Callingcharlie's Weblog

Gapminder

callingcharlie — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:18:45 +0000

Most of you must have watched these TED talks by Hans Rosling at some point:

Debunking myths about the world (2006)

New insights on poverty (2007)

His website gapminder.org has developed the software behind these cool visualizations. They sold to google last year, and as of April 2007, their interface is free to use at graphs.gapminder.org. The database is small but impressive and growing quickly, so that you can do your own analysis and create on the spot visualizations.

At least Nachi and Nune might find this useful.

Further watching:

Hans Rosling at Zeitgeist Europe 2007

His son giving Google Tech Talk about gapminder

Mind the gap!

India blogs

callingcharlie — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:59:36 +0000

Some India bloggers. For India issues in general.

A Calcutta based surgeon

A Chennai based IT innovation guy

A wise, and progressive Tamil maami

A prolific freelance journo

An Indian Brit: economist slash policy consultant

For Mohan

callingcharlie — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:13:46 +0000

About irrigation for poor farmers. You were interested in this is I remember correctly: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=981223

If you are wondering where you can volunteer in the US

callingcharlie — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:49:00 +0000

http://www.taprootfoundation.org/

callingcharlie — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:53:06 +0000

Bill Gates and Indian NGOs

Bill Gates handed over charge of Microsoft last week, and — after a brief summer break — will return to a full-time role at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). As the world’s largest private philanthropic entity, BMGF has more than $35 billion from the Gates and an additional $30-odd billion from Warren Buffett.

Bill Gates the philanthropist is likely to be an even more controversial figure than Bill Gates the capitalist. Part of this is because of the approach that BMGF has taken in trying to solve global issues, such as eradicating malaria. But a lot of the conflict will stem from more fundamental challenges that the non-governmental organization (NGO) sector faces; BMGF only adds fuel to an already raging fire. And India will be a key country in how this conflict plays out.

India has more than one million NGOs of varying sizes, operating across a vast spectrum of social issues. Only a small handful of these challenges can be solved with market-based approaches — with revenue models that can create self-financing entities run by social entrepreneurs. A majority of our social challenges will always need grant-based support. Mid-day meal schemes, the care of challenged children, women’s rights programmes — these are examples of the kinds of complex social challenges that don’t have “revenue-model” solutions. Such NGOs will need donor funds to hire good people, develop systems and build strong institutions to create sustainable change over long periods of time.

While the NGO sector has a significant role to play in addressing social issues, it is under tremendous pressure, not just in India, but worldwide. The forces of globalization and technology are not only posing challenges for governments and markets, but also for NGOs. Traditional distinctions between state, markets and society are blurring; questions about accountability, transparency and impact of NGOs — which were always being asked — are now being demanded with greater frequency and vigour in the past few years.

In a report titled The 21st century NGO: In the Market for Change, consulting firm SustainAbility states, “New forms of competition are evolving in the ‘NGO market’, with new entrants like companies, business networks, NGO networks and social entrepreneurs blurring traditional boundaries.” In 2002, the United Nations constituted a panel of eminent citizens under the chairmanship of former Brazilian president Enrique Cardoso to address UN-civil society relations. The panel’s report — submitted in 2004 — received substantial criticism from the NGO sector, centrally around the suggestion to expand the current UN-NGO dialogue to multi-stakeholder consultations that included businesses.

These trends are indicative of the increasing scrutiny of NGOs, their governance systems and the measurement of their impact. Rajesh Tandon, chairman of a respected NGO called PRIA and one of the founders of an NGO network called VANI — Voluntary Action Network of India — has made several attempts over the past two decades to develop a self-regulatory framework for the NGO sector. VANI developed a “code of conduct” for NGOs, which identified key parameters such as mission, governance, accountability, transparency and financial management for non-profits.

But implementing and enforcing such voluntary self-regulations is difficult. In a paper titled The Guardians Guarding Themselves…, Mark Sidel, professor of law at the University of Iowa, writes of the Indian experiments: “It is notoriously difficult to develop substantial, detailed, explicit adherence to non-profit norms and codes, particularly where there is no incentive mechanism to back them up.” Message: no financial teeth, little enforcement possibility.

Many experts take strong exception to what they term attempts to muzzle NGOs into a straitjacket of measurement criteria and impact assessments, especially since the practice of measurement is so complex: what to measure, and who decides—the NGO, the donor or the beneficiary of the work of the NGO?

The debate on NGO accountability is not going to get resolved any time soon. But, there is consensus on one point: NGOs are facing pressure to remain relevant. And it’s here that Bill Gates in his new avatar will create enormous friction, globally as well as in India. Many NGOs in India are still uncomfortable with market forces, either as legitimate players in the social change space, or as funders of social initiatives. By being the 800lb gorilla in the donor space, BMGF will force such NGOs to make tough choices: Will they oppose market-based/market-funded social change, or accommodate this new dynamic? Or, worse still, hold their noses as they reluctantly accept funds from the most successful capitalist of the 20th century?

Things to do Before You Die

callingcharlie — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:50:28 +0000

Read this:

Indian Express: “An 88-year-old Nazi war criminal identified as Johann Bach (italics my own) was airlifted to Berlin after he was tracked down to the Goa-Karnataka border by German and Indian intelligence agencies on the basis of information provided by an Israeli group involved in the search for war criminals and investigations in Goa.

Though local police and intelligence agencies in Karnataka said they were “unaware” of the operation, Karnataka Additional DGP for Intelligence, Shankar Bidari, said his office had received information of the arrest on Saturday morning. He also said the alleged war criminal had been moved to Germany.

Officials at the German embassy, when contacted, said they had received no information of the arrest in Goa. The German consulate in Mumbai had also not received any information, embassy officials said.

Reports from Hubli and Goa quoting a press release issued by Perus Narkp, said to be the intelligence wing of the Berlin-based German Chancellor’s Core, said Bach had been involved in the killing of nearly 12,000 Jews at the Marsha Tikash Whanaab concentration camp in East Berlin under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime”

Having interned in Germany, check if any of that information (which was reprinted in TOI, HT, Dainik Jagran, Deccan Chronicle, Indian Express, Telegraph and just about every paper except the Hindu (Thank God!!), rings false.

Then, read this.

Things like this are what we have to do before we die.

Tats

For Mohan

callingcharlie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:53:39 +0000

Pal check out this link: http://www.nextbillion.net/activitycapsule/1192

The buggers are making pumps for irrigation and helping farmers. If I remember right, you also wanted to do something on similar lines. May be you want to check out what these guys are doing.

Nachiket

ASHA for Education

callingcharlie — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:00:02 +0000

For those of you in the US (I don’t know if this is there in the other countries) who want to do something, I suggest you try ASHA for Education. From what I have heard, there are a lot of young Indians who have recently graduated in the US who have joined this. Maybe you will get to meet other like minded people and some ideas as well.

Social enterpreneurship links

callingcharlie — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:49:20 +0000

Hi,

I’d rather not use Orkut since I am not there on Orkut.

The latest trend in the development sector is ’social entrepreneurship’, i.e., making money while doing good. Personally I am for it, as long as profits are ploughed back in the business. However, if you want another perspective, you might find this interesting:http://www.justanotheremperor.org/ and http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c3c75e6-3423-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=d8e9ac2a-30dc-11da-ac1b-00000e2511c8.html.

Regards,
Nachiket

Poll: Blog vs email

callingcharlie — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:17:45 +0000

All,

Do you think you can visit here frequently enough to post and respond? Would you prefer email? Vote in the comments section. VOTE#1_EMAIL or VOTE#1_BLOG.

Nachi,

Why not subscribe to this blog’s feed?

All,

A tedious alternative is that everybody gets an account on wordpress. Then, there is a feature to add users (who must have a wordpress account) to the blog. You can customize your profile and choose to receive update alerts by email. Vote in comments section. VOTE#2_YES_GET_INDIVIDUAL_ACCOUNTS or VOTE#2_NO_USE_ONE_LOGIN_ONLY