Mighty Moringa in the Marketplace: Enormous Opportunity, Enormous Challenge

A few weeks ago I was out in the garden here at SABG when Mr. Röschli introduced me to the Moringa tree. He said its leaves were among the most nutritious vegetables in the world, and that I should ‘just look it up on the internet, you’ll see.’
Well now, that’s quite a statement. Immediately I [...]

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New town, new job. Same country, same focus.

After completing nearly two years of work with Cherokee Gives Back (5 months in Raleigh, NC and some 16 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) I have moved to Awassa, Ethiopia to begin a six month contract with Selam Awassa Business Group (SABG). SABG is a start-up (2007), for-profit enterprise focused on the production of appropriate [...]

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Carbon Credits and the Rural Poor

Carbon credits could save the Sheka Forest and enhance the livelihoods of those actually ensuring the forests’ protection. From the forest floor, however, carbon credit financing appears to be more of an abstract ideal, than a reality.
‘We hear about carbon credits on TV and in the press, but we don’t see them,’ remarked Wetatu [...]

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Open Up – Protectionism in Ethiopia

“In the end, of course, there has to be liberalisation,” he said. “But our hope is that this could be postponed for a significant time.” That’s a quote by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, concerning Ethiopia’s telecommunications and banking sectors, from an interview on Wednesday, July 8th with Reuters reports Barry Malone and Andrew Cawthorne. In [...]

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Preserving Culture and the Environment

Lately, I’ve been pondering the role of culture and its effect in cultivating a happy, lively and balanced society. Ethiopia, as many people know, is certainly not among the more developed nations – nor, unfortunately, even considered among the progressive nations of the developing world. Factors contributing to the state of the economy, politics and [...]

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Consultative Workshop on Biofuels

On April 28, 2009 MELCA Mahiber hosted a consultative workshop on biofuels at Ethiopia Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The intent of the workshop was to enhance the capacity of Oromia Regional Government officials when making decisions concerning biofuel investments.  Workshop participants, including representatives from agriculture, rural development, environment, energy and investment sectors, donors, NGO’s and [...]

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The Value of Qaulity Education

Thomas Friedman, an op-ed columnist for the NY Times, in an April 21st column titled ‘Swimming Without a Suit’ commented on the negative economic impact of the United States failure to place an emphasis on retaining the worldwide lead in providin quality education to all citizens. The article can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/opinion/22friedman.html?_r=1 . 
As Friedman notes, according [...]

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Sustainability in Education

The trend, these days, in funding developing world projects is to apply market based principles to development projects in the hopes of supporting underserved entrepreneurs and others to gain enough financial independence to pull themselves out of poverty. Sustainability, they call it. If you do not mention this word in a project proposal, grant application, [...]

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The Horse Can’t Fight

I saw something today that I never thought I would see, or, at least, necessarily thought I wanted to see: blind men working in a wood shop. Just picture that for a moment. See what I’m talking about – on first thought that’s a dangerous setting. I know plenty of men with perfect eye sight [...]

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A Whirlwind…

Let me apologize, once again, for the delay in posting. It’s been over a month since my last post – unacceptable – I’ll try to do better this month. Below, I’ve listed a few highlights and thoughts from my experiences over the last month. While they may be a bit scattered, I hope you find [...]

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