Daiki "Taji" Tajima

Location / Country: Kigali, Rwanda
Organization: Africa Entrepreneurship Collective

SONG: "This summer, I did my summer internship at African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC). AEC is an American NGO which supports entrepreneurs in Rwanda and Tanzania. AEC was founded by Ms. Julienne Oyler (CEO, Yale MBA) and Ms. Sara Leedom (COO, Oxford MBA) in 2012. Under AEC’s umbrella, there are three organizations; Inkomoko, the affiliate for providing business consulting in Rwanda, AEC Rwanda Trustee, which provides low-cost loans to entrepreneurs by collaboration with KIVA, and Anza, the affiliate for providing business consulting in Tanzania. Strictly speaking, I did my summer internship at Inkomoko among these three organizations.”

“Supporting entrepreneurs in Rwanda has three different stages. For the first stage, AEC/Inkomoko staffs provide workshops for training basic business skills such as setting vision, mission and goals, building effective team, and basic accounting. During the first stage, AEC/Inkomoko staffs also conducts initial meetings with the clients. For the second stage, AEC/Inkomoko staffs analyze the business of entrepreneurs in terms of sales and marketing, operation, people, finance and accounting. During the second stage, AEC/Inkomoko staffs also deliver the business assessment reports with recommendations to the clients. For the third stage, AEC/Inkomoko staffs set the priority of the consulting service based on the feedbacks from the clients. During the third stage, AEC/Inkomoko staffs also provide actual consulting services such as developing market strategies, making financial projections in order to get external funding from banks, providing advanced accounting workshops, etc. As a summer internship member, I mainly involved in the second stage, i.e. delivering the business assessment reports. “

Responsibilities & Accomplishments

“I was in charge of supporting four Rwandan entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs are chosen by Bank of Kigali’s entrepreneurship support project. Under this project, the eight winners among fifty entrepreneurs will be provided the interest-free loans by Bank of Kigali.”

“Although there are many challenges for entrepreneurs in Africa, international organization, governments, and private companies are cooperating each other to unlock the great potential of entrepreneurs in Africa in order to create more jobs and achieve sustainable development of the continent.”

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Conclusion

“My summer internship at African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC) / Inkomoko was an amazing experience for me. I learned a lot from the NGO and people in Rwanda but at the same time I tried to do my best for contributing through supporting clients of AEC through business assessment reports, providing internal training about Japanese economic growth and developing networks with IFC and JICA. I would like to contribute more to the beautiful country, Rwanda, as wells as the amazing African continent after graduating from Fletcher.”

Miran Song

Location / Country: Mbale District, Uganda
Organization: Discipling for Development (D4D)

SONG: "As a Blakeley fellow this past summer, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Mbale District in Uganda as a research intern with Discipling for Development (D4D), a department of The Navigators, an internationally recognized NGO. D4D is a community-based development organization focusing on empowering people in rural villages with sustainable knowledge and skills. Their mission is to help community people grow in their ability to solve their own problems in various aspects of their lives. As a catalyst for development, they assist the community people in identifying the resources they don’t realize that they have and building on those resources for improving their lives. Their approach is unique and sustainable in that it helps people stand on their own feet by taking ownership of the resources, knowledge, and skills that they identify themselves.”

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Internship Goals

“My main goal that I wanted to achieve during my internship was to experience first-hand how sustainable development is being lived out in rural Uganda and to help the D4D team document impact through my research. Other goals included:

• To learn about Ugandan and East African culture

• To actively engage in the communities with development perspective

• To observe how D4D transforms communities

• To document the impact of the D4D projects with a focus on how women in the communities have been empowered by D4D

• To hone facilitation/leadership skills ”

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Responsibilities & Accomplishments

“For the first half of my internship with D4D, I was given the chance to give workshops on the phases of a D4D program to the staff and visitors. The five phases of a D4D program (preparation phase, exploration phase, mobilization phase, empowerment phase, and reproduction phase) have been the foundation for the work of D4D community development. Learning about the phases and teaching on them myself was a good learning opportunity to get a better understanding of the organizational vision and values and enhance my facilitation/leadership skills. I also could learn more deeply about the work of D4D through attending community workshops, trainings, and project follow-up meetings in the villages.

For the second half of my internship, as a research intern, my main task was to do an impact study/research on how poverty has been alleviated and lives have improved in the communities that D4D has been working with. The research was conducted mainly through formal and informal individual interviews and group discussions over the period of one month. Through my research, I was able to get a vivid picture of how the people in the rural villages have been transformed and impacted holistically by D4D over the past three decades. My research focused on areas of environment, agriculture, and health, with a focus on women’s empowerment. “

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Conclusion

“Overall, my internship with D4D was a very rewarding and enriching experience that changed my view of development. Professionally, my experience working with Ugandan locals for 10 weeks dramatically changed my narrow, pre-conceived notion of what development truly means to local beneficiaries, thus helping me refine my definition of development. And through my encounters and interviews with local people in Mbale, I made the conclusion that health issues in Uganda and other Sub-Saharan African countries are what I want to devote my future career to and where my passion lies. Personally, I feel privileged to have been able to develop meaningful relationships with the staff and local people in the villages. I still have much more to learn, but I am sincerely thankful that I got a glimpse into what it means to put myself in those people’s shoes that I am trying to help. I am beyond grateful to the Blakeley Foundation for this incredible, life- changing opportunity that I had this past summer!”

Stephanie Mann

Location / Country: Jakarta, Indonesia
Organization: Millenium Challenge Corporation

MANN: "This summer I worked for three months as the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) intern with Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Millennium Challenge Corporation is a U.S. foreign aid agency with a unique approach to foreign assistance. The MCC Board uses independent and rigorous policy indicators to determine a country’s eligibility for a fixed five-year compact. MCC also requires selected countries to identify their own priorities for achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. The Indonesia Compact entered into force in April 2013 and is currently in its final year. The Government of Indonesia (GoI) established its three development priorities in the fields of procurement modernization (PM), improved community- based health and reduced childhood stunting, as well as environmentally sustainable, low carbon economic growth (GP). As the M&E intern, I worked mostly with the PM project, in addition to some work with the GP project. ”

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PM Project & Mentoring Sub-Activity

“The Procurement Modernization (PM) Project is designed to accelerate the Government’s procurement reform agenda and transform the operation of the public procurement system in Indonesia. The objective of the project is to support the implementation of the procurement function within the GoI by establishing Procurement Service Units (PSUs) resourced with systems, processes, and skilled procurement professionals as per Presidential Regulations No. 54 introduced in 2010. The expected results of building this capacity within the GoI will be cost savings and efficiency improvements on procured goods and services, while assuring their quality satisfies the public need and that the goods and services are delivered to the public as planned. These savings should lead to more efficient provision of goods and services to the economy, potentially enhancing economic growth.”

Impact:

“In order to carry out the implementation fidelity study, I first attended some PwC trainings to make to establish contacts with the mentors that were involved with this activity. After establishing a rapport with the mentors, I set up times to travel with them for their mentoring activities at various PSUs. I traveled with four different mentors to six different PSUs located on three different islands. I conducted 14 standardized, open-ended interviews with sixteen individuals across the six PSUs. The interviews conducted with mentors discussed their general experience with the mentoring program in all their PSUs, with specific experiences from individual PSUs elaborated on occasionally. The other 10 individuals interviewed were various leaders and structural officers from within the PSU. As the intent of this case study was to document how the mentoring was implemented and the impact of mentoring on the organizational development of the PSU, I interviewed the relevant leadership who worked most closely with the mentor.

I compiled my findings from my interviews and mentoring observations in a twenty-five page report that was used for internal review by MCC’s M&E team and the senior technical advisors of PwC.”

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GP Project

“The Green Prosperity (GP) Project promotes environmentally sustainable, low carbon economic growth as set forth in the Government’s medium- to long-term development plans (RPJP and RPJM), the National Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Action Plan (RAN-GRK), and Regional Spatial Plans (RTRW) (each a “Plan”). The GP Project will provide a combination of technical and financial assistance to support rural economic development that raises real incomes of Indonesians in a manner that reduces reliance on fossil fuels, improves land management practices, protects natural capital, and complements efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and environmental degradation. “

Impact:

“I worked with the “Window 2” umbrella project, which involved community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) intended to fund smaller-scale projects that promote enhances management of watersheds and forests to improve the sustainability of renewable energy and/or agriculture investments and support rural livelihoods and economic development.”

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Conclusion

“Taken together the internship with MCC Indonesia was an enriching one where I had the opportunity to build upon my background in Indonesia and enhance my language skills in addition to learning about a vast array of new sustainable development issues and cultivating field research skills. Furthermore, the internship has led an employment opportunity for this year. I will be staying on with MCC as a government consultant focusing on the GP project and continuing to travel out to Indonesia during holiday breaks to help with project site visits and assessments. Considering the prodigious expenses of an international unpaid internship, I could not have afforded this opportunity if it were not for Jerry Blakeley’s generosity with the Blakeley Fellowship. I very much look forward to discussing the projects I had the opportunity to be involved with over the summer and thanking Mr. Blakely in person.”

Dylan Lubbe

Location / Country: Ahmedabad, India
Organization: Centre for Innovation, Incubation, & Entrepreneurship

LUBBE: "In the summer of 2017, I joined the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship as a Strategy Associate. Working vigorously under four initiatives, I gained vast exposure to many startups, industries, ideas and entrepreneurs.”

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Centre for Innovation, Incubation, & Entrepreneurship

“The Indian Institute of Management’s (IIM) Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) helps entrepreneurs turn ideas into viable businesses by incubating, accelerating, mentoring and funding innovative start-ups. CIIE believes that entrepreneurship can bring about disruptive change through ventures across impact areas like energy, environment, agriculture, healthcare and affordable technology.”

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Impact:

The India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP)

“Under this program, selected startups and entrepreneurs were hosted by CIIE and took part in a week long, intense lecture series held by IIM professors. In addition, entrepreneurs would participate in concentrated sessions with CIIE mentors to discuss their businesses and ideas. On behalf of CIIE I advised and mentored at least eight entrepreneurs and startups under the programme. During these sessions, we discussed the challenges faced by these startups, identified growth opportunities and critiqued the business viability and models of the businesses.”

IIMAvericks Initiative

“This program is dedicated to helping graduating MBA students of IIM focus on their business ideas and sustain themselves during the first two-year period of starting up.

I worked particularly closely with two members under this initiative. First Nahulan Pranav, who wants to bypass the traditional method of purchasing fruits and vegetables in India by creating an express delivery service.“

Innovation City

“Innocity” is an on-demand and a customized startup support platform designed by CIIE. Through CIIE, Innocity enables aspiring entrepreneurs to get customized guidance, support and services from relevant professionals, mentors, startup founders, angels and other startup service providers.

Under this initiative, I delivered presentations on Customer Development to Innocity attendees. I took entrepreneurs through various frameworks and tools such as the Business Canvas Model, Lean Model Process, the concept of Minimum Viable Products and the Lean Start Up process to help them validate and refine their ideas and early stage startups.”

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Conclusion

“My experience at CIIE was remarkable and one that I will never forget. Not only have I gained valuable experience, quality learning and an acquisition of many new skills, my work was rewarding and energizing. I really felt that I added value to those with whom I worked with which was a great takeaway.”

Marli Kasdan

Location / Country: Kigali, Rwanda
Organization: Hands of Mothers

Kasdan: "Overall, my internship experience with Hands of Mothers (HOM) was extremely rewarding for me. I learned a lot about development at the local level though the lenses of women’s empowerment in business, capacity building, and project sustainability. In addition, I feel that my work with HOM centered on deliverables and impact to our program participants. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the three cooperatives that HOM supports: Twiyubake, Baho, and Ejo Hazaza. I appreciate and recognize the many challenges they face, and I think that the HOM summer team was able to lay the groundwork for a sustained upward trajectory for each cooperative. My hope is that our team’s focus on capacity building through a series of trainings and workshops and our emphasis on promoting sustainable income generation has put in place the foundation for each cooperative to become independent from HOM and sustainable in the long run.”

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Hands of Mothers

“HOM worked with three women’s cooperatives in Kigali, Rwanda:

• Baho: raises kuroiler hens and sells eggs

• Twiyubake: makes hand-crafted leather sandals

• Ejo Hazaza: makes hand-crafted jewelry; applied for a grant to start a project to grow and sell oyster mushrooms”

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Deliverables and Impact to Program Participants

“During the internship, my deliverables and impact on program participants mainly focused on my work with the women in the cooperatives that HOM supports. Throughout the summer I ran a series of trainings and workshops along with my team members in order to help the women in the cooperatives improve their record keeping skills, sales skills, cooperative management and organization, and cooperative accountability structure. “

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Conclusion

“I thoroughly enjoyed my internship experience with Hands of Mothers in Kigali this summer, and I hope that I had a positive impact on the women we worked with and HOM. I gained valuable field work experience this summer, and I want to extend my most sincere thank you to Jerry and Yunie Blakeley for the fellowship.”

Ankit Grover

Location / Country: Zimbabwe
Organization: TechnoServe

GROVER: "It is often said, “You can have it all. Just not all at once.”

My summer experience as a Blakeley Fellow working with TechnoServe and the African Agriculture Fund (AAF) was nothing less than a “have-it-all-at-once” opportunity. In my ten weeks in Zimbabwe, I was afforded the chance to delve deep into each of my interest areas – small and medium enterprise development, private equity, business strategy and impact investing. ”

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About TechnoServe and TAF

“TechnoServe, whose mission is to find business solutions to poverty by connecting farmers to financial markets, recruits Fellows (or Volunteer Consultants) to work on short-term assignments in developing countries with high impact opportunities. As a Fellow, I was drafted to work with AAF’s Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) (managed by TechnoServe) in preparing a business plan, market strategy and financial projections for a Zimbabwean agribusiness company in the sesame crop value chain. TAF supports AAF’s portfolio companies in improving linkages between smallholder farmers (SHFs) and the companies, to increase local household incomes and enhance food security in communities where the Fund invests. This lays the foundation for sustainable long-term growth and developmental impact for both the portfolio partner and the community it benefits. “

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The Experience:

“It is one thing to study value chains and another to actually start from the base of the pyramid and follow the trail of the grain. A thorough analysis of the sesame business required engagement with SHFs on the ground, away from the hustle and bustle of Harare. In late July, I had the opportunity to travel to one of the remotest and most water-stressed villages in Zimbabwe, some hundred miles from the capital. I had the chance to study first- hand the various predicaments from the farmers, as well as brainstorm some quick-fix solutions for their problems. My education in agronomy came full circle when I could finally validate and tie the smallholders’ income statements to the financial model I was preparing.“

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Conclusion

“My biggest takeaway from my fellowship is to never discount the power of the value chain. It is what drives synergies in achieving developmental impact, and without it, no business can remain sustainable in the long term. I'm grateful to the Blakeley Foundation for affording me this opportunity and look forward to helping the Foundation accomplish its objectives in the future.”

Miriam Freeman

Location / Country: Bogota, Colombia
Organization: Compartamentos con Colombia

FREEMAN: "I went to Colombia in May of this year to start my internship at Compartamos con Colombia (CCC) with lots of excitement and few expectations. I had visited Colombia for the first time in March on a Fletcher Latin America Group (FLAG) trek, and was left with a taste of how special the country was, but wanting to know more. Six months later, I can say Colombia surpassed every expectation, and my internship at CCC proved an incredible opportunity for personal and professional growth.”

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Compartamos con Colombia

“Compartamos has a unique model—leveraging private sector expertise to solve social sector challenges. What makes it different from other market-based approaches is its multi-firm arrangement. The organization was founded as the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy of fifteen companies in Colombia (many of them multinational) with expertise in strategy, finance, law, and other professional services. Volunteers from these firms work as consultants on a pro-bono basis on specific projects for the Colombian social sector. The role of CCC is to connect the nonprofit and private sectors, adding value through strategic analysis and producing the final consulting deliverables. Compartamos’ projects fall into three categories: capacity building (its core), shared value, and social innovation. “

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The Experience

“Compartamos has an ongoing presence in Quibdó through partnerships with organizations like ACDI/VOCA and Fundación MIMA, as well as the Detonante entrepreneurship festival now in its third year. Quibdó is one of the rainiest places in the world and the poorest city in Colombia by some measures. Projects ground to a halt earlier this summer when there was a general strike, citing government indifference, incomplete highways, lack of healthcare, and other public services. Illegal mining, corruption, and guerilla conflict have added fuel to the fire. A former slavery hub, it is no coincidence that the region has the largest afro-descent population in the country, and one of the largest indigenous populations. With 62% of residents living below the poverty line, several people told me that the region’s development indicators align more closely with sub-Saharan Africa than Latin America. I was grateful for the opportunity to see a different side of Colombia and contribute in some small way to the growing entrepreneurial movement there.

For all of the challenges they face, Chocoanos are resilient. The ACDI/VOCA project began in January and has included a series of workshops for the 28 entrepreneurs it supports on topics from accounting to peacebuilding. Along with two colleagues, I led a strategy workshop, combining a business canvas model with human-centered design techniques to encourage entrepreneurs to think outside the box and embrace new ideas for their businesses. These entrepreneurs understand clearly that what they are selling goes beyond jewelry, chocolate, or other products—they are selling the opportunity to change the region’s image nationally and internationally, by preserving local culture and traditions. To me, this is what market approaches to development are all about.”

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Conclusions

“My experience in Colombia surpassed every expectation. During my short time there, I worked with incredible colleagues, became familiar with a number of important local players, was introduced to the world of nonprofit consulting, and in some small way participated in important efforts to strengthen the social sector in Colombia. I surprised myself with my ability to apply finance and strategy skills acquired at Fletcher, and left inspired to learn more skills that I can apply to creating social change after graduation. After ten weeks, I feel I only touched the surface of all the country has to offer, and of the diverse challenges it faces. These are exciting times for Colombia, and I’m eager to see how things progress.”

Claudia Cruz Leo

Location / Country: Hyderabad, India
Organization: Vaya

CLAUDIA CRUZ LEO: "Vaya is a for-profit microfinance institution (MFI) based in Hyderabad, India, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. The organization is the brainchild of former SKS Microfinance1 CEO and Tufts alumnus, Dr. Vikram Akula, who now serves as Chairperson for the organization and is a constant source of guidance and inspiration for Vaya staff. Vaya sees itself as “a next- generation financial inclusion organization”, as it provides financial services with a focus on integrating digital finance technology through the use of tablets for loan management.2 The firm’s aim is to enhance the livelihoods of underserved low-income women, mainly in rural areas, through the provision of financial services and financial literacy training. Vaya is operational in six states in India and is currently the only microfinance firm present in Telangana following the Andhra Pradesh crisis in 2010.

Throughout my nine weeks at Vaya my focus was on individual lending. Being a traditional microfinance firm, Vaya currently only offers group lending, or joint liability, products. After an initial discussion over Skype with the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), I realized individual lending would be a priority area for the organization. This hunch was confirmed after I arrived in Hyderabad, following an annual all-staff retreat in which senior management stressed that the organization going forward would begin to transition into individual lending.

My direct supervisor and I developed a work plan with three goals for the summer:

1. Investigate individual lending products and underwriting practices in India and around the world;

2. Design a survey to administer in the field and gain a solid understanding of the demand for individual lending products;

3. Recommend entry or delay into the individual lending market and propose a road map for next steps.

“In addition to conducting independent research, I worked closely with various department heads at Vaya (operations, finance, training, data management, and human resources). I made two visits to the field to speak with and understand the composition and needs of Vaya clients and staff. I also spoke with key staff members at competing microfinance organizations, e.g. Ujjivan Financial Services, Muthoot FinCorp, and others, to understand the approaches others in the industry were taking towards individual lending. My final recommendation was based on the Indian context with regard to individual lending (products and process); client demand; and the firm’s level of readiness.

Apart from this main research effort and market analysis, I also helped Vaya staff begin to think through how to design a credit absorption index to assess new clients’ creditworthiness, although this work was preliminary. “

IMPACT:

i. Vaya’s Staff

Vaya’s CEO was very thankful for my efforts in helping the organization move one step closer to cracking the individual lending puzzle. My research, which combined an academic and fieldwork approach, provided the organization with the groundwork and tools for conceptualizing an individual lending product and the new underwriting process. This is something for which the organization did not have the resources, human and financial, to do carry out on its own.

ii. Vaya’s Clients

Various colleagues at Vaya told me in my first days at the organization that their clients had been clamoring for individual loan products. Many of these women had already successfully completed various loan cycles with Vaya and other microfinance organizations, reaching the maximum amount they could borrow at one time under RBI regulations, and therefore wanted expanded opportunities to access larger chunks of capital to grow their businesses. I spoke to women who felt this way on my field visits. Others, interestingly enough, no longer wanted to be responsible for other group members’ repayments. The recent demonetization effort further exacerbated this issue as many women were unable to meet their repayment schedules, putting undue pressure on their peers to meet their repayment obligations. Although my ultimate recommendation was to delay the launch of individual lending products, I emphasized the need for the organization to put in place the necessary processes and seek the needed expertise to meet these women’s needs.

Maxwell Bevilacqua

Country: Java, Indonesia
Organization: Ruma

BEVILACQUA: "RUMA (now transitioning to “Mapan”) is an Indonesia-based company that works on providing lower-income communities with better access to goods and services through technology. I was assigned to the marketing team to work on a project called Gugus Mapan. Gugus Mapan is a financial literacy program where the deliverable was an activity book directed towards the women who are typically in charge of the family’s finances.

The concept of the book was to increase financial literacy. The fundamental issue with our audience, however, was not so much “financial literacy” as it was “behavioral change” that allowed them to approach their finances. Specifically, within financial literacy, and at the heart of our model was savings. The initial exercises of tracking expenses existed for the purpose of drawing attention to money that could be saved and the final exercises that channeled funds into entrepreneurial endeavors were only as successful as the saving was. “

“Before we could impart financial literacy, which we conceived as “SiTaTa” or “Setting aside, saving, and adding money back into a side business,” we realized that we needed to develop a psychologically appealing and motivating way to begin and then continue the conversation. Thus we created an interactive book with a built-in friend, supporter, teacher, and guide - “TaTa”. Our Gugus Mapan meetings were most successful when the norms of a classroom were in place. The design of an interactive “textbook” was therefore fitting and it was easier to push our audience to be good “students” by reminding them that this was an opportunity to model diligence and dedication for their children.

The philosophical underpinnings of the book actually came from Alcoholics Anonymous. First, we were admitting that we have a problem, second we were realizing that there is a process

that could make them “well”, and thirdly we were imparting hope/faith in the process of working through the book based on previous successes. The group structure, rituals and repetitions, were meant to be reminiscent of AA because they contain many elements of group cohesion. “

“I felt incredibly lucky to have been given substantive work within a private company doing public good. I noted, with some humor, that whereas I had thought my father’s line of work (financial advising) was boring as a child, I had found myself reveling in the project of financial literacy. I am excited to continue exploring public good from the private sector thanks to this experience which would not have been possible without the generosity and support of the Blakeley Fellowship.“

John Beasley

Country: Nicaragua
Organization: Hurricane Ventures

BEASLEY: "My internship this summer with Hurricane Ventures expanded upon an idea born out of the commercial challenges of developing, operating, and maintaining a solar energy project in Central America.

The previous summer I worked with a project developer, Global 2020, on a 12.5MW solar project near the capital city of Managua. In the process of overall market research and specifically while sourcing contractors, Global 2020 recognized the overwhelming lack of local human capital capable of performing the required engineering and electrical work to build and operate a solar field. Furthermore, while this project was the first and largest of its kind in Nicaragua, other Central American countries had previously built solar projects, only to see their productivity drop significantly or fail entirely due to lack of certifications, regulations, and overall operation and maintenance challenges (O&M). As the summer of 2016 progressed, we (Global 2020) began to sketch out a rough outline of what a training program might look like and brought in Hurricane Ventures, a local project management firm with experience in socially oriented initiatives to begin implementation.

Over the course of the 2016/2017 academic year, I worked with Hurricane Ventures to draft proposals and grant applications to source funding for the project. We initially envisioned a simple collaboration and joint venture with a local Nicaraguan university that would use Global 2020’s working project site as a classroom facility to incorporate into engineering and electrical training classes.

Today's project is still ongoing and I continue to help Hurricane Ventures, primarily with writing proposals and explaining the breakdown of the project for various agencies. One visual that includes some of the German companies who will be involved can be found in my PowerPoint presentation. As my blog posts indicated, I grew quite frustrated with the bureaucratic slog that accompanied the expansion of the project. Governments and aid agencies move very slowly and cautiously but the need for this type of training in the region is immediate. I am encouraged by the enthusiasm with which our ideas were received but I worry that the program will not reach its potential before more mistakes in the solar industry have been made. Ultimately though, I believe this project is headed in the right direction and can be a future model for technology transfer in developing countries. The critical piece is that the private sector players have a financial incentive to help and this is not just an aid project. For developers like Global 2020, being able to hire local workers for O&M will significantly cut down on CAPEX spending, and the German suppliers will gain a foothold in a region with great potential. The challenge remains getting all the disparate groups, with various goals and objectives, to work together towards a common goal and share the financial risk accordingly.

Sydney-Johanna Stevns

Country: Chile
Organization: La Fundación para la Innovación Agraría (FIA) Santiago, Chile

SYDNEY-JOHANNA: "I worked with an organization called La Fundación para la Innovación Agraría (FIA) (or in English, the Foundation for the Innovation of Agriculture) in Santiago, Chile. The mission of FIA is to support a culture of innovation in agriculture that improves the competitiveness of sustainable and inclusive farming. They do this by conducting research on new technologies, providing trainings, and providing funding and assistance to programs that are locally run. Ensuring that farmers in Chile can successfully adapt to climate change is key to ensuring their continued livelihoods and economic growth potential. The project I worked on was helping FIA understand how their adaptation strategies could be improved, specifically by examining how they compared to American and international standards.

I worked closely with staff to understand the projects and visited several farms throughout Chile to better understand how the technologies they promoted functioned and how their programs were operating. My final deliverable was the recommendation that they should improve their programming on the management of natural resources and sustainable development (specifically for infrastructure). This recommendation has formed the basis for a grant application they are submitting to the World Bank to further expand their programs and research efforts in these areas.

When I began my internship I was at a very minimal level of Spanish. After working and living in Chile for two months my Spanish improved significantly, however, my vocabulary now mostly consists of very technical terms about agriculture and development. Because of the initial language barrier it took a while to understand the structure of the organization. My understanding is that FIA does very little of their own program implementation. Instead, they focus on local community empowerment. They recruit and identify small- to medium-sized projects throughout the country that align with their mission and then support them with information, connections, or finances. This is an interesting model because although they have the resources to leverage significant control over projects, they do relatively little of this.

My impression is that this way of supporting projects means that local communities are much more invested in the outcome. Not only does it require less operational work on FIA's end, but it simultaneously helps them achieve one of their goals to spread awareness and knowledge on these issues and tools. I also imagine that this model is much more effective, because if projects are self-initiated by local groups or individuals then they are able to more accurately address their local area's needs as opposed to a large national organization coming in to potentially address an insignificant problem. I find this model very fascinating, both because it makes a lot of sense and because it makes me wonder why this isn't the standard in development initiatives across the world."

Dristy Shrestha

Country: Tanzania
Organization: BRAC Tanzania

DRISTY: "BRAC is the world’s largest non-governmental development organization measured by the number of employees and the number of people it has helped. It is dedicated to empowering people and communities living in poverty, illiteracy, disease and social injustice through its various programs in areas ranging from microfinance, agriculture and food security, education and more. It currently operates in 11 countries across the globe.

BRAC started its work in Tanzania in 2006 with microfinance and livelihood development programs. In just less than a decade with multiple programs in various sectors ranging from agriculture and food security, education, empowerment and livelihood for adolescents, microfinance and small enterprise program, BRAC has become one of the largest financial institutions in the country.

In June-August 2016, under the supervision of the Program Manager of Microfinance Program, I had the opportunity to work as the Summer Research Intern at BRAC Tanzania. In this role, the main task I was entrusted with was to i) assess the services offered by BRAC Tanzania tailored towards smallholder farmers in the country, and ii) make recommendations to the Country Office based in Dar es Salaam on how to better address the needs and challenges of smallholder farmers in Tanzania."

"Personally, I had an incredibly rewarding summer filled with new challenges, new experiences, and learnings. BRAC is an organization that development practitioners such as myself study a lot about, both inside and outside class. Therefore, the opportunity to experience its activities and inner workings first hand and be a part of its team was a special treat for me. In addition, it was refreshing to explore Tanzania and go beyond my comfort zone into a country, region and continent that I had never been to."

Angga Martha

Country: Indonesia
Organization: Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI)

ANGGA: The Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI) is an institution that serves as the center for national development strategy analysis in Indonesia. It involves creating innovations and strategic initiatives that will help accelerate the implementation and achievement of the 2030 Global Goals on Sustainable Development (SDGs) as a whole and specifically the implementation of development interventions in the area of health and youth engagement. As part of CISDI’s mandate, they facilitate and drive cross-sector collaboration between public, private and civil society organizations integral to achieve development goals that are widespread, equal, and sustainable.

My role for this internship includes the following aspects:

1. To assist CISDI in facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships on SDGs, specifically non- state actors, such as youth groups, the private sector, and philanthropy organizations in the SDGs implementation.

2. To assist strategy development on SDG implementation into the local development plan with a concentration on public-private partnership and youth engagement

I got an opportunity to visit and work together with a team of Pencerah Nusantara in Pototano, West Nusa Tenggara and to see their direct contribution to the local community in this area. It is evident to me that youth participation is a pre-condition for sustainable development and the youth need to be co-owners of the future. Inclusive participation will not see youth as an object or target, but more in developing a mutual partnership with young people as a subject and partner to development.

Private sector and philanthropy organization has crucial role in shaping development, especially in this rapidly evolving global environment where information is open and free for everyone.

SDGs can act as guiding principles for the work of private sector philanthropy organization, and provide a platform for the private sector to implement long-term goals and partnerships that will make a significant contribution towards achieving sustainable development for all.

Sai Kumaraswami

Organization: iSTAR Skill Development
Country: India

SAI: India is the world’s youngest and second most populous country. 62% of its 1.25 billion are in the working age group of 15-59 years and it adds 10 million people to its work force every year (4 million of these are graduates). However, less than 2% receive any form of skills training in their respective occupations. Comparative figures in other economies are – 96% (South Korea), 80% (Japan), 75% (Germany), 68% (UK) and 40% (China). Academia in India has been traditionally characterised by an anaesthetic learning experiences for the students – an assessment centric approach to teaching that ignores practical application, outdated concepts, rote learning, poor college infrastructure, underpaid and underqualified teachers. As the world looks to India to take its seat at the engine of growth, policymakers in the country are faced with the onerous task of facilitating this demographic dividend. There is a need to focus and reorient India’s education system to make it more skills based and aligned with the needs of the industry.

iSTAR SKILL DEVELOPMENT

iSTAR is an education technology firm that addresses the skilling needs of people and addresses the problem through a public –private partnership. It provides end to end services in higher education management including content and program development, curriculum design, delivery, assessment, recruitment and consulting services. Its mission is to create sustainable livelihoods through intensive skills training across multiple sectors including banking and financial services, retail, IT and IT enabled services. Its current market is the urban base of pyramid, serving socially and economically disadvantaged undergraduate and graduate students in tier 2 and tier 3 colleges. The firm was started in 2009, by Surga

Thilakan and Sreeram Vaidyanathan, alumni of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In a short span of time, it has quickly scaled up and expanded, largely due to its slick business model and timely funding opportunities. It currently operates in 10 sates of India, working with around 150 colleges and has trained over 50,000 students to date.

IMPACT

During my internship, I was able to deliver the following results to iSTAR:

1. Rolled out pilot skills training program in 4 sites in 65 days – which was 15 days before the target deadline

2. We admitted 1700 students into our program, and 83% of them were from families in the bottom 2 quintiles of India’s per capita income

3. InAmbasamudramandDharwad, the colleges expanded and set up their first full-fledged computer lab because of our pilot program, improving the infrastructure facilities of the college.

4. Each of the 23 recruiters we have tied up with has agreed to a compensation that is between 35% to 90% higher than the mean family incomes reported by the students to their colleges. This is a substantial increase in disposable incomes for students who will be recruited at the end of the program.

5. iSTAR successfully raised Series B capital, which will enable expansion into bottom of the pyramid and ramp up technological and geographic presence.

Nashwa Khali

Organization: Vodafone Farmers Club / Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSMA)
Country: Ghana

NASHWA: GSMA1, working with a wide range of mobile network operators and civil society organisations, is launching a series of nutrition-focused m-health and m-agriculture initiatives in South Asia and sub- Saharan Africa, called mNutrition. The objective of mNutrition in mAgri is to create and scale commercially sustainable mobile services enabling smallholder farmers to improve their nutrition, yields and incomes. The product to be delivered and evaluated is the Vodafone Farmers’ Club. The service is a bundled solution offering agricultural information in addition to voice and SMS services. In order to measure the causal impact of the Farmers’ Club product, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) will conduct an external impact evaluation of the mAgri programme in Ghana in November 2016. A randomized encouragement design will be implemented. Specifically, some communities will be randomly assigned to receive additional marketing and promotion of the Farmers’ Club product and some communities will not be assigned to the additional marketing and promotion. The additional marketing and promotion will consist of price discounts, advertisement scripts, and gender targeting.

Rationale for Intervention

The rapid expansion of mobile phone access to populations at the base of the income pyramid presents an unprecedented opportunity to expand coverage of nutrition and agriculture services to this previously overlooked segment of the mobile market. Mobile phones and computer centers are the most targeted channels to provide not only technical and scientific information on crop production and nutrition, but also to support the marketing of products that can help level the playing field between small producers and traders. Agricultural extension services delivered via mobile phones can in theory promote ‘nutrition-sensitive’ interventions by creating competent and efficient farmers who are able to increase productivity by making effective use of knowledge and information which is delivered to them.

Broadly speaking, nutrition-sensitive agriculture is aimed at improving the nutritional status of a population by maximizing the impact of food and of agricultural systems, while minimizing the potential for negative externalities regarding the sector’s economic and production-driven goals. In the last few years there has been a visible trend in agricultural policies and programs to become ‘nutrition-sensitive’ by leveraging agriculture to maximize nutrition impact. Yet there is an identified need to better understand the linkages between agriculture and nutrition, and to decipher the ways in which agriculture can contribute to improved nutrition. Despite the potential of mobile services coupled with agricultural change to improve nutrition and diet quality, very few studies exist that critically assess the application of mobile phone technology for nutrition in resource-poor settings.

Farmers’ Club

Farmers’ Club is a bundled solution offering farmers agricultural and nutrition information in addition to voice and SMS services. The target market Vodafone expects to attract is about 450,000 Farmer Club users by 2016/17 across 8 regions in Ghana: Eastern Region, Western Region, Ashanti Region, Central Region, Northern Region, Volta, Brong-Ahafo, and Greater Accra. Researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) are conducting a rigorous mixed-methods evaluation to estimate the impact of mNutrition and to understand how the context and the components of the mNutrition intervention shape its impact. To estimate the casual impacts of the product on farmer’s behavior, knowledge, nutrition, yields and income, a randomized encouragement design is being implemented where some communities are randomly assigned to receive additional marketing and promotion of the Farmers’ Club product and some are not assigned to the additional marketing and promotion. The additional marketing and promotion will consist of price discounts, advertisement scripts, and gender targeting.

The goal of the impact evaluation is to measure the causal impact of Farmers’ club on behaviors and outcomes linked to nutrition and agriculture. But before a full scale impact evaluation is rolled out; which is resource and time intensive IFPRI decided to do a pilot, which is the leg of the project that I was brought on to do. Essentially the purpose of the pilot was to test the assumptions of the evaluation and related encouragements before they are rolled out for the study and to test willingness to pay for the Farmer club product. As soon as I landed in Ghana I had three priority areas to work on:

1. Build relationships with potential implementing partners and all the involved stakeholders; including Vodafone, The University of Ghana, and ESOKO2

2. Collaborate with Vodafone to do user feedback surveys for existing Farmers’ Club customers. This would help the research team at IFPRI understand the rates of take-up of the service as well as the perceived benefits of subscribing.

3. Set up the IRB3 protocol, as well as pilot evaluation that would allow us to answer the following research questions:

   •   How effective is the Farmer Club at increasing the knowledge and changing the behavior of farmers?

   •   What are the impacts and cost-effectiveness of the Farmer Club product on household’s dietary diversity, agricultural income, and production?

   •   Does targeting women increase impacts over and beyond the impacts of a non-targeted Farmer Club product?

  What is farmer’s willingness to pay for Farmer’s club?

The preliminary data gathered while I was in Ghana evidenced that Farmers’ Club positively enhanced the livelihoods and quality of life of smallholder farmers by improving access to information, financial services and supply chain solutions, delivered via mobile phone. Furthermore the mNutrition component of the intervention promoted behaviour change around key farming decisions and practices via mobile nutrition content.

Mark Karugarama

Country: Rwanda
Organization: Zamura Feeds LTD

MARK: "Over the summer, I had the opportunity to work with a young but promising social-enterprise in Rwanda’s growing Agri-business sector. Located in Musanze District, Northern Rwanda, Zamura Feeds LTD operates in the commercial livestock feed industry. It is a relatively new industry, formerly subsidised by the government, but slowly becoming more and more commercialised, to effectively cater to the growing needs of farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs in the region."

My responsibilities revolved around 2 major activities; i) working directly with cooperatives and small-holder farmers to assess their needs and ii) designing a marketing and distribution plan to use a similar business model to reach parts of Southern and Eastern Rwanda, as well as neighboring border towns in Uganda and the DRC. This model will be used in conjunction with distribution centers to determine the most cost-effective way to get the product to market and to reach even those farmers in the most rural areas.

"We worked with farmers on two fronts; i) farmers who purchased the feed for their farms/animals and ii) farmers who supplied all the input (i.e maize bran, whole maize, cotton seed cake, sunflower seeds, soybean, limestone, shells, and a multitude of other inputs). An effective distribution channel would therefore be helpful not only for selling the product, but also in sourcing input--which Zamura pays competitive prices for, to ensure the farmers are making enough to support themselves and their families. Gaining an understanding of the farmers and their families’ economic goals and aspirations--and how the company is working closely with them--had a deep and lasting impact on my entire internship experience.

Two of my colleagues and I traveled off-site, twice a week, to meet with smallholder farmers and small businesses in the border towns of Goma (Congo) and Kabale (Uganda), some of whom are clients of Zamura Feeds. In discussions with farmers and cooperative leaders, we were able to get further insights into people’s overall perception of the product, and note down any challenges; access; price, effectiveness, etc. My experience was greatly shaped by thought-provoking conversations with farmers and the cooperatives they work with, which help them get their produce to market. I have learned a lot both from the businesses perspective and from the farmers who seek to lift themselves out of poverty. Challenges abide, but the agribusiness sector is ripe with opportunity and potential."

"Production success stories were told across the livestock production sector in other neighboring villages we visited for not just dairy farmers but broiler,layer and swine farmers whose goals intersect at one point: increasing yields be it of eggs, meat or milk/dairy products. It inspired a feeling of hope in me, that simple but well-organized animal husbandry could have such a tremendous impact on people and help them lift themselves out of poverty, especially in a country where around 67% of the population depends on agriculture for their sustenance. Overall, the internship experience was for me a learning opportunity unlike any other."

Lauren Jencik

Country: Malawi
Organization: Project Concern International

LAUREN: "I accepted an offer as a Humanitarian Assistance Fellow with Project Concern International (PCI) in Zomba, Malawi this past summer. Prior to Fletcher, I had lived and worked in the Washington, DC area for years. I studied international affairs in college, held a nearly two-year internship with the State Department, and worked for both a development and then management consulting firm. In other words, my life revolved around the workings of the Beltway both in an academic and practical sense. Part of my why I came to Fletcher was to fully immerse myself in my studies, particularly given the breadth of human security courses. More importantly, I knew that as a full-time student, rather than a part-time student in Washington, DC, my summer would offer the perfect opportunity to finally work overseas. Having worked in the public and private sectors in DC, I was especially interested in working with a non-profit organization that dealt with a complex array of issues around development and disasters; PCI offered the perfect opportunity.

PCI is a mid-size non-profit organization, founded in 1961 by a doctor from San Diego (where the organization is still headquartered today). Per the organization's website, PCI's mission is "to empower people to enhance health, end hunger and overcome hardship." The organization has expanded over the years and covers an array of issues in the increasingly integrated fields of development and humanitarian assistance. One area in which PCI has expertise in humanitarian assistance is Disaster Risk Management (DRM). DRM is led by the notion that communities can be empowered to reduce vulnerability to future shocks and stresses created by disasters. Disasters may include earthquakes or floods or prolonged events including droughts—they can also be the result of conflict or political turmoil. In the case of Malawi, many communities are vulnerable to environmental shocks and stresses due to a combination of factors some of which include economic status, health and well-being, gender, and livelihood. This has been particularly the case more recently as the country has been experiencing a severe drought, brought on by El Nino, and was previously experiencing severe flooding."

"While three months is not enough time to have a major impact within any organization, but especially in a development and humanitarian assistance one, I left PCI at the end of August confident that my work was well-received among my supervisor, fellowship coordinator, and project leadership. During my last week at the office, I was asked by the Chief of Party to provide a debrief to him and the Country Director because both valued my feedback on my experience and wanted to understand the extent of my work for the purposes of ensuring continuity within Njira. Furthermore, as referenced above, I am awaiting a follow up email from my fellowship coordinator, who just wrapped up a visit to Zomba to begin start up of a newly awarded emergency response project. I am optimistic that the conversations that will take place will include discussion of further developing the food security assessment tool and best practices and lessons learned document, as well as ideas for how I can remain engaged on Njira throughout the coming year."

Paroma Husain

Country: Uganda
Organization: BRAC Uganda

PAROMA: "During the last summer I spent almost three months working with the Microfinance programme of BRAC in Uganda. BRAC is an NGO that started as a small post-war rehabilitation operation in the newly born Bangladesh in 1972, and grew to be one of the largest NGOs in the world. BRAC now operates in 12 different countries across Asia and Africa; taking its years of experience from Bangladesh in implementing successful models in various development programs such as health, education, microfinance, and community empowerment into other developing countries.

Uganda is BRAC’s largest and fastest growing operation in Africa. In the last decade, Uganda has grown consistently, at an average rate of 6.4 per cent. It has made significant progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals and is now focusing on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. But approximately 20 per cent of Ugandans still live below the poverty line and they are mostly concentrated in rural areas. While there are a number of financial institutions providing financial services to marginalised groups, they have limited operations in rural areas. With 147 branches all over Uganda and more than 180,000 borrowers served, BRAC Uganda’s microfinance program is one of the biggest in the country and it reaches out to the poorest in both urban and rural areas.1 Besides microfinance, BRAC currently operates programs in small enterprise, agriculture, poultry and livestock, health, education, youth empowerment, adolescent livelihood, and the Karamoja Initiative in Uganda. To date the programs have served 4.4 million people, which is almost 12% of Uganda’s population.2 Before Fletcher, I have been working in BRAC’s microfinance program in Bangladesh. This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to work with and learn from my colleagues in Uganda."

"My three years of experience with BRAC Bangladesh had made me curious to find out how well BRAC can apply its learnings and program models from Bangladesh in a starkly different country context. Working with BRAC Uganda gave me an opportunity to assess the success and failure of BRAC’s international scaling efforts. My overall conclusion is that while there are some things BRAC is doing quite well in its country offices, it can do a much better job in many other aspects. For instance, there is a clear cultural divide between Bangladeshi expats, who generally occupy higher management posts, and the local staff. While the highly standardised operational models were so crucial in BRAC’s amazing success story of scaling in Bangladesh, strict compliance of these standards can overlook the contextual operational needs in a different country. There is also a resource constrain in the mostly donor-depended programs of BRAC International that BRAC Bangladesh does not have to face. As a result,

many effective client oriented programs and monitoring tools that have proven to be effective in Bangladesh cannot be implemented in other BRAC countries. Based on several of these observations, I can make the following recommendations: (The suggestions made in this section are mostly based on interviews with clients and staff members and observations from field visits – which are often anecdotal and not grounded in rigorous studies.)"

Ananth Ganesa

Country: Sudan
Organization: World Food Programme

ANANTH: "My internship was with the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) unit in Khartoum, Sudan. VAM collects and analyses data from thousands of households every year – particularly in rural, poor and food insecure populations – to provide WFP program managers and the broader humanitarian community with information, analysis and advice. VAM’s information has direct consequences on programming, and could translate into activities such as food distribution - which could in very literal terms decide the fate of a household’s survival."

"My role involved travelling to field offices across the Darfur states. I learnt a lot about on-the- ground realities during such missions. My last such trip was in June, I was in El Fashir in North Darfur interviewing program staff and brainstorming on how the VAM unit can help them make better program decisions. During such discussions, I learnt extensively about the process of WFP’s programming in Sudan – from how project proposals are submitted by NGO partners to how they are reviewed, and how projects are implemented over a specific timeline and within a certain budget based on several contingent factors. Part of VAM’s role is to help identify the “who, when, where” in targeting programs, so I spent time learning how such targeting decisions are made – which gave me a good macro-understanding of WFP’s operations. Field offices in general are a great place to learn the harsh practical realities of the humanitarian experience and

I believe Sudan provided ample training ground to do so. Since my role involved extensive cross- departmental collaboration where I had to work together with several of our staff for days and weeks at a stretch, I would say my inter-personal and communication skills helped in the process. To have clarity of thought and express ideas effectively was important in my role, and this is a strength that I used to my advantage. Further, the ability to digest large amounts of information, diagnose what the issues are and creatively design solutions, is something that I have used throughout this internship . Finally, technical skills in analyzing data, writing food security reports and software such as MS Excel and SPSS helped magnify my impact in the project as well."

Justin Erickson

Countries: Managua, Nicaragua
Organization: Technoserve

JUSTIN: "This summer I worked at Technoserve in Managua, Nicaragua. Technoserve is a large international non-government organization that works in the areas of agriculture and entrepreneurship. They are based in Washington, D.C., but they have offices in Africa, Latin America, and India. I worked out of Managua, which is their headquarters for Central America. About one hundred people (almost exclusively Nicaraguan) work out of the office. I traveled to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala during the internship. The eight-week long internship was formalized on the part of Technoserve as part of their Volunteer Consultant Program. Volunteer consults work on projects in all of the areas Technoserve works.

Technoserve brought me on board in order to better understand their place in the entrepreneurship assistance market in Central America. They are currently running two entrepreneurship programs in the region. One is called CRECE. CRECE is a program for young people to help them develop their business ideas or start-ups. The other is ITE, which stands for Impulsa Tu Empresa (push your business). This program is for small and medium enterprises in the C-4 region (Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala) to grow their businesses. The average business in this program has about 14 employees and does about $200,000USD in sales per year. Both of these programs have been running for about three years in the C-4 region. About 75 businesses participate in the program per country per year."

At the end I created a thirty slide presentation and presented it to my supervisor in Managua. We then looked discussed some changes to be made and I turned in a final report. I was invited to give my presentation to the Director of Entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C., and so after my fellowship ended I went to D.C. to give the presentation. Using my work, Technoserve has a better understanding of its place in Central America, ideas for how it can create more impact, a qualitative review of their two main entrepreneurship programs, and a starting framework that will appeal to funders as they are in the process to raising money to support the programs in the future.