Children fill school libraries with their own stories. Photo: United Nations Photo (Flickr)

Developing countries face overcrowded classrooms and empty libraries. Students have started addressing this issue by filling shelves with their own stories.

Many children in developing countries do not have books to take home or read in class. If they do, they’re usually not translated into local dialects. This means limited use by parents at home, many of whom are also illiterate. UNESCO reported in 2010 that one in five adults is illiterate. Not only learning to read but having easy access to books and other printed material is imperative to improve this staggering statistic.

While some rural communities have access to e-readers, they're few and far between. This is where innovation and imagination come in. A primary school in Chingoe, Mozambique, is filling its library with homemade books, shaping young readers by allowing them to share their own stories. The Literacy Boost program by Save the Children applies this hands-on method and has seen results. Teachers write their own short stories, children draw illustrations that serve as writing exercises, or parents tell stories to their children for transcription. Add a little string for binding and you’re set. It's an innovative way to promote and combine oral traditions with basic education.

Writing can also help children cope after disasters or hardships. Drawing or writing out their experiences is a constructive way to process emotions. Sharing these stories with their peers helps in the recovery effort while simultaneously improving important written and verbal communication skills.

While some may not ascribe a homemade library the same prestige of traditional textbooks or literature, it provides an important foundation where needed most. Children are able to read at home, engage their family and community, and boost their learning skills. No matter who wrote it, taking a book home to read is the first step in realizing the magic of education.

Women farmers in Africa produce over 60 percent of all food crops. CIMMYT (flickr)

Women comprise 43 percent of the world’s farmers. In Africa, it’s 80 percent. Women plant, harvest, process and sell their crops, but men continue to dominate agricultural science and research. This may be about to change.

African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) is trying to close the R&D gender gap. Their program fast-tracks female science careers in agriculture, empowering them to contribute more effectively to hunger and poverty alleviation in their own communities - a model that could be replicated internationally.

Although African women produce 60 to 80 percent of food crops, they receive significantly less (5% as of 2008) of the agricultural training and tools available to men, says the United Nations. A 2010-2011 research report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization shows that women could produce 20-30 percent more if they had equal access. This creates a subsequent increase in household income, health, and community food supply. The East Africa Report emphasizes that research is also pivotal in fostering innovation. Without a seat at the table, women cannot influence practices. Who better to innovate than the farmers themselves?

Within a few years, cheap sorghum-based beer might be the newest gift of the Nile to drinkers and farmers alike. Photo: Tattooed JJ (Flickr)

With barley beer priced out of reach and homebrewed banana beer sending people to the hospital, SABMiller is testing a new ingredient for its African alcohol: sorghum.

The giant global beermaker and its subsidiary, Nile Breweries, see an opportunity to expand their business while potentially halving the price of mainstream beer. Thanks to their tweaked recipes and Africa's abundant natural sorghum resource, prices are already falling fast.

A CNN Money article explains that the average American consumes 77 liters of beer annually. In Africa, not including South Africa, the average person only consumes about 7 liters. Because of this, SABMiller sees cheap sorghum beer as an opportunity to "crack a virgin market." Although sorghum is usually used for syrup and cattle feed in countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia, SABMiller's Nile Breweries developed a beer recipe in 2002. CNN explains that by building high-tech microbreweries and micro supply chains sourcing local ingredients, SABMiller stabilizes the price of beer by reducing dependence on international imports, creating a more self-sustained and cheaper market for Africa. The new product is priced 20 percent less than imported barley beer.

This inexpensive yet high-quality beer is becoming popular very fast—nearly 35 percent of all beer in Uganda is now Nile's Eagle sorghum beer, which CNN reported is also sold in Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. In 2008, Heineken and Diageo followed suit with a sorghum recipe for Ghana, Sierra Leone and Cameroon. Multinationals are racing into an untouched market.

Not only does the recreated sorghum recipe help boost profit for major beer companies, it sustains Africa's economy. According to a study by French business school INSEAD, Nile Breweries added about $92 million to the Ugandan economy and supported roughly 44,000 Ugandans through agricultural, manufacturing, retailing or distribution jobs in 2007. SABMiller is sending a share of this revenue to subsistence farmers at the bottom of its value chain.

"Our affordability model is attractive because it focuses on local crops and creates additional income for farmers and a new profit pool for us without cannibalizing our core product," says Andy Wales, head of Sustainable Development at SABMiller.

As CNN explains, SABMiller's idea of using local ingredients to tap new markets follows that of Coke and Danone. Africa will contain seven of the world's 10 fastest-growing economies by 2015, CNN says, and roughly 200 million Africans will enter the consumer goods market by 2016. Multinationals, such as Coke, Danone and now SABMiller, see vast opportunities in the very near future.

Not everyone thinks SABMiller's tactics will make a mark in Africa's economy. "Africa is still mom-and-pop," said Don Elefson, a fund manager for the Harding Loevner Frontier Emerging Markets Fund, explaining that multinationals will still remain "on the sidelines." But with SABMiller's next steps of using cassava-based beer in Mozambique and Southern Sudan, seeding a Tanzanian barley industry and creating better processors to preserve products while distributing, the company may be on a fast track to meet its long-term goal of halving the price of beer in Africa and tapping a huge new market.

African leaders discuss the state of the African economy at the 2010 IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings. Photo: International Monetary Fund (flickr)

The Economist

The Economist

Since 2001, the budding economies of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have dominated global financial headlines. But looking back, it turns out some of the so-called “African lion” economies (Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique and Rwanda) were just as fierce.

Six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world hail from the “forgotten continent” of Africa — putting up annual average GDP growth rates of around 8 percent or more from 2001-2010. The monumental rates have even earned these sprinters a spot next to “Asia's tigers” of the 1980 and 1990s — Making Africa one of the fastest growing regions in the world, according to The Economist.

Over the past decade, sub-Saharan Africa’s real GDP growth rate jumped to an annual average of 5.7%, up from only 2.4% over the previous two decades. That beat Latin America’s 3.3%, but not emerging Asia’s 7.9%. Asia’s stunning performance largely reflects the vast weight of China and India; most economies saw much slower growth, such as 4% in South Korea and Taiwan. The simple unweighted average of countries’ growth rates was virtually identical in Africa and Asia.

That said, in the next five years Africa is set to take the top spot from Asia as the fastest-growing region in the world, writes The Economist. "Standard Chartered forecasts that Africa’s economy will grow at an average annual rate of 7 percent over the next 20 years, slightly faster than China’s."

Ironically, much of Africa's growth can be attributed to China's investment and demand for raw materials in the region. And more recently, another of the BRICS, Brazil, has been competing for assets in Africa, writes Fast Company.

The Economist also notes growing success in Africa's manufacturing sector, which Standard Chartered predicts will become "significant."

Even with challenges such as political instability, corruption and weak rule of law, the African lions have been able to compete with the economic prowess of the Asian tigers.

But before Africa's growling economies can dream of surpassing Asia's roaring ones, those structural problems will have to be fixed.

"Without reforms," The Economist says, "Africa will not be able to sustain faster growth."

A poster depicting the former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, who received the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in 2007. Photo: Sakoku (flickr)

It's not exactly earth-shattering news that corruption continues to plague the developing world. According to Transparency International’s most recent Corruption Perceptions Index, corruption is most widespread in African and Middle Eastern countries and is especially prevalent in countries recently or currently embroiled in violent conflict.

Frustrated with the pervasive corruption in African politics, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim came up with his own way to honor the excellent leaders and shame the corrupt ones. The New Yorker recently profiled Mo Ibrahim and his crusade to end what he sees as an institutionalized legacy of deplorable, corrupt, and despotic rule in Africa through the establishment of a prestigious award for good leadership and an index grading the quality of governance.

The controversial Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership is a $5-million grant for African leaders who have transformed their countries, respected the democratic system, and “did not steal from their people,” explains the New Yorker article. In order to be eligible you must have left power peacefully and democratically at the end of your term (leaders still in office are therefore ineligible). The selection committee for the prize has decidedly high standards; the annual Ibrahim Prize has only been given out three times since its start in 2007, one of which was honorarily presented to Nelson Mandela.

From Ibrahim’s point of view, Africa’s richness in natural resources matches its shortage of good leadership.

[The greatest challenge faced by African countries] is a catastrophic failure of leadership and governance. There is no other explanation. We have had to a very large extent very lousy leadership in Africa: too many dictators, too many megalomaniacs, too many thieves, who bled this continent for their personal and family benefit.

And the solution to Africa’s problems is simply honest, active, democratic leadership, Ibrahim tells The New Yorker.

Governance is about managing this place. It’s a mess. There is a need to enshrine the rule of law. That is the first step toward building an advanced society. Transparency. Lack of corruption. Human rights of individuals. Building infrastructure. Taking care of education. Health. All these things are pillars of a civil society [and of good governance].

However, critics argue the prize is outright bribery, that “it creates perverse incentives,” and that it discredits the power of individuals by focusing so wholeheartedly on leadership.

On the other hand, proponents contend that the prize encourages African leaders to succeed and go above and beyond. Mohamed ElBaradei, former member of the selection committee, says that the Ibrahim Index and Prize function “to name and shame—but also to recognize achievement.” In other words, intracontinental competition for both the award and index rating increases motivations for not just ordinary leadership, but great leadership.

African politicians face an entirely different milieu than that faced by Western leaders when their political incumbency comes to an end. As the New Yorker article notes, Western leaders have opportunities for financial benefit after they leave office; such as book deals, lecture tours, etc. African leaders often do not have these same opportunities. Thus, as The New Yorker writes, “the aim of the award is to spur African leaders to excel—or at least to insure that they don’t stay in office because they lack a retirement plan.”

More important than the controversy surrounding the prize, is that it's an African solution to an African problem. It is funded entirely by Ibrahim and more than half the selection committee are Africans themselves.

Within the circles of African academics and outside experts on Africa, this prize is a big deal. The New Yorker article quotes Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank, saying: “Among African policymakers, no one is not aware of the Ibrahim Index and Prize.” It goes on to declare that Ibrahim “is often hailed as a hero in Africa." It is the popularity and domestic focus of Ibrahim's approach that affirms that the most positive and sustainable outcomes for the continent will sprout from brave and avant-garde African answers.

Mozambique is piloting a new approach to food aid. Photo: afronie (flickr)

Bill Gates recently announced his foundation will give $66 million to a UN program that takes a new approach to fighting hunger. Under this program — which also drew a $9.1 million gift from Warren Buffett’s son, Howard — the countries that typically receive food aid will now become the suppliers of that food.

Here’s how the program, called Purchase for Progress, works: The World Food Programme uses its sizable buying power to guarantee purchase of crops from the local farmers of countries that typically receive food aid. In addition to these purchase guarantees, farmers receive better farming methods, higher-yield seeds, storage for crops, and help to transport produce to markets. Farmers can then use this guarantee as collateral to borrow from local banks. With these loans, farmers can buy better equipment, hire employees, and use more advanced technology to improve what they grow. The produce is supplied to the hungry within the same region the food is grown, which allows for the capital to remain in the local economy.

WFP recently signed the program’s first contract with a cooperative of 9,500 farmers in northern Mozambique. It guarantees purchase of cowpeas from local farms — cowpeas that in previous harvests had gone unsold. The arrangement gives farmers an incentive to invest in their operations, because they’re assured of a buyer for their harvest.

The WFP’s website tells the story of one farmer who made about US$50 by selling his cowpea surplus to the agency: “I used the money to buy school things for my children, dishes and clothes for my family and even some tools to improve my house,” said the farmer, Alfredo Muarapaz.

The Government of Mozambique’s support of this project has played an important role in its success, according to WFP spokesperson Jennifer Parmelee. Getting this same level of government support may be a challenge in the 20 other countries the program will operate in.

This new approach to curbing hunger comes at a good time. With the rising cost of fuel, a main component of fertilizer, the resources that farmers need are becoming increasingly expensive and scarce.

Let’s hope that the program’s success continues — and that Howard and Bill get their friends to donate, too.