I remember my time at the Skoll World Forum last year as one of my favorite weeks during the fellowship. The opportunity to spend time with the fellows and share our stories, reconnect with Acumen Fund, and participate in inspiring conversations around social entrepreneurship was truly a magical experience. I was very excited to return this year and was even able to convince IDEO’s CEO, Tim Brown and Co-Creative Officer, June Fulton Suri, to join me.

The Forum did not let anyone down and the excitement I felt upon arrival has stayed with me since. The energy and optimism around social entrepreneurs and those supporting them is incredible. Participating in discussions about scale, microfranchising, and climate change were especially stimulating and the lens of culture, which was a focus of the forum this year, was a great addition to the many more economic-based conversations we tend to have in this field.

I was fortunate to lead a workshop with my colleagues from IDEO, Tim, Jane, and Aaron, about using empathy as a tool for social impact. The purpose of the workshop was to give a quick taste of the IDEO design process and teach a few observation techniques for social entrepreneurs trying to understand different cultural contexts. While IDEO workshops are always fun, the quality of the observations and ideas that come out of them is quite varied. Working with a group of 60 esteemed practitioners, we were very impressed by the depth of observations they noted and the innovativeness of ideas that they generated.

If in only two hours teams could come up with ideas like midwives on bikes, wandering microscopes, and health pods, just think of what they could do in a few weeks.

See the SocialEdge blog entry about the workshop.

Goldman Sachs recently announced that it will invest $100 million over the next five years providing management and entrepreneurship training to 10,000 women.

The blog posts from NextBillion and Acumen Fund about this initiative tell the story well and echo my sentiments that this is a great show of Goldman Sach's commitment to supporting growth for the majority world. Investments in women, especially education investments, really pay off and Goldman is looking for returns from the social sector just as it does from the private sector.

As we see Bear Sterns collapsing, I can't help thinking about our meeting with Ace Greenberg (Chairman) and Warren Spector (President) a year and a half ago. As we talked about the work we were about to set off to do as Acumen Fund fellows, they told us we were naive to think that business has a responsibility for social change. They had recently heard about microfinance and thought it sounded sweet but could not see a business opportunity for Bear Sterns to serve the poor.

I hope that firms like Goldman Sachs will be rewarded for their move and that firms like Bear Sterns will one day see the need to look beyond Wall Street for business opportunities.

CNN wrote an interesting piece about the Full Belly Project which works to design low-cost appropriate technology for people in the developing world. The successful product they designed was a $28 peanut sheller.

This is a great story about design for social impact.

Indicorps is currently recruiting fellows.
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Who: Indicorps seeks to engage the most talented young Indians from around the world on the frontlines of India's most pressing challenges; in the process, we aim to nurture a new brand of socially conscious leaders with the character, knowledge, commitment, and vision to transform India and the world.

Why Now: We are currently recruiting soon-to-be college graduates and professionals of Indian origin for our August 2008-2009 Fellowship. There are over 50 exciting community-based projects ranging from educating tribal youth in Maharashtra to increasing production of natural dye based products in Karnataka.

Why Indicorps?
· The structured program encourages young professionals from the Indian diaspora to challenge their comfort zones, place others' interests before their own, push their own potential to affect change, explore their relationship with India, and understand what it means to lead by committing themselves to innovative grassroots projects.
· Indicorps believes that giving one's time and energy, without any attachment to the outcome, regardless of the circumstances, is an unparalleled personal experience in service. At the same time, the fellowship is a chance for fellows to address their own identity, recognize their personal boundaries, and understand how to produce change in their environment(s). The fellowship is deeply rewarding, a transformational and challenging personal journey, and part of Indicorps’ collective experiment for change.
· Indicorps firmly believes that contributing to the development of India at a grassroots level will help Indians around the world better understand their heritage, explore ways to strengthen the global Indian community, and encourage civic responsibility at home in their respective countries. Indicorps focuses on the Diaspora in order to foster a sense of responsibility within the Indian community.

Deadline: Applications (apply.indicorps.org) are due March 31st, 2008.
Contact: If you have any questions or need any more information, please contact Shilpa Shah (outreach@indicorps.org) or visit the website.Indicorps

I recently received information about an idea competition run by Conscious Lifestyle. Please apply for refer this opportunity to friends.
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Conscious Lifestyle is accepting applications for its 2008 venture program.
Submit an application for the chance to win:

* Up to $1,000 in start-up funding
* Web space on consciouslifestyle.org
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To learn more and download an application, visit Conscious Lifestyle. Application Deadline: February 15, 2008.

Watching the post-election turmoil unfold in Kenya has been heartbreaking. While I was there, things seemed so hopeful and we were optimistic about peaceful elections. The country was experiencing economic growth and it seemed like things were headed in the right direction.

Over the past week, I've received several updates from friends in Nairobi and wanted to share them here. In no particular order, here they are:
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Dear friends,

First of all: I am safe, along with everyone at Acumen Fund and SHF. Thank you for all of your emails over the past few days; it means so much to hear from you and know that you are thinking of Kenya. Read More...

In Tokyo, we visited the famous fish market. This place is wild. As we walked in, we had to dodge small trailer trucks as they drover around the outside of the market picking up and dropping off huge styrofoam coolers of fish and enormous frozen tuna.

This was the largest market I had ever seen and appeared to be pure chaos. How could anyone figure out which of the hundreds of stands to visit? It was incredible to see one of those systems that functions so smoothly with seemingly little formal organization.

The best moment of our visit was when we saw an octopus that had escaped from a tub of water and was trying to escape. We watched in horror as crowds walked by and one person finally stepped on him and he recoiled and started to bleed. This video shows the great escape and if you listen closely, you can hear my colleague say "Excuse me, octopus running away!".

The Washington Post ran a really interesting article recently about blogging in Japan. The Japanese have really taken to blogging and there are currently more blogs in Japanese than English.

I read this article while in Tokyo and was initially surprised. However, after thinking about it for some time it made more sense. While I was there, I saw that the Japanese were more comfortable chatting or texting than talking or calling. They tend toward more formal forms of communication and at times, conversations seem more like monologues than dialogs. All of these things make blogs seems like a suitable form of communication.

The accompanying video is worth watching.

Tokyo

Specialized recently sponsored the Innovate or Die contest, challenging teams to submit designs for a pedal powered device which has a positive impact on the environment. IDEO designers formed a team and prepared this 2-minute video of the Aquaduct: Mobile Filtration System.

This is a bicycle which filters water while you pedal and stores it in a small tank which can be used in the home. Very cool design and nicely-made video for this exciting challenge.

Need a last minute gift for someone you know who wants to make a difference (or someone you want to care about the things you care about)? Check out Good Magazine. 100% of the $20 subscription to Good Magazine goes to a non-profit of your choice.

I'd recommend choosing Acumen Fund as the recipient of your donation.

The level of customer service and general helpfulness we saw in Japan was remarkable. At the central Tokyo train station, my colleagues and I were trying to decipher the signs and figure out where to board our train to Kyoto. A Japanese woman approached us and asked if she could help. I showed her our tickets and she took off toward the gate, signaling for us to follow her. She wanted no money, I expect she just wanted to be helpful and practice her English.

When we arrived in Kyoto, we found a nice restaurant downtown where we were the only tourists. The servers went out of their way to explain the menu to us, suggest things to order, and point out what each item was as they placed it on the table. “This is beer”, they said, each time they put one in front of us.

We had several conversations about why complete strangers were so helpful and never completely figured it out. Are people looking to practice their English? Is it a duty to help others? Is being a nice person just the right thing to do? Whatever it was, it made us feel very welcome and comfortable in Japan and we certainly appreciated the hospitality.

I spent last weekend in Chigasaki, an hour outside of Tokyo, with Miho, the Japanese student who lived with my family for a year my senior year of high school. Over the weekend, we rode bikes around town, ran errands, and threw a sushi party with the neighbors. We caught up, reminisced, laughed, and made comparisons between the U.S. and Japan.

I felt so fortunate to get an insider's perspective on Japanese culture so quickly. The feeling of total acceptance into a foreign culture is difficult to achieve and something that I found difficult to reach in Kenya and India.

I don't believe I was able to find that here because the Japanese are necessarily more open, but because of my long and deep relationship with Miho and her family. It's been 13 years since she lived with us, but she is my sister.

Miho's children (Aqua and Marine) with me

As we were walking from our hotel to the client’s office on Wednesday, my colleague noted that Tokyo has many layers. This, I believe is true both figuratively and literally. On a literal level, newer parts of the city of Tokyo sit above some of the older parts and you find yourself walking up and down steps or steep hills and crossing from the old to the new and back to the old again.

On a figurative level, Tokyo also seems to have many levels. I’ve only been here for a few days and realize that most of those are inaccessible to me. However, some you can see by just walking around.

While there are many modern, glass skyscrapers like I envisioned when I thought of Tokyo, these will sit next to the few remaining pre-war buildings or will loom over the low-lying neighborhoods filled with small, traditional wooden houses.

Walking through a neighborhood of restaurants last night, we passed neon-lit restaurants alongside beautifully decorated restaurants with curtains covering the small doorways. In Tokyo, the old and the new, the traditional and the modern sit side by side.

As always, Good Magazine, put out another great issue. This one is the high tech/low tech issue and includes a great section on Amy Smith and the MIT d-lab. The article highlights some of the products Amy and her students have designed and shows their value-add to people in the developing world. These include a screenless hammermill to make flour, a low-cost water test, and alternative charcoal made from sugarcane waste.

These are inexpensive solutions and use locally-available materials. My question is, why aren’t we seeing these innovations spread? I expect the problem here is not that these products aren’t desirable or that the technology doesn’t work. The problem here is that there’s no business behind them. With no marketing or distribution strategy, these things will likely stay in the villages where the students designed them.

As Jordan Kassalow said to me at Acumen Fund's investor gathering, “The developing world doesn’t just need invention, it needs innovation.” We need to start focusing our efforts on how to get these low-cost, locally-appropriate solutions out to the people who need them. And, I believe, private distribution networks are the way to do that.

Last week I attended Acumen Fund’s annual investor gathering in New York. The day of events was inspiring and it was exciting to see how much Acumen Fund had grown in the past year.

Acumen Fund has now approved 29 investments for social enterprises in India, Pakistan, and East Africa that provide goods and services related to health, housing, water, and energy to people making less than $3/day. This equates to $27 million in investments under management, with a goal to grow to $100 million within the next five years. Most impressively, Acumen Fund has managed to raise $48 million in 2007 – a staggering number for such a small organization.

One of the things that stood out to me this year was a move towards including discussions about policy. We heard from Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland about how to connect human rights and economic development and how to support political leaders to make real change.

The panel, “Pakistan – peace, prosperity, and drip irrigation” was especially interesting as we heard from a Pakistani entrepreneur and Acumen’s Country Director for Pakistan talk about how in the long-term, peace will come to Pakistan when the poor have economic opportunity and are empowered.

In her closing remarks, Jacqueline Novogratz reiterated the “need for a policy dialog.” While my work and the work of Acumen Fund will likely continue to focus on markets and supporting businesses to create social change, it’s important to think about how we can work with governments, as their support is clearly necessarily and they truly do have the ability to make widespread and long-lasting change.