Charity doesn’t incentivize

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.