News & Updates

Climbing out of the Aid Trap

Columbia Business School
Ideas at Work
November 06, 2009

Glenn Hubbard discusses how an old plan can become a new solution to help the world’s poorest nations lift themselves out of poverty — by putting business first.

"...aid, though well-intentioned, actually hurts the poorest countries because it prevents the growth of local business sectors. History shows that local business development has been the source of prosperity throughout the world...

..billions of dollars of aid began flowing to Africa. But despite 40 years of aid, ...African nations [remain] poor. Clearly the aid system has not been effective."

Full article here

Monday November 9, 2009

MoneyMaker Pumps In Cambodia

Congratulations to Paula Shirk and everyone at Brooklyn Bridge to Cambodia. Paula saw our MoneyMaker pumps and thought they could be useful to the people in her adopted son's village. The first batch of test pumps proved successful so now BB2C is promoting MoneyMaker pumps as route to self-sufficiency!

Friday October 30, 2009

So Much Food. So Much Hunger.
New York Times
Sunday, September 20, 2009

The world celebrated the achievements of Dr. Norman Borlaug, the leader of the "Green Revolution" credited with saving millions from starvation in India and Pakistan.

This article points out that despite the success of the Green Revolution, more people are hungry today than ever. From 1970 to 1990, food supply grew faster than the population. But productivity has decreased since then. The UN estimates that one billion people are hungry.

The consequences have been dire in Sub-Saharan Africa where the gains of the Green Revolution have been hard to reproduce. Among other problems, irrigation—which was key to the Green Revolution—is relatively scarce in Africa.
Read the full article here .

Wednesday September 30, 2009

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (UN), irrigation increases yields of most crops by 100 to 400%, but in Sub Saharan Africa, only 4% of cropland is irrigated, yet there are large untapped reserves of groundwater.

Studies of small-scale irrigation solutions found that irrigation improved incomes as well as diet, nutrition and health.

Read the report here.

Monday July 28, 2008

Adoption of Technology

KickStart estimates that it will take 12 to 14 years for our tools to reach a "tipping point"  (where the sales suddenly take off and begin to sell profitably).

How does this compare to, say, color TVs, cell phones, or internet?  Check out this chart from The Wall Street Journal

Monday April 28, 2008

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)

Water and Food Security

According to the FAO, irrigation increases yields of most crops by 100 to 400%, and increased agricultural productivity is a key to reducing poverty in many developing countries.

Monday April 28, 2008

Associated Press.MSNBC

$568 Billion in Aid to Africa with Little to Show for it.

This is an interesting article that shows what KickStart is up against.  Unimaginably bad roads, greed, graft, and "aid" based more on what "we" want to give instead of what is actually needed. 

See this sidebar for examples of when aid goes wrong.

Monday April 28, 2008