Charity doesn’t incentivize

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Andrew Rugasira (CEO Good African Coffee www.goodafrican.com / @goodafrican):
“Every society that has prospered has done it through trade and not aid. Africa will be no different. Charity doesn’t incentivize. It stifles innovation. It causes chronic dependency. Africa’s contribution to global trade is 1%. If that were just 2% it would bring far more annual revenue to the continent than all the aid Africa receives in be year.”

Great read about start up from Rwanda: lots of advice and useful commentary:
Can Coffee Kick-Start an Economy? (New York Times, April 6 2012)

I love this because it is a great example of why education needs to change its end point focus in the developing world if we are to really help break poverty/subsistence cycles. Education needs to shift from colonially imposed ‘academic outcomes’ to entrepreneurial job creation skills and that has the potential to empower. If this strikes a chord, we’d love you to join SCIL at our global summit in northern Rwanda late May.

Imagine Learning ... been thinking

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I have been trying to get my head around the possibility that space in a school could be designed around more contrasting, conflicting and multifunctional uses than we have explored to date. Why couldn’t an area suited for comfortable conversation and food be suitable in an instant for collaborative learning? Why couldn’t a corridor become the space for group listening? Why couldn’t an entrance become a foyer become a function centre become a learning space - be useable/flexible/adaptable in any context?

There are some other questions? What would happen if we grouped people around a vision, rather than administration? What could an administration space become if it was designed around constant collaboration? How do we cater for 1 on 1? Do we need 1 on 1? How do we cater for staff working-in-private expectations? 

Just thinking …

I’ll load some photos to capture some of the possibilities floating around in my mind …