Economic Development

Lake County Rising








Now let’s consider what they should say:












And ended the day with dinner at a great local restaurant.Slide14



And what is that story, to be specific?








Economic Development

The Fight Against Poverty (and Hippos.)

hippo-yawningThere’s a tragic and amusing story behind the title of Ernesto Sirolli’s book, Ripples from the Zambezi.

As a young man, Sirolli worked with groups sent from Italy to Africa for “economic development.” As was the tradition (and unfortunately still is), one group went in search of problems to fix, in this case along the Zambezi River. They found that the locals had no agriculture, despite fertile soils, and determined to bless them by introducing Italian farming.

A few days before harvest time, the Italians were quite proud of themselves. They had taught (or at least demonstrated) agriculture along the river, and saw an abundant crop in their future. Unfortunately the local hippopotamus population saw the same thing. They came out of the river and ate the crop.

“Why didn’t you tell us about the hippos?” asked the Italians? The answer came calmly: “ You never asked.”

And therein lies the problem with billions of dollars of “economic development” funding supplied by wealthy countries around the world. “They never asked.”

Michael Matheson Miller covers the same topic from a different angle in the Poverty Cure series, where several businesses in struggling countries face competitive pressure from the “relief efforts” that flood their market with free goods.

So, what is the solution? According to Sirolli, it is called “facilitation.” Instead of marching into a deprived area on a mission, his team now hangs out at the local coffee shop. There they learn what entrepreneurial initiatives already exist, and offer to support them. The locals, who are more clever than we give them credit for, then do the work with a little support, wisdom and encouragement.


PS.  For more from Ernesto Sirolli, consider spending 17 minutes on his remarkably amusing Ted Talk:

Economic Development

Beginner’s Guide to Performing Miracles

Digress with me for a moment from our regular conversation, the topic of creating profitable agricultural business. I love that topic (hence our blog), but it’s not Rachel or my ultimate goal in life. I dare suggest that it may not be your ultimate goal either.

Imagine a young couple in your town. They marry and have a child, a young boy who grows to be a charming and healthy two-year-old. Then the boy gets sick. He loses weight, can’t eat and goes to the hospital. There, doctors can’t help him. The boy gets more and more ill as the parents watch. The doctors tell them their son won’t make it.

Then arrives a stranger to the hospital from a foreign country. The stranger offers to heal the child, an act that seems impossible. But, with no better options, the parents tell this person to go ahead, praying for a miracle. The child is healed.

Now let’s revise the story. The young couple lives in Africa, and the stranger is you. The boy is dying from a disease caused by contaminated water, and the local doctors and the child’s parents don’t have a clear understanding of microbiology. By explaining that the local water source is contaminated, and providing a new well (in collaboration with a few other strangers who each pitch in $50 through an organization like @ScottHarrison ’s @CharityWater), you save the life of someone else’s child. To them, your effort seems like a miracle.

I share this story because someone shared it with me. It has been on my mind for months, this concept that we each have seemingly normal gifts and resources that are, in a different context, the makings of a miracle.