We all Stood Up, now which pathway from here?

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The Stand Up event is still getting a good deal of press, at least on the Stand Up and related websites, but its time to move on. First though, I am going to take some time to reassess this effort and what I have learned.

I have learned a great deal since starting on this pathway, more than I can actually absorb, so some resources have been put aside until I could get back to them. One of the positive aspects of the World Wide Web is that any one particular resource will most likely contain a plethora of additional resources. An original source for this effort was the work of Jeffery Sachs' UN Millennium Project. Sachs on Common Wealth was found on Chandan Sapkota's blog which in turn deals with economic growth, development, and public policy in the developing countries, so it fits nicely with the focus of this blog. Chandan's blog provides a number of Interesting links and some insightful ideas with his idea of Intervention Diagnostic. I still prefer an analytical approach to an emotional based one.

I am still optimistic. I still believe in basic liberal democratic free enterprise as laying out the path most likely able to take us to a new and better millennium. Alex Tabarrok of my favorite economics blog Marginal Revolution, doesn't mention the Millennium Development Goals in this TED video, but does cite the growth of China and India and touches on MDG2 global education and MDG8 trade.

• Alex Tabarrok on how ideas trump crises | Video on TED.com

I maintain my basic belief in an entrepreneurial approach though with a strong social aspect, realizing this is an oxymoron to many on both ends of the political spectrum. Still there are those who, even if they criticize current policy and practices, remain capitalists, perhaps not unfettered uber-capitalists, but at least they still believe in free enterprise, despite the latest economic crisis.

The challenge is that if we still believe in free enterprise after the worst recession since the Great Depression, then we need to find better ways of using the tools of capitalism. This TEDTalk video features Geoff Mulgan: Post-crash, investing in a better world.

Frogdesign champion Tim Leberecht provides additional pathways for the Future of Capitalism through Meaning-Driven Business.

One example of this is Umar Haique who argues that we need to re-boot capitalism. And like Reinhard Marx, he focuses on a re-definition of “capital.” His concept of “constructive capitalism,” however, is more radical than the social market economy solution Marx proposes.

Haique demands that 21st century economics fundamentally rethink “what capital isn’t – and what capital really is.” “The value equation of industrial-era capitalism was toxically imbalanced. Why is industrial era business so destructive – why does it slash and burn rainforests, endanger entire species, vaporize culture and community, marginalize the poor and disadvantaged, and erode our health and vitality? Because none of those have value in an industrial economy: none are capitalized. So the bean counters of the world are free to plunder and ruin them – because, economically, they actually don’t exist.

Tim Leberecht work provides inspiration for some, like Nathaniel Whittemore, to actually see a Rebirth of Capitalism? Social Entrepreneurship blogger Nathaniel Whittemore notes that, "In the social entrepreneurship field there's a huge push to proclaim a self-fulfilling prophecy of a capitalist rebirth that puts social and environmental value back into the heart of the equation."

Where social entrepreneurship is heading is discussed by Heidi Neck, Candida Brush and Elaine Allen in the The Landscape Of Social Entrepreneurship(pdf.)

Entrepreneurship has often been cited as the engine of economic growth (Reynolds, Storey, & Westhead, 1994). Today, economic growth is still necessary, but no longer sufficient. Social entrepreneurship is the engine of positive, systemic change that will alter what we do, how we do it, and why it matters.

FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition

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My last post dealt with the global efforts of the FAO to address the global challenge of world hunger and malnutrition. I took my usual public policy wonk approach that the organizational infrastructure and business-like strategy were as important as social relevancy and moral inspiration. The ability of the FAO to conduct evaluations of past activities at an in depth level was as important as its laudable intention to be more proactive in its future endeavors.

There is another level of discussion that goes beyond the efforts of the FAO and United Nation's efforts to the basic philosophy behind the best means of addressing these problems. My inspiration once again comes from the End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA group forums. How we see the problem will influence how we see any potential solutions. One of group's members used a famous bet to frame the debate.

The ongoing debate centers around a bet between Noble Prize winning scientist Paul Ehrlich and the famous American economist Julian Simon. The metric of the bet was the price that five metals reached on the Chicago Stock Exchange in the following decade. Ehrlich claimed that population growth would raise the demand and the price of metals. The metal lost value, and Ehrlich lost that particular bet.

Paul Ehrlich wrote the controversial best-seller the Population Bomb in 1968 which made projections about the catastrophic consequences of population explosion. Ehrlich was trained as an entomologist and has an affinity for systems and seeing the big picture. Ehrlich follows in the tradition of English philosopher Thomas Malthus, who in the eighteenth century posited "his hypothesis that (unchecked) population growth always exceeds the growth of means of subsistence" creating a Maltusian catastrophe. His "Essay on the Principle of Population" also influenced Darwin's theories.

Losing that particular wager did not stop the debate, the question is whether Ehrilich's work on population is still relevant. Taking the affirmative, the blog Yale Environment 360 discusses the matter in The Population Bomb: Has It Been Defused?

The Ehrlichs are sometimes ridiculed because Paul’s original book predicted hundreds of millions of deaths from famine in the 1980s, when we were bailed out by the Green Revolution. But they are right to question the new orthodoxy that technological fixes will always save the day. For myself, I fear that when the Wall Street Journal talks about a revival of Malthusian fears, it reflects a tendency to excuse those guilty of overconsumption, while instead blaming the poor for their poverty and our planetary predicament.

Fred Pearce
Environment consultant for New Scientist magazine

Others are still supportive of Simon, for example Jeffery Goldberg's article in the Atlantic, The Population Bomb That Bombed.

Ehrlich is now leading the Center for Conservation Biology research at Stanford University in California, and still holds to his central thesis: the earth is nearing its limit of sustainability of human life. Ehrlich's current work was featured in Wired Magazine back in March of this year, Population Bomb Author Tackles Cultural Evolution.

My own personal view is an attempt to find a middle path that incorporates both perspectives. Defining the problem as Ehrlich does, but recognizing the viability of Simon's arguments. This blog continues to be against an unfettered free market approach to economics and at the same time support social entrepreneurial efforts incorporating effective business discipline. Ehrlich proposes a Fix For Next Extinction: Educate Women. Where I come somewhat closer to siding with Simon is in applying the solutions. Finding that middle path, however, continues to be an ongoing debate with myself.

Related Posts -

FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger

FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long

Change Initiative to Empower Adolescent Girls Investing in the Girl Effect

Social responsibility,seeking the good

Social responsibility,seeking the good

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This blog has expressed a greater affinity with "best" business practices than might be expected by many of a site dedicated to as progressive of a cause as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. A growing belief that governments, at all levels, are not able to innovate quickly and deeply enough has also led to a greater affinity with libertarian concepts, at least on a tactical level. The main mission remains, regardless of frustrations with old ways to dealing with the world's problems, progressive. Progressive though is a loaded word and there will be a large contingency that will take issue with my claiming that label if for no other reason than I claim that a site that supports free enterprise can be progressive.

This blog has posted on the position that big business should and can make ethical investments. Trouble is that we still worry, and arguably need to, when they do.

An earlier post on the Girl Effect revealed an intense discussion between -Erin Erlenborn of ONE, two commenters who expressed concern over the involvement of Nike, and a Nike representative.

On another blog, I argued for taking lessons from some of the management practices of the DuPont Company. The post also reveals again my bias towards MIT as a change-agent organization. But the PERI - Political Economy Research Institute lists DuPont on its Toxic 100 Table, raising the question whether DuPont is making a valid effort in walking the walk and not just talking.

Id21 takes a balanced view on ensuring big business social responsibility.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a badge of respectability for major companies. But voluntary initiatives to promote socially responsible business practices can never replace protective legislation. Nevertheless, financial incentives would increase their effectiveness and improved inspectorates could encourage small and medium sized firms to improve their labour practices.

So it seems that both the carrot and the stick are needed in working to get businesses to support the Millennium Development Goals.

diigo tags: peri, politics, economics, research, sustainability

The "business" of delivering global health services

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The Millennium Development Goal No. 6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases is a major logistical challenge even if the Millennium Project promises are kept.

I lean toward favoring systematic approaches to the challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. A primary resource for creating both the systems and the personnel to run those systems is MIT. I have posted on this previously. MIT goes beyond the narrow focus of individual disciplines and combines them into effective change-agent entities . One combination is is the Sloan School of Business Management and Global Health Care.

GHD Blog » “MIT G-Lab: Global Health Delivery” to provide technical and counseling support to organizations in Africa

MIT Sloan School, GHD Project and MIT teams have made great progress in defining ways to work together to improve health care delivery, including training the cadre of leaders in the field.

The Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Global Health Delivery (G-Lab GHD), the new version of MIT Sloan’s flagship international course, epitomizes the value of this collaboration as it brings together the expertise of MIT faculty with GHD’s experience in implementation.

There is also the need to find creative ways to work with limited resources to make them go further. Below are two doctors, both featured in TED talks, telling of their experiences of dealing with health care issues in the developing countries. Dr. Ernest Madu, talking about the creative tactics he uses to bring good health care to poor communities in Jamaica.

Dr. Ernest Madu: Creative ways to bring health care to the poorest
Dr. Ernest Madu runs the Heart Institute of the Caribbean in Jamaica, where he proves that -- with smart design and creative technical choices -- it's possible to offer world-class health care in the developing world. And it takes nothing more than re-imagining the hospital. Watch this talk >>

#Dr. Seyi Oyesola: Rich hospital, poor hospital
Dr. Seyi Oyesola takes a searing look at health care in underdeveloped countries. His photo tour of a Nigerian teaching hospital -- all low-tech hacks and donated supplies -- drives home the challenge of doing basic health care in poor countries. Watch this talk >>

Diigo tags: glab, MIT, global health, mdg, millennium development goals entrepreneurship, MIT, global

Ending World Poverty Through Entrepreneurial Efforts

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My progressive side just wrote about the efforts of Norway's Government Pension fund to flex its ethical muscles against big businesses such as Wal-Mart. I should make clear though that I see still see a free enterprise as the best, though not only means, of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Now I am not referring to the United Nations reports, but to the on-the-ground changes in the countries where they matter. I am also definitely not a Milton Freidman unfettered free marketer either. I have gained a great deal of respect for the discipline, innovation and inspiration of business people and believe that they should be incorporated into the efforts of social-entrepreneurs. I need to do a more expanded post on social-entrepreneurship some time soon.

One particular resource combining a no-nonsense business mindset with social ideals has been The Entrepreneurial Mind. Dr. Jeff Cornwall's latest contribution in this particular area was on 7/23/08 Entrepreneurship as Tool to End World Poverty. I am paraphrasing his post here.

The Social Equity Venture Fund (SEVEN), funded through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, just launched a competition offering $50,000 in funds awarded for the best ideas to develop new indicators and models for investment in emerging market small and medium-sized enterprises. This competition, and its results, are one concrete step in demonstrating the power of entrepreneurship, and business, as a sustainable solution to world poverty. Here is a link to the submission site. which is up until November 15. The second phase of wiki-based collaboration takes place between November 16 and December 15.

Small world, Ayesha Lakhani, who was one of those who introduced me to the Endpoverty by 2015 in India project, left a comment.