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Fighting Waste in Bangladesh By Using Compost


Waste management is an increasingly daunting problem for the country of Bangladesh, where as much as 50 percent of waste goes uncollected. Uncollected waste goes untreated, resulting in more water contamination, disease and greenhouse gas emissions. Untreated waste generates methane, which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Between 2005 and 2020, emissions as a result of untreated waste in Bangladesh are expected to rise 22 percent.

The capital city of Dhaka is not only the most densely populated area; it is also home to the worst waste management in the country. In 2010, Dhaka generated 4,700 metric tons of waste daily. Fortunately, 80 percent of the waste Bangladesh produces is organic material. Maqsood Sinha and Iftekhar Enayetullah saw this as an opportunity and decided to turn the organic waste in Bangladesh into something both profitable and beneficial to the community: compost.

The two enterprising men started an organization called Waste Concern and set up community-based composting. Several families (three to seven) share chest-high metal barrels into which they deposit their food scraps. The composting barrels hold up to 400 pounds of waste, sit on concrete bases and, through specially drilled holes, encourage aerobic decomposition.

Sinha and Enayetullah started Waste Concern in 1995, taking their barrels door-to-door. Since then, the organization has served 30,000 people in Dhaka city and 100,000 people in 14 other cities and towns in Bangladesh, including slums and low and middle-income communities. Composting the organic waste reduces methane emissions by half a ton and eliminates a significant amount of municipal waste. Community-based composting helps control waste in Bangladesh and also opens up job opportunities for low-income sectors, helping to lift people out of poverty.

The project has saved over $1 million in waste management due to the revenue created from the compost itself and the simple, cost-effective system needed to create it. As a result of its success as a small-scale operation in Dhaka, Waste Concern plans to expand into a bigger operation, consume more waste and dump out more compost.

The project’s growth reflects Bangladesh’s push to reduce the country’s waste output and strengthen its economic status. Getting the community involved not only decreases the waste in Bangladesh, but it also establishes an environment of accountability and family.

– Taylor Elgarten

Photo: Flickr

Afghan Refugees in India: A Case Study on Entrepreneurship

Afghan Refugees in India
Over the last few decades, pockets of Delhi, India, have become microcosms of Kabul. Afghan refugees forced out of their homes by war and extremism have found themselves living in meager conditions in poorer parts of the city. Despite their less than satisfactory living situations, these refugees have brought their entrepreneurial spirit with them, finding ways to share their Afghan culture with Indians.

Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is Ilham, a catering service set up by four Afghan women in 2015 with the help of Access, an NGO working in collaboration with UNHCR. The women create local Afghan delicacies such as Kabuli Pulao (rice with spices, vegetables and meat), Mutton do Piaza (mutton curry) and Firni (rice pudding). Since Afghanistan and India have always shared a particularly friendly relationship, these are dishes that have already been popularized in local Indian culture. However, by providing authentic versions, Ilham has managed to gain a large customer base in just over a year.

The success of this and other ventures set up by Afghan refugees in India, can be measured by the reactions of the women of Ilham when asked about their work. For example, Zameera sees not only the financial independence it has brought her, but also the emotional relief from the despair of losing her home and being separated from her family and country. For Zameera, Ilham is as much a business as it is therapy.

For the nearly 11,000 Afghan refugees in India registered with the UNHCR, as well as that much more living unregistered in the country, initiatives like Ilham have become a way of life. A culture of Afghan cuisine has developed in Delhi, where most of the refugees have settled.

The Green Leaf Restaurant, a popular eatery run by Afghan refugees is another success story. Green Leaf has been beneficial for both the owners as well as the surrounding community. Thus, these refugees contribute to the local economy by providing a niche service driven by high consumer demand.

Anecdotes from Afghan refugees in India offer a valuable insight into how the integration of refugees into local communities can be advantageous to both groups. Rather than detracting from Indian culture, Afghan people have added new aspects to it and strengthened an already strong political partnership. In a time when xenophobia is rampant and fear of job loss is high, it is important to remember that the mingling of cultures can create both enhanced identities as well as new markets for new jobs. The Afghan-Indian experience bears testament to the possibility of a harmonious integration and cultural exchange.

– Mallika Khanna

Photo: Flickr

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Hunger in Russia Helping to Build Entrepreneurship

Hunger in Russia
Russia continues to build deteriorating relations with the West. On top of that, the economic turmoil following sanctions imposed on Moscow after it meddled in Ukraine’s business has had a serious impact on hunger in Russia and the country’s likelihood of going hungry in general.

Food is just one of the everyday necessities being used by Russia’s government in the international struggle for peace in the Crimea region of Russia and Ukraine. Russia has banned imports of most food from countries party to the European Union’s (EU) economic sanctions against Russia.

The EU’s economic sanctions against Russia are meant to pressure the Russian government to end its violent campaign against Ukrainian nationalists. The sanctions mainly ban activity that profits banks and some blacklisted individuals.

More Russians have been slipping into poverty and hunger since the Western sanctions have been put into place. Along with that, low oil prices that have battered the country’s energy-dependent economy and significantly diminished purchasing power have taken a toll.

However, 2016 poverty indicators are still much lower than those from the start of President Vladimir Putin’s first term in 2000. During that time, 29 percent of the Russian population found itself below the poverty threshold.

Despite the decrease in poverty indicators, a food shortage has begun in Russia, according to The Moscow Times. Hunger in Russia is a very real possibility. This is due mainly to more than a year of extended sanctions against imported food.

Some food producers have increased productions notably over the last 17 months. This includes the meat and dairy producers as well as beef and potato producers. Unfortunately, it has not been enough to make up for the loss of food imports banned due to these government sanctions.

The silver lining in this whole situation is that Russia is known for its self-reliance when it comes to food struggles. Recently, a study done by Natural Homes revealed that 51 percent of Russia’s food is grown by communities in both rural areas and by peasant farmers.

A great example of Russian resilience is a small business owner, Alexander Krupetskov. Alexander started an artisan cheese shop just a month before the embargo was established last year. His business has flourished since that and he has also opened a second shop.

Although times are tough in Russia, these glimmers of hope and forward movement are great signs for the country’s future. It would seem that even in the toughest of circumstances, Russia’s people know how to pull themselves from the depths and create something beautiful and everlasting.

– Keaton McCalla

Photo: Flickr

 

B-Energy: Biogas, Backpacks and Digester Systems

B-Energy
Solar and wind energy projects have been praised as potential ways to reduce global poverty. But German start-up organization B-Energy is promoting efficient use of another form of renewable energy to improve life in the developing world.

B-Energy has supplied households in Africa with biogas balloon backpacks, digester systems and stoves to help them convert organic waste into harnessed biogas. The energy that the bags and digesters produce can serve as cooking fuel and provide people with a source of income.

Developing countries have struggled to supply stable forms of energy to many of their inhabitants. According to the World Energy Outlook, approximately 80 percent of people without electricity live in rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia. With no other alternative for energy, many people rely on biogas and struggle to efficiently transport and store it.

Founded by German entrepreneur Katrin Puetz, B-Energy serves as an innovative and affordable system that offers a reliable source of energy from human and animal waste and agricultural residue. B-Energy’s method revolves around its ‘B-pack’, which is an inflatable balloon backpack that holds methane gas produced from waste in a biogas plant or digester. People without their own plant can refill their B-packs at a nearby digester.

According to the BBC, each bag comes with a metal pipe, which users can attach to a gas-cooking stove. The bags hold 1.2 cubic meters of gas—enough for about five hours of cooking—and spare households from relying on wooden fires to prepare food.

Another key aspect of B-Energy’s system is that it creates entrepreneurial opportunities. As a “social business venture,” Puetz’s start-up encourages individuals with biogas digesters to sell their biogas to households. People with B-packs can also profit from supplying their leftover gas to others. B-Energy even provides aspiring entrepreneurs with a beginner’s kit—which includes a biogas digester, B-backpacks and stoves—and professional training to help them launch their biogas business.

Since its inception in 2014, B-Energy has steadily grown, establishing franchises in Sudan and Ethiopia. Puetz refused to accept grants from global charities in order to prove that her enterprise can be self-sufficient.

Moving forward, a significant obstacle for B-Energy is to determine how to lower the cost of its system. The Inter Press Service has reported that Ethiopians have to pay approximately 12,000 birr—equivalent to $600—for a biogas plant, two backpacks and a cooking stove.

Puetz hopes to make the B-Energy systems more affordable by allowing franchises and households to pay in installments. This change would expand access to his innovative energy solution and assist countless more in need.

– Sam Turken

Photo: Geographical

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Greater Access: Financial Services in Developing Countries

Financial Services in Developing Countries
When talking about fighting global poverty, most people discuss solutions to problems of malnutrition, poor shelter, or dirty water. But how about greater access to financial services?

Most individuals in the developed world could never imagine living on wages of less than $10 a day. There are thousands of ways to secure an adequate daily income because of the countless economic opportunities that are supplied by developed markets.

Access to these financial services, a sparse resource in areas suffering from poverty, provides individuals with the chance to actively participate in securing a means of subsistence.

In March, the World Bank released a video interview with Douglas Pearce, the Global Lead for Financial Inclusion at the international organization. The conversation shed light on the lack of access to financial services in developing countries.

“My favorite number is two billion,” said Pearce, “Two billion is the number of adults who don’t have access to formal financial services.” This latest statistic has fueled the World Bank’s new Universal Financial Access Goal which targets 25 countries that account for 73 percent of the world’s “unbanked.”

Access to financial services in developing countries would offer more of the world’s poor the opportunity to feed themselves and increase their potential income. “Being able to tap into savings provides that level of protection, cushion, of falling back into poverty,” Pearce continued. This method of poverty relief plays an important role in sustaining an individual’s rise out of hardship.

The World Bank plans to meet the goal of more financial inclusion by ensuring that each individual helped has a bank account regardless of gender. Pearce hopes that these accounts will be “gateways to a range of credit, insurance, payment, and savings services.” These services then allow people living in poverty to afford education, a home or vehicle and equipment to start a business.

Pearce hopes that these accounts will be “gateways to a range of credit, insurance, payment, and savings services.” These services then allow people living in poverty to afford education, a home or vehicle and equipment to start a business.

There are multiple kinds of financial services that are being integrated into poverty-ridden areas:

  1. Microfinancing is a smaller, more intimate version of a traditional loan from a large financial institution. This type of lending is more beneficial for the poor because smaller institutions can work closely with the borrower to design a plan that works for both parties. Also, a relationship of trust between the borrower and the lender can often take the place of a good credit history which allows more people to qualify for loans.
  2. Access to a micro savings account allows people to safely store any additional resources as well as earn interest on money not being spent. Digital services provided by mobile technology can enhance the interaction between those in poverty and financial institutions as electronics get cheaper and internet access increases.
  3. Owning a micro insurance policy may not seem like a useful service for those with few assets, but its importance emerges as individuals start to rise out of poverty. People who are rising out of poverty cannot afford the sudden costs and extreme losses that come with an accident. Without an insurance policy, unexpected events endanger the pathway to a better life.

These financial services are being integrated into many developing countries across the goal. The emergence of these economic opportunities has the power to inspire entrepreneurship and income security in areas with the most poverty. As Pearce says, “financial inclusion has the potential to unlock opportunity for people.”

– Jacob Hess

Photo: Flickr

HelloFood Celebrates Third Anniversary

HelloFood
HelloFood, an online portal that allows customers to order food and have it delivered, recently celebrated its third anniversary.

HelloFood began as a 1970s-style website in November 2012. It was the first online food portal in Africa and took around one minute to load. The company only received two orders on their first day, but it was the start of an incredible journey to revolutionize how people eat in Africa, according to It News Africa.

HelloFood provides food from a listing of more than 270 restaurants. More than 125,000 customers order food every six seconds during the lunchtime hours on the site. The company then delivers food to homes and offices where customers can pay upon delivery.

Joe Falter, CEO and Founder of HelloFood, said, “It was just a basic website [when it started]. Far from what it looks like now.”

HelloFood has grown 20 percent each month over the last 36 months. It has tripled in size in the last 12 months and now has 500 employees, 50 percent of whom are women. It News Africa reports the delivery riders have traveled the equivalent of 100 times around the Earth.

HelloFood has also created mobile shopping apps, allowing customers to keep up with changing trends and technologies.

“I’m incredibly proud of what our team has achieved — building this business from nothing to dominate 11 African markets, and change the way that hundreds of thousands of people order food on a daily basis,” Falter said. “However, we’ve only scratched the surface, the potential for this business model is stratospheric and right now more than ever we are buzzing about the opportunity to reach more customers and ensure a stress-free ordering experience.”

According to Biztech Africa, the company plans to expand to other major towns and provide job opportunities to people across Kenya.

As part of its third-anniversary celebrations, the company discounted food up to 40 percent on Black Friday. HelloFood said they hoped to reach the highest ever sale of food ordering in Africa on Black Friday.

– Jordan Connell

Sources: Biztech Africa, It News Africa
Photo: Google Images

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EARTH University Teaches Sustainability to Communities

EARTH_university

EARTH University focuses on public health and environmental sustainability. The school is based in Costa Rica and began supporting underdeveloped communities in 1990.

The founders of EARTH University’s goals were to teach young people from the Caribbean and Latin America how to use sustainable methods to help their communities thrive.

Now, 25 years later, EARTH University’s impact has spread from Latin and South America to regions in Asia and Africa. EARTH University offers rigorous undergraduate programs that elicit graduates in just four years.

Graduates from EARTH University learn how to utilize sustainable agricultural methods to create prosperous and just communities. Programs offered include agricultural sciences and natural resources management.

The curriculum at EARTH University is based on four guiding principles.

  1. The first principle guides the college to educate its students in technical and scientific knowledge to ensure they practice accurate and sustainable agricultural practices in the future. This helps alumni manage their natural resources and have a prosperous agricultural career.
  2. EARTH University works hard to help its students develop personally by exposing them to positive attitudes and values. The EARTH community fosters self-awareness, empathy, respect and tolerance, while using teamwork, effective communication and lifelong learning to promote peace and understanding.
  3. The University teaches ethical entrepreneurship. During a student’s first three years of schooling, he or she engages in an intensive entrepreneurial project. The project prepares students to leave EARTH University with the knowledge and experience needed to run their own business to help their community develop positively.
  4. EARTH University is dedicated to applying their resources to train their students in sustainability. EARTH’s curriculum promotes maintaining a healthy environment, and graduates are equipped with the knowledge to grow sustainable crops and prevent issues like soil erosion. And with this knowledge, graduates are able to help their communities rise out of poverty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKkOBFWkF9M

As of 2014, EARTH University had 422 students from 43 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. According to the EARTH University website, graduates like Claudia Jeronimo, who graduated in 2005, return home to use their newfound knowledge of sustainability and social justice to revitalize their communities.

Jeronimo has worked hard since graduating to promote gender equality and food security in her community. Since its inauguration, almost 2,000 students have graduated from EARTH University, with 97 percent of them dedicating their knowledge and experience to assist their home communities.

– Julia Hettiger

Sources: Explore, Earth, Consortium Earth
Photo: Flickr

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Finalists Revealed for 2015 Appsafrica Innovation Award

african-developers
The first  contest was held in 2012 as a small competition to inspire innovation centered in Africa. Today, the worldwide participation in these awards has thrust Appsafrica to the forefront of innovation.

As entries from 21 countries have spread across the globe in three different continents, only the most effective apps continue on to become finalists in the awards, which are to be held this year in Cape Town Nov. 16.

The awards celebrate technology and entrepreneurship in Africa. Applications were accepted from July 20 to Sept. 7, and no one except the most innovative developers produced apps valuable enough to proceed onward. Below are just a few of the front-runners of this year’s Appsafrica Innovation Awards in each category:

  • Women In Tech – Most notably, Emefa Kpegba has invented the OMobileFunding app, which is a mobile and web service that attempts to improve the lives of Togolese people through microfinance participation.
  • Social Impact – Charlie Wandjii is the founder of 1task1job; its effect on society is an ingenious way of providing stable jobs in an unstable continent. By posting a project that needs completing on the mobile/web service, a job is given to a freelancer who is regularly utilized by the app.
  • Best Educational Innovation – Bookly is an app aiming to increase literacy rates in Africa. This innovation solution is a mobile web service that allows anyone to share a story of his or her choosing so long as it’s appropriate. After being published, those who use the app may then read a “bookly” anywhere, serving as reading practice.
  • Best Health Innovation – The Medical Concierge Group has developed an app that suggests a management plan allowing easier access and affordability to quality health care using an archive of data. This group is a Ugandan-based organization that began in 2012.
  • Best African App – mPaper is an easy-to-use innovation that allows quick access to news sources and magazines to those who use the app.
  • Best Mobile Innovation – M-vender is an entrepreneurial app that lets people sell airtime, electricity and offers other financial services to its users.
  • Best Non-Data Mobile Innovation – Safermom is an app that keeps in touch with new and expecting mothers, sending SMS messages that give helpful information on low-cost mobile phones.
  • Best Fintech Innovation – Mergims is an app that allows financial aid to be sent to individuals in Rwanda, which is the birthplace of the app itself. This is important because it allows migrants workers a way to send funds to their loved ones at home.
  • Best Disruptive Innovation – Picup is a mobile app that picks up whatever you need and brings it to you. Its application for exchanging resources between rural communities could help to solidify a stable means of quick transportation if development continues.
  • Best Entertainment Innovation – myMusic is a Nigerian-based app that lets its users stream music for free, connecting rural regions with urban culture.

As mentioned above, these are just a few of the finalists revealed for the 2015 Appsafrica Innovation Awards. A full list is available on the website.

– Emilio Rivera

Sources: Appsafrica, Picup, MyMusic, Mergims, Changemakers, Mvendr, Mpaper, TMCG, Bookly, 1Task1Job, OMobileFunding
Photo: Aps Africa

Youth Entrepreneurship Forum in Dushanbe

z1 miniature people
Since independence, the long civil war and recurring natural disasters have led to widespread poverty in Tajikistan. About half of the country’s population is poor and depends on agriculture to survive. The majority of the poor are unemployed, underemployed or self-employed.

On Oct. 12, 2015, a Youth Entrepreneurship Forum took place in Dushanbe with support from the World Bank Group. The goal of the event is to increase awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship for job creation and economic growth and to share ideas about entrepreneurship for youth in Tajikistan.

The World Bank has an active portfolio of 24 projects, including regional projects and Trust Funds. It intends to make a net commitment of U.S. $383 million to support economic growth through private sector development and investments in better public services, such as education, health, municipal services and social protection.

As part of the World Bank Group-financed Central Asia Youth Empowerment and Jobs Project, this event aims to improve the business climate and foster youth entrepreneurship in Tajikistan through improving the capacity of state entities and offering skills training for youth.

The event involved around 200 young entrepreneurs, private companies, civil society organizations, development partners, World Bank Group experts, representatives from the Government of Tajikistan and participants from the Slovak Republic.

At the forum, international and local experts introduced key concepts of entrepreneurship, including how to set up and manage a business, how to make entrepreneurial decisions and identify new business opportunities. Representatives from Tajikistan private companies and the Slovak Republic shared their experience of starting a business and discussed with young entrepreneurs about how entrepreneurship works at the individual and company level.

embassy_dushanbe_0Moreover, officials from the Secretariat of Consultative Council on Improvement Investment Climate under the President of Tajikistan and the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic focused on policies that foster youth entrepreneurship and how to better link the private sector with education institutions.

The forum also includes the discussion on business and entrepreneurship opportunities offered by local and international civil society organizations, development partners and local associations and companies.

In order to put words into action, following the forum, a master class started on October 13 for start-up businesses intending to collect individual business advice from successful entrepreneurs from Tajikistan and the Slovak Republic.

“Young people are eager to work and need good job opportunities. A society that can deliver these opportunities is promoting growth and investing in its welfare,” said Patricia Veevers-Carter, World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan. “The World Bank Group’s efforts in this area in Tajikistan are going to focus on helping youth develop skills and increase employment opportunities, as well as on assisting the Government in designing policies that help youth thrive.”

This project will benefit the society of Tajikistan with more jobs created by entrepreneurship and improved economy.

– Shengyu Wang

Sources: World Bank, Rural Poverty                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Photo: DIPNOTE

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Zidisha Direct Loans Boosts Entrepreneurship

direct_loans
Big business ideas and economic enterprises are no longer limited to the corporate boardroom. The digitally connected world has provided entrepreneurs from all corners of the globe ways in which to make their concepts known; social media and increased mobile access have given tomorrow’s innovators a voice they lacked in the past. The main issue, however, is that those in developing countries still lack access to funding and capital, no matter how strong their idea.

That’s where Zidisha comes in. Zidisha is a nonprofit micro-lending service that allows potential borrowers to receive direct loans from an online community. The organization’s main goal is to promote economic development by cutting out lending middlemen and local banks that often charge supremely high-interest rates on loans.

The process is quite simple. Potential borrowers need only reliable online access, something that is only becoming more and more available. The borrowers then submit a profile describing themselves and their intended use of the loan. A one-time processing fee of around $12 is charged.

Zidisha is a very small company and merely provides a platform for users to interact directly. “We’ve built a decentralized marketplace that has no offices, no employees or loan officers in borrower countries,” says company founder Julia Kurnia. Zidisha lets borrowers receive funds via SMS straight from lenders at a zero percent interest rate.

Loans are typically small. Zidisha states that the average loan is $200 to $300. Loans have enabled entrepreneurs to buy computers for an Internet café and sewing machines for a village shop. Both have relatively low costs, but a significant impact. According to Wired Magazine, the computers that were funded by Zidisha loans have empowered many, as they have been used to teach office programs like Microsoft Word and Excel.

Zidisha’s purpose is clear in its name. The word means “grow” in Swahili. By charging no interest and only asking for the principal returned, Zidisha enables borrowers’ ideas, which would normally be denied by the typical financial institutions, to flourish.

– Joe Kitaj

Sources: Wired, Zidisha, Venture Beat
Photo: Zidisha