct product market research, refine the business skills curriculum, and advise on the women’s entrepreneurship projects.

The program has already been an incredible success. Last week the women at Cocoki even prepared and executed a presentation for the IXP team entirely in English! Tawanda writes:

What has become clearer to me over the past week or so, is that Indego is really about empowerment, both of the women in the cooperatives and the interns from Orphans of Rwanda who deliver the training.

These women have large families and demanding responsibilities. In my visit, I have been impressed by the skills the women have acquired through the Indego training programs, and more importantly, the sense of confidence and POWER the women posses as a result. They understand profit and cost, marketing and distribution, basic book-keeping, and even some English.

Largely due to the committed trainers and staff at Indego, these women are tough, independent business people who can analyze new business opportunities, and discern would be exploiters.

The interns have been equally impressive. Having visited the genocide museum with our group, I can only imagine what horrible stories lie behind their smiles. Nevertheless, they are focused and ambitious. At Amity's dinner we all shared our career hopes, and all the interns had big dreams: from running accounting firms, to starting agribusinesses and banks. Rwanda, watch out for this group!

- Ben

(Photo is of Jacqueline's marketing and global commerce presentation.)

Local Solutions for Local Problems

I ran across this article about an entrepreneurial project that promotes clean energy use in poor neighborhoods in Cairo. Here's an older NPR story about the same project and another from National Geographic (ok, I'm obviously late to this story, nonetheless. . . ).

The basic idea is to find local solutions for a local problem. The problem is that Cairo's poor have erratic energy supplies. Social entrepreneurs Thomas and Sybille Culhane partner with local people to build solar-powered hot water heaters and biogas generators that use kitchen and other waste to make gas for cooking, using recycled local materials. Because the devices are installed at a home, the problem of erratic supply is solved (so long as the machines work, the sun shines, and people generate waste).

The local solution is that local people -- a pipe cutter, or welder, or maybe a carpenter -- help design and build the devices. The water heater, for example, is typically installed on a roof top. Local knowledge of what a rooftop can bear or what materials are easily and cheaply available helps make the project more sustainable (though I note that the project has received funding from USAID).

You can learn more about the Culhanes' project, Solar CITIES, at their blog.

If you're visiting Cairo you can even check out a Solar CITIES tour.

Right now, the Egyptian government heavily subsidizes gas and electricity purchases, so it's not especially sensible for the poor to invest in building the heaters and the generators BUT as subsidies are phased out over the next few years the incentive to invest (if not the ability to access credit) will shift and this might turn into a for-profit venture. People respond to incentives and they will happily turn to clean energy when it becomes a cost-effective alternative to more traditional energy sources.

(Photo is from http://www.insideurbangreen.org/2009/03/bench-subirrigation-on-a-cairo-rooftop.html).

- Karol

A Social Enterprise Approach to Corporate Responsibility

A wonderfully thorough article about how Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, a global law firm, changed my life and upended the traditional conception of how large corporations and social entrepreneurs can, together, drive social change.

"GC of Nonprofit for Rwandan Entrepreneurs Continues as Orrick Associate," The Recorder / Law.com, Amanda Royal (Jan. 4, 2010).

- Ben