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.

As we, Americans, celebrate Thanksgiving this week, this poem is a good reminder to all of us to appreciate what we have and not focus so much on what we don't.

The Necessary Brevity of Pleasures
Samuel Hazo

Prolonged, they slacken into pain
or sadness in accordance with the law
of apples.

One apple satisfies.
Two apples cloy.
Three apples
glut.

Call it a tug-of-war between enough and more
than enough, between sufficiency
and greed, between the stay-at-homers
and globe-trotting see-the-worlders. Read More...

The Purpose Prize provides five awards of $100,000 each to people over 60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges. It’s for those with the passion and experience to discover new opportunities, create new programs, and make lasting change.

Nominations will be accepted until March 1, 2008.

Recently I participated in the BoP Learning Lab at Cornell University. The Learning Lab, chaired by Stu Hart, brings together companies and non-profits interested in working at the Base of the Pyramid. Attendees included IBM, SC Johnson, dob Foundation, Sesame Street, Oxfam, and IDEO.

Stu and the team at Cornell are thinking about co-creation and BoP 2.0. I agree with this approach of encouraging companies to work closely with local communities to design new technologies and new business models to support them. Let’s not take our existing technologies and try to make them fit someplace else. Let’s start with identifying wants and needs and then work together to make something that’s good for everyone.

Stu mentioned the need to “approach this work with humility.” I couldn’t agree with that more and believe we need to stop thinking of ourselves as experts ready to deliver solutions to the poor. We need to learn how to listen better and move to a place of believing we have something to learn from people living in the slums of Nairobi or the villages in Andhra Pradesh.

The first BID network business plan competition in Kenya announced the winners recently and I was thrilled to find out that Ecosandals was among them. I’ve written about Ecosandals from Nairobi – it is a small social enterprise which trains shantytown dwellers to become sandalmakers and makes the shoes from locally-available, recycled materials.

The BID network received 1,000 business plans this year from Kenyan entrepreneurs. It’s fantastic that they were able to fund 5, but we also need to think about the other 995, many of which have great ideas, but lack access to start-up capital.

There’s a huge demand for capital and managerial support for small companies and social enterprises. There’s also an outpouring of interest and contributions in terms of time and money in social enterprise. But, currently, there isn’t enough matching of the two. We need to be thinking about how to connect the talent and resources that I see so much of everyday with the organizations who could really use our support.

I found this piece about the development of an alternative to artemisia (the plant that ABE is buying from farmers in East Africa) for use in ACTs (Artemisinin Based Combination Therapies). I agree with Rob that there's plenty of room in the world for multiple producers of artemisinin and hope that development and production will increase quickly. One way or another, we need to get enough of those drugs to treat malaria out into the market in a cost-effective way.

I apologize that this entry is so long overdue. In September, I attended the Base of the Pyramid conference at the University of Michigan's William Davidson Institute. It was a fantastic three-day conference which explored how to effectively and responsibly do business in the developing world.

One of the interesting take-aways from the conference was the focus on the "triple bottom line". In the past, I have been frustrated by the split between "sustainable" or "green" initiatives and those that are socially impactful. It was refreshing to hear people talk about the need for companies to address environmental AND social concerns.

My year as an Acumen Fund fellow concluded with our graduation in mid-August and I enjoyed six weeks of vacation traveling around the U.S. visiting friends and family. I moved to San Francisco three weeks ago and began working at IDEO, a design and innovation firm. I am involved in a new initiative at IDEO around design for social impact and design for the base of the pyramid.

While no longer writing from Kenya and sharing my experiences in East Africa, I hope to continue to write from California and share insights about design and development. The catch is that I need a new title for the blog. Big kudos (and maybe even a better prize than that) for anyone who can think of a catchy title for my blog. Post your ideas as a comment below or send me an email. Thanks in advance!

Scojo Foundation (my former employer) is currently hiring someone based in New York to manage its Franchise Partner Channel.

JOB DESCRIPTION AND REQUIREMENTS:
Scojo Foundation requires an individual to manage the tremendous growth opportunities within the Franchise Partner Channel. The Franchise Partner Manager will be responsible for developing, managing, and ensuring successful relationships with potential and existing international Franchise Partners. The Franchise Partner Manager will also be responsible for ongoing support to the Director. Read More...

Do you have a great idea and need funding? If so, Echoing Green is now accepting fellowship applications.

VISIONARIES WANTED

Do you have an incredible, new idea that could change your community, country, or world?

Are you an entrepreneur who won't rest until your idea has been brought to life? Or a leader who has recently started an organization to do just that?

If so, apply for an Echoing Green Fellowship. You could receive up to $90,000 in seed funding and support to launch a new organization that turns your innovative idea for social change into action.
Follow in the footsteps of the founders of Teach For America, City Year, and over 400 other social change organizations and apply online by December 3, 2007.

Watch the video
Find out whether you qualify
Apply online
Questions? Contact us at apply@echoinggreen.org

For those of you interested in design or for those of you in the Bay Area looking for something cool to do, check out the David H. Liu Memorial Lecture Series in Design at Stanford.

The first lecture, with Jan Chipchase from Nokia Design, will be held on September 27. I haven't yet had a chance to attend, but have heard great things about the lecture series and hope to attend a few of the upcoming talks. Hope to see some of you there!

Acumen Fund is now accepting applications for the class of 2009 fellows. I encourage those who are interested to apply or to pass along the information to others who might be. Please see the message below from Acumen Fund.

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We are excited to open the application process for the 2009 class of Acumen Fund Fellows. We've moved up the process to better coincide with recruiting calendars for schools in the U.S. as well as in the geographies where we work, so you can apply online until noon EST on October 24, 2007. Information about the program and the process, as well as bios of current and past fellows, can be found on our website. To apply directly, please click here.

We are looking for dedicated individuals with the moral imagination, the practical skills and the leadership potential to effect real change. The program thus far has been a resounding success – both for the fellows and the Acumen Fund enterprises they supported. Previous fellows have called their time with the program a life-changing experience, allowing them to build critical business skills and an understanding of the challenges of serving low-income consumers around the world.

We are also excited to welcome our current class of 2008 fellows. The class has just started its training in New York and is actively preparing for the work of supporting Acumen Fund investments. The fellows have committed to sharing their experiences both from New York and on the ground, so expect to see frequent posts from them on the Acumen Fund blog.

If you know exceptional individuals who should be part of our 2009 class, please encourage them to apply.

There was an great article in yesterday's New York Times about the MIT D-Lab and the International Development Design Summit. As I move to IDEO to begin working on design for the Base of the Pyramid, it's exciting to see the media picking up on these issues.

Amy Smith, founder of the D-Lab, has done a fantastic job advancing the field of design for the developing world and I'm always interested in reading what she and her students are up to.