Elie Wiesel Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Author of "Messenger for Peace"..With the hard-earned wisdom of his own...
Posted by Patricia Olive Corowa on Friday, 13 November 2015
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Showing posts with label Awards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Awards. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 November 2015
Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Messenger for Peace
Friday, 29 November 2013
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Can MicroMoney solve MacroProblems? Does Microfinance really provide widespread solutions?
As Fagin's song suggests, we should always review the situation. What is attractive in the beginning may have unforeseen consequences. Human beings have a tendency to seek universal solutions and answers which in turn leads to one size fits all policies. We can also be hubristic, pushing forward our solutions without reflection, without pause for review, without recognising the risks and benefits of human interconnectedness with others.
The work of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank are well documented. In 2006, Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier this year Yunus was ousted from the bank he founded. An appeal was dismissed. Yunus's concept of microfinance has been imitated by others and operates in other countries outside Bangladesh.
Ned Breslin points out in the simple video below how microfinancing is not always the success story that is promoted.
He points out:
I am a big fan of microfinance, having started my first microfinance project for water and sanitation in rural KwaZulu, Natal, South Africa in 1993. But I learned very quickly in this project that there was often a gap between repayment rates and actual impact. The microfinance sector spends a great deal of time focused on repayment rates -- with organizations suggesting that they are successful and impactful because they can show a high repayment rate on the loans that they made. To illustrate, MFIs will often publish statistics like 95% repayment rates on loans and suggest that this means they are great at transforming poverty and changing lives.
Repayment matters of course, but it does not in any way confirm the impact of the loan. In the case of water and sanitation, a focus on loan repayment as the key (or only) indicator of success is misleading. Repayment of loans simply show that money was used to purchase a latrine and the money was paid back by the family.
But in this example from rural Bolivia I show that the real impact question is about whether the loan actually changed the lives of loan recipients? And as I learned in South Africa and since, the answer is often no. Families take out loans because they want to change their lives with that loan. That is great!
But if the toilet is poorly constructed, if the system does not work, or if a tap is paid for by a loan but water rarely is available at that tap, then the family took out a loan, repaid that loan and the investment had no impact on their lives. In fact, the loan might have made the family poorer in the end!
In the example here, the loan scheme was linked to a water project that was never completed. The family in this video took out a loan to get a flush latrine that has never been used because the water project -- started 6 years ago -- was never completed. The toilet is now useless.
The work of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank are well documented. In 2006, Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier this year Yunus was ousted from the bank he founded. An appeal was dismissed. Yunus's concept of microfinance has been imitated by others and operates in other countries outside Bangladesh.
Ned Breslin points out in the simple video below how microfinancing is not always the success story that is promoted.
He points out:
I am a big fan of microfinance, having started my first microfinance project for water and sanitation in rural KwaZulu, Natal, South Africa in 1993. But I learned very quickly in this project that there was often a gap between repayment rates and actual impact. The microfinance sector spends a great deal of time focused on repayment rates -- with organizations suggesting that they are successful and impactful because they can show a high repayment rate on the loans that they made. To illustrate, MFIs will often publish statistics like 95% repayment rates on loans and suggest that this means they are great at transforming poverty and changing lives.
Repayment matters of course, but it does not in any way confirm the impact of the loan. In the case of water and sanitation, a focus on loan repayment as the key (or only) indicator of success is misleading. Repayment of loans simply show that money was used to purchase a latrine and the money was paid back by the family.
But in this example from rural Bolivia I show that the real impact question is about whether the loan actually changed the lives of loan recipients? And as I learned in South Africa and since, the answer is often no. Families take out loans because they want to change their lives with that loan. That is great!
But if the toilet is poorly constructed, if the system does not work, or if a tap is paid for by a loan but water rarely is available at that tap, then the family took out a loan, repaid that loan and the investment had no impact on their lives. In fact, the loan might have made the family poorer in the end!
In the example here, the loan scheme was linked to a water project that was never completed. The family in this video took out a loan to get a flush latrine that has never been used because the water project -- started 6 years ago -- was never completed. The toilet is now useless.
Microfinance success should be judged on whether loans transformed lives,
not on whether loans were repaid.
Further reading:
Microfinance king may call it quits(Vikram Akula)
Microfinance (National Australia Bank)
Microfinance (Westpac)
World Education Australia
Talk Change Conference 2011: Microfinance
Empowering women through microfinance
Microfinance (Westpac)
World Education Australia
Talk Change Conference 2011: Microfinance
Empowering women through microfinance
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Let's hear it for a heroine - the great commoner, Elinor Ostrom
It is many years since I first discovered Elinor Ostrom. I discovered her as I began to trawl the internet on the topic of The Commons. Trawling the internet on this topic can bring up all sorts of things. Academically, The Commons (and I do love the old English term - so much of our culture, our history, our economic trading capacity is tied up in that term) is now referred to as Common Pool Resources. I discovered Elinor through this wonderful resource which has gone from strength to strength since I first discovered it - The Digital Library of the Commons which reposes at Indiana University which also gives house-room to Elinor Ostrom
I have found Elinor Ostrom's work - often done in collaboration with her husband and with others - to be enlightening and pace-setting. Little did I dream, though, that her work would be seriously considered for the Nobel Prize. It seems to me that her work does not fit or sit comfortably with dominant economic paradigms. I feel she is far from being a text-book economist. But in 2009 the Royal Swedish Academy of Science in its wisdom awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics to Elinor Ostrom. In the history of the prize only forty women have been awarded the Nobel and Elinor Ostrom is the only woman to receive the prize for Economics.
Economics is frequently referred to with Thomas Carlyle's derogatory term, "the dismal science". Ostrom's work, it seems to me, is filled with fairness, practicality, and hope for ordinary human beings.
Her work explores contradictions. I take a strong interest in water issues and I am a strong proponent of Australia rebundling land and water and making it a part of The Commons and a human right. For support for this view, I looked to Ostrom. I discovered that water trading (albeit small scale and localised when compared to Australia in the 21st century) has a long and successful tradition. So, in that sense, I have to qualify/modify my views - and remember that, in the human condition, there is little new under the sun.
So, Networkers, if you have got this far please go here for an interview with Ostrom - which is what set this post off in the first place. And could I ask your assistance? I am collecting Australian material relating to The Commons - in any shape or form, ancient (Aboriginal), old, and modern. Please go here to have a look at the collection so far. I am particularly interested in commonly held land (places like Town Commons and Stock Routes) or resources which were once part of The Commons but have been alienated to become private property.
Related reading:
Further reading:
Friday, 1 October 2010
Nnimmo Bassie - environmental hero - an example of right livelihood
'Alternative Nobel Prize' Awarded to FoEI Chair Nnimmo Bassey
Friends of the Earth International,
the world's largest federation of grassroots environmental organisations,
is proud to announce that its chair, Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria,
will be a recipient of the 2010 'Right Livelihood Award'.
The Right Livelihood Award,
often referred to as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'
will be delivered in Stockholm on December 6.
the world's largest federation of grassroots environmental organisations,
is proud to announce that its chair, Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria,
will be a recipient of the 2010 'Right Livelihood Award'.
The Right Livelihood Award,
often referred to as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'
will be delivered in Stockholm on December 6.
PRESS RELEASE
Friends of the Earth International
September 30, 2010
'Alternative Nobel Prize' Awarded to FoEI Chair Nnimmo Bassey
STOCKHOLM (SWEDEN) / LAGOS (NIGERIA), September 30, 2010 – Friends of the Earth International, the world's largest federation of grassroots environmental organisations, is proud to announce that its chair, Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria [1], will be a recipient of the 2010 'Right Livelihood Award'. [2]
The Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' will be delivered in Stockholm on December 6.
The announcement that Nnimmo Bassey is one of the four 2010 Laureates was made today at a press conference at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm.
Nnimmo Bassey, who is also Executive Director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria, was nominated “for revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil production and for his inspired work to strengthen the environmental movement in Nigeria and globally.”
Nnimmo Bassey, who is currently in Africa, said: "This award is a vindication of the just and resolute struggles for environmental justice by impacted communities globally. We want to see an end to the corporate crimes committed by oil giants like Shell in Nigeria and around the world.”
"Friends of the Earth and four Nigerian farmers recently filed a groundbreaking court case against Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell in the Netherlands for its massive oil pollution in Nigeria and we look forward to the first hearing which will take place in the coming months,” he added.
Nnimmo Bassey is one of Africa’s leading advocates and campaigners for the environment and human rights. Bassey has tirelessly stood up against the practices of multinational corporations and the environmental devastation they leave behind, destroying the lives and trampling on the rights of local people.
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