May 2006

Over the next four weeks, we shall be introducing our 2006 Acumen Fund Fellows. This year’s inaugural cohort comprises a diverse group of individuals who all share not only individual accomplishment but a proven desire to serve, to listen, and to be part of a larger community focused on significant, measurable change. It is thrilling to see talented people who could do so many things in the world choose to give back to it - a spirit embodied by the Acumen Fund team as a whole.

Nadaa Taiyab

“This fellowship at Acumen Fund immediately excited me as it combines many of the elements I am seeking in my next job: an entrepreneurial environment where I will have the space to take initiative, the opportunity to work towards a social vision, and the challenge of working in developing countries.”

Jocelyn Wyatt

“While I have always been committed to sustainable development, I wanted to be part of a pragmatic, market-based approach that went beyond the standard paradigm. I am excited by this rare opportunity to further my professional development in social entrepreneurship, to achieve my goal of creating and leading my own social enterprise in the near future.”

Al Gore’s terrific new film, An Inconvenient Truth, is the most important movie you can see right now. It is also very engaging and I can’t recommend it more highly. The film is really a dynamic presentation that Vice President Gore has made thousands of times over the past years. Not only will you see a man of true conviction and passion speaking, you will also learn a lot about one of the most (if not the most) critical issues of our time. The scientists agree that climate change is real (at the TED Conference, individuals suggested the name be changed to climate crisis) and that it is occurring even more rapidly than scientists had originally thought. The link between climate change and poverty is also strong. It is not inconceivable that we’ll see Bangladesh under water in the next 40 years, displacing over 150 million people who will search for new homes and countries, adding greater instability to the region.

So run, don’t walk. Go and see the movie, and commit to do something. If there is one thing that might unite our planet, I would hope it might be the threat that all of us may lose the very earth that sustains us, if we are not more thoughtful - and proactive.

Jacqueline Novogratz recently returned from a visit to South Asia. Following is an excerpt of her journal from Pakistan. To read the complete journal, click here. (An excerpt of the India leg of her trip was posted previously.)

April 11, 2006 - Karachi, Pakistan

We’re sitting on the outskirts of Karachi, 40 kilometers from the city center, in the headquarters of Khuda-ki-Basti (KKB), the affordable housing development scheme built by Saiban under the leadership of Tasneem Siddiqui - who, over the past four years, has become someone I deeply admire. He started working with slum dwellers beginning in 1969 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Built on reclaimed desert land outside of Karachi, KKB is a thriving community for people who lived as squatters in slum settlements. I visited KKB a couple years ago, and the difference even now is startling. There is now electricity, and Saiban is working on laying pipes for lines that are expected to deliver water in the next six months or so. Schools and clinics are in operation, and children are playing on every street. Shops are open for business, and we pass both churches and mosques.

As we have mentioned in previous posts, we have spent the last several months in an intensive search for the best and brightest young professionals to make up our first cohort of Acumen Fund Fellows. After reviewing applications from some 600 candidates from 52 countries (and talking to many of them), we are extremely pleased to announce our eight 2006 Fellows, who will be starting with us in September:

• Ayeleen Ajanee
• Eric Berkowitz
• Adrien Couton
• David Lehr
• Fabrice Ndjodo
• Keely Stevenson
• Nadaa Taiyab
• Jocelyn Wyatt

Water Portfolio manager Yasmina Zaidman and I recently attended the World Bank Development Marketplace conference in Washington DC. Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program of the World Bank that funds innovative, small-scale development projects that deliver results and show potential to be expanded or replicated. The theme for this year was Water, Sanitation and Energy. 118 finalists (out of 2500 applicants) attended, and a final 30 were announced as winners.

This was interesting from an Acumen Fund perspective on a number of levels. First, there is a growing focus on not just great technical ideas, but models for getting those ideas to market in a sustainable way. This was clear in the additional criteria in assessing the applicants, which emphasized business models as much as technical innovation. Second, while the projects varied in terms of their potential to achieve scale and sustainability, they showed a clear trend towards seeing beneficiaries as customers, a critical piece of the Acumen Fund philosophy.

This video, which was broadcast on UK’s Channel 4, highlights some of the impact that the Olyset long-lasting insecticide-treated anti-malaria bednet is having in Africa. Acumen Fund’s investment in A to Z Textile Mills, the Tanzanian manufacturer, helped to facilitate the technology transfer and start initial production of the bednets. The video takes viewers to visit local villages where the nets are in use and shows the growing capacity of A to Z, which will soon be producing seven million nets annually.

I’ve been privileged to have been invited to the Fortune Brainstorm event this summer. One of the questions participants were asked to answer pertained to the world’s biggest problem and what we fear most. I was intrigued by this and asked the Acumen Fund team to discuss it as part of our weekly meeting.

All of us agreed that the biggest problem - and certainly what we most fear - is the lack of urgency, the numbness in too many leaders and individuals when it comes to recognizing - and doing something - about forces in the world that could lead to significant global instability. The world faces a rising and increasingly treacherous gap between rich and poor, terrorism, and a climate crisis that could literally be the endgame. In our lifetimes, it is not unlikely that we will see more regional wars, global terrorism, natural disasters and large-scale discontent among the have-nots who, even if their absolute situations change favorably, see themselves as left out of the opportunities of a global economy. The question is how to provoke, challenge, wake-up individuals without simply overwhelming? We are learning at Acumen Fund that you can break down massive problems into component parts and tackle parts of problems effectively.

Jacqueline Novogratz recently returned from a visit to South Asia. Following is an excerpt of her journal from India. To read the complete journal, click here.

April 5, 2006 - Delhi, India

First thing in the morning, we meet with Satyan Mishra, founder and CEO of Drishtee Dot Com, an innovative technology company with a current network of 1,000 rural telekiosk franchises and an aspiration to reach 10,000 in the next two years and 30,000 in the next five. The idea of Drishtee is to create a telekiosk system across rural India as an entry point to distribute not only information and services but also products. The company itself is six years old so we are at similar points in our organizational development - both poised and focused for scale. Acumen Fund recently made a significant equity investment in Drishtee and now owns 25% of the company. This is one of our first visits as joint owners. The purpose is to consider how best to work together on some of Drishtee’s key challenges: financing for kiosk owners (where we have more expertise) and connectivity/power issues (for which the purpose of today is more understanding than problem-solving).

This looks like an interesting documentary. It sends home the message that there are many good opportunities for investment in Africa, highlighting the following industries:

• Housing finance bank in Ghana
• Agricultural exports (produce and flowers) in Kenya
• Manufacturing children’s clothing in Nigeria
• Textile factory in Lesotho
• Animation design studio in Senegal
• Diamond production in Botswana
• Coffee house in Kampala
• Adventure activities
• Airline in Somalia
• Cell phone company in the Congo

It is time that we stop looking at Africa only as a basket case and find opportunities for investment- and change!

Every year, millions of individuals die of diseases that could be prevented by basic, low-cost measures. To address this global challenge, Ashoka has announced a Changemakers’ Innovation Award on how to improve health for all. The goal of this competition is to identify and advance innovative strategies that provide high-quality, cost-effective and scalable health solutions reaching low-income populations around the world. The application deadline is May 24. Check out the Changemakers site for more information.