You comment is spot on, so thank you.

Just as we fall victim to extrapolating our individual experiences, we also extrapolate our culture and values in misguided (even dangerous) ways. We must be careful not to fall victim to the blind belief (”convergence hypothesis” or call it what you will) that present condition of “the West” represents the “future” for everyone else. If we use this belief as the foundation for how we act to fight poverty, we will not be effective. The reality is far more complex as you say. We must pay attention to these “shade of grey”, constantly adapt our models to local environments, and listen to the needs of the people that “we serve”.

Thanks again,
Jake

There’s great value in having the recent, very public debate about aid, prompted by Dead Aid. The whole area needs much more scrutiny.

However, the challenge is moving beyond everyone’s personal experiences. There’s a prevailing tendency to extrapolate what we personally see happening in development to colour the whole debate.
“NGOs steal the best people and distort the market. Development is failing.” “I’ve seen people receive education and medical services from NGOs and agencies that they wouldn’t have received from their governments. It has changed their lives. Development is good.”
Okay, these are simplified, but witness a public debate about aid and development, and count how many times people extrapolate their experiences to draw broad conclusions. It happens constantly. The reality is far more complex, and hides, indeed, among many shades of gray.
Good post.
Brendan

It is a great read to how unique partnerships between the Private and Public sector, and cutting edge technology can come together to address social issues and still be green!

Good seeing you in Hyderabad recently to discuss water and energy.

I am quite impressed by that article by Aneel Karnani that you linked to. Its great to read straight talk about poverty. His one on microfinance is great too;
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/microfinance_misses_its_mark/

Hopefully the same young people who will hold companies to a higher standard of behavior, as they age and become wealthier, will start treating this kind of model as the new luxury. Even more powerful would be if the rising middle class in developing countries started to adopt and idolize brands and products that promote such ideas.

Great question.

Social media does sometimes feel like a double edged sword, because of the ’social’ nature of it.

Besides 2 year old organisations who swim with socmed easily, it is vital to raise comfort levels among the larger organisations who touch many lives already.

A starting point for the giants may be to use social media to get the wonderful group of people who work for them, often in far-out hostile locations, connected to their colleagues across the world. This group understands each other and can act as a powerful support group.

All the best!

Cheers,

Anita Lobo

David D. Sonne
Founder/President
Kunming Evenstar Consulting Company, Ltd.
Found/President
Kunming Heaven’s Bounty Agricultural Development Company, Ltd.
ds1188@hotmail.com
(215) 253-4491 (USA)
+86-15011304531 (China)
flammiferstill (Skype)

Josh Bernoff from Forrester says many of our common (mis)perceptions about control can be linked to “the baggage that comes along with the word ‘media.’ Media is something that media companies control, and media is overwhelmingly one-way. The online social world is about as two-way, multi-way, any-way as it can be. Nobody controls it, not even Facebook, which found it can’t even change its own terms of service.”

Even if a social media approach is guided by solid strategy and directed towards meeting a specific goal, companies should still honestly ask themselves, “are we willing to have open conversations we can’t control? And since we put such a premium on listening, how would we be prepared to use the feedback?”

Of course it can (and should) take an organization several years to re-orient itself around this type of open dialogue, but successful growth and change almost always begins with tough questions.

And if you can define the strength of your brand by how other people describe it, some will say that we never had control to begin with.

Sorry about that, here’s the correct link:

http://eaaindia.wordpress.com/

Best,
Rob