Yes or did you hear me? I mean are you there Aasha? Otherwise someone else can do it. I think she's probably not at her desk at the moment. Could we have Avni pray? Could you please pray? Sure ma'am. Good morning. Good morning. Father God we are so very thankful to you for this beautiful day that has come into our life. We will rejoice and be glad in it our Father and thank you for this platform. Thank you for this time of learning about Father enriching us. Father as we are being taught Father we ask you to bless our pastor. We ask you to bless all the all the students who are joining in who would be hearing this later also about Father. We pray for your nothing to flow your presence to be with us Father your wisdom to be our portion today about Father. So whatever we learn may we be able to live by it apply it and bless others through it about Father. Let it grow in us like a seed. We give you glory honor and praise for everything that you're doing in and through our lives and thank you once again Father for this time of learning. We give you glory honor and praise and ask this prayer in the precious and matchless name of Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Okay we have finished 15 chapters so today we are we will hopefully cover chapters 16 and 17. We have now come into the final section where Jesus has now started giving a final set of teachings to his disciples because he knows that the R has come the R which has he has been anticipating right from the beginning you know the hour of the crucifixion when he will finally accomplish the work for which he has come into this world. So now we are into John 16 in the previous chapter he talked about how he is the wine and if we abide in him we will be like branches that are attached to him so his life will flow into us and we will be able to bear fruit and then he wants that there would be a lot of opposition because the world will hate them he wants his disciples in the same way they have hated me they will hate you as well and then he says I know I will send an helper a paracletos and he will be there for you. So in John chapter 16 it begins with these words if we could have someone read out the first three verses please. I have said all these things to you to keep your friend falling away they'll put you out of this sin and God indeed the hour is coming whoever kills you will take his offering sacrifice services to God and they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me. So Jesus I mean in this chapter I mean of course you know it's like division of chapters that was done later because in the original it would have been just one continual narrative so in verse one it says all this I have told you so that you will not fall away so all all what you know whatever was mentioned in the earlier chapter how they are part of him as long as they are in him they will be able to bear fruit but this doesn't mean that everything will go well for them the world will hate them because they do not belong to the world they belong to the Father and the world hates the Father so they will obviously hate the disciples but Jesus assures them that there will be an advocate that he would be sending he will testify about Jesus and lead them into all truth so these are all the things which Jesus shares and he says all this I have told you so that you will not fall away and he wants and says they will put you out of the synagogue in fact the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God and this is what we actually see happening in the lives of the disciples later because the Jewish leaders they you know take steps against them to to beat them whip them to excommunicate some of them to even you know kill many of the followers so we see all of this happening so these things are all written written down recorded by John because his audience is undergoing that kind of a persecution they are facing a lot of opposition from the leaders the leaders who are considered as custodians of the word of God the leaders who are supposed to be knowledgeable about all spiritual matters they are the very people who are pointing fingers at this small group and saying you are you know traitors to the faith you are following something which is wrong and so a chance is there that these poor you know believers may start wondering you know have we made a mistake after all what do we know it's these religious leaders who have all the information in their hands they are the ones who have studied the scrolls they are the ones who know what is there in the Old Testament so maybe we are mistaken maybe we are holding on to a faith and getting persecuted you know for something which is not really correct and so all our effort is in vain so they would have probably get these doubts and so Jesus says I'm telling you about this now itself because you know so that you will not fall away and he says this advocate this paracletos the one who is who is going to be by your side he will testify about me he will remind you of the things which I have taught so do not think that you are in the wrong what you are believing is correct so hold on to the truth because this is the truth which I have revealed to you so you know never doubt never think that even when these powerful leaders are saying that you're wrong do not doubt it they are going to be so confident in their blindness that they that when they kill you they will think that they are doing something good because they have chosen to be blinded they did not want to see the truth the truth was too uncomfortable for them the truth would cost them their positions of power and influence so because of that they chose to be blind if it is easier for them to just blind themselves to the truth so now they have hardened their hearts and blinded themselves to such an extent that they in fact feel good when they persecute people who are speaking the truth so the Lord says a day will come when they will when they will actually think that they are doing God's service when they kill you but do not be swayed by all of that because the Holy Spirit who is in you will remind you of the truth and he will assure you that what you believe is the truth and that what the leaders are saying in fact is wrong so he will guide you he will be there to back up what you believe in so do not be swayed do not fall away is what Jesus is trying to convey in these verses why do the people hate the Father mainly because you know Jesus comes to them and he says I am from the Father and he begins begins to teach things which are very painful to their flesh for the leaders he is telling them you know you need to believe in me and in their eyes they see him as a carpenter's son someone who doesn't have any social status and so they believe that this version of the Father that Jesus is preaching is all wrong they hate what Jesus is telling them about the Father also Jesus is not just very gentle and quiet about their you know faults very openly he says you are hypocrites very openly he says I know you're very very faithful in your tithing but look at the way you treat your family look at the way you're treating your elderly parents you know he's very open very blunt exposing all their wrong and also there are Old Testament practices to which he is now adding new meaning and they had always practiced fasting and now Jesus is saying you know fasting has to be done in a particular context because otherwise it's just an empirical and they don't like it they've always liked the status quo because you know they are the ones who have established that set of rules and running the synagogue and running the temple in a certain way and all of this by by holding on to the status quo and by running things in a certain way they are able to hold on to their power so they do not like it that Jesus is saying that this is what the Father is saying that you are wrong that there's another way to do things and I have come in accordance with what the Prophet's prophesied so the Father had has already sent prophets who are pointing towards me so I am the way I am the truth what I'm saying is true and they don't like this version of the Father at all in their minds they have this other idea of what Yahweh is like and they would they would rather hold on to that they do not like the picture that Jesus is presenting of the Father a very different Father from the kind that they had in mind so they do not like their position shaken and so they dislike the Father due to their own selfish ambitions and desires and also they do not like him pointing out their mistakes and their defects so openly so that's probably why they hate him so much yeah we were looking at yes how these people would the leaders would rise up against the true believers so the audience would have felt encouraged after reading this because you know they would be probably be in small groups here and there and they would be probably even be excommunicated and so they are probably feeling very lonely and alone and they are wondering whether they are making all of these sacrifices for nothing what if the leaders are correct and so here these verses are assuring them no listen to the voice of the Paracletus inside you the one who has come to stand next to you he is reminding you of things that I taught he's testifying about what I have said so hold on to that truth and do not be swayed so these words would have encouraged them and we see this even later you know much later through the centuries when when you know people of God were persecuted during different eras I mean I was looking at one one commentary where it was talking about an archbishop named Cranmer and Cranmer you know once the bible got translated into English and then it was printed so this this person being the archbishop being in a very powerful position where he can do something for the people he began to distribute the English Bible everywhere because he wanted everyone to start reading it and discover the truths in it and you know become strong in God so with that noble you know intent he begins to distribute the English Bible to all the churches which are there you know in all the parishes and even as he's doing that the queen who is who is on the throne at that time is a Catholic Mary the first and she is against the distribution of Bibles because she doesn't want you know protestantism you know the people who are believing in the Bible and following the Bible she is against that and so she decides to begin to persecute him so it's rather interesting she is one very powerful representative of the Catholic Church at that time and it's very very clear that she does not want the Bible distributed openly to everyone she does not want people to start opening their Bibles and discovering what it says over there because then they will know what is true and what is false because at that time the Catholic Church was using its position and power you know to exploit the people and keep them under control and take get money from them because you can purchase your way to heaven by giving money so the church was getting rich everything was going well for them so we see a lot of parallels between the Pharisees of Jesus time and these people who are you know sometime in the middle ages so there is we see the same trend you know always the opposition to the father the hatred towards the things of the father it is always to cushion their own positions to make sure that the status quo stays and people do not get to know the truth so there's always a desire to hide the truth to kind of you know dismiss as something false so that people will not discover that it is indeed correct so in this particular case Mary the first she decides to have this Archbishop grandma she has him burnt so he's literally tied over there to a pole and they set fire to the person when he's still very much alive and he begins to burn and while he's being burnt they you know they have a passionate sermon being preached I mean it's such a horrible thing a person is literally dying over there probably screaming in pain and they have a sermon being preached because they believe that what they are doing is such a good and noble thing so you see you can allow yourself to be blinded to such an extent where you are tormenting a person and putting them to death in such a terrible manner and you think that you're doing so something so noble that you actually stand over there and proudly preach while that you know while the torture is being done so this is just one shocking instance of how wrong can be promoted by leaders in power because now they have become that blind to the truth and yes we had a person raising their hand yes please go ahead yes pastor thank you pastor sorry to interrupt you I just want to take you back to when you mentioned we're talking about the viewpoint of how the spiritual leaders or would I say the Pharisees the idea of you said father but I was going to ask that did they even see God as father that's another question at that time to me when I see read through scripture is like they just dealt with God as someone who could not relate I don't know and so Jesus now bringing a perception of relationship was just way beyond their thinking and they didn't want to have such perception again like you mentioned in order for them to keep their influence so I just got I just wanted to confirm that in your own view of scriptures did they really view God as father I think it was only Jesus that could actually reveal that and that was what they stood against when Jesus Christ brought such perception perception thank you pastor yeah I yes it is true that they didn't really have a very personal concept of God as a very personal father but you know to an extent they did see themselves as the children of Yahweh you know so if we were to look at I mean I was just I was just kind of thinking of you know Solomon when he dedicates the temple and how he addresses God so I'm just trying to look for the worst because I had not really thought about this earlier you know okay just let's just take one random verse from the dedication passage you know second chronicles chapter 6 verse 24 because my eyes just fell on that second chronicles chapter 6 verse 24 where you know Solomon is making his prayer of dedication and he says when your people Israel having sinned against you are defeated by an enemy and then in verse 25 he goes on to say may you hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel so in a sense they consider themselves the people of God and so in that sense children of God because they are descendants of Abraham so there is a kind of personal relationship involved so to an extent they do think of God as father but Jesus takes it to the next level when he begins to use that Aramaic word Abba now that is not a formal word it would be a very personal word the kind that a kid would probably use when addressing his daddy so they would never go to that extent of you know regarding Yahweh as daddy because that would they would feel that that makes it too informal and maybe not honorable enough so yes they did not have Jesus level of you know concept of personal father someone that you can actually go to and say Abba too so but to an extent they always saw themselves as Yahweh's people and so his children in that sense yeah I hope that helps yeah thank you pastor thank you yes okay let's look at verses five six and seven if someone could read out please ask me where are you going that because I've said this things to you sorrow has filled your heart never was actually the truth but it's to your advantage that I go away or if I do not go away don't help me when I come to you but if I go I will send it to you yes so in verse seven Jesus says very truly I tell you it is for your good that I am going away and you know you know you must have read this in many places wherever it says truly truly I say to you or very truly I say to you it's like you know Jesus is adding emphasis if he had a bold font you know back in those days and you had no written print he would have actually put it in bold font or he might have put it in red coloring so the idea is to emphasize what he's about to say so he's he's saying very truly I tell you which automatically means everything that I'm going to say next is going to be like in bold capital font and I know I want you to want it to catch your attention he says it is for your good that I am going away so it is for our benefit that Jesus works God works all things you know we read that in Romans chapter 8 where it says that in all things God works for our good so we see that same thing over here just to dwell on that thought for a little bit if we could actually you know go to Romans 8 verses 28 and 29 and if someone could just read out Romans 8 28 and 29 Romans 8 28 and 29 says and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose for those whom he for new he also predestined to be confirmed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first born among many brothers okay so we can have the assurance that even when something painful is happening and we don't really understand why God has allowed that set of circumstances one thing we can be sure of in those unpleasant circumstances also God is working for our good because it says we know you know it's like a very confident knowing Paul is making a statement and he's saying he's not saying I guess rather he's saying we know that in all things okay in all things God works for the good of those who love him because there's a purpose there's a plan he has already predestined them to be confirmed to the image of his son and his he has a purpose for their lives so it's all in place so to lead them to that goal so that they will fulfill those purposes for which they have been created he's going to start putting everything into place even this you know negative things which take place even in in or even in all of those negative things he will work for the good of his people now this does not mean that he wanted them to face all of those unfortunate you know events he allows it because he knows that he can give them the strength to overcome it and he knows that even as they go through that they will become stronger and their faith will grow and they will be able to fight greater battles against Satan and when so he allows it okay so but it does not mean that he likes it that he enjoys giving pain to his people it is not saying that over here it is saying that when those terrible things happen and he allows them to happen because he knows that he will give us the strength to go through with it in those terrible circumstances which he does not like in those circumstances he will continue working for our good now there are some situations where we make a mistake either we have sinned or we have just taken a wrong decision because we did not bother to pray and seek God's guidance and we end up in bad circumstances what about those does God work for our good in those circumstances where I made the mistake you know where I took a wrong decision or in fact I was living in sin because of which I'm suffering these consequences even in those cases God works for our good simply because he has predestined us to be confirmed to the image of his son and therefore if we go to him in repentance he will redeem us he will restore us from those situations and circumstances in his own time in his own way so even when we make a mistake we can still have the hope that if we go to him in true repentance he will redeem and restore so that the plan that he has for our lives will not completely be cut off but you know it can continue so we can always have hope that no matter how painful or unpleasant the circumstances are that we find ourselves in the Lord is at work for our good and so that is why here Jesus says very truly I tell you it is for your good that I am going away and then he goes on to explain why it would be good for them we'll get to that later but over here we have you know Rupa who was posted Isaiah 63 16 I shall remember this for future reference thank you so much so it's it's it's excellent it says but you are our father though Abraham does not know you know all the rest of it so again you have the phrase in the lower part of the verse Lord our our father our redeemer from of old is your name so yes they did have a sense of God being their father but of course not in that very personal sense where you can go and say papa or daddy or something like a little child that they probably would have thought is too personal and not something that human beings can actually have you know that kind of a privilege so they were not aware of that but yes they did have some understanding of the father yes coming back to what we were talking about here yes why is it good for him to go away Jesus says the reason that I need to go away is unless I go away the advocate will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you so when the Holy Spirit comes he would be in the believer so which means the believer has access to the Lord 24 7 you know when Jesus was in his physical body Jesus was had allowed himself to be restricted by human you know parameters so he would also need to sleep he would also need to take rest he would go away to another place and then the disciples would no longer be with him you know because they would be in a different spot so there's no continued 24 7 contact with Jesus while he was in his physical body so it's in fact better that he goes away because when he when he sends his spirit to them and the advocate comes then then believers will have 24 7 access to the Lord so in fact it is a good thing it is a better thing also we see that it was necessary for Jesus to first do his work of atonement on the cross because a sinful person cannot have a relationship with the spirit of God so first of all their sins had to be cleansed someone had to die on the cross and pay for them and once they are cleansed only then the Holy Spirit can come and take his residence in their lives and you know they can have this personal relationship with him so that is why he explains and he says if I don't go away I cannot send the helper so it's only after the work on the cross is finished once the atonement is completed only then will the Holy Spirit be able to come and reside inside the person who has now been made righteous in Jesus Christ otherwise there would be no fellowship with the spirit nobody can be can have the Holy Spirit living in them unless they have been made righteous and made clean through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross so he says I will go away and then when I go away then I will be able to send you the advocate and another thing which I noticed in your textbook in fact you know is the point they make over there about how Jesus was with them for three years and at the end of all the instruction that they received all the training that they received what were they like you know in your textbook it says that after all the ministry which Jesus did they were still confused thick-headed afraid selfish self-centered these are some of the terms which I used you know in your textbook but then when Jesus goes away and then the Holy Spirit comes and starts you know living in them then what are they like they turn into wise surrendered bold and giving people who go around sharing the gospel and power and performing science and wonders so the limitation was that Jesus could not do an internal work of transformation that's something that the Holy Spirit does so as long as he was a physical person only from the outside he could talk he would he could influence he could set an example for them to follow so all this is an external work of the Lord but you also need an internal work of the Spirit so as Jesus was ministering on the outside the Holy Spirit would work inside people's hearts and and help them to believe what Jesus is saying and all of that but once they become believers then literally the Holy Spirit lives inside them and there's an internal work of transformation that goes on 24 7 depending on how nicely you are walking in step with the Spirit Galatians chapter 5 makes that clear if you're not walking in step with the Spirit you know you're limiting him but if you're walking in step with the Spirit every day and you're sensitive to his guidance to his correction and all of that then you will see that there's an there's an internal work of transformation that's going on 24 7 inside our hearts so it is better for Jesus to go away so that the Holy Spirit can come and literally reside inside a person because then they can be transformed to a much greater extent so we see that this was beneficial for the believers for the for the disciples that Jesus that Jesus should go away physically yeah if maybe we could have one person read out verses 8 to 11 yes please 16 and when he comes he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because i go to the father and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged yes so here the word that is used he will prove the world to be in the wrong or in the word convict he will convict the world so the word over there the Greek word that is used over there is to it's not just to convince someone but to convince them with solid proof with compelling proof so god will give compelling proof of why they are wrong and deserve judgment okay so he will be able to convict people and show them that they are that they very much need a savior that they are really in the wrong and judgment will come upon them if they do not submit so he will provide compelling proof and convict them in that powerful sense so what are the three things that he convicts them of first they will be made to realize that if they reject Jesus about sin because people do not believe in me so anyone who rejects what Jesus is saying and refuses to believe it they will remain in their sin the second thing convict them about righteousness because i'm going to the father so they will be convicted and they will have be given this assurance that once Jesus goes to the father uh he will intercede for them and they will be made righteous so there is a solution they don't have to be they don't have to be stuck in their sin if they believe in him he will go to the father and because he goes to the father they will be made righteous and the third thing that he will convict them of is that if they refuse to do this then all that remains for them is judgment the prince of this world has been judged and in the same way they too will be judged along with the prince of the world if they choose not to believe in Jesus and take sides with him uh so these are things that the Holy Spirit will convict a person of if they are willing and open to hear from him on the other hand when they start hearing from him if they immediately harden their hearts because they don't want to get rid of the status go they enjoying the comfort of it too much then the Holy Spirit will just bide his time you know he may given another few opportunities where again and again he will give them chance to repent if they still don't then you know that the judgment is all that awaits them so this is the work of conviction which the Holy Spirit will do where he will provide evidence and proof to them in their heart to help them believe what is being presented versus 12 to 15 if we could have someone read out I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bury them down when the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority but wherever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are required he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you all that the Father has is mine therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you yes so in verse 12 Jesus says I have much more to say to you more than you can now bear so right now Jesus is not inside their heart so the Holy Spirit is not taking permanent residence inside them so there are certain things which they still will not be able to really understand not be able to really fully grasp so Jesus says there are many more things to be said but they cannot be said now when the Holy Spirit comes to live in you then he will make all of these things very very clear so in a way Jesus is paving the way for the other books of the New Testament which will come along you know after the gospels are written so because there are people who say the sayings of Jesus you know wherever Jesus says Jesus said so and so I will believe those things but what the humans have written what Paul wrote and Peter wrote how can I believe that because those are things which the which humans have written is the argument they present but here Jesus says you know I have not finished telling everything that needs to be said so that you can grow in faith there are many many more things to be said and they will be revealed through the Holy Spirit so which is why later the Holy Spirit inspired people like Paul and Peter and James so that they were able to give a more elaborate explanation of things that Jesus had just very briefly touched upon so we must honor and believe whatever Jesus directly spoke but we also give the same importance to whatever was written by Paul and Peter and James and the others simply because they were acting under the influence of Jesus spirit whom Jesus had sent personally to explain to them in greater detail so we must accept all of the New Testament as the word of God and we see again it's in your textbook where it talks about it kind of draws a comparison between Jesus and the Holy Spirit and in fact the disciples in John 15 15 yeah maybe if someone could read out John 15 15 and then you know the comparison becomes a little clearer John 15 15 so Jesus when he is on the earth as a human being he allows himself to be taught by the father so all the things which he receives from the father which he learns from the father that he passes on to the disciples he reveals it to them he presents it to them so Jesus receives and Jesus passes it on to his people in the same way now over here in this passage we see the Holy Spirit receiving something from Jesus and passing it on to the people because that's what we see right in verse 13 where it says he will speak only what he hears so whatever he hears from Jesus that he will pass on to the disciples again it says in verse 14 he will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive and yeah and then it says in verse 15 spirit will receive from me and he will make known to you so what he has received from Jesus he will now reveal to the disciples so we see Jesus receiving from the father and revealing it to the disciples the Holy Spirit receives from Jesus and reveals it to the disciples and the disciples who have now received from the father and from the Holy Spirit and from Jesus now they are supposed to witness and pass it on to other people so it's never just the receiving the receiving is always to be followed by a passing it on to others revealing it to others so that they too can know can know these truths it is never meant to be knowledge that just stored away in the mind and you do nothing about it no it is always any spiritual knowledge from the Bible you know it is always meant not just to be received but then to be applied and passed on to others so that they also can benefit from what has been taught so that's one learning that we get from this particular passage and then moving on to six if you could have someone read out verses 16 to 18 please a little while and you will see me no longer and again a little while and you will see me so some of his disciples said to one another what is this that he says to us a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me and because I'm going to the father so they were saying what does he mean by a little while we do not know what he is talking about so I mean we have much clarity about what Jesus was saying because this is explained more fully to us you know in the epistels but at that point of time the epistels had not yet been written so the disciples are not still very very clear about what Jesus is saying so the main concern is okay lord you're saying that you're going to go away and we cannot come you know to where you are and we can't follow you over there you're saying that later on you will come and you will take us with you to your home so that's fine but now this thing that you're talking about you know going away for a little while how long is that time period because they have given up everything in life to be with him and he's talking about going away and he's saying that they cannot go to where he is right now so they are asking what do you mean by this little while exactly how short is this little while you know you can see their concern so it's a discussion that's going on among them because it says in verse 18 they kept asking so this is some and in verse 17 it says they said to one another so there's a lot of worrying going on because their master whom they have fully trusted and whom they have followed is now talking about going away and he's talking about some paracletals you know who's going to come and be with them but that just still sounds like a foreign entity they it's not something that they have fully understood and they are so anxious that their master is going so there's the so this must have been a real topic of conversation and they know they kept talking among themselves and and wondering how long will it be will it be for a very long time did he mean years or did he mean months and they're rather concerned about this but that wording in the little while which Jesus uses the Greek word used over there is something called micron it means a short duration of time but it also means something very insignificant so it's like Jesus is saying you know you are going to feel that kind of a sense of loss when I go away but it's going to be so insignificant because what's going to come next will be so amazing that you will not even think about the short you know gap time gap when I was not there and which is so true right because later when the Holy Spirit comes into them they are filled with joy they are filled with boldness and they experience Jesus in a much greater way once the Holy Spirit has come so here Jesus is saying you know in a very in for a very insignificant amount of time I'll be going away but don't worry it will not even make a difference because very very soon after that you will have the advocate with you you will have the helper with you and then it will not even matter to you that we had this brief time of parting okay it's what Jesus says moving on to verses 19 to 22 if someone could read out please Jesus knew what they wanted to ask him so he said to them is this what you're asking yourself why am I saying a little while and you will not see me again a little while and you will see me truly truly I say to you you will live for minutes but the world will rejoice you'll be sorrowful but you're sorrowful during the joy 21 when a woman is giving birth she has sorrow because her door has come in but when she has delivered the baby she no longer remembers the anguish but joy that a human being has been born into the world 22 so also you have sorrow how so so you have sorrow now but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice no take your joy from you okay so over here the the imagery of a woman giving birth to a child is used in a positive sense I've just noticed that generally in the Old Testament wherever this imagery is used it tends to be used in a very negative way because the emphasis over there is on the pain the the sheer struggle and so it's kind of used in a sense of judgment you know where God says you know you'll be in pains of like like a like a woman in labor because you know God's judgment is coming upon you and you'll be filled with horror and all of that so the emphasis seems to be more on the pain and the struggle in the Old Testament but here in the New Testament where this imagery is used it's used in a very positive sense it's talking about a new life being born so yes there is a struggle but that struggle is followed by something very beautiful a life which is so amazing that you even forget the struggle so more than the Old Testament scriptures maybe we should look at a New Testament scripture you know which will help us to understand what is being said so that would be Romans chapter 8 verses 22 to 23 well okay we are kind of out of time right so maybe we can read Romans 8 22 to 23 when we come back from our from our break so let's get back together at 10 o'clock thank you


Good morning and welcome to the breakfast. Address the consequences of the federal price hike. Review the minimum wage. Provide a walkable roadmap to the CNG alternative. Fix the country's refineries and pay lecturer salary errors. These are some of the demands of the Nigeria Labor Congress. And the failure of the government to meet these demands have led to one strike with a major shutdown shuttle to take place at the end of this week. To avoid the major shutdown, the federal government held a meeting with the NLC yesterday on Monday. That meeting, however, reportedly ended without a concrete resolution to the union's demands. That was our first hot topic this morning on the breakfast. And experts are seeking collaboration for improved e-payment systems. This will be our second hot topic on the program this morning. We'll also be taking a look at the major headlines and some national dailies on off-the-press with an analyst who will be joining us to analyze them. I am Maureen Menon-Wazigwein, so good to have you join us this morning on the breakfast. It's a lovely, lovely Tuesday morning. And we'll go straight to our top trending. The first top trending this morning, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Ido'u, Ohonwa has inaugurated a 13-man committee to investigate the death of Nigerian singer, Ile'u'u Luwa Oladimeji Oloba, popularly known as MOBAD. MOBAD's father, grandmother and other family members were present for the inauguration of the committee on Monday. The setting up of the committee comes amid outcry from his fans who are alleged that he might have been poisoned by the owners of the record level he was signed to, the spokesperson of the Nigerian police force, Mu'iwa Adejabi on Monday, assured Nigerians that MOBAD's alleged killers wouldn't go unpunished. The 27-year-old died on 12 September as he was undergoing treatment for an infection. And from that very tragic story there, so many people are crying out and seeking for justice for this young man. We'll move to the second one. The federal government is planning two super highways across the country through a public-private partnership scheme. Minister of Works Dave Umahi disclosed this to the State House Correspondents on Sunday after a meeting with President Balak Metinubu in Abuja. He said that the highways will be from Abuja to Lagos and Port Haqqat to Lagos, adding that they would be provided with state-of-the-art facilities for the comfort of the traveling public. Super highways are designed for travel at high speeds, having more than one lane for each direction of traffic and a safety strip, dividing the two directions. The minister said that the government got commitments from stakeholders to make the project a success within a reasonable period of time. Umahi also disclosed that the president was brift on the need to seek better appropriations for the funding of the road projects to avoid unnecessary variations in cost and specifications. He said that the National Assembly will be carried along to see the necessity of providing enough fund to road projects that are beneficial to the people. He also said that due to inappropriate funding, he has asked the president to direct the termination of road projects that have taken more than 10 years without completion. The minister assured Nigerians that no project initiated by the past administration will be abandoned by the federal government. According to him, the Tinnubu administration inherited 2,604 projects worth 14 trillion Naira, covering 18,000 kilometers of roads, adding that a commitment was got for payment of four trillion out of this amount. The minister added that the government was also committed to using, you know, to use the reinforced concrete for road pavements across the country, setting that it is capable of outstanding heavy roads such as heavy vehicles with less deformation and seven-four years without major repairs needed. He spoke of the merit of using local materials, highlighting that eliminating imported items will stop contract variations in the country. Under structural defects, under Third Mainland Bridge, he said that work had started and heavy vehicles had been stopped from plying it for now. Well, when coming to work on Monday, I was hopeful that the part of the Third Mainland Bridge which I go through was part of those that had received the palliative, but it's not. So I'm still very hopeful that by, because it's going to take place also next Sunday. So hopefully by next week Monday, when I applied the Third Mainland Bridge, wouldn't go through some of the things we've been going through in the past couple of months. And so we'll move to the third top trending. It's been in the news for a couple of days now. At least two persons are battling for their lives at a private hospital after a school turned residential building in the Ketu area of Lagos partially collapsed on Sunday. The building housed in over 800 rooms with hundreds of residents known as Agoya Estate on Odunta Street, Ketu, first caved in on Saturday afternoon following hours of rainfall that greeted most parts of Lagos on Sunday afternoon as residents were still trying to salvage their belongings. The building crumbled again, destroying another structure inside the compound before collapsing completely. Well, I understand that there have been reports against that building even before this collapse. So I don't know why appropriate actions were not taken to avoid this kind of tragedy, but there you have it, another building collapsed this time housing more than 800 people. Picture that, picture that, doesn't make sense. But then two lives are ready battling for, to survive from that tragedy. I hope they make it. While you're still watching the breakfast and plus TV Africa, it is the Tuesday edition. We call it the Technophile Edition. We'll be back to take a look at up the press and see those headlines are made into the front pages of some national dailies this morning. Stay with us.


Okay, got it, I am up here and okay, here we go. We believe that for extension to have the greatest impact among our stakeholders, we must work together at all levels, administration, specialists, and agents, to constantly evolve, develop, and support the most appropriate and relevant work. To achieve that, we propose a multimodal communication and feedback loop to be incorporated into NDSU Extension. Specifically, we propose, number one, to develop an agent-elect and specialist-elect position to sit on the extension leadership team. Number two, an evaluation system where agents, specialists, and administrators receive constructive feedback on relevance and performance at all levels in extension. And number three, an evolution of job descriptions based on needs within counties, paying particular attention to single-agent counties so they can best serve their communities. We believe this will enable extension to be more proactive and maximize efforts to achieve the greatest. Too many of our North Dakota communities are stuck inside of the box. Limited by, we've tried that before, the same 10 people showing up at meetings and a top-down approach to community development. Close your eyes and imagine a process that will unlock the potential of emerging leaders and new solutions to local issues. Unlock the box is the new key to community vitality. It's a process for generating innovative ideas and supporting community change that is anchored by an event to spur the co-creation of innovative community projects that will compete for funding. Funding projects will also receive continuing support from community coaches led by NDSU Extension. Please show your support for unlock the box and help us create communities that will be healthy, vibrant, and sustainable for just two words. The program of Farm Strategic Direction allows farmers, farm and ranch managers to dream while improving their operations and achieve their goals instead of focusing on what needs to be done. Farm and ranch managers could benefit from making a strategic plan, taking a step back, asking how could we do it better? What would you change? What would you try? What would you think would work and what could go wrong? Knowing what they want to do and as extension we could help them develop the how. How could we do it? How could we change this? How could we make it work and how it might all go wrong? NDSU Extension would provide the structure, format, and resources to get the ideas flowing. I've got 15 seconds. Go Bison. This program is called the Farm and Ranch Enterprise Entrepreneurship Program or the Free Program. We're operating in an ag environment currently with razor thin margins, uncertainty about markets, and widespread detrimental weather events. We in extension, especially those of us in ag, are quick to point out many of the problems we face and yet, all too often, the best we can do is provide incremental improvement advice. The Free Program will provide alternative enterprise advice and analysis for existing farms to achieve the following. Help solve some of the labor issues surrounding ag by starting new enterprises that will utilize assets that often sit idle, reduce revenue risk by adding an independent or negatively correlated enterprise which will help stabilize farm incomes, create opportunities for errors to return to the family farm without massive additional capital expenditures. In essence, this is an opportunity for farmers to grow, manage risk, reduce average costs, and increase profitability. Yeah! Woohoo! Good job! Two seconds. Good job! Good. So, I think we all know the farm situation in North Dakota. I mean, it's bad. Really bad. It was bad and then we got two feet of snow bad, right? Our team is looking at doing something new, not necessarily innovative but especially impactful. What we're going to do is assemble the information that we already have at NDSU, put it online, add some more material, and get this out to farmers now as soon as possible. Right now what they're experiencing is really, really difficult. As always, North Dakota producers really don't like to ask questions in public and we're going to talk about or at least address some sensitive things as it comes to financial management and risk management. Again, we're going to assemble information that we have, find gaps, develop an online program, host a web-based system, have solutions, web-based presentations, and get it out to farmers as soon as we can in a week-by-week method. I'll tell you more. All I'm asking for right now is for you to hit number four on your clicker. Our mission is to put human health at the center of our agricultural efforts and build farm and family resilience. Why? Agriculture sustains the human family and health is the most important resource that sustains agriculture and human communities. We propose an integrated and multifaceted Farm Strong North Dakota initiative for rural populations that models and promotes holistic and healthy living practices, enabling healthy families, farms and communities grounded in sustainability and intentional wellness. Using the three-pronged strategy, we will first engage in focused conversations on health and agriculture with media. Second, train and support a group of committed community professionals and rural health advocates in integrated health approaches. And third, invite farm and ranch populations to explore a team-based farm health inventory that addresses operational resilience, financial health, individual and social health. We are dissatisfied with widespread depressive communication squad, a group of extension and REC professionals. We've heard from colleagues that employees are seeking to improve communication and build relationships with other staff. We feel an internal social network would be a great way for employees to share information, help and support each other in their work and build relationships. We envision an online form that allows individuals from multiple disciplines to proactively weigh in on questions, current issues and program and research ideas that affect North Dakota communities. Through this platform, we believe improved communication will build a cohesive network that will enhance effectiveness and increase our success in serving all communities. Did you know that youth suicide rates in North Dakota are two times the national rate and in North Dakota, according to Kids Count, Native American youth, suicide rates are almost four times that of white youth. These are sobering statistics and highlight the mental health need in our state. Because our team believes that everyone has the right to optimum mental health free of stigma, we will develop a mental wellness campaign for all youth that builds skills and provides resources to achieve mental wellness in a way that is different from but complementary to therapeutic services. We also believe that youth know their struggles best, so they will be involved in every stage of this campaign from design to development to delivery, ultimately reducing rates of youth suicidal ideation, attempts and completion. Thank you for your four points. Thank you very much. Do you or someone you know struggle with mental health?  Mental wellness allows people to reach their potential, cope with stress and contribute to their communities. Mental wellness begins with feeling valued. Building self-worth, social support is the key. Our program is a simulation, a transformative experience that will shift your perspective. People will come together in groups to experience the continuum of mental health while building skills to respond. The result will be unlike boring and dull informational trainings. This is an immersive experience that cultivates compassion so humans can invest in each other in the face of adversity to stimulate vitality. Will you invest four points? Alright, our team wants to focus on equipment, sanitation and clean out clinics at targeted areas across the state. For example, we want to hold combined clean out clinics in southeast North Dakota. While we want to target the southeast part of the state, herbicide resistant water hem. This is a weed that has shown the ability to become resistant to every mode of action we have on the corn and soybean market with no new herbicides coming out for at least another five or ten years. This is also a weed that can produce several hundred thousand seed per plant and it's one of the top ranked weeds nationally as far as resistance and causing losses to farmers. So clearly we're not going to spray our way out of this situation with new herbicides. What we can do is focus on preventing spread. Combine spread weeds quite easily if we hold clinics at these targeted areas. We can show farmers how in 20 quick minutes we can clean a combine, clean those several hundred thousand seeds out of that combine and prevent them from going to the next field. I've got two seconds to vote four. Good job Joe, thank you. How would you all like to make a forty five thousand dollar decision based on the accuracy of the weather forecast? That's what we ask farmers to do every year when they're making just one fungicide application in their crops. And as extension professionals we're asked to help them with that decision but economic loss can be very challenging to predict and crop budgets are tight. Just because you can control a disease maybe you shouldn't. What we want to do is provide information that we already have what fungicides are effective on a certain disease, what they cost, what that translates into in terms of return on investments and supply that to farmers through an easy to use web based tool. Our goal with this is to empower farmers to make fact-based decisions about their pesticide applications that will allow their farm operation. Have you ever advertised and prepared for a program or an event to only have one or two people show up? Let's face it. People have really busy lives and it can be hard to get their butts in the seats when competing with other commitments. Rather than expecting people to come to us all the time let's meet them where they're located. With most of a person's day typically spent at work and a workforce of over three hundred eighty thousand people an initiative starting initiative targeting work sites could reach a sizable segment of North Dakota adults. We would like your support in developing a workplace wellness toolkit but not just any ordinary toolkit. This toolkit is designed to take an individualized approach to health promotion allowing organizations to address their specific needs. It empowers organizations and businesses to actively promote employee health and create a culture where employee well-being matters. A new guy I hope this isn't part of like the initiation for extension program. Just kidding. You know the smartphone in your hand or pocket that takes up all your free time and is bad for your brain what if it was used for good. We are presenting the NDSU extension app that is specific to your local community with relevant research and evidence-based information that will make it difficult not to leave not to live a healthy lifestyle. Extension programs and resources across all program areas would be incorporated with the built-in prompts notifications calendars community events trackings basically a one-stop shop for one-stop shop for all community members and partners. So in addition to asking for money of course it's a big thing. We are asking for support marketing and promotion of a fully customizable extension app that is engaging user friendly. We immediately be able to track downloads clicks and contacts also report trends with county and statewide data with health indicators for example family physical fitness activity and participation extension related activities. Good job. Who likes cool interactive experiences tech savvy people ages 25 to 45 do. We feel the forkers will empower them to sustain healthy lifestyle behaviors with research-based extension information delivered in novel ways.  We will gather input from our target age group using a Twitter chat Qualtrics survey and direct interaction. In our unique field to fork health and egg related project we will meet this age group head on through social media platforms such as Facebook Pinterest Twitter Instagram and texting and then a face-to-face experience piloted in five locations such as our RECs. We will connect our target group to egg and extension and invite the involvement of our long-standing support supporters commodity groups come join this cool and interactive experience with the field to fork five. So we have an issue in this country where a majority consumers are disconnected from agriculture right so as people are driving across our beautiful state they see empty fields they don't see the commodities that are being grown.  So our goal is to create something that people stop take a picture of and share and they learn something about egg without even realizing it and they share that message. We would like to create a stimulating and educational interactive art showcase for consumers enabling an informed connection to agriculture unlike previous campaigns. So learn more vote for all right seems like every week we see a new video so up on social media that highlights the perceived negatives that they see in the agricultural industry. Every week a new article comes out talking about how GMO's are bad or pesticides are destroying the environment. We are the group that's dealing with the public disconnect of agriculture and we want to enable people to make positive food choices that are not based on fear mongering information and articles. Our goal is to create a virtual grocery store website that will directly connect the consumers to the producers via websites via fun fact information. We also plan to have videos where people can explore an apple orchard or they could go and listen to a producer talk about why they raise the cattle they do. We also intend to directly be in the grocery store with ask farmer boosts where an animal agriculturalist could explain why they vaccinate calves why they do the different things they do or why an orchard would use those pesticides to control insects to make the food healthier. We hope that you'll encourage and vote for our when you look good you feel good and you do good yesterday our friend of extension stood up on the stage and said I got your back but he also said we got a lot of work to do yet guys. So what's that I do work for extension. Oh no I'm not based out of Fargo. I live right in your community. Oh you wish that Sally would have worn her extension shirt. Yeah. Well Karen did you know that she was allocated one shirt and it didn't fit and she didn't want to be human and said some of these things. So what are we going to do extension public perceptions issues team is going to create an easy consistent boots on the ground branding campaign. We want you to be proud and excited of where you work. Isn't it time that North Dakota knows that you are extension. We are extension that this is the reaching new and underserved populations group. We believe that reaching new and underserved populations will strengthen and unify communities by meeting the needs of all people. Each program area and extension is different and has populations that are not being served. Our solution is to develop a toolkit that provides concrete and practical ideas and methods for enabling each program area to identify engage and produce new resources for the new and underserved populations. Imagine building a relationship with people that have never had the extension experience and all you have to do is press for. Have you ever been frustrated by vacant positions. Have you ever had more tasks added to your workload due to turnover. Have you been discouraged by the glooming frequency of resignation emails. We all know the cost associated with turnover is high with a minimum of one hundred fifty percent of that agent salary to replace and retain that employee. That figure becomes even higher when we consider the nature of relationships and trust that are broken. We have a plan to initial incentivize workload that is above and beyond current job responsibilities to improve fairness compensation and job satisfaction. We call upon administration to recognize and compensate. Those who take the state level responsibilities and address issues of accountability and fairness. We are asking to redefine and clarify job expectations and created tiered incentivized program to compensate for time spent outside those expectations. I'm ready. Can you imagine specialists who know every county agent. Can you imagine being financially rewarded for continuing education. Can you imagine new employees feeling confident in their first year. Can you imagine at least 50 applicants per job. Can you imagine feeling a passion for your job every day. Can you imagine impact statements writing themselves. And finally can you imagine when burnout in an extension looks like too many candles on a cake. Team Forever 21 is proposing a rewarding training system for employees that will empower them to find and pursue their passion and to to create a culture of excellence like no other in universities nor industry. This training system promises you to reduce our employee turnover ensuring a bright bold future for extension. OK. So I'm from Team The Dirty Worms. We believe in sustaining and improving the land natural resources and its people for the current and future generations of North Dakota. To do that we will develop a series of soil resource management schools that teaches the principles of soil health management tailored to the various regions of North Dakota. If you decide you've lost it. It's up here. Oh well. Yes. You're clicker. Me too. Last time I checked. Last time you checked. Your name is Chris. There's your clock. Yep. OK. So I'm from Team The Dirty Worms. We believe in sustaining and improving the land natural resources and its people for the current and future generations of North Dakota. On June 7th 2019 40 mile an hour winds launched bare soil thousands of feet into the air. This is 50 years after we put a man on the moon and we are still damaging our soil. We need to build and maintain durable ag soils in perpetuity. We need to limit tillage use diverse cropping supplemented with cover crops so we have a 365 day live rut to protect and enhance our soil. Our group 23 has the expertise and knowledge and tools to put together a system to fix the serious challenge. Please help us regenerate conserve and improve soil health. So our great great grandchildren can have a farm with precious healthy soil. What better legacy can we leave. Healthy soil healthy world healthy future. North Dakota has always had a close tie to the soil. This is reflected in the motto on our coat of arms strength from the soil. The health and conservation of soils is imperative for the production of food and fiber for the world and for current and future generations. Many producers are jumping on the soil health bandwagon. However are they making changes that are appropriate and not science based site specific are appropriate for their their operations. We are proposing the development of a soil health kit for North Dakota producers that helps them assess soil health on their operation and aid in the selection of site specific practices to enhance soil health on their operations. We'll partner with NRCS soil conservation districts and crop advisors to pilot the kits and counties. The kits will include guides tools and assess to assess soil health determined management options and monitor effectiveness of practices implemented. The soil health kits will empower. Okay no barley no beer everybody's heard that phrase right. We're going to apply it to soil health. Here's how this works barley is an excellent crop for soil health not only does it do well in saline areas that most of our farmers are dealing with. It's also a short season crop that we can fit in a cover crop after it and graze. Now here's where the beer fits in. Everybody likes beer for the most part 99% of the population and beer brings people together. So we're looking at a soil health event that would bring accurate information from extension and farmers to consumers to teachers to lenders anyone that has anything to do with with purchasing agricultural products or has an interest in agriculture. So this event would be would be held probably in an urban area and the difference between this event and a farm to table event that have been held in the past is that we would take people to the field after that we would organize a field trip after that's people can get their hands in the soil see what a healthy soil is and how farmers are using these practices. One size does not fit all. We believe employees who are engaged and passionate are the key to building relationships and trust in communities across North Dakota. A quote from our football team. Those that stay will be champions. One size does not fit all. We propose a change to how we recruit. Our job announcements will become exciting and expiring. A position specific informational video will be part of every announcement. Recruiting candidates with passion will be a high priority. All of us will be expected to recruit. Focus recruitment for focus positions. Truth in advertising. To be champions we need to recruit champions. One size does not fit all. Go Bison.


It's a pleasure to be here. We will discuss how we deal with the challenges of promoting innovations and entrepreneurship in order to fight poverty. But I will start with giving a short background. SIDA, a governmental agency, our mission is to contribute to conditions that makes it possible for poor people to lift themselves out of poverty. And we must realize that development aid has been very successful in many respects. But there are shortcomings and the aid landscape is rapidly shifting. And we have to look into new ways, new approaches to work with new kinds of actors in order to fight poverty and to promote democracy and human rights. And that's why we decided a couple of years ago on a brand new program called Business for Development. It's about to engage with the private sector. We have been, I must say, within the development community a bit reluctant, to say the least, to engage with business. But we must realize that business can serve as a very important actor in development because with business comes huge resources, capital, knowledge, networks, result orientation, and innovative capacity. So within this program there are several different elements. It's about private public partnerships, innovative financing. For example, we're working together with J. P. Morgan and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to raise capital in order to invest in the development of drugs, fighting neglected diseases. And there are also some very important parts of that program that is aimed to support social entrepreneurship. And that's why we are supporting Social Entrepreneurship Forum, which is represented here by Emma. And there is another element called Innovations Against Poverty. And you can find information on Innovations Against Poverty outside at the CDER stand. And it has been really challenging to work with Innovations Against Poverty. We have been looking into that concept for a couple of years. And last year we procured Price-Waterhouse-Coopers to handle this program. And I'm so glad that Johan Sturzon is here today. And he will now explain to you how this program is working and what result we do expect from that. Thank you, Johan. It's a great honor to be here. And it's a very interesting process to work with CDER in this EIP process. As you understand, it's a challenge fund. And we have got the task to drive and manage and control that. And the criteria, as was said, kind of, you know, it should be inclusive, but profitable, innovative, not have any kind of bad effects on environment. And also it needs to be without the CDER money, no project. So it's really an add-on criteria, which is kind of very important, I would say. At the same time, it's about cost-sharing. You need to show that you are really a believer of what you work with. You walk, you talk, you put 50% right on front, and then CDER goes with 50%, maximum 200,000 euro. So what we have been trying to do is to energize the different communities around there in business, say, well, this is what we think. How can we apply innovation into these different territories in Africa, Asia, wherever it is. Let's say Africa right now. And to have them to apply, to ask for money, come up with great ideas. And then we have to go through them and see what kind of ideas do they have. Is it sustainable? Do they have expertise, knowledge? Do they have money? Can they make it happen? And a lot of things. So I would say we have been astonished, I think, together with CDER, about how big the interest has been for going into this. So a lot more applications came in when we fought. How many applications at all? I don't have the exact numbers, but it's a couple of... I have almost 400. I was saying 290, but it's 400. Maybe it was good if we have 100, 250, but I have 400. So it's an amazing job to check and balance all this. And of course then you have a challenge as well. Because how do you get both from Europe and from Africa to apply and to collaborate and to... I would say create a collaboratory in between Asia, sorry, Africa and Europe. And get the real deep knowledge and passion and love for the country you should try to serve. And I think here we are right now trying to find out next steps and there's a good process in place and so far so good I would say, but there's a lot of challenges to be discussed even here tonight, not tonight, today. So with that, let me say, we also truly see the need of knowledge, need for new knowledge, need for, I would say, new energy even to lead processes and to maybe... How can we accelerate these guys? I think that's the question for you. I got two microphones. Wow. Thank you so much. Before I answer that, I will just... I realize that many of you sitting here in the audience have been sitting here for one and a half hour. You are not that comfy chairs that we have in front here and we have also water. So I would just let us take 10 seconds for all of you to just rise up and say hi to your neighbor. Let's do it. Say hi to your neighbor. Hi. Hi. Nice to be here. Okay that was up with a mingle-tingle. Enough is enough. Have a seat. So thank you for that and hope to see some energy in your eyes back again. This is an important topic and you need to be aware. I am so happy and so honored and I'm proud to have got the trust from CEDA to design and put in place a program with the idea of foster social entrepreneurship as a concrete tool of combat poverty and to reach the Millennium Development Goals. So what we did was that we took that trust from CEDA and created a program called Outreach. Outreach is an eight-week super intense bootcamp-like experience. It's an accelerator program for two months. We have chosen six startups. Six startups that we have seen as a high potential leverage, high potential of really being part of a solution and with different approaches and different techniques and innovations, be a part of the solution of the global poverty issues and also the environmental challenges that we see in the world. So we brought in six startups that are really interesting that have different approaches in how to reach that. And together for eight weeks we are now working forward to find different methods and modules in the knowledge base that you need as an early stage startup in the recede stage. So what we did was that we met a lot of startups and interviewing them asking what would you need to have to grow and to and to have the possibility to go from a good idea to an actual business. And we got loads of answers of needs. Some of the needs was money but loads of them were not money. It was support, it was help, it was mentoring, coaching and a lot of just expertise needing to build a company and a business. Then we interviewed experienced senior entrepreneurs asking them when you were a startup what would you have needed? What would you have asked for? And then we got a whole new range of answers. And from that on we built a program, we designed an eight week program with the single purpose to strengthen, to foster and to try to push the selected entrepreneurs from a kick-ass idea, a good innovation to an actually business. So that's where we are right now. Okay, and I know that there are some entrepreneurs in this room right now. And shall we start with the entrepreneurs within the year, your accelerator? Absolutely. I'm trying to find them with my eyes now but I'm sort of blended. They're very fast waving. So all of you stand up and all of you other people turn around and have a look. So in the very, yeah, hand give them a warm up. They're really careful and selected. In the very top we have Bertrand from the startup called I Love Spam, a creative idea in how to turn the negative work and workforce with the spam and fraud into positive high engineering and IT skill people in the developing south. Then we have Martha working with the trio. She's out there as well. It's a triangular bottle where you can actually both reduce waste but also build and create shelter because there are many people in many parts of the world lacking shelter, of course, we know that. Then we have Johan from PowerFi having a startup about solar energy and how to charge your mobile phone, especially in Kenya. And then we have Maya and Petter running an idea of an IT plug-in in how to connect social entrepreneurs with potential partners, funders, and other potential partners. Very interesting. Then we have Victoria from Uweza, a startup that will work with the mobile phone and how to transfer goods and money in Africa between people through the mobile phone. Very, very exciting. We have Patrick from Dumptease working in a dump in Nicaragua, creating t-shirts with stories from people living at the dump far, far away from here. These are really, really cool people. Give them a warm hand again and please talk to them because these are interesting startups.  So be kind to them and give them a knock on their shoulder. They can need that. Okay, thank you very much. There are also some entrepreneurs within the Innovations Against Poverty program and one of them is Johan with Beckman with Sunny People which you just saw and Victoria from Rubicap. Sorry, there is Veronica, you might have heard her yesterday. We also have Per and Matthias from Emerging Cooking Solutions dealing with the cox stoves and in new smart ways in Zambia. Thank you very much for attending. Johan, perhaps you would like to give some more examples of projects that are funded by Innovations Against Poverty? Yeah, sure. I think first congratulations to these guys who are just standing up and we have others like SweetStream. It's about in the healthcare systems about checking what you call it, what's the name? SweetStream, for in medical care. And we have also a company called Sanity in Kenya. It's about sustainable sanitation in Islam. And again, it's about having the balance that we find the companies out there. And we have also another high nation. It's Solar ICT, charging mobile phones, trying to get electricity into a neighborhood which is a game-changing thing. I never forget one of the first pictures from one project, having solar energy, charging batteries and charging solar phones, sorry, cell phones. And for the first time, able to check what's the price of the crops in the city? Doing global business. What did they do? They took one of the big heroes in the village, gave him a sword, and he was the guard for the solar panel. 24 hours a day. Because this shows how important it is. It's a break for its leap-frogging thing to have one tiny solar panel charging everything, going into business, going into next stage of development. So there are many good examples coming from UK, Denmark, Sweden, and a lot of those countries, of course, in Africa. And the challenge is really, how do we balance that process between those who have maybe more money to invest in the right companies, but also have strategies about how can you scale it up? And I would say it's about a global play. Global companies or local companies, a local going global. And we also in PWC has another kind of an accelerator. That's not for knowledge, basically. It's about venture capital. So we take big companies, small companies, venture capitalists, donors, startup, people coming from the, I would say, the incubator system. The risk today is companies stay lifelong in an incubator. How do we make an accelerator or an incubator? Something new, at least. So we take them out there and make a global play and help these smaller companies to success. One interesting part in building and designing this program is that, as we know, there is no universal solution. There's not one single method in how to become a successful entrepreneur. The world tend not to be black or white.  And so what we can see is there, I would argue there are two different streams of people coming in, in our program and in the field of social entrepreneurship overall. We can see the NGO sector coming in, wanting to make a business out of their idea. They know the local context. They know the understanding of what impact they may have and what they can do. But they need support with their business plan. And they're finding a business model that is relevant and also a long-term economic structure. On the other hand, we have the business sector, the traditional business people, knowing their business plan by hand, by heart. But have a change in mind. Wanted not to do less bad, but maybe also do good. I want to become social entrepreneurs. And they need another kind of support in how to measure the social impact and how to understand the local market. And there we're trying to design program where we can fit solutions both in helping and building a strength and business model canvas or working on your financial strategy. But on the other hand, also dig into the millennium development goals. Dig into poverty reduction and what we actually need to change. And I think there is, there we have a win-win situation for two different groups. But the third win, we got that when we started to talk about impact and measure impact. And I think there's a lot of discussion right now here and in general about the term social entrepreneurs. How do we define that? Who are entrepreneurs? Who are social entrepreneurs? And what is it? What is the framework? How can we use profit? Can we have profit at all? And I think what we need to do as well is to step back and really look at the question about impact. How do we measure impact? How do we know that we are actually have a leverage on the people that we are supposed to have a leverage on? What we are doing in this program, we got funding from CEDA partly, which means meaning that we have Swedish tax money that we're rolling a program. We need to be very careful that we have a leverage on the entrepreneurs and their impact that they have in the developing south. We need to be very, very clear about that. So let's talk more about impact and how to measure impact and how we can improve that all the time, along with the social return of investment, of course, the impact. Yes, you're perfectly right. Our politicians are asking us for strong results. And whatever we do with it, it must be result-based. So that's why it's very interesting to work together with the business sector, because the business sector is much more result-oriented, I must say, than the public sector in general. But we know that there are a lot of good ITS, good entrepreneurs, innovators out there. And of course, our innovations against poverty funding makes it possible for them to overcome the first values of death. But that isn't enough. We want the best of them to be able to go to scale. And that's why it's important for us to engage with other kinds of financiers, for example, philanthropists and social impact investors. And we have a very interesting instrument called the CEDA Guarantees, State Guarantees, which makes it possible for us to share risk with investors. And we are looking into new ways of dealing with this pretty new instrument. And I have a colleague of mine standing in the very back. His name is also Johan. He's waving his hand, and he is specialized in guarantee. So if you have some bright idea, how to and want to, as an investor, want to share risk with this kingdom of Sweden, rated AAA, you know, you should surely speak to Johan. OK, time is running. There might be some comments and questions from the audience. Shall we let them in? Please, please wave your hands. Thank you. My name is Anna Balkfors, I work here in Malmö with a commission for a socially sustainable Malmö. I really like your comment on thinking global and act local. So one one just thought is whether whether if it's possible to sort of transform your model into a local Swedish context. Here in Malmö we have one city districts where you have 60 percent of the children grow up below poverty line. And 80 percent of those have parents that are immigrants. So we have like major, major challenges locally. And we spoke a lot about Africa, both in this panel and in the one before. Is it possible for us as social entrepreneurs to to to find inspiration to actually act on a very, very local level? I think this is a very insightful question. And yes, I think it must be. However, it's kind of tricky. We might find some really good investors from Africa to come and do it here in Sweden. I mean, there is a strong reluctancy from Swedish and Scandinavian investors to work on their own backyard. And I think there is a bit true to say that we need to do some cleaning up work, do the homework and find the kind of innovative solutions here so we can show this is actually can work here as well. I'm quite convinced on a personal level. We've been discussing this in PWC, actually in the local context here of Malmö as well. Some years ago and doing some pieces, bits and pieces of work in some of the schools when you said that's big problems. So let's let's try to mentally paint this as a vision, because I think we need to have a vision and a passion to make something locally. And I'd be happy to be a part of that process and to invest my thoughts into it. And what do you think about this, Johan? I will turn over to you, Emma, because you are much more innovative than than me. The program that we design with different modules in different aspects of becoming an entrepreneur, that is very much trans that as a model and as a tool for growing entrepreneurship, it could be put pretty much everywhere. And I'm really happy to share that both for entrepreneurs focusing on the global and emerging markets and poverty alleviation. But in the future, I would be happy to see that this program can also involve to adopt in the situation like in Malmö or in other places. It's a model and it's a tool in how to make entrepreneurs grow and strengthen their work. Let me say last week I met some guys in Gothenburg, two boys, 25 year old, having started starting a company, working in one of the worst areas in Gothenburg, trying to help these people coming to Sweden now to have a, I would say, a professional hiring of competence for this parent is out of employment. And they go with them to Swedish companies and try to so they can get hired, so they can get their first work. But it's a social based entrepreneurship company idea. And I think that that is a unique thing. But what they thought was if we go and meet the CEO and understand that this is a problem and then they see this competence base we have from the 14 or 30 nationalities, they can help them. What what you're talking about is a very important issue to try to involve the business life, life also here back in Sweden. But I think there is a rather simple solution that we should keep in mind. We should try to keep it simple because there are different timetables for the business life and the public sector and you haven't and haven't span a span where they can really be interested in your minutes that is perhaps one or two minutes because they don't have more time. They are living in a world where every month is a struggle. They don't really have a budget for the next year because they are not know they don't know what the next quarter will be. So you have to keep it simple. But if you reach them and we have done that in in Malmö with this upstart Malmö where William Skåne was was a part in the beginning and we also have another project now going on called Esther which will focus on on on women with immigrant background to try and that we would are really trying to bring in the business life but bring in them concrete because that's what they are looking for. If you have it really concrete, then you can get their attention and then then it will work. Don't make it too complicated. Reach them. You are perfectly right. We know any more comments. Thank you very much. Mauricio from Oxford University. I want to follow one of the points that you raised during your discussion. It was about the MDGs, the Millennium Development Goal and how do we measure how we understand solving poverty, mitigating poverty, not only in the classical terms but also including other areas as we can see in the MDGs. Probably that is our new challenge and designing the future is not only imagine what are we doing now but also which are our new perspective. For that reason, my question is how do you measure that other areas different from income, different from the normal business strategies that we have done and if you have seen how that can be project not only in the MDGs now but also in the new discussion about the new development goals from 2015 that they will come I think starting next year. To us it is very important when collaborating with business. We are aiming to sustainability in all three dimensions economically, environmentally and socially. And for example, when dealing with the innovations against poverty program each applicant have to show how he or she will manage those three dimensions. Both in the baseline which you should believe it at the start of the project and also when monitoring and evaluating the program later on. So we are keen to keep those dimensions in mind every time. I think we also need to be very humble that this is one of the hardest challenges that you as an entrepreneur face to really measure the impact that you may have. Luckily there are many tools out there. Luckily there are many, many organizations and companies working to find methods, tools and how to measure and how to really make sure that we are finding metrics in these different areas. It relates to the Millennium Development Code so we can measure that. But to be frank, I would say that we don't have loads of good examples here having a successful way of showing that the impact is really, really impact. I think that's a journey that it just started and I'm looking forward to follow that in the future and we need to take that seriously and I'm looking forward to follow that. Thank you Emma, thank you John. Thank you all of you attending here. Now we have to finish this session and we will stay outside and please come to us and give us some good thoughts and ideas for the next step of, as we say, very important work. Thank you very much.