Sustainable Development Perspectives

Partnerships lead to measurable impacts for Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa

"Go where the need is greatest and the help is smallest... EcoFarmer will transform agriculture... We must use technology to address every day challenges of ordinary people... This is what I mean, when I say, 'just add a little innovation, to what you do best.' "- Mr Strive Masiyiwa, Executive Chairman and Founder of Econet Wireless Group and Board Member of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) I am a strong Social Media follower of some of Afrika's most iconic leaders and transformers. But I must say as I read the words of Mr Masiyiwa on his Faceboook page recently, the spectre of highly risky smallholder characterized by low private investment is slowly coming to an end through ground breaking innovation, sustainable relationships and strategic partnerships.  The Econet Wireless Zimbabwe website on the 26th of September revealed news of a "weather-indexed drought insurance service" developed by Econet Wireless. The product,...

Hello Team! The Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is holding learning opportunities on Web 2.0 and Social Media for Development across ACP countries. They are just completing one in Zimbabwe at the Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) and I have been privileged to be part of this one, the first in Zimbabwe and a really exciting opportunity. Probably two or more will run in Zimbabwe so keep watching this space  for more information on Web 2.0 for development in your country! From my participation in the course I have just learned that the web is gradually "Going Barefoot." Great News!!! So closer are we to saying "bye-bye" to the technical jargon and complexities of "sailing in the digital sea of the internet." Through Web 2.0 and Social Media, not only the "webmasters" or "expert programmers" can publish content on the internet. Even a young black, barefoot boy sitting un...

In my own Words, Barefoot means,  "simplifying  every complex and  exclusive  system to  solicit  and  harness  the contributable  value  from a rich and  broad  range of stakeholders (for Afrika particularly the  vast rural )… It is breaking the walls of class, language, race and even geographical location and creating new platforms of freedom, rebuilding confidence even in societies’ ‘least’ sophisticated groups. It is reengaging, collaborating, rebuilding capacity of rural Afrika to challenge contemporary knowledge based on the rich Afrikan experience and wisdom.”   The basis of the Barefoot Principle is: "Knowledge Exists only at the Point of Action and Decision Making" Now, about BEAT In 2009, a long conceived idea of pursuing a “Holistic Afrikan Education Model” took its first step to life by the establishment of the Barefoot Education for Afrika Trust (BEAT). This was the beginning of ...

While the use of the internet is spreading like a virus across the globe and the digital space is growing larger and larger by the day statistics released by Google a couple of years ago revealed that about 5% of information on Google is from Africa. Of the 5%, half is only from South Africa. The remaining 2.5% is dominantly from Francophone countries while the remaining 1% is shared among the rest of Africa. While, it may be 5 or so years since this was spoken, I know the situation has not changed much. There may be a lot of information on the internet about Africa, but very little of this information is from Afrika. Even the spelling of "Africa" is not "Afrikan" according to my good old Professor, Prof Mandi Rukuni. So who will tell AFRIKA'S OWN STORY? The little amount if information about Afrika that we will find on the internet is not even in vernacular languages. If technological advancement especially through the web is a source of information; i...