Remarkable People

Let me congratulate Acumen investee David Kuria, founder of Ecotact, for being named the African Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2009 by the World Economic Forum! This is fantastic recognition for David and his team’s work on bringing affordable, high quality sanitation services to thousands of people every day. Currently, Ecotact serves more than 9,000 customers daily through 10 toilets operated throughout the city of Nairobi, Kenya and other nearby locations. The toilets cost 5 shillings per use, though individuals also can pay a bit more to take a shower in a clean environment – a real luxury for thousands who travel into the city from the slums and far-flung rural areas to work in offices after long, dusty bus ride. Ecotact is showing that public-private partnerships can work on behalf of all people and we are proud to be a part of this effort.

Guest blogger Aden Van Noppen is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she earned a degree in International Development. She is also an intern for Acumen Fund, where she works to develop programs that teach college students about private sector solutions to poverty. Aden was formerly an intern for Dalberg Global Development Advisors, where she worked on the development of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs.

By Aden Van Noppen

“I will develop a social enterprise major on my campus.” “Thousands of incoming freshmen will read the Blue Sweater as their first taste of college.” “We will create a viral video that reaches millions.” “Students will learn about and engage with social enterprise through the online hub we will build.” “We will change the way our generation tackles poverty.”

The seventeen student leaders who took Acumen Fund’s New York office by storm last week committed to accomplishing all these goals and more. Acumen’s inaugural Student Leaders Workshop was meant to ignite the fire under a cohort of young leaders who will return to their campuses in the fall as champions of social enterprise. The workshop and the students exceeded all expectations, and time will tell what they will accomplish together.

History tells us that college students are frequently on the cutting edge of social change. We (as a recent graduate, I still count myself among them) are often unsatisfied with the status quo and have the energy and passion to demand new ways of solving old problems. However, young people today are not protesting or rioting—instead, we are proclaiming ourselves social entrepreneurs and actively searching for the best models to address poverty. The movement for social enterprise is brewing on campuses across the country and the world, and seventeen young global leaders left Acumen Fund’s workshop last weekend inspired and driven to bring it to a new level.

We spent much of the workshop asking ourselves hard questions. What is development? How do we measure poverty alleviation? When can market-based solutions sidestep the barriers of traditional approaches? What is leadership? How do we know when to step forward and when to step back? How do we change the way our generation tackles poverty? There are still more questions than answers, but the participants now look to Acumen as an inspiring model and to each other as a dynamic group of leaders who can continue searching for the answers together.

If the last few days are any indication, their excitement, curiosity, and commitment will continue to grow. Social media tools are buzzing as they stay in touch, collaborate, and strategize. What they accomplish together is still to be seen, but I have no doubt that they will inspire many on their campuses and beyond to question the status quo and embrace a new model of fighting poverty.

In the coming months, the students will demonstrate the power of young people and of building a tribe of individuals who, as Seth Godin told us when he kicked off the workshop, “Decide to say yes.” Two days after leaving, one participant wrote, “The workshop left me with hope and inspiration. I now have a better idea of the field and how it works but most importantly, the workshop gave me the confidence to aspire and dare to dream.” These seventeen leaders will return to their campuses in the fall as extensions of the Acumen Fund team, ready and equipped to support Acumen’s mission to change how the world tackles poverty.

TechnoServe VP for Development Simon Winter speaks at ANDE training. (Photo by Brian Murray)

Last week, along with 40-plus other participants, the Acumen Fund summer associates participated in an energetic and informational training session run by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE).  ANDE is a member-driven organization whose goal is to dramatically increase the effectiveness of capital and technical assistance for entrepreneurs in developing countries.  This training was a definitive step towards that goal.

For the second year in a row, ANDE has organized this training along with Acumen Fund, Root Capital, Grassroots Business Fund, Endeavor and many other members of ANDE.  With the exploding interest in supporting Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) as a means of alleviating poverty, the importance of coordinating and connecting those entering the field has never been more critical.  Not only was the training immensely important to developing relationships across organizations; it also provided a forum to share best practices and to promote innovative thinking.

The two-day seminar was packed with a discussion of different business models, presentations on social metrics and hands-on case studies.  As if any of the graduate-level interns needed more motivation heading into the sector, the opportunity to hear from amazing speakers such as Christine Eibs Singer from E+Co, Brian Midler and Namrita Kapur from Root Capital, Susie Lee from IGNIA, Raj Kundra, Sasha Dichter and Ann MacDougall from Acumen Fund, Simon Winter and Jennifer Golden from TechnoServe, Ben Powell and Ricardo Teran from Agora Partnerships was inspirational.

I was uplifted to meet our peers who are now heading into the field to countries such as Pakistan, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Nicaragua and Guatemala. In particular, I was humbled and inspired by their backgrounds, skill sets and demonstrated passion for the work we will be undertaking.   I hope that this foundation of collaboration is something we all push to continue beyond the training amongst ourselves and by including more people interested in the sector.

My personal highlights were:

• Sasha Dichter’s non-profit Venn Diagram
• Learning more about the Global Impact Investing Network and its mission to educate and drive more investors into the sector
• Quote to inspire by Ben Powell of Agora Partnerships:
  Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success

  ~ Sir Ernest Shackleton’s trans-Antarctic expedition recruitment advertisement

Although not exactly applicable to those of us heading out into the field (safe return = certain), it is a reminder that we all need support, encouragement and community to help us through the hard times when things don’t seem possible and barriers appear impassable.  I’m confident coming out of this training that this community is stronger than ever and I look forward to contributing.

For those of you who were at the training, please feel free to share your highlights in the comments section!

“Everyone says we should do what we love but doing what you love can be really hard.  Making change in the world is what I love but it won’t be easy.”

~Willa Zhou, Harvard College

They came from India, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Columbia, and Singapore, from Ohio, California, Florida, Massachusetts, and beyond, in part to learn how they can make a difference.  This was our first cohort of student leaders - a group we see as the sparks that will ignite a network of college students that can help Acumen Fund advance our mission of changing how the world tackles poverty.    

The first part of this journey culminated with a Student Leader’s Workshop held last weekend.  Chosen from a highly competitive group of applicants, each student leader brought diverse experiences to the table: from working with laborers in garbage dumps in Guatemala to distributing bed nets in Ghana. All were hungry to learn how patient capital can be employed to combat poverty. We are honored to have them in our community.

Over the course of a three-day workshop our goal was to share with them our perspective on the social enterprise sector and the role of patient capital, and help them explore their role as leaders that can expand Acumen Fund’s impact in the world by building communities, or “tribes” on their campuses.

Marketing guru and Acumen Fund partner Seth Godin led the first session, discussing the importance of community and leadership.  In addition to addressing the importance of building tribes, an insight he explores at length in his most recent book by the same name, Seth outlined a simple message – DECIDE.  Make a choice about who you are and how you want to lead – then do it.  This call to action set the tone for three days of dialogue, debate and idea-generation.

On Saturday morning, after a late night of teamwork over pizza on Friday, the students presented bold ideas for building awareness and communities around social enterprise. Their ideas included creating an online social enterprise hub aimed at college students, producing a viral video and organizing a conference focused on impact. They each shared concrete individual goals and timelines for things like spreading the word about The Blue Sweater, as well as fundraising and bringing knowledge on Acumen Fund to their networks and campuses.

I was particularly inspired by the students’ desire to understand the range of strategies that can be applied to addressing poverty. Also, in discussing their own approach to leadership, they were honest about their shortcomings, their fears, and their personal contradictions 

As the weekend wrapped up, a commitment was made to moving forward with their proposals. These student leaders are now crisscrossing the globe on their way home, eager to continue what they started, to share their experiences and dedicate themselves to tackling the challenges of poverty.  If these three days are any indicator, patient capital has just gained some powerful allies that will impact our world now and in the future.  We look forward to continuing this journey with them. 

Please feel free to visit their Twibe that they created on Twitter.

At a conference last week, I had the pleasure of meeting with Jeff Seabright, Coca-Cola’s Vice President for Environment and Water. He spoke about the company’s policy to reach a water neutral footprint. In other words, for every liter of water Coke extracts from aquifers, it will take action to replenish the earth’s water supply. In some areas, the company is planting trees; in other communities, it is providing drip irrigation to farmers who otherwise would use flood irrigation to water their crops.

This is a thrilling initiative. First, it underscores to me that many of the world’s new standards are likely going to come from corporations who increasingly see themselves as global citizens. Of course, regulation is critical – and I am not naïve about the damage multi-national corporations can cause to the environment. But this is an important step forward, and I do believe that young people especially will hold companies to a higher standard of behavior and the smartest companies will stay ahead of this curve.

This initiative also excites me because it may provide an algorithm not only for corporations but for all of us. What would it take to influence our individual behavior so that we took the attitude that we give back to the world what we take out of it? We now have sophisticated tools to measure our carbon footprint – therefore, we know what steps could be taken to offset it. The same calculations can be done for water.

We could take this further as well, for example, around luxury consumption. What if we each created some sort of match for ourselves, whereby we would contribute to organizations fighting poverty in proportion for what we spend on luxury consumption? In other words, we would not “charge ourselves” for what we think we need in terms of the essentials (and this figure may vary widely according to overall income, of course). But we might contribute to charity at a rate connected to the very non-essential – not only to make us think about what we’re consuming but also create a different kind of redistribution that would be encouraged not by government taxation but by an individual’s own – but perhaps shared – moral code.

In the early years of Acumen Fund, one of our Partners told me that he was considering buying a Lexus when it hit him that he could, instead, buy a good (but less expensive) car, and give the difference to Acumen Fund. Years later, that gift is one of the most meaningful to me. I saw the partner recently and he told me that after seven years, he’s still driving the car and that every now and then, he smiles to himself thinking about the meaning the particular car enabled him to create. There’s something to this idea…

With Pakistan often among the top headlines on The New York Times front page (and usually not in a flattering way) – we are heartened to see the most recent issue [Dec – Jan 2009] of Blue Chip Magazine, a leading business magazine in Pakistan, carry a cover story on our very own Jacqueline Novogratz and the investments Acumen Fund has made in Pakistan.

Our most recent intra-office debates revolve around the question of how to support and encourage social entrepreneurship - let alone find the solid business ideas that are providing services at the BoP - so we at Acumen Fund are excited to see positive news of on-the-ground initiatives and social businesses that often operate in the most challenging environments and landscapes. The story really is around social entrepreneurs like Roshaneh Zafar, Tasneem Siddiqui, and Dr. Sono Khangharani who “have seen possibilities where other people see hopelessness.”

Also featured in the same issue of Blue Chip is Roshaneh Zafar , President of Kashf Foundation, who recently launched Kashf Microfinance Bank Limited (KMBL) in October 2008. KMBL is an investment of Kashf Holdings Private Limited, the parent holding company in which Acumen Fund has also invested.

In the five months since operations were launched, Kashf Microfinance Bank has set up 18 branches and is serving 20,000 microfinance clients. But with the microfinance industry facing a challenging period in Pakistan due to the macroeconomic environment and political instability, the innovation of the original group lending methodology is now facing a setback. There is a need to innovate in microfinance services beyond the group lending methodology commonly used by microfinance institutions in Pakistan.

With the launch of the new Kashf Microfinance Bank, Kashf has begun individual lending and savings mobilization and now provides savings products to women from low-income communities. Roshaneh discusses the pioneering work Kashf has been doing at the BoP and Acumen is proud to support Kashf and the microfinance sector in Pakistan.

We all want to be able to say, “This is the house my father owns.” This dream is floating all over the world. Pitrus Saab, early resident of Khuda Ki Basti 3.

I recently visited Khuda Ki Basti 3, a low-income housing development 2 hours away from the city centre of Karachi. I first learned of Khuda Ki Basti (”God’s Settlement”) and the incremental development model when I met Tasneem Siddiqui of Saiban during a research project in 2005. I was ushered in an office by Mr. Siddiqui’s assistant (his only staff at the time) where he sat at his desk, shrouded by mountains of papers and books. Though he was extremely busy and seemingly understaffed, he made himself available to speak to me. Mr. Siddiqui is the sort of person who inspires people. Not because he is a great story teller with heart warming anecdotes that leave you with a good feeling. No, he is inspiring because he takes a no-nonsense approach to a problem that is colossal and overwhelming both in its scale and by its nature.

Without a piece of land on which you can raise your family, sleep at night and call your home, it is difficult to find the stability you need in your life to propel yourself forward. No one should be denied the opportunity to attain this stability and prosperity. Almost all people understand this. However there are very few people who will roll up their sleeves and try to get something done about it. This is especially true in an environment like Pakistan where public officials are a part of the problem, not solution. (Pakistan was ranked 134th out of 180 countries by Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index - which is not a good ranking.)

My report recognized that, without government cooperation, there is no method of scaling any successful models in housing. However, it also acknowledged the reality – that public sector solutions are usually public relations rhetoric within a larger political game. As a result, government-initiated projects do not often reflect the reality of the issues. For example, as has been documented by Saiban extensively, the age-old government approach of creating elaborate “sites and services” schemes in Pakistan ends up inflating the cost and price of housing far beyond the reach of base of the pyramid, and yet we continue to hear of initiatives based on this model.

In his inauguration speech at the National Assembly on 29th March 2008, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced his coalition government’s agenda, including a plan to build one million homes annually targeted towards the lower income sector. Such grandiose plans that are removed from the reality of the current and historical housing reality are not uncommon - especially when they come during times of crises (in this case both economic and political).

Tasneem Siddiqui is known internationally for his work in low-income housing - he has been the recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, The Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service and nominated for several others. What is somewhat disheartening is that even today, despite his reputation and the successes (KKB has been replicated in three areas of Karachi and currently in the process of development in Lahore) of the incremental development model, government cooperation (in the form of subsidized land) remains the biggest bottleneck to solving the housing and squatter settlement crisis in Pakistan.

Though consultation with Mr. Siddiqui and Saiban is often part of protocol during various government-led initiatives, they have still not been able to get their model officially adopted. A Saiban employee told me that while officials praise Saiban’s efforts and achievements in the field during meetings and conferences, off-the-record discourses usually involve an official asking very plainly “Meray liye faida kahan hai?” (“Where is the benefit for me?”). It is easy to see how anyone with good intentions might be discouraged. But as the perseverance of Mr. Siddiqui, his colleagues at Saiban and of the residents of Khuda Ki Basti 3 demonstrated, determined ideals will get you long way.

In my next blog post, I’ll talk about how two of the earliest residents of KKB 3 and its very model taught me the meaning of patient capital. For now I’ll end on a note that nags at the back of my mind whenever I think of the achievements of Mr. Siddiqui in such an onerous environment. How much is the success of a movement dependent on its figure head? We at Acumen Fund like to talk about the sustainability of our advocacy for social change, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, how do you go about succession planning for revolutionaries – especially when it is their reputation and clout that opens doors in such a dramatically politicized environment like Pakistan?

Editor’s note: New contributor Priya Pingali joined Acumen Fund in October 2008 as a Portfolio Intern. She earned her B.A. from Brown University, where she studied Economics and International Relations. Prior to joining Acumen Fund, Priya spent time working with child victims of sexual exploitation in Bogota, Colombia.

By Priya Pingali

Last Tuesday night, Rob Katz and I had the privilege of attending a talk by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, hosted by NYU’s Stern School of Business and its Berkeley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Not surprisingly, the hall was packed with students, faculty and professionals, but very luckily, we were offered a couple of reserved seats right up front! One of the original pioneers of social entrepreneurship, Yunus and the Grameen Bank are shining examples of how businesses designed to serve the poor can have a profound impact on the lives of millions.

The stories of Grameen Bank (and the other businesses founded by Yunus) are clearly well known, but I would be surprised if anyone had walked away that night without a revitalizing sense of optimism, if not pure awe and admiration. Yunus’ journey began in one village in Bangladesh, with no plan except for the idea of lending $27 to a group of 42 people. Today, the Bank has about 7.5 million borrowers, 97% of whom are women. It manages over $1 billion in small loans, lending $100 million per month, and is currently making it possible for 34,000 students to enter higher education with loans and scholarships. Among his other ventures is Grameen Phone, the nation’s largest phone company and employer of 300,000 telephone ladies, and a solar energy company that currently sells about 8,000 solar systems a month. Yunus has also dedicated his efforts to the eradication of night blindness in Bangladesh by selling fortified vegetable seeds.

In a soft spoken yet powerful manner, Yunus challenged the audience to remove our “profit-maximizing glasses” and to regard making money not as the means and the end, but as the means to a social end. Admittedly, he seemed almost to be preaching at times, but judging by the standing ovation and roaring applause received, he had inspired the room of future leaders and entrepreneurs to reject the traditional (and outdated) trade-off between creating successful businesses and serving the poor.

I was personally moved by his emphasis on how insignificant the differences between all humans are. Hearing this at a time when the entire world, it seems, is yearning to believe once again in the possibility of collaboration, I was reminded of the importance of working to eradicate poverty, not just for the sake of reducing inequality, but in service to the idea that everyone in our world deserves the same chances in life.

I met Roshaneh Zafar; Roshaneh met Khairoon Apa. By the power of deductive reasoning, I have therefore met Khairoon. Right?

Of course, that’s not how the world works - the truth is that I’ve never been to Pakistan, and I’ve never met the “Ted Turner of a small village near the Bay of Bengal” as Roshaneh describes Khairoon. I did have the pleasure of meeting Roshaneh, however, and she left a lasting impression. Her passion for microfinance is contagious; she believes deeply in the power of credit to bring dignity and choice to a formerly disempowered underclass - to people like Khairoon Apa.

So, how do I know Khairoon? After all, I’ve still not been to Pakistan…but I feel like I have after reading a recent article authored by Roshaneh, the founder and CEO of Kashf Foundation. In the article, entitled Female Empowerment and the Promise of Microfinance, we learn Khairoon’s story, about “a woman who started her life owning only one sari that she would wash from one side wrapping the wet end around herself since she did not have the resources to buy another.”

I urge all members of the Acumen Fund community to take a few minutes on this Saturday to read Roshaneh’s words. You may even meet someone new in the process.

“I don’t like the idea of a franchise” he had told me over dinner in Cambridge. “It sounds too much like McDonalds.” I was having dinner with Ron Rivera and discussing his idea for a locally produced clay pot that could remove 98% of pathogenic bacteria from drinking water. His work had caught my attention while I was doing research on potential technologies for the emerging water portfolio at Acumen Fund.

While he was skeptical at the time of the role that a commercial approach could play in improving access to safe drinking water, over the past years, he helped launch 30 factories to produce affordable clay filters in Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Kenya, Cambodia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Darfur. Working with Potters for Peace, he was the drive and energy behind an effort that got 300,000 filters to the world’s poorest. According to the New York Times, “He often traveled in the wake of water-related disasters — following floods in Ghana or a tsunami in Sri Lanka — capitalizing on the rush of aid money to establish a locally owned enterprise that would sustain itself long after he left.”

His life was claimed in September by a bout of malaria he contracted in Nigeria while opening his 30th factory. He was 60 years old. His goal was to build 100 factories to produce these simple but effective clay pots and to reach 4 million people with safe water.

While I only met him a few times, Ron Rivera was someone who stood out in my mind as the “real deal,” someone who was driven to make a difference in people’s lives, and who himself was continually learning about how to have a greater impact. He may have been skeptical at first when I suggested he look at these factories like a McDonald’s chain, with standardized designs, manufacturing processes and marketing materials, but he ultimately found his own way to encourage local enterprises to take up this innovative business model. It was an approach that required him to personally connect with, train and inspire local entrepreneurs – work that was undoubtedly rewarding and effective, but that proved incredibly dangerous. His work will fortunately continue to impact people’s lives, as many of his protégés have committed themselves to carrying it forward. My hope is that we honor his life and what he worked for through our efforts to make affordable drinking water solutions available to the billions who need them, and our investments in health enterprises that can make diseases like malaria history.

Over the past three weeks, I have been traveling to each of Acumen Fund’s offices to recruit the 2010 class of Acumen Fund Fellows. It’s been an amazing opportunity to spend time with our teams and also meet with some of the companies Acumen Fund has invested in - and the people they serve (pictured, left).

Two weeks ago, I joined a group that included Aun Rahman, Acumen Fund Pakistan Country Director, Dr. Sono Khangarani and Saqib Khan, respectively the CEO and COO of Acumen Fund investee Micro Drip to visit Hyderabad in the Sindh region of Pakistan. Micro Drip sells drip irrigation systems to smallholder farmers in Pakistan (check out the company’s web site as well). My colleague Sasha Dichter took a similar trip earlier this year to a different part of Pakistan (Thar), and reflected on What It Means to be Patient: Drip Irrigation in Pakistan’s Thar Desert.

It was the Sunday before a 3-day Eid celebration, and the traffic leaving Karachi was noticeable, even to me (a Karachi novice). Then again, I couldn’t complain. Even the traffic in Pakistan is colorful, what with intricate designs adorning all manner of transport from the smallest rickshaws to buses and large-haul trucks.

But today, the color came not just from trucks, but from our non-human counterparts sitting in traffic. As part of the Eid celebration, families sacrifice an animal to share; as such, many vehicles were transporting goats and cows bound for slaughter; even camels played their part, pulling families along the highway. Later that evening, on our way home, I saw one guy in a rickshaw, his knees up to his chin as his feet rested on two goats, stacked atop one another on the floor of the rickshaw, much like one might stack up suitcases for a long family road trip.

I was eager for the road trip. It was a chance to get out of Karachi, where the inability to simply walk around freely must surely become stifling; it was also a chance to see more of Pakistan’s countryside. The day was facilitated very effectively by National Rural Support Program (NRSP). NRSP is (in Aun’s words) the ‘big brother’ of TharDeep Rural Development Program – the parent organization of Micro Drip – and has been providing agri-specific support to farmers for over 20 years.

In the past few years, NRSP has been offering micro-lending options in addition to agri-services, and the villages we met - like these farmers, pictured at left - with have organized around these micro-loans. The farmers that we met were not users of drip irrigation; in fact, the difficult task of selling drip systems to farmers was a key outcome of the meetings for me.

Many of these farmers have taken on loans between Rs10,000 and Rs30,000, and what we heard from them is that while these loans help them to operate without total dependence on a middle man – ‘Arti’ in Urdu – they barely cover the cost of inputs, let alone any of the other household costs the farmers incur on a daily basis.

Our objective for the day was simple: to listen to farmers. We wanted to hear directly their key concerns, constraints and cost burdens in order to gain a deeper understanding of where drip irrigation might play a role in increasing farm productivity. From a broader perspective, we were also interested in what we should be thinking about as Acumen Fund moves forward with our new agriculture portfolio. I can’t help thinking that my modest report is going to be complimented by a deeper and more colorful analysis in Jacqueline’s journal, so I’ll stick to facts and basics and attempt to relay the key insights we heard from these farmers.

The farmers are incredibly wise. Any solution that Micro Drip – or any other enterprise looking to solve the problems of smallholder ‘productivity’ – puts forward must be designed via an ongoing process of endless discussion with farmers. They know that drip irrigation needs a constant water supply; today, they are lucky to have access to flood irrigation from the canals once a week. Naturally, farmers are skeptical of drip’s impact.

They know that they are lucky to get 3 hours of electricity a day with which to pump the water from their wells, and even that they pay the landlord for – and it’s still cheaper than diesel. ‘Loadshedding’ has become such a common phenomenon throughout the rural areas that, despite the fact that they were speaking to us in their local Sindhi, the English word was common to all.

These farmers are keenly aware that, in 2008 alone, the price of inputs such as fertilizer has risen from Rs500 to Rs1300 on the black market despite the standard rate being Rs600. Their market access is limited to the back market through their historical relationships with Artis (middle men) leading them to hoard fertilizer, which in turn drives the price up more.

They know that even if their yields do increase, it’s often difficult to find a market for their product. This was confirmed in one village where we saw vast piles of cotton (pictured at left), brown and wasting because there was no one to buy, no where to sell. And finally, they know that the loans allow them to cover the costs of these inputs, but do not allow them to break the cycle of debt that the landlords and the Artis further entrench. If only the loans were larger, and the definition on ‘productivity’ broadened even a little, then they might be able to diversify their income sources, break their dependence on a crop that might easily be devastated by a flood or other natural disaster. A larger loan would allow them to buy new clothes, educate their children, pay for healthcare and truly improve their standard of living.

Dr. Sono knows the right questions to ask. He is in his element and it’s an honor to see him in action; he’s the only one of us who can speak directly to the farmers in Sindhi. The questions he asks all three villages get the same unanimous replies: 1) Do you think the cost of inputs is going to come down any time soon, if at all? No is the clear answer. 2) Do you think water will get any easier to get a hold of? Again, no is the immediate consensus. 3) What do you think is the best way to deal with these issues and allow you to become more productive? That, the farmers say, is the billion rupee question!

Dr. Sono discusses drip as an option, although he admits that without solving the bigger infrastructure question that would provide a more reliable water supply, it may not be the best solution for these farmers just yet.

One can’t help but be struck by the deepening and systemic tragedies Pakistan has fought throughout 2008: the continued lack of true leadership and the IMF intervention whose impact raises many more questions on the horizon. There are undoubtedly equally tough times are ahead here. But taking the time to listen to these farmers, to see Dr. Sono’s quiet manner of marketing with truth, and the deep seated commitment of the Acumen Fund Pakistan team (who are all complete rock stars) as well as the commitment I’ve witnessed this week from Jacqueline, Aun, Hunter Boll and Stuart Davidson, I feel a warming sense of hope that by partnering with and learning from local entrepreneurs like Dr. Sono, we might just gain the insights and the humility to give more farmers what they really need: the ability to determine their own definition of productivity and the dignity of providing for themselves.

Editor’s note: This is Amon Anderson’s (pictured here, on the right) first post on the Acumen Fund blog. Read his bio by clicking on his name or visiting the Our People page of Acumen Fund’s website.

I’ve been studying, working with and thinking about leadership development for the last seven years, but I never stop being surprised. This past summer, I led an idea session for the Center for Creative Leadership to brainstorm how leadership development could be applied in the context of poverty.

But in this group of East Africans, West Africans, and North Americans, we could barely agree on semantics-leadership for the base of the pyramid, bottom of the pyramid, leadership for the majority, leadership for all…etc. However, no matter what we called it, we all could agree that not only did the poor have little access to leadership development tools, but the research and resources at hand had limited relevance to someone living in poverty.

That is not to say that there aren’t leaders. I have had the honor of meeting leaders born into poverty and raised through adversity who demonstrate true leadership irrespective of socio-economic status.

Living in Ethiopia, I met Solomon (above, left), a young man who lost three of his limbs when the Addis-Djibouti railway overturned on route to Dire Dawa, Ethiopia’s second city. Solomon ended up in one of Mother Theresa’s clinics and tried a variety of prosthetic options, none of them feasible for the life he would lead in Ethiopia.

So he decided to pack it up and return home. Solomon wanted to start his own business, and I worked with him over a period of months to figure out how he could make it happen. Solomon left his old community, where people saw him as half the man he once was, and established one of the most successful video rental shops in his new neighborhood. His business has grown quickly because Solomon has impressed and befriended those around him, and he’s not done yet. He’s sending home money to his mother, employing boys from the street and he dreams of opening a proper internet café.

After such a devastating accident, many in Ethiopia take to the streets as beggars-either by choice or by force-but Solomon chose a different path. His optimism, courage, and work ethic helped him found his shop and attract a growing number of customers each day.

For me, leadership is about unlocking human potential. In my work with the Cherokee Gives Back Foundation and the Acumen Fund, I have struggled to find entrepreneur-leaders and provide them with the financial support needed to succeed and alleviate poverty through market-oriented solutions. But finance is only part of the picture. I have participated in two Leadership Essential programs, designed by the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership Beyond Boundaries initiative, and experienced first-hand the impact of “leadership development for the majority.”

I see immediate potential to introduce these tools to a broader audience in East Africa, but I see an even greater opportunity/challenge: How do we take this concept of leadership development and apply it to the people living in the villages and slums? In East Africa, the “pyramid” looks more like the Eiffel Tower - a needle at the top and large in its foundation. I believe that unlocking doors for this “foundation” will require creativity and a cross-disciplinary effort. But I also believe in the power of leadership development to transform the paradigm. Solomon is one of those extraordinary leaders who succeed, no matter the odds. There are many more out there like Solomon, and with appropriate and accessible leadership development, the impact could be revolutionary.