Once the news was confirmed, I felt sadness in my heart that a fellow member of humanity had lost her life unnecessarily.  I felt sad because she was a mother to someone…a sister…a wife…a daughter.

However, I did not feel sad for the loss of a politician in Pakistan or the loss of a ‘voice of the people’–as the media is touting.  Pakistan has been deprived of a leader that is sincere to the people for many years.  Benazir had been part of a legacy of politicians that have taken turns to loot the country for decades. In the history of Pakistan, whenever a person has come into power, they have done whatever it takes to further their personal interests–disregarding the interest of the ‘people’. 

Politics in Pakistan is a get-rich-quick scheme for the elite–and an opportunity to manipulate the masses.  Asif Zardari, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto–and now party (co)chairperson(!!!), had been imprisoned for several years on corruption charges (also accused of laundering $1.5 billion while his wife was the Prime Minister) and was widely thought to have mudered the brother of Benazir (while she was ruling).

I am not a supporter of any political party in Pakistan(as they are all the same) and have no hidden agenda, but am really frustrated on how the media conceals the truth to create a more newsworthy story.  Yes–Benazir has died, and I feel sadness for her family–but many innocent people have died in the last few days in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, etc—head of households barely making ends meet are dead now, their families have no where to go for help—but I suppose their blood is cheaper(?)

“I hope your life is truly satisfying, but that you are never fully satisfied…

May you take great risks to do what is right…

May you be accepting without being complacent…

And above all, before you go out and make the world a better place, may you have the wisdom to first look within and start with yourself.”

And I guess that’s what New Years is all about — a time for reflection, deeper introspection, and hopeful resolutions.  One of the best parts of Acumen Fellows training was the time to reflect on the difficult questions we each must answer for ourselves: How much is enough?  Why am I doing what I’m doing?  What do I want my legacy to be?

And while I still don’t have all the answers, it’s amazing how much of an impact only a month and a half in the field has made on my worldviews and life goals.  I already can’t wait until the Skoll Conference in March to revisit these questions with the other Fellows.

Happy 2008 to everyone!

I expected to watch news about Kenya elections but am in shock as I watch what had happened after Bhutto’s party meeting near Islamabad.20 People have died and she is hurt and in hospital in a critical condition.The CNN news correspondent is interviewing Nawaz Shariff and he poses a question to him: What if Bhutto dies?

Everything else happens too fast because just after 15 minutes they announce her death and the whole of Pakistan is filled with anger and rage.She had just come back home in October and she was so determined to become PM for the third time.She once said that the Gandhi family and the Bhutto families were cursed;because they all die in the struggle.

The next hours are horrible not knowing what will happen next.The Government issued a 3 day mourning period and beacuse of the chaos many people have to stay indoors.I guess this will be my most memorable time in Pakistan;to be here to witness it all and am also sharing in their pain and loss and just pray for peace within the coming weeks as they make decisions about elections.

“We are prepared to sacrifice ourselves but we are not ready to sacrifice our great nation”some of her last words and her promise if her party came into power was to be focused on the 5E’s: Education,Energy,Environment,Empowerment and Equality.

Her legacy lives on;Pakistan must strive to achieve democracy.

The major cities are experiencing a great deal of unrest — riots and a general breakdown so that all of the shops have been closed and emotions remaining very tense. The government has declared three days of national mourning but has indicated that January 8 general elections remain on schedule. 

All of our team members and our two Acumen fellows are safe and at home. Our investees’ teams also are safe, though a couple of TRDP vehicles were attacked.  We send our thoughts and prayers to team members, partners, investees, advisors, customers and friends, as well as to Pakistan as a whole. It has been a remarkable journey for Acumen Fund to have created such a strong community that has never been more needed.

Please keep Pakistan in your hearts as we move into 2008.

With hopes for a more peaceful world,
Jacqueline

“Minor situational details, referred to as channel factors can have great impact.  The opening up of a channel (such as an a priori commitment, or a first step) may facilitate some behaviors, whereas other behaviors can be blocked by closed channels.  In one classic study, college seniors were given persuasive messages about the value of an inoculation against tetanus.  While the messages were effective at changing the students’ beliefs and attitudes, few actually took the step of getting a tetanus shot.  By contrast, when other students received the same messages but were also given a map of the campus with the infirmary circled and asked to decide on a particular time, the percentage of students getting the innoculation increased by an order of magnitude.”

At our village eye clinics, more than half of the people who are screened and who need glasses fall in the category of “will purchase soon” (which is different than “needs but does not want”). People want to buy glasses “later”.  Perhaps they need more time to think about it, need to consult a spouse or don’t have money with them.  Regardless, between now and later, Shafir’s channel factors will get in the way – for the buyer and for the seller.  Other parts of life become more pressing as time goes by.  One of the things I’m working on is creating ways to reduce the barriers that prevent these prospective customers from getting their new glasses.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through our flat,
Tons of creatures a-stirring, but at least not a rat;

The stockings are hung outside our rooms with great care,
Gifts FedEx’ed from home, since I cannot be there;

Four Acumen fellows sleep tight in their beds,
While visions of winter dance in their heads;

Spending Christmas in Hyderabad, where it’s warm as can be,
Sharing stories of the fellowship for each other to see;

‘Tis the season for everything, not just Christmas here,
There’s Eid and Hindu festivals — general seasonal cheer;

And while it’s sad to be far this holiday season,
We’re being exposed to new cultures and traditions;

From New York we have scattered all over the land,
To Nairobi and Mumbai; Hyderabad; Pakistan.

And no matter what religion each of us individually follow,
We all reflect with joyful hope for a better tomorrow;

So to our friends and our family all over the earth,
Happy Holidays to all – lots of merriment and mirth!

This reminded me about a workshop we had in the office which started with a video on Life is short. The main questions paused:

Love – how do I know love?

Live – how do I live?

Learn – what do I need to learn or unlearn?

Legacy – what will I be remembered for?

After this fellowship I will make certain changes to my life because it is too short: I will live,love,learn and ;laugh more

This evening, Chris, Catherine, Tricia and I are headed to the City Center mall for the 6 PM event: FEED THE SANTA.  We are so giddy we can hardly contain ourselves.  Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

“Donors preach to us a lot about involving local people. But they make our deadlines so tight that all we end up with is a spot at the opening ceremony where local people dance local dances in local dress. What worries me most is that I’m not sure that anyone really minds.”

Kibaki has the benefit of the backing of his Kikuyu tribe (the largest in Kenya) and 6% economic growth under his leadership last year, but he is criticized for his failure to address corruption and tribalism during his first term. And at age 76, he has a hard time keeping up with Odinga’s charisma and energy in the campaign. Odinga’s billboards picture him holding up a small baby to the clouds and read “Giving hope to the next generation” and “The People’s President.” Odinga is well-liked by young voters – it is common to see crowds of young men running around with oranges and chanting his name – but he seems to unsettle many (he is accused of involvement in a planned 1982 coup to topple President Moi, and of having ‘authoritarian tendencies.’)

14 million voters are registered for the December 27 election – so keep your eyes on the news from Kenya. This would be the first time in history that a President has been voted out of office.

In the first paragraph of the book, Mehta writes, “There will soon be more people living in the city of Bombay than on the continent of Australia. … With 14 million people, Bombay is the biggest city on the planet of a race of city dwellers.  Bombay is the future of urban civilization on the planet.  God help us.” 

Mehta goes on to elaborate on the population density here:  “Singapore has a density of 2,535 people per square mile; Berlin, the most crowded European city, has 1,130 people per square mile.  The island city of Bombay in 1990 had a density of 17,550 people per square mile.  Some parts of central Bombay have a population density of 1 million people per square mile.  This is the highest number of individuals massed together at any spot in the world.” (p. 16)  I now find myself one of the 14 million densely packed people here—a humbling feeling.

Everywhere I turn there are people and cars and rickshaws.  It’s dangerous to stop while walking in many places—invariably someone will bump into me when I do so, and I bump into someone else if I turn without looking in all directions first.  Moving around here brings to mind a former US ambassador’s description of India as a “functioning anarchy.”  There are cars moving in every conceivable direction without regard to any traffic rules, but they get where they’re going and people seem to work with the flow. 

I just wonder what will happen as India’s economy continues to grow and the expanding middle class continues to aspire to owning a car.  In the U.S., the rate of car ownership is almost 500 vehicles per 1,000 people.  By my rough calculations, if the people living in that square mile of central Bombay with a population density of 1 million had the same rate of car ownership as the U.S., their square mile would be entirely paved in cars parked bumper to bumper, with a few cars stacked on top of each other.  Of course the people who live in that square mile are likely to move out before they purchase a car.  But the rising rates of car ownership on crumbling Mumbai roads that are already packed with vehicles is something to think about.

Today was the start of one of the two ‘main’ holidays of muslims.  The first holiday is known as Eid ul Fitr, which marks the end of the month of fasting–Ramadan.  The second (that started today) is Eid ul Adha, which is centered around the pilgrimage of Hajj that happens every year in the holy city of Mecca.  The rites surrounding this holiday focus on the sacrifices and struggles that the prophet Abraham (known to all religions) made during his life time.  One of the main rites of this holiday is the sacrifcing of an animal (goat, sheep, cow, camel) as a reminder of one of the struggles that Abraham endured during his life.  Everyone that can afford to, must sacrifice an animal–and divide into three parts: one for the family, one for neighbors, and one for the poor.

 So, after the Islam 101 tutorial above, you must be wondering what I did today??

My wife and I picked up Wangari and set out to the Saiban community to spend the afternoon with them.  We had made arrangements to have a cow sacrificed there, and have the meat distributed amongst the 30 families living there.  Besides all the blood and guts, it was really an awesome experience…a day I will remember for a long time.

Two years ago, this 20 acre piece of land was a place where villagers used to congregate for yearly dog fights.  When I first took on this project, people (locals, relatives, government officials–just about everyone) told me that I had been screwed.  This place was a clear waste of time and no one would EVER move here.

Today, I entered into the home of Naveed Ahmad, a Saiban resident who works as a driver for a telecom company.  He insisted we have lunch with his family.  Now I am not a fan of liver(!!!), but somehow it tasted really good.  As we sat there, I began to reflect on where we started.  Naveed was one of the early residents (and is currently the block manager).  He has four children–two of his daughters are mentally challenged.  When he first came to Saiban, about 1 year ago, he told me he was fond of gardening–and would make the environment a priority.  One year later I am sitting in his home, where he has planted all types of fruits and vegetables, as well as fragrant flowers–I am in shock–he kept his word beyond my imagination.

 Just sitting there today amongst people who only dreamed of owning their own homes–now having them–and in a place that was a big joke for all of the onlookers—was a pretty good feeling!

Our hope, of course, would be that some of this funding finds its way towards initiatives that draw from market mechanisms to assure long-term sustainability. Though $300 million is not life-changing in the scheme of investments being made by governments, individuals and corporations worldwide for charitable and commercial water and sanitation projects, it would make a tremendous difference if applied in a way that leads to lasting impact on the ground. 

In planning the use for new aid funds, I can imagine there is a dynamic tension between funding service-delivery models that subsidize the delivery of basic services, and funding more innovative but risky models that could lead to breakthroughs. Clearly, tackling major gaps in service in areas like drinking water and sanitation will require both. We will cross our fingers that these hard-won funds can support new efforts to engage private sector actors on the water and sanitation space, including innovators like WaterHealth International and Aqua-Aero Water Systems.

Want to support the work of Acumen Fund and get a cool gift in return? When you subscribe to GOOD Magazine and choose Acumen Fund, Acumen receives 100% of the subscription fee.

I’m thinking about immersion and what it means to me.  An analogy – SCUBA diving: Immersed deep underwater, you can temporarily forget what it is like to breathe air.  You can see the surface from afar but it is blurred by the ripples and waves and many feet of water over your head.  That faraway world feels like a dream you once had.  While you’re down there, you can get close to fish but you can never be a fish.  You can reach with your hand and try to touch one but they will always evade you.  The fish around you know that you are not one.  Some free-divers perfect a skill of becoming “one” with their environment, even if only temporarily.  They meditate underwater and achieve lower heart rates.  The fish can sense their ease.  These people can get closer to nature because they are less threatening.  I can never be a rural villager.  Can I be immersed or am I walking around town wearing pounds of SCUBA gear?  Can I learn skills that make me more approachable and less “other”?  I hope so. 

When I arrive in a village in a big car, everyone knows senses the arrival of different.  I’m a tourist.  I came to learn and to help – but without wishing to, I become a distraction from the purpose of the day: eye care.  The villagers assume I am the doctor.  They gesture signs of respect when I approach.  An old man shows me the elephantiasis on his foot.  A woman brings me her blind albino children and says what should I do?  Please say something to them in Telugu, they will like that.  All I can offer are reading glasses, I say.  I’m so sorry inside.  Is that all I have to offer?  We can only refer these people to the hospital because we are not qualified to diagnose or treat other health problems.  A woman beyond her years is crying in front of me.  Nobody has come to her village like this before.  Her husband’s eye is shriveled and badly damaged.  We have no money, she says.  We are very poor.  We have small children and I can’t leave them.  You tell me about a referral?  Her hope was piqued by our arrival and now it is broken. 

People ask how much my camera costs.  Should I lie?  Should I defer the question and keep people ignorant of the economics of life in other places?  I had to get money at an ATM this morning to pay my translator and my driver.  I made a rounding error in my withdrawal so my pocket is literally bulging with cash.  More money than someone here makes in a year doing hard work.  While I’m standing here looking people in the eye saying I can’t help them.  I feel embarrassed.  

While we’re on haggling though, I have a question:

In Nairobi I haggle for food. All food. Religiously. “10 pence for a mango. How about 3 for 20?” [Obviously I need neither the extra mangoes, nor the 10 pence saving!]

Back in the UK, I buy fair trade food. “Guaranteeing the grower a fair price”

Am I being massively inconsistent?

The other night I was out at dinner with some new friends, talking to a young Indian woman who had lived and studied in New York.  She decided last year that the U.S. was not for her and she wanted to move back to Hyderabad to be with her family.  Being the highly independent person I am, I asked what it was like, being back under her parents’ roof.  She replied, “It’s not so much about my individual happiness as it is about us all managing to get along.”

Driving down the road I want to stop and buy dinner and as I drop off at KFC (still getting used to the spicy food here) I gaze across the stree where men have small tables and lamps selling cheap food.They will close at 1 am my driver tells me and yet they compete with KFC,Mc Donalds,Subway and Pizza hut across the street.

I attended a wedding ceremony of a well-to-do family and am sure most of them have never seen the slums right next to them.Good food and fine wine flowed and we danced the night away. The next morning I was humbled to visit business premises of microfinance clients and all of them this was their house.They are struggling to get a good life.

The question; will equality ever exist?and if so what is equality?

We have a treasure-house – a treasure – of literature, going back to the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans. It is all there, this wealth of literature, to be discovered again and again by whoever is lucky enough to come on it. A treasure. Suppose it did not exist. How impoverished, how empty we would be.

We own a legacy of languages, poems, histories, and it is not one that will ever be exhausted. It is there, always.

We have a bequest of stories, tales from the old storytellers, some of whose names we know, but some not. The storytellers go back and back, to a clearing in the forest where a great fire burns, and the old shamans dance and sing, for our heritage of stories began in fire, magic, the spirit world. And that is where it is held, today.

Ask any modern storyteller, and they will say there is always a moment when they are touched with fire, with what we like to call inspiration and this goes back and back to the beginning of our race, fire, ice and the great winds that shaped us and our world.

The storyteller is deep inside everyone of us. The story-maker is always with us. Let us suppose our world is attacked by war, by the horrors that we all of us easily imagine. Let us suppose floods wash through our cities, the seas rise … but the storyteller will be there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us – for good and for ill. It is our stories, the storyteller, that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, what we are at our best, when we are our most creative.

Designers and social entrepreneurs share a few things in common:
1. They think with their hearts
2. They are chronically underpaid
3. Their interests lie outside the status quo

1. They think with their hearts
Both designers and social entrepreneurship require a great deal of empathy for the condition of others.  Not everyone desires the opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes but both of these groups have created careers around immersing themselves in other people’s problems. 

Deciding to live in uncomfortable circumstances when you don’t need to is not a “rational” exercise.
Seeking to create desire rather than need is not a “rational” exercise.

2. They are chronically underpaid
Design and social impact outcomes are difficult to track.  The designer’s work is conceptual.  The value she creates is realized often years in the future.  The social entrepreneur’s work is distant from infrastructure.  The value she creates is often a public good or too expensive to quantify.  Since these outcomes are intangible, the economic value of the work is hidden and neither designer nor social entrepreneur can capture the maximum remuneration for their personal sacrifice.  But, like real estate: Labor costs what people are willing to be paid.  The non-financial benefits must make up the difference or the industry would not exist.  (I’m sure lots of people have written about this.  If you have any reading suggestions, please let me know.)

Recently, Acumen collaborated with Google to create a beta database that keeps track of the financial and social impact of their investments.  This is ground-breaking work because now impact data will be sharable and comparable.  Acumen can track the value it creates across investments, across time.  Acumen can learn more rigorously about its portfolio’s performance and communicate its impact more effectively. Once Acumen opens this database to other organizations, it can start a dialog about effective change. Might the design community also benefit from mechanisms that track the intangible value design creates?

3. Their interests lie outside the status quo
Designers and social entrepreneurs spend their days thinking beyond established systems. For the designer, it is in the unrealized future of goods and services.  For the social entrepreneur, it is what has fallen between the cracks of the public and the private sectors.  If all the problems of the world were systemically solved, neither designers nor social entrepreneurs would be needed.  We could all be artists and philosophers. 

Credence, one of the first SHF franchisees, has also been one of the most successful. She was named “champion” of CFW Shops in a PBS documentary, and is regularly a top performer across outlet measures.

“I am successful because I know the community,” she says. “They are comfortable with me, they trust me. And so they keep coming.”

The success of any product or service depends on knowing your customer, and though Credence (a community health worker) does not have a business degree or formal management training, she is one of the most entrepreneurial people I’ve ever met. “I go to their homes, I go to the community, I try to understand what they need and I give it to them,” she describes. As a result, she attracts up to 100 customers a day, despite competition from a nearby free government clinic.

As I leave Credence’s shop, I reflect that with the right people and proper support systems, this is a model that will work and have real impact on the way critical drugs and care are delivered in rural communities.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6GbdfosyA0]

Update 12/27: The Transport Department has extended the deadline until January 31st.

While I appreciate the strategic customer focus that these forms imply, I can’t help but wonder: (1) are they actually collecting any meaningful insights from this data? and (2) can these forms do more harm than good for customer satisfaction? We all know that these forms are usually no fun to fill out and often come at the most inopportune times.

And here’s the “so what?” to all of this:

A huge part of my project is helping LifeSpring better understand their customers — the low-income women who give birth in their hospitals. What do they see as quality? How do they view the hospital?

LifeSpring already has quite a few initiatives in place: a feedback form for customers, a customer comment and complaint log at the hospital…For women who do not complete feedback forms, someone from LifeSpring calls to follow-up. LifeSpring takes its commitment to customer satisfaction seriously; last week, I sat in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) meeting, while each customer complaint or comment was read, analyzed to find its root cause, and discussed to find a resolution.

Yet we are looking for ways to do this better. Feedback forms are intrinsically limited — not only for the reasons cited above, but also because many of LifeSpring’s customers are illiterate. Focus groups provide another option — but these are timely and difficult to scale up as LifeSpring grows.

So I’m throwing the question out to you all, because “your feedback matters to us”. Seriously though. What ideas do you have for us to collect meaningful and action-oriented feedback from our customers?