A note from our newest staff member: Kristin Haas Dear Seed Change Supporters, I have been with the Seed Change team for almost three weeks now. I was initially excited to start working with Seed Change because it seemed to be one of the most effective forms of aid I had seen as demonstrated in
South Korea South Korea’s recent development has been nothing short of spectacular. In less than half a century, it has gone from being wracked by poverty and dependent on foreign aid, to one of the most advanced countries in the world. In 1960, the average income per person was the equivalent of just $155 a
As part of the ‘Postgrads from the Edge’ series, University of Edinburgh PhD student Tom Cunningham has written a great post on perhaps the university’s best-known African graduate, Julius Nyerere: As President of Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) he led Tanganyika to Independence in 1961 and served as President of the Republic of Tanzania (the
Guest post by Andy Norman. I spent from January to April this year as an intern at Seed Change. During this time, I wrote a blog for a sustainability organisation in the UK about my experience in Kigoma. Here it is! The environmental imperative for sustainability in our world is now clearer than ever.
Last Monday was International Day for the Eradication of Poverty; a day which can trace its roots to a gathering of more than 100,000 people in Paris on 17th October 1987 to honour the victims of poverty and demand more action worldwide. According to the UN, the day calls for “presenting and promoting… concrete activities
How do you know if your chosen fabulous looking charity is providing good value for your money? Charities frequently report percentages of money spent on “Programs”, “Administration” and “Fundraising” or some similar ensemble. While I understand the motivation for this approach, I think it is the wrong way to go about finding out if your
On Sunday January 10th 60,000 seeds left Costa Rica traveling over 13,000 km via five flights to arrived in the place their parent material comes from – Kigoma. The seeds were pre-germinated in Costa Rica, meaning that when in-transit they were alive and growing, making a long journey through the many airports a high-stakes game.
The Tanzanian economy is growing. Fast. Economic growth has been hovering around 7% since the mid 1990s and is expected by those who claim to know these things to continue in this vein for some time. This makes Tanzania one of the fastest growing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and represents a refreshing change from the
24,000 trees. That’s how many we have in our nursery to give out to farmers. Sounds like a lot. And it is when you have to shovel the 400 tons of soil needed to grow the seeds. But it is not really many trees when you start thinking about which farmers – exactly – they
According to this recent article in The Economist, Seed Change’s model of tackling poverty is pretty close to the ideal. The article outlines recent work done by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (and several others) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (who are also authors of the highly readable and informative Poor Economics of a few years
Sometimes a particular statistic can cut through a lot. I live in rural Tanzania and so daily see how different people lives are than where I grew up (Perth, Western Australia) but it is sometimes not until you see things quantified just how different that is. (Note here that I write this post as a