Poverty tourism’s demand-side

Last year when we wrote on slum tourism (slum safari’s) we focused on the emergence of this niche sector as well as the incentives for young entrepreneurs in terms of low barriers to entry.

In essence the slum safari article discussed he supply-side for slum tourism. Structural factors such as rapid urbanisation leading to the growth of slums. Indeed for every urban dweller living in the developed world, two exist in the developing world; and it has been projected that this ratio will increase to three by 2025.

However comments to an article published earlier this month in the New York Times on Slumdog Tourism by Kennedy Odede who grew up in Kibera raises demand-side factors for why slum tourism is here to stay. Graphically, Odede describes his own observations as one of the tour attractions. One alarming anecdote is of a group of tourists being taken to visit a woman having a baby at home. As one commentor to the article says:

“This is the kind of story that makes me ashamed to be part of the developed world. But it has an curious angle, and it's that the onlookers, while judging, gawking, and pitying, are in fact there for their own sake. They are seeking the authenticity and reality they lack in their own lives ... We are bored, fat, and out of touch with the earth and our neighbors in it. So we pay to stare at them.”

That’s an interesting take for sure on uneven development, In this case one where poverty stricken countries have the upper hand. If only the money to assuage the feelings quoted above could trickle down to those such as the pregnant woman Odede speaks of.

But then again, if basic services such as maternal care, adequate housing, sanitation and jobs provided to the youth are provided, what then is there to show these novelty-seeking, intrepid travelers? How much does one’s dignity cost, anyway?

Only innovation makes the leap from poverty to prosperity

A fascinating post on The Curious Capitalist blog, titled “Escaping the middle-income trap” offers valuable advice to government policy makers when planning for economic development. Kenya’s Vision 2030 proposes to make the economy a middle income country; but what happens when that is attained and the time comes to make the leap to a truly world class high-income economy?

Taking the example of Malaysia and comparing it with South Korea, the writer posits that only innovation will enable a country to break out of the trap and make the big leap to high per capita economy. In fact the writer goes so far as to say that it is easier for a country to make it to the middle income level than it is to transition into the big high income league:

"The concept behind the “middle-income trap” is quite simple: It's easier to rise from a low-income to a middle-income economy than it is to jump from a middle-income to a high-income economy. That's because when you're really poor, you can use your poverty to your advantage. Cheap wages makes a low-income economy competitive in labor-intensive manufacturing (apparel, shoes and toys, for example). Factories sprout up, creating jobs and increasing income ..."

However akin to an engine running on its own momentum, this model of high growth starts to plateau with competitiveness rising as well as labour costs of the highly educated and skilled workforce. Thus the “trap.”

And apart from lowering the entry barriers into business, it is more vital that economies begin to innovate. So not only should technocrats focus on consolidating business licences, reducing taxes and other barriers to enterprise; innovation should be actively promoted. At YIPE we call this the W.A.R factor:

• Promoting Willingness: a scenario where financial institutions recognise the value of new technologies and entrepreneurs are willing to take risks in order to innovate;
• Promoting the entrepreneur’s Ability: by providing a platform where entrepreneurs can grow their social capital by networking amongst other institutional challenges; and
• Facilitating Resource transfer: by lowering the information asymmetry faced in access to credit and technical knowledge.

Read Escaping the middle-income trap here >>>>

Secretary Clinton's Remarks At The President's Forum with Young African Leaders

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

Loy Henderson Auditorium

Washington, DC

August 3, 2010

Thank you all so much. I am thrilled to see you. I had to come back to work to recover from my daughter’s wedding. (Laughter.) And one of the reasons I came back was because I wanted the chance to welcome each and every one of you here to the State Department, and to tell you how excited we are to be hosting this Young Leaders Forum.

Now, I know that later this afternoon, you will have the unique opportunity to go to the White House and to meet with President Obama. And I think from what you heard already today and the comments of my friend and extraordinary Assistant Secretary for Africa, Johnnie Carson, this Administration, from the top, is very committed to, concerned about Africa, and especially about Africa’s future, because we know that it is people like all of you and others who are not in this room today who will determine what Africa’s future will be.

I see Africa as a continent brimming with potential, a place that has so much just waiting to be grasped. Sixty percent of the population of Africa is under the age of 25. And that means that there’s a lot of work to be done to make sure that those young people are educated, are healthy, are motivated, are given the tools of opportunity. But it also means that Africa has not just the potential, but the promise of becoming a leader in innovation, in design, in creativity of all that you, your families, communities, and countries can become.

Now, people in this room have already started businesses. You have started NGOs, you have made films, you have helped to make peace, you have worked with at-risk youth, you have cared for people living with HIV/AIDS, you have fought to end mistreatment of some of Africa’s most vulnerable citizens. You have looked for solutions close to home. And you have seen unprecedented progress in your own lifetimes. Poverty and child mortality have declined across much of the continent. Primary school enrollment is up. Ghana, Botswana, South Africa, and others have all recently held elections that were models of freeness and fairness.

Across Africa, more citizens believe they now have the power and the duty to shape their own lives, to help their communities, to hold their governments accountable. So for all of the challenges, which we hear much about, I want to focus on these gains, because it is through this positive progress that we can motivate and incentivize even more to take place. And ultimately, it is up to you. The President and I very much believe in Africa’s promise and we can do what’s possible from afar to assist and to be front-row cheerleaders, if you will. But ultimately, it is up to you, and to citizens like you to make sure that we sustain and deepen the progress.

Every child, boy and girl, deserves to go as far as his or her God-given talents and potential and hard work will take that child. That means education is a right, not a luxury. It means that the best education must be made available to as many young people as possible. It means that every pregnant woman receives prenatal care and assistance for labor and delivery so the child that is brought into the world has a good start. It means that everyone has a safe environment – a house, a roof over one’s head, a fair wage for the work that is done, and that everyone is free to follow his or her conscience in religion and politics to express an opinion without fear of being marginalized, silenced, or worse. We believe that you have the talents, the determination and the ability to bring these dreams to fruition.

When President Obama spoke to the parliament of Ghana a year ago he said, Africa’s future is up to Africans. And he pledged then to work with Africa’s leaders and citizens as friends and partners in a spirit of mutual respect and accountability. We stand ready to be your partners.

What does partnership mean? Well, it means that we have to change the way we pursue development. We have to work harder to expand trade and we have to encourage more trade among African countries yourselves. It means we have to improve private sector competitiveness. Many of you have had the privilege of traveling. You’ve been to Europe. You’ve now been to the United States. You’ve seen the diaspora from your countries and you often see how successful they are. We want that success to be right where you live and to break down the barriers that still exist. (Applause.)

We want to help you modernize how you deliver and create clean energy, how you get more value for agriculture which is still the life blood and the source of income for most people in sub-Saharan Africa. We want to help you strengthen democratic institutions. Elections are great, but that’s only one part of democracy – free press, independent judiciary, respect for human rights and the rights of minorities, giving everybody a stake in their own society. We want to support women and girls to be full participants in their communities and countries. (Applause.) We want to redouble our global efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis, malaria. We want to respond to food scarcity and soaring food prices and growing populations with a multi-billion dollar initiative to help eradicate hunger and achieve food security. We want to join with you to fight against climate change, which will be devastating to Africa.

Meanwhile, we want to be sure that your voices are heard on the global stage. Johnnie was referring to my trips to Africa as First Lady. And I recognized then how much work there still was to be done to educate people in my own country about Africa. I held a roundtable for members of the White House Press Corps, and this was probably in – I don’t know, 1997 or ’98 – and one of the first questions that one of the reporters asked me – he said, what’s the capital of Africa? (Laughter.) I thought, oh, do I have a lot of work to do. (Laughter.) And we’ve made a lot of progress there, too – (laughter) but we have a long way to go. Because you know so well that when people think too often of Africa, they think of all the tragedies, the conflicts. We want people to see a more comprehensive picture.

This forum, along with the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program, and the AGOA Forum taking place here in Washington and in Kansas City, Kansas, this week will help link African and American leaders, activists, entrepreneurs, investors, and especially young people. And we are inviting you to take advantage of that. We designed this forum not to be a one-time event; we want to create the connections that you will continue to exploit, to think about how you can tap into whatever help and skills, references and ideas that you can get from us.

We want you to take advantage of this when you go home, when you return, and maybe begin to think anew about how you can be more effective. And your generation of young Africans has already pioneered information technologies. You are connecting and empowering people in ways that we couldn’t have dreamed of even five, let alone ten years ago. For example, Ushahidi crisis management platform has become a digital tool for social change all over the world.

Ushahidi was developed by young Kenyans to map reports of violence after the election of 2007. And a lot of the young Kenyans we invited were unable to come because they’re staying to vote and to work on behalf of the constitution that will be voted on very soon. This new network has been used by citizen election monitors to help prevent fraud and violence in Burundi, India, Sudan, Guinea, Namibia. It’s revolutionizing and empowering what citizens can do without permission, just on their own. We have seen the way that sophisticated mobile communications tools have also been used in Kenya to educate and empower voters in the lead-up to the referendum on its new constitution tomorrow.

Good ideas leapfrog languages and borders. Technology created and deployed first in Africa was used by U.S. Marines in Haiti to help rescue earthquake victims, and by a Louisiana environmental group tracking efforts to clean up the Gulf oil spill We are working hard to convey that our relationship with Africa is not a one-way street. We expect to benefit. We expect to learn. We expect to look to you for models and ideas of what we can do better ourselves.

So to ensure that new technologies are used more for good – and not for ill – we have promised to work with partners in industry, academia, and NGOs to try to harness the power of connection technologies to help you spur economic, political, and social progress.

The United States has now joined with three local partners to sponsor a contest called “Apps-4-Africa” – A-p-p-s dash 4, the number, dash Africa. Software developers in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania have proposed applications for everything from educational games for mobile phones, to interactive maps that can track shortages of blood or medicines, to a mass texting app that could broadcast emergency information to rural villages. The winning apps will be announced in September. And we hope to catalyze these collaborations between technical experts and leaders of civil society to develop practical solutions that will improve people’s lives.

This concept of leapfrogging holds such great promise for Africa. You already have. You didn’t have to put up telephone poles, you went right to cell phones in many parts of Africa. Your electric grid doesn’t have to be massive. It can be local and regional and provide sources of energy from wind and solar as well as fossil fuels. We stand ready to help in any way we can.

I often say that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. Africa has no shortage of ideas, innovations, or entrepreneurial drive. We want this conference to be a start, where we work with you to help you create the conditions in which your ideas can be translated into real-life solutions for Africa and beyond.

I know you’ve been going to workshops and you’ve been talking to one another, and we will maintain a kind of nerve center after this forum to stay in touch with you, to provide assistance if you request it, to connect you up with other people. It’s part of how we’re trying to redefine diplomacy, development, and statecraft in the 21st century. We recently held an entrepreneurship summit in Washington where we invited young business people from predominantly Muslim-majority countries that are lagging way behind in unleashing the entrepreneurial potential of their people. And I think people came in part because they got a free trip to Washington, but also they were curious, wondering kind of what we were up to. But what we were up to was trying to empower them as we now are trying to empower you.

We’re looking for leaders who know that empowering citizens is something that is in everyone’s best interests. The world in which we live in today – top-down hierarchical power – is not sustainable. Oh, it can stay in place for years, but eventually, it is not sustainable. There are just too many ways people are going to get too much information. And technology is going to blow the doors down on governments.

One of my hopes is that we can move toward e-government in Africa, so that you can get more quickly whatever documents you need to start that business, or to register that car, and you don’t have to go through a lot of hands to do it. We’re looking for those kinds of ideas and we want to help you bring them to fruition and then take them to scale.

I’m very excited about what’s possible with your generation in Africa. But you know as well as I that you’re here in part because you’ve already succeeded. And many of you would have the option to go nearly anywhere in the world to pursue your dreams. But you’re here because you care about the future of your families, your communities, your countries. And I urge you to stay with it. Change is not easy. And for many who try it, it can become very frustrating and even discouraging. But it is so worthy an effort, commensurate with your talents and your dedication.

You are educated beyond the average education of most of the people that you know or that you can watch as you drive down the road. You’re here because you had the opportunities and you took them. What we want to help you do is to set forth your vision and then realize it. Because it will not be just for you – although I hope every one of you becomes successful in whatever enterprise you choose to pursue – but it will help to open doors and not go over obstacles, so that people will look at you, especially people younger than you, and believe that they too have a chance for a different future.

Godspeed as you go out from this forum back to your homes, I hope, energized and knowing that no matter how hard it is, you have friends and partners who are rooting for your success.

Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/08/145623.htm

Lessons on entrepreneurship and innovation from Brazil

Yesterday’s Sunday Standard had an article written by Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o, Minister for Medical Services on why Kenya needs a science and technology driven economy to thrive. Coming at the back drop of Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s visit to Kenya, the article raises several points for why Brazil is a major emerging economy,  and which Prof. Nyong’o posits is due to the Brazilian government prioritising innovation as a major development concern. In turn he states that policies regarding technology as well as scientific societies need to be mainstreamed into Kenya’s national development.

However probably as a result of column space, a reader could maybe assume that making the public sector friendlier to technology change is all that is required. That ensuring adequate public resources are directed into science and technology will firmly put Kenya on the trajectory to become the middle income economy envisaged in Vision 2030. But that ignores the human aspect.

Brazil has placed emphasis on it's SME sector which accounts, just like Kenya for the majority of jobs and businesses in the economy. Indeed, according to an article on the Kaufman Institute for Entrepreneurship’s website titled Brazil’s Entrepreneurship Boom, the increase in new companies in Brazil has been linked with the country’s developing entrepreneurial culture and mindset. Each year this has been demonstrated by the number of participants in Global Entrepreneurship Week which increased from 1.5 million entrepreneurs in 2008 to 5.3 million in 2009.

And even though the country’s listing on the ease of doing business index has recorded similar challenges as Kenya in terms of high tax rates; as well as having structural impediments such as an education system that does not engender financial literacy, Brazil’s entrepreneurship development policy is strikingly different in that it focuses on promoting high-growth ventures as opposed to Kenya’s policy of just creating enterprises with the hopes that they will one day be able to create jobs.

This has meant that Brazil’s high impact intervention has brought about more immediate impacts on the economy, than the more laid back approach of just creating ventures with little regard for growth.

Similar to Kenya where according to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, there are 2.5 million unemployed youth and barely 125,000 are absorbed into the formal sector annually; young people in Brazil aged between 18 and 24 years account for 36% of the country’s unemployed. Nevertheless, lessons learned on Brazil’s focus on innovation as well as the promotion of an entrepreneurial spirit does give hope that indeed Kenya could just be on a positive path to Vision 2030, come the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

United Nations calls for urgent action to tackle rising youth unemployment

14 July 2010 – The United Nations labour agency is calling for urgent action to tackle the crisis of youth unemployment, which has increased significantly in the wake of the global economic slowdown and has repercussions for the economy as well as social cohesion.

Young people – those aged 15 to 24 – account for over 22 per cent of the increase in the number of unemployed since the beginning of 2007 and is now nearly three times the average level among adults aged 25 and over, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

“In nearly all countries, the increase in youth unemployment has outpaced that of adults,” the agency says in a new report entitled “Youth employment in crisis.”

Since the start of the crisis, the youth unemployment rate has risen over 7 percentage points – the sharpest two year increase on record – and now exceeds 21 per cent on average in the countries for which data are available, say Steven Tobin, ILO economist, and Raymond Torres, Director of the International Institute for Labour Studies, who are co-authors of the report.

The report points out that young people are entering the labour market at a time of limited job creation. Employed young people are also often engaged in precarious jobs, and are therefore more vulnerable to job losses than their adult counterparts.

Young people who lack general or vocational education are especially vulnerable to the crisis, it notes, adding that as job prospects remain weak, many young people might see little benefit of furthering education or training which would have negative socio-economic consequences.

In addition, the lack of decent work opportunities in developing countries had led to significant emigration by many skilled young people.

The authors stress that it is crucial to promote more and better jobs for youth and urges immediate action, noting that impact of long-term unemployment on youth can be “devastating and long-lasting.”

The longer young persons remain out of touch with the labour market, the more difficult – and costly – it is to return to productive employment, they state.

“There are also a number of important social implications related to exclusion, including susceptibility to anti-social behaviour, including juvenile delinquency, and social unrest,” they add.

According to the report, it will not be possible to improve youth employment prospects significantly in the absence of a global economic and labour market recovery. Therefore, it is crucial to carry out the Global Jobs Pact, adopted by ILO members in June 2009 in an effort to guide national and international policies to stimulate economic recovery, create jobs and protect working people and their families.

Source: UN News Service

Call For Papers: 2010 National Youth Conversation Conference on Peace, Reforms and Youth Economic Empowerment, 12th-16th Oct 2010

Kenya Youth Parliament, the organizers of the 2010 National Youth Conversation; Conference on Peace, Reforms & Youth Economic Empowerment in Nairobi, Kenya from Oct 12th to 16th, 2010 invites you to participate in the oncoming largest gathering that brings together social activists, peace builders and  youth leaders in the pursuit and defining of a Better Kenya.

This conference brings together only four (4) participants from every constituency as a ‘Call to Action’ to assist young people ‘learn’ and ‘understand’ their roles in Building a Peaceful Kenya and provide them with tools, information and ideas of participating and influencing the Reforms Agenda at the grassroots levels.

This will be achieved through the design of Individual Action Plans (IAP’s) to be implemented at grassroots level and coordinated Constituency Actions Plans (CCAP’s) to be coordinated by Kenya Youth Parliament and its partners.

This conference is a follow-up of activities being ran under the aegis of the Youth Platform for Change “YP4C” namely the National Youth Conversation Café’s in the grassroots areas, the Koffi Annan Justice and Peace National Tournament Coordinated by  Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and Sports Connect Academy (SCA) , and a play which has been specifically scripted to capture the issues in the proposed constitution as well as the events during and after the post-election, radio drama and stage play to be staged at different venues of the country by Artists Forum International (AFI).

To learn much more about Youth Platform for Change (YP4C) and its partners, write to info@kenyayouthparliament.org, copa@copafrica.org and safer. Nairobi@gmail.com

Disclosing Non-Disclosure

Yesterday a workshop was held by the ICT Board at the University of Nairobi’s Chiromo campus to discuss their Digital Content and Software Applications Grants. The grants have two categories that Kenyan participants can enter:

• Government information portal: to develop solutions and products that exploit mobile and web technology in the delivery of government information or services, and 
• Private sector content and applications: to develop innovative solutions and products that exploit mobile and web technology in the delivery of information, entertainment or services 

The venue was packed to capacity with entrepreneurs seeking to find out how their projects could benefit from this Kshs. 300 Million grant facility that is aimed at promoting the development of local digital content and software applications.

After discussing modalities regarding applications and eligibility amongst other grant criteria, one of the contentious issues that emerged was the intellectual property protection for the grant applicant’s projects.

Some participants expressed concern that even if they are not selected, their software could be used by unscrupulous people. However, one way that emerged to mitigate this was a suggestion that non-disclosure agreements could be included in the application supporting documents, if not on the online template.

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), also known as confidentiality agreements, or proprietary information agreements are legal contracts between at least two parties to protect non-public business information.

With the ICT Board grant form not providing for NDAs, another suggested way of intellectual  property protection was through the use of patents, copyrights and trademarks. Some participants nevertheless raised the point that the triumvirate of IP protection tools were expensive and beyond the reach of small entrepreneurs. However, a lawyer who gave a short presentation advised that in fact the cost of registering copyrights was Kshs. 600 (US$ 7.40) - not as punitive as earlier thought.

Copyrights, patents and trademarks provide innovators with exclusive rights, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt their work. These intellectual property rights also give the owners the right to commence legal proceedings to prevent unauthorized use of their innovation.

The discussion then veered onto how an entrepreneur engaging a large corporation could protect their idea from being exploited. However the unequal relationship power balance means that even though an entrepreneur may ask a corporate to sign an NDA, they do have the option of refusal. Many entrepreneurs have done away with their NDAs only to see their projects being used by the same companies they approached. In Kenya, there is also the problem of the time and expense it takes to pursue court cases which also act as a deterrence when seeking out the IP rights and protection.

The ICT Board could take up this issue to sensitise the private sector on the ethical sense of respecting the hard work of entrepreneurs. In the meantime, we will protect our innovations the best we can.