chris macrae's Page

Hi, Chris,

I changed the info - it was a misunderstanding, now I see it was some kind of Formal stuff with FC partnership. And your voice is informal, as well as your publishing experiments with the DVDs. I will bring your message with it when I distribute it for the local settings here in Sweden.

And I agree on the experience loop for local-up positive spiralling dynamics. The strategy needs to be implemented EVERYWHERE - also in the Western World, where the risk capital for small untried micro-innovations of the non-tech/soft-tech kind like our trading playaround with http://ignitionwear2008.weebly.com has been a sad story of impossibilities for the 40k$ we have had in need since day one. Micro-credit on moral collateral Western Kind. Not given. To us.

I explode in frustration, but take that energy, e. g. HERE! See my tag line at the head of my profile...

Cheers, dude. We need a cup of tea soon in London, again... !

Peace,
Anders

Hi, Chris,

I got a little confused by your wall posting and comment on my profile. What was the background to the posting? Don't see the context and direct reason why you posted it.

Anyways, talking about financials, I have got the 25 DVDs that Inger-Mette sent on her expense, and each of the ones will be redistributed on my expense to 25 peer and core connections for multiplied leverage to create youth dialogues orbiting Yunusworld initiatives.

To volunteer with your work is one thing, and that can be done. But to cover expenses is another. Just wondering if you only intended to finance the production of the DVDs, and not the distribution.

I am living extremely harsh times only relying on oddjobs to keep the only things going to sustain a living - called rent, communications and home/food expenses. Thus my space to volunteer is narrow, but even worse situation to cover for costs surrounding these initiatives.

Long-term, I am seeking financing both for http://ignitionwear2008.wordpress.com and researching sustainopreneurship in a PhD dissertation using own practical experiences as empirical foundation.

Until then, relying on other forces to keep things going.

Peace,
Anders

Hi Chris,

Thank you for yor comment and reply to my email. It was well understood. Please could you give me Thompson's contact (email, phone)? I need those in order to discuss with him. You could send me a message or something.

Thanks.
Tony

Dear Chris,
Thank you for your welcoming me here! I am delighted to learn about these happenings.
I have been trying to help make a --
Solar Sanitation System to Pasteurize Home Wastes Converting it into Organic Humus - And to Pasteurize Shallow Well Water Water To Make It Safe for Drinking --

Dr Cobb has developed this system and I have been seeing great utility in this system for promoting the health & well being of people, so I have been making vidoes of this system to be seen on the internet.

http://sunchildren.ning.com/video/1298026:Video:65100

Because of this exposure two organizers are interested in developing this system now

1. Ntenga Moses from Kampala, Uganda http://sunchildren.ning.com/profile/NTENGAMOSES
http://www.joyforchildren.org

2. JohnstoneSikuluWanjala from Kitale, Rift Valley, Kenya
http://www.simacobaorg.ning.com
http://4betterworld.ning.com/profile/JohnstoneSikuluWanjala


Now they are trying to begin to develop systems that are suited for their climates and to find money to build these developed systems.
This is where we are now and why I wish to learn of Dr Yunus’ Future Capitalism.
I am thinking that rural African families could possibly get loans to build their own systems once they see that this could benefit them.

I would deeply appreciate any thoughts or suggestions you might be able to share with us.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Truske

Thanks Chris, for your warm welcome, your kind words and for featuring me on FC.

Sunil

Hi Chris,
I dont have such a list I am afraid, although credit unions may be a good place to start, as you mentioned earlier grading MFI's on the closeness to beign member owned, appears like a very effective, simple way of measuring an MFI's success, and on a metric that has real meaning. Solidarity financing as an investment model perhaps, whereby I can invest in other peoples' local Credit Union type MFI's, but I dont have any ownership, I just offer use of my resources until internally mobilsed deposits can offer enough for a capital base and loan fund for members

Dear Chris,
Thanks for the comment on my 'goals' piece. Well, concerning your question about electing and establishing goals, I'm ever learning and I'll be glad to hear more about setting and achieving goals from you.

Now about Obama, I think the man is actually doing the wonders he knows promised. You know he came into the system at "the peak temperature of the boiling oil" - global economic meltdown, so he is trying his best to quell and ameliorate the tension or so I think. I'm not from the US but so many of us from here in Nigeria supported Obama and we earnestly hope for the better.

Hope you are doing great. Best regards, Tony

I sent this to The Obama team in January ... got no response. Still, the concept is strong and would work if we managed it properly...

Towards a Socially Responsible Capitalism:
A Sustainable Model for Global Development in a Time of Economic Crisis

A Proposed Policy Initiative

*Précis
Rationale:
In a recent Op-Ed piece in the NY Times (Dec, 1, 2008), Columnist David Brooks noted the value being placed on grass roots, bottom up development in many of the recent government foreign policy statements. Building local capacity is becoming a strategic objective of US foreign policy. The Obama Transition Team’s Global Poverty objective calls for a doubling of the present economic development budget and refers to a “…bottom up approach.”

It will be a challenge to keep this promise in the face of an economic meltdown. No doubt global poverty as both a humanitarian and a national security issue will be one of the important questions facing the new administration. Another equally important question will be how to deliver appropriate resources to the bottom of the economic pyramid where it will do the most good, without having it squandered by parochial nepotism and corruption? If the new administration plans to expand present economic development, then MicroVenture Support believes that itd plan to extend and support the existing Microfinance sector may provide the basis of a cost-effective solution strategy.

Presently, there exists no reliable capability to deliver expanded economic development at the lowest level of the economy in poor countries. This is especially true at the micro-business level. It is widely held that small business is the backbone of any vital economy. It is the source of most new jobs, the locus of innovation, and the nursery of future business and industry. Yet strategies to support and expand this sector are lacking.

In most low resource environments much micro-small business activity is suppressed, almost non-existent. Primarily this is because of the absence of supporting infrastructure. In fact, almost all of the SME’s (Small Medium Enterprises) operate within the “informal” economy, pay no taxes, and receive no official support. This is the bottom of the commercial sector. SME’s are the future of the nation; the kindling for the flame of commerce is at the bottom of the commercial pyramid.

If you live in an underdeveloped country and you are not a member of the privileged class, work for the government, or a foreign company, you most likely have no job. When you have no job, you are, by default, an entrepreneur. As a result there are literally millions of poor entrepreneurs in such countries. A ten square meter section of a New Delhi slum probably contains more enterprise, hard work, and innovation than ten square miles in Silicon Valley. The problem is that hard work is not sufficient, nor is raw innovation, or even native intelligence. It requires specie-specific knowledge to run a growing business, to manage a staff, establish supply and value chains. It requires expertise that is unfortunately in short supply in most developing countries.




Principal Argument:
The provision of investment capital alone will not create a flood of growth businesses, for without knowledge and expertise even a doubling of capital will soon vanish into the open well of poverty. Any grass-roots, community based, economic development strategy will require well structured, implemented, and adequately supported business incubators to help manage the health of the new enterprises and to train, mentor, and nurture their economic and management development. (This concept is similar in structure to the Demming quality centers established in Japan in the 1950’s.)

A hybrid coupling of the Business Center discussed above to the existing and growing micro bank network (Microfinance Institutions) will produce the desired results. MicroVenture Support has developed a comprehensive plan to accomplish this goal. For the last twenty years the poor proprietor has been the focused market for the Microfinance Institution (MFI), these small micro banks which loan exclusively to the poor. Business is good for there are many, many poor people. If one wishes to reach down to the bottom of the pyramid, (BoP) in any country, the MFI is one of the few really credible institutions that can access that level of poverty directly. The MFI loan officers visit every village, every squatter’s community and slum in their quest to make micro loans to the poor, and the poor have proven willing borrowers and reliably creditworthy. Although not well established in every poor country, the MFI is a prospective strategy for acquiring grass roots level access at the Bottom of the Economic Pyramid.

If, as promised on the Obama Transition Team’s website, a two-fold expansion in US economic development is to be directed to the grass-roots level, then a unique conduit exists that could readily be adapted to this purpose. The MFI is an economic pipeline that is not under the control of local officials and is essentially an independent means through which investment in promising SME’s could be directed. Using the MFI as the basis for grass roots economic development is both innovative and practical. The truth is that even though only ten percent of an MFI”s borrowers may, in fact, have the capacity to develop into growth enterprises that will expand and create jobs and prosperity, there is a huge potential market. Even if only one percent of these striving new business reached some level of prosperity and hired only two or three people it would change the economies of whole regions and countries. The possibilities are absolutely endless and the challenge exhilarating.

A most surprising and attractive feature of this proposed strategic initiative is that the funds are not simply grants but loans and investment with significant up-side potential for positive returns. An analysis shows that with an initial recoverable investment of less than five million (USD), a well run program could return ten million in five years and twenty million in ten years. This is an economic aid package even a conservative could love -- a latter day Marshall plan with truly recoverable costs. This would be, “… socially responsible capitalism and a sustainable model for economic development in a time if economic crisis”.

*This is a précis of the full staff paper. It was prepared by MicroVenture Support, Inc.’s Professional Services staff, as part of our Global Social and Economic Justice Development Initiative

Hello Chris thanks for accepting me in the group.
I am developing my business plan and will soon launch a information site on social enterprises.

If you can indicate who can help develop my business plan would be very nice.

There are Brazilians here in the group?

Thank you