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USAID Book Club: A Farewell to Alms

Posted by  on Friday, September 21st 2012     

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As part of USAID’s Fall Semester, we will host an online book club for our readers this fall. The Impact Blog will post suggestions from our senior experts at USAID to suggest a book on important issues in international development.  We’ll provide you and your book club with the reading suggestions and discussion questions, and you tell us what you think! Our fall reading list will  explore solutions to the most pressing global challenges in international development—mobile solutions, poverty, hunger, health, economic growth, and agriculture.

This week’s choice comes from: USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah

Dr. Rajiv Shah serves as the 16th Administrator of USAID and leads the efforts of more than 8,000 professionals in 80 missions around the world.

Dr. Rajiv Shah serves as the 16th Administrator of USAID and leads the efforts of more than 8,000 professionals in 80 missions around the world.

Book: A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, by Gregory Clark

Synopsis: The source of human progress has long been a subject of debate. What makes rich countries rich, and poor countries poor? In the this book,  University of California, Davis, Economist Gregory Clark offers a provocative take on the age-old question, arguing that it was culture—rather than geography, natural resources or centuries of exploitation—that left some parts of the globe behind.

According to Clark, relative stability and effective workforces enabled certain societies to take better advantage of the Industrial Revolution’s new technologies and opportunities. Those countries with lax systems or undisciplined workers lost ground, and stayed there.

Clark’s book is skeptical of whether the poorest parts of the world will ever achieve real progress. For development professionals, it offers up a challenge to the belief that outside intervention can help bridge the vast economic divide between rich and poor.

Review:  This book impacted me because it shows how for hundreds, or even thousands, of years basic economic progress was largely stagnant. You didn’t have rapid compound increases in living standards until the Industrial Revolution when some countries and some societies got on a pathway towards growth – towards better health, longer life expectancy, higher income per person and more investment in education. Others remained on a slower-moving pathway.

That great divergence, and the study of it, is at the core of development. It is that divergence that we try to learn from and correct for. We define success in development as helping communities and countries get on that pathway towards improved health and education, and greater wealth creation.

I didn’t choose this book because I think it is the definitive story on development, but rather because I share its focus on core economic growth as the driver of divergence.

I disagree where Clark concludes that some societies failed to take advantage of the availability of modern technology because their cultures were antagonistic to development. With the right conditions in place, you can unlock a formidable work ethic from a range of different cultures and communities. The last 50 years have shown us that. By investing in local capacity and local institutions, we can leave a legacy of economic infrastructure, strong and capable leadership, and transparent, effective public and private sector institutions.

USAID’s partnerships in Latin America helped country after country develop strong institutions. The same can be said for South Korea. Unfortunately, there have been examples where aid and assistance have been provided in a manner that was not as sensitive to building lasting local capacity and institutions. This is true for all partners, not just our Agency. That’s why we’ve launched a program called USAID Forward, to refocus on working in a way that will create durable and sustained progress.

Administrator Shah is on Twitter at @rajshah. You  can also “Ask the Administrator” your questions on Crowdhall. 

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree with Clark that some societies failed to take advantage of the availability of modern technology because their cultures were antagonistic to development?

2. The Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Solow has said Clark does not take into account how institutional factors, such as cronyism, inequitable taxation and ineffectual government cripple development. What role do you think these institutional factors play?

3. Clark challenges how effective outside intervention can be in helping poor nations progress. Do you agree?

4. Regardless of why some nations have fallen behind, how do you think they can bridge that gap today?

5. Has your world view changed after reading this book and how?

Get Involved: Use the comments section of this blog post to share your answers, or tweet them to us at #fallsemester

Powering Energy to Face the Challenges of World Hunger

Posted by  on Thursday, June 21st 2012     

Feeding the world’s hungry and access to energy are typically viewed as separate development goals. But it is becoming abundantly clear to those of us here in Rio de Janiero at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (RIO+20) that they are intertwined. The facts speak for themselves:

  • An estimated 850 million people go to bed each night hungry;
  • The world population grows by 77 million people each year, and by 2050 the population will be an estimated nine billion;
  • To meet this demand, global food production must increase by 70 percent by 2050.

PoweringAg, USAID’s new Grand Challenge, invites ideas and innovation on powering up energy in developing countries. The effort is expected to help women with 43 percent of the world’s farmers estimated to be female.

To feed nine billion people, we will need to increase food production on the land already growing today’s food supply, and access to sustainable energy is key.

The magnitude of the challenge is illustrated in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) where only fourteen percent of people in rural areas have access to electricity.  Post-harvest losses have risen as high as fifty percent in SSA, but with the introduction of cold storage, refrigerated transport, and business models to store produce could dramatically reduce levels of hunger. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Video of the Week

Posted by  on Monday, June 18th 2012     

You’re invited to join Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development, which is a multi-year initiative focused on promoting affordable, clean energy solutions for farmers and agribusinesses throughout the developing world. Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development supports market-driven approaches that link modern energy service providers with farmers, processors, input suppliers, and traders. These approaches aim to further integrate clean energy technologies in the agricultural sector to increase production, employ new value-added processing techniques, and reduce post-harvest loss. This Energy Grand Challenge for Development was launched last week at the Frontiers in Development conference and includes an online ideation community that you’re encouraged to join through www.PoweringAg.org– find it by clicking on “Join the Community.”

Powering Agriculture: A Grand Challenge for Development is implemented under the Grand Challenge for Development program that invites innovators everywhere to apply science, technology, and creative business models to address obstacles in the path of human development. USAID and its partners – the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Duke Energy, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) – seek to catalyze a movement of solvers to identify clean energy solutions to intensify the agriculture sector, enhance food security, and decouple food production from the use of fossil fuels. For more information on how to join the community now, share ideas, review the pre-solicitation notice, and apply for a grant starting July 12th, please visit: www.PoweringAg.org.

Launch of New Grand Challenge – The Agriculture/Energy Nexus

Posted by  on Friday, June 8th 2012     

Today 1.4 billion people lack access to clean energy.  The impact of this limited energy access is particularly pronounced in the agricultural sectors of developing countries, where three out of four people living in poverty have livelihoods connected to agriculture.  The lack of modern energy services impacts every aspect from farm to market – from irrigation and harvesting to processing and storage.

The twelve members of the Wanawake Kwanza (Women First) growers association in Maza village, Morogoro, Tanzania. Photo: USAID Tanzania

On June 12, 2012, USAID and its partners will launch ‘Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge‘.  This global effort will increase clean energy access and support economic growth in the developing world through finding and scaling effective, clean energy solutions for farmers and agri-businesses.  Success will result in enhanced food security and increased economic resiliency in the host communities.

Visit PoweringAg.org to learn more, join the forum, watch the launch event and ultimately, to submit proposals.

USAID and Partners Kick Off LAUNCH: Energy

Posted by  on Thursday, November 10th 2011     

There is something incredibly powerful about working alongside innovators and entrepreneurs who are on the brink of deploying products and technologies with the potential to solve longstanding development problems.  As USAID and our partners prepare to kick off the LAUNCH: Energy Forum this Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, we are eagerly awaiting that exact opportunity.

The LAUNCH experience is challenging and affirming all at once.  For many of us, it is a singular reminder of why we chose to work in international development or on global environmental sustainability issues: to do our own small part in solving humanity’s most critical problems.  In joining together to form LAUNCH, USAID, NASA, the U.S. Department of State, and Nike, Inc. declared our intention to work together toward that very goal.

As anyone who travels or works regularly in the developing world knows, access to clean, sustainable, and affordable sources of energy is one of the 21st century’s largest development challenges.  Even basic levels of access to power can make a substantial impact on the challenges faced by off-grid communities.  With basic access to energy, school children can study at home at night, health clinics can refrigerate vaccines, and consumers can charge the household appliances and devices that make daily life more productive and convenient.  Through LAUNCH, we will showcase and support over the next six months some of the most promising technologies and programs that take on important parts of this energy access challenge.  LAUNCH has convened a truly impressive group of energy innovators.  They include, for example:

  • A micro/mini-grid solution for underserved communities that utilizes modular battery storage technology, energy management intelligence, and a pre-payment model (“Gram Power”);
  • An economical fuel cell for developing country markets that allows battery charging in cooking pits or fires, offering an affordable way for off-grid consumers to charge cell phones and power household lighting (“Point Source Power”);
  • A rural refrigeration system for commercial cold-storage applications in off-grid and partially electrified areas of developing countries (“Promethean Power Systems”).

You can see the full list of the LAUNCH: Energy innovators and descriptions of their innovations.

We are equally excited about the bright and diverse group of people who have joined the LAUNCH Council, which will advise the innovators.  During the Forum, the innovators will engage in three days of collaboration with the Council, a world-class group representing the business, investment, international development, policy, engineering, science, communications, and sustainability sectors.  We have assembled the Council to give individualized advice to the innovators and to form a network that can help accelerate their progress in the coming months. Check out profiles of the LAUNCH Council members.

We know this weekend will be an invigorating experience for our partners, the innovators, and the Council members alike.  We look forward to both the intensive collaboration this weekend and to the subsequent work through our “LAUNCH Accelerator” of helping advance some of the world’s most promising energy innovations.

Please follow the LAUNCH: Energy Forum this Friday and Saturday (November 11 and 12) and participate right along with us.  Portions of the Forum will be viewable live from www.launch.org, where you can also learn more about LAUNCH.

Calling All Energy Innovators! USAID and Partners Issue “LAUNCH: Energy” Challenge

Posted by  on Friday, August 19th 2011     

USAID and its partners in the LAUNCH program (NASA, the State Department, and NIKE, Inc.) have issued our LAUNCH: Energy challenge statement, formally beginning the third module of the LAUNCH program.  While previous program modules in 2010 and early 2011 focused on water and health, in this module LAUNCH is searching for entrepreneurial efforts focused on the development of innovative products, services, and programs in the energy sector. We are specifically seeking transformative innovations to improve access to energy, energy efficiency, and/or energy technologies, for both the developed and developing worlds.  We believe that USAID’s engagement in LAUNCH: Energy is timely.  Expanding access to cleaner energy is one of the most pressing development challenges of the 21st century, and we know that disruptive thinking, programs, and businesses are required to tackle this challenge.

A solar-home solutions company in Tanzania. Photo by Ashden Awards

LAUNCH’s mission is to search for, showcase, and support innovators poised for potential large-scale impact on humanity’s most pressing sustainability challenges.  LAUNCH will select a group of approximately ten energy innovators from around the world to attend the LAUNCH: Energy Forum at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be held November 10-13, 2011.  During the Forum, LAUNCH Innovators will present their solutions to the LAUNCH Council, which includes leading figures from the business, international development, policy, engineering, science, communications, and sustainability sectors.  The Forum sessions are designed to provide targeted advice to Innovators on their business and program challenges and to identify future opportunities.  LAUNCH Innovators will also receive about four months of individually tailored technical assistance from the LAUNCH team and its resource partners.

USAID and our partners would love to have your help in casting the net as widely as possible in our search for leading edge energy innovators.  We encourage you to circulate the challenge statement within your networks. The challenge statement, application instructions, and background information on LAUNCH are all available here (pdf 240kb).  The challenge statement is an open, public call for applications; individuals and organizations in the for-profit, not-for-profit, university/research, and social enterprise sectors are all eligible.  The application period is currently open and will close in mid-September; you can apply directly through the platform on the LAUNCH website.

The LAUNCH team and the Office of Science and Technology at USAID are very excited about our role in the program and about its potential to accelerate transformative innovations that will drive development progress.  We have been continually surprised and invigorated by what we have learned through our work in shaping and running LAUNCH, and this LAUNCH-derived body of knowledge influences much of our work on a day-to-day basis.  As a result, we cannot wait to see what surprises and opportunities LAUNCH: Energy will present for everyone involved!

Please watch this blog and www.launch.org in the weeks before the LAUNCH: Energy Forum (early November) for updates on the Innovators chosen for the Forum and on our exciting plans for LAUNCH: Energy.

USAID Shows Youth the Benefits of Conserving Energy

Posted by  on Monday, January 31st 2011     

By: Olha Myrtsalo, USAID/Ukraine

Saving energy is key to any country’s solid economic future and to its future as an independent country.  Teaching this generation of youth to take ownership over energy-saving best practices proves paramount in ensuring Ukraine’s sustainable energy future. Ukraine’s dependence on imports from Russia for most of its energy supply makes energy conservation especially important. In the country, where 70 percent of heat from the apartment buildings escapes through windows, walls doors and bad heating systems, USAID believes that that every Ukrainian can contribute to saving heat by taking just small steps toward reducing their energy footprint.

USAID’s Municipal Heating Reform project, together with the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services and Ukrainian celebrities, announced the Energy Efficiency Season to make energy efficiency fashionable and inspire Ukrainian youth to demonstrate responsible attitudes toward energy consumption.

Throughout the course of the Energy Efficiency Season campaign, four gala-concerts and TV programs (all incorporating the word “teplo” or “heat” in Ukrainian): Teplo Fashion, Teplo Feng Shui, Teplo City and Teplo Ukraine will feature tips on how to get warm and keep warm with simple and low-cost energy saving measures. The events will promote heating efficiency through fashion events and give celebrities a platform from which they can share ideas on energy conservation drawing from their personal experience.

Ukrainian singer Alyosha, who represented Ukraine at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, explains why she decided to join USAID’s Energy Efficiency Season campaign. Photo Credit: USAID Municipal Heating Project

Sarah Wines, the USAID Acting Mission Director, observed, “If each of us begins to make small changes in our lives, we will all contribute to saving energy. And if each of us tells our friends, our parents, our brothers and sisters that they too can make a difference by just changing their habits, we will help this country achieve energy independence and make it a leader in the world and in Europe on how to live in a new era of lower energy consumption and clean energy.”]

According to Olga Romanyuk, the Deputy Minister of Housing and Communal Services, decreasing Ukraine’s dependency on imported fuel is a key task for the Ukrainian Government.  She said that this can only be achieved by implementing energy saving technologies and educating the youth on how to conserve energy.

Kabul Goes Green

Posted by  on Wednesday, November 10th 2010     

Submitted by Abby Sugrue

Mayor Muhammad Yunus Nawandish of Kabul needed a creative solution.  He wanted to build street lamps to light the darkened city, and provide safety and security to residents and visitors.  However, with limited power generation and distribution systems, an innovative approach was needed.

Mayor Muhammad Yunus Nawandish of Kabul Photo Credit: Abby Sugrue/USAID

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked closely with the Mayor’s office and Sustainable Energy Services Afghanistan (SESA) on a pilot program to use renewable energy to provide street lights to the 6 million people living within the city limits.  With over 300 days of sun, Kabul City is an ideal place to explore the usage of the sun to power its streets.  These solar street lights will not only provide more security and raise community morale, they will also support economic development by encouraging new nighttime commerce, and increasing civilian movement and emergency response.

The pilot program broke ground on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 in a roadside ceremony in the heart of Kabul, near the Jumhoriat National Specialized Hospital.  The ceremony was covered my local media and attended by Mayor Nawandish and Deputy Mayor Abdul Ahad, as well as senior U.S. officials.

“Lighting is essential to improving the quality of life throughout Afghanistan,” Mayor Nawandish said.  “I’m proud that Kabul is leading the way down the path to renewable energy for our country.”

The street lights are expected to be installed and operational by the end of the year and will include 28 stand-alone Solar LED street poles, providing light in one of the most critical commercial corridors.

This project represents a true collaboration between the United States Government, the Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Mayor of Kabul City, and the Kabul City Working Group, a cross-cutting advisory panel dedicated to the issues and concern of Kabul.  This partnership will continue as further project sites are being identified throughout Kabul.

Greenhouses Changing Lives in Gaza

Posted by  on Friday, October 1st 2010     

Submitted by Matt Johnson

USAID West Bank and Gaza recently delivered and installed the first set of greenhouses to residents in the Gaza strip.  The greenhouses are helping compensate for the ongoing shortage of fresh vegetables and produce in the region. They are also helping residents by providing extra income.

Mariam Mohammed Abu Jara, a 57-year old widower who lives with her three sons and two daughters, is one of the recipients of the new greenhouses.  As the greenhouse was being installed, she said “I used to plant corn and strawberries on my land and the income was barely enough for my family’s expenses. Now, I’m going to plant all types of vegetables in the greenhouse, it will be more than enough for my family and I’m going to sell the rest of the crops in the market.”

Mariam Mohammad Abu Jarad during greenhouse installation Photo Credit: Jamila Al Za'anin, Save the Children Gaza.

Many residents like Abu Jarad have struggled to make ends meet, but with the installation of the new USAID greenhouses, she and her family will benefit from access to more regular income and better sustenance.  .

USAID, through the Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion project (EDIP), designed the greenhouses to suit local conditions to meet the pressing humanitarian needs.  They also identified beneficiaries to receive the greenhouses, which were selected based on plot quality, farming skills, marginalization, family size, and income

Through the EDIP project, USAID has installed 86 greenhouses in Gaza.

USAID/Ukraine Promotes Energy Efficiency Month at National Municipal Forum

Posted by  on Wednesday, September 15th 2010     

Submitted by Erin Concors

At a recent municipal forum event, mayors and government officials from across Ukraine thanked USAID for its work in reforming Ukraine’s heating sector. Hundreds of local and national government workers flocked to the Sixth Ukrainian Municipal Forum on Sept. 9 and 10 in Yalta. Janina Jaruzelski, Director of the USAID Regional Mission for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, gave opening remarks, launching the Energy Efficiency Month awareness campaign implemented by the USAID Municipal Heating Reform Project.

An ad from the Energy Efficiency Campaign in Kiev. Translation reads: You don’t know how to warm up?" Further text reads, "Close the door and the entryway -- all apartments will warm up by 2 degrees Celsius. Save Heat, Save Ukraine!"Photo Credit: USAID/Ukraine

Since February 2009, the USAID project has initiated systematic changes in Ukraine’s heating sector at the national and municipal level, and for end users. The project works closely with the Government of Ukraine and 36 municipalities across the country. Supporting the effort, the project last year launched a “Save Heat – Save Ukraine” information campaign on energy efficiency. Through public service announcements, billboards and media, the campaign encourages citizens to take an active personal role in energy conservation. It includes programs for schoolchildren in how to conserve heat and make their schools and homes more energy efficient. The campaign also promotes forming condominium owner associations as a way for citizens to better manage their utility costs.

USAID’s work in energy efficiency has very practical implications for Ukrainian cities like Kramatorsk, whose Deputy Mayor, Stanislav Zakharov, thanked USAID for its support during his presentation. Like hundreds of Ukrainian towns and cities, providing efficient district heating has been a major problem in this eastern Ukrainian municipality due to its crumbling infrastructure and lack of funding for upgrading facilities, which were built in the 1950s and 60s. The city of approximately 200,000 residents is working with USAID to develop a municipal plan to improve energy efficiency, and recently completed a comprehensive audit of its heating system, which proposed solutions for energy efficiency and service quality improvement. Based on the audit’s recommendations, the city and USAID will co-finance and modernize the municipal heating system in one of the city districts. This modernization will make about 100 residential and public buildings warmer and more comfortable for the district’s 40,000 residents – while at the same time, saving up to 15 percent of its energy consumption.

“USAID is providing support to strengthen the legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks necessary to improve heating systems, better regulate tariffs and implement measures to provide an effective social safety net, to ensure that the reform process does not leave needy Ukrainians literally out in the cold,” Jaruzelski said in her remarks.

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