Big hugs and take carexx

Big hugs and take carexx

What you could find in Dhaka is we have a different life style rather than the western countries. I don't know if it is good or bad but people are more relaxed and life is so steady. As you will find it more in the villages.

You are already passing time in the villages, so you will get an idea about the condition of rural people. And not to mention about their warm greetings.

And finally please be careful while hitting the streets. We have lots of problems and the most severe is mugging. So please keep yourself from any mishap.

Waiting to hear from you soon.

What you could find in Dhaka is we have a different life style rather than the western countries. I don't know if it is good or bad but people are more relaxed and life is so steady. As you will find it more in the villages.

You are already passing time in the villages, so you will get an idea about the condition of rural people. And not to mention about their warm greetings.

And finally please be careful while hitting the streets. We have lots of problems and the most severe is mugging. So please keep yourself from any mishap.

Waiting to hear from you soon.

How Africa tweets. Picture: Portland

Last week on twitter, this map of twitter users in Africa was all the rage. Almost everyone I follow re-tweeted it. The major fact the map illustrated was just how much South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria tweet compared to the rest. I didn't find this fact too surprising – the three countries all fall within the top 10 richest and most populous African countries. But the map did leave me wondering about the role of ICT in development more broadly.

Most of us these days now think of ICT, and the social media it enables, as a key means of stimulating accountability. When the Presidents of numerous African countries are tweeting, and when websites are launched to monitor aid effectiveness across the developing world, you know ICT is something to take seriously. ICT can also help protect natural resources. Namibia, for example, last year established an SMS hotline to report rhino poaching. There are also many examples of ICT being used in humanitarian situations.

Recently, economists have begun to examine the role of ICT in growth. A Mckinsey report suggests that ICT makes up, on average, almost 2% of GDP in several developing countries. Michael Spence, a key author of the Growth Commission Report in 2009, argues that ICT enhances growth because it transfers and builds knowledge. For example, there are now numerous services that provide farmers with customised weather forecasts and crop prices through SMS messages, helping subscribers better maximise profits. Another reason it's good for growth, as set out in this recent IMF paper, is ICT's ability to provide access to finance for people that want to start up or expand their businesses.

But few of us think of investing in ICT as a policy for green growth. Yet there's a real case to be made for it. According to estimates by the Climate Group, using ICT could cut global business-as-usual emissions by 15% in 2020. That’s more than five times the ICT sector's own carbon footprint, and a significant proportion of the emissions reductions needed to avoid dangerous climate change. This is because using ICT can drive major energy, water, paper (i.e. forests), and other resource efficiencies in households as well as large and small businesses. Resource efficiency is a key means to boost productivity and profits. ICT also creates the potential for communication, and the creation of new businesses and markets even when physical transport is in a poor state. This will become increasingly important as migration from rural to urban areas in developing countries continues. ICT has incredible reach: it took the radio 38 years to reach a market the size of South Africa (approx. 50 million people), and the television 13 years. But it took the internet just four.

Also, as Google's Ory Okolloh reminds us (who, by the way, is one of my favourite tweeters – follow her @kenyanpundit) using ICT is simply fun! And the more it is used for fun, the more potential it has to contribute to serious development needs.

The problem is that investment in ICT in developing countries is below its optimal growth rate. That's why DFID is supporting governments to invest in ICT infrastructure. For example, we've helped invest in the Sea-Com cable to boost broadband coverage in East Africa - by a whopping 700% in Kenya, 850% in Mozambique and 1000% in Tanzania. That's huge potential that could be unlocked – in countries whose youth populations struggle with very high levels of youth unemployment.

But there's more we can do. So this year, as well as continuing to blog and tweet about my work in DFID, I'll be helping design a new project that could support the private sector to invest in these and other innovative ideas... Do look out for more on that later this year!

How Africa tweets. Picture: Portland

Last week on twitter, this map of twitter users in Africa was all the rage. Almost everyone I follow re-tweeted it. The major fact the map illustrated was just how much South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria tweet compared to the rest. I didn't find this fact too surprising – the three countries all fall within the top 10 richest and most populous African countries. But the map did leave me wondering about the role of ICT in development more broadly.

Most of us these days now think of ICT, and the social media it enables, as a key means of stimulating accountability. When the Presidents of numerous African countries are tweeting, and when websites are launched to monitor aid effectiveness across the developing world, you know ICT is something to take seriously. ICT can also help protect natural resources. Namibia, for example, last year established an SMS hotline to report rhino poaching. There are also many examples of ICT being used in humanitarian situations.

Recently, economists have begun to examine the role of ICT in growth. A Mckinsey report suggests that ICT makes up, on average, almost 2% of GDP in several developing countries. Michael Spence, a key author of the Growth Commission Report in 2009, argues that ICT enhances growth because it transfers and builds knowledge. For example, there are now numerous services that provide farmers with customised weather forecasts and crop prices through SMS messages, helping subscribers better maximise profits. Another reason it's good for growth, as set out in this recent IMF paper, is ICT's ability to provide access to finance for people that want to start up or expand their businesses.

But few of us think of investing in ICT as a policy for green growth. Yet there's a real case to be made for it. According to estimates by the Climate Group, using ICT could cut global business-as-usual emissions by 15% in 2020. That’s more than five times the ICT sector's own carbon footprint, and a significant proportion of the emissions reductions needed to avoid dangerous climate change. This is because using ICT can drive major energy, water, paper (i.e. forests), and other resource efficiencies in households as well as large and small businesses. Resource efficiency is a key means to boost productivity and profits. ICT also creates the potential for communication, and the creation of new businesses and markets even when physical transport is in a poor state. This will become increasingly important as migration from rural to urban areas in developing countries continues. ICT has incredible reach: it took the radio 38 years to reach a market the size of South Africa (approx. 50 million people), and the television 13 years. But it took the internet just four.

Also, as Google's Ory Okolloh reminds us (who, by the way, is one of my favourite tweeters – follow her @kenyanpundit) using ICT is simply fun! And the more it is used for fun, the more potential it has to contribute to serious development needs.

The problem is that investment in ICT in developing countries is below its optimal growth rate. That's why DFID is supporting governments to invest in ICT infrastructure. For example, we've helped invest in the Sea-Com cable to boost broadband coverage in East Africa - by a whopping 700% in Kenya, 850% in Mozambique and 1000% in Tanzania. That's huge potential that could be unlocked – in countries whose youth populations struggle with very high levels of youth unemployment.

But there's more we can do. So this year, as well as continuing to blog and tweet about my work in DFID, I'll be helping design a new project that could support the private sector to invest in these and other innovative ideas... Do look out for more on that later this year!

Ready to learn: with some of my students

"Do they drink anything apart from tea in England?" That was just one of the questions our students had for us in our first week of teaching at a youth centre in Villa El Salvador, Peru.

Although I couldn't entirely deny our love of tea, the children were surprised to find out that, just like them, we English folk are also partial to a coke every now and then!

However, they were disappointed to discover that we don't have the popular Peruvian beverage 'Inca Cola' which is an incredibly sugary, incredibly yellow, fizzy drink.

A love of Inca Cola is just one of the many things we have been taught by our students. Although we are supposed to be teaching them, you can't fail to find yourself learning so much from the people here and their inspirational attitudes towards life.

Forty years ago, Villa El Salvador was just another part of the desert: no houses, no life, and definitely no infrastructure. It is incredible to me that they have managed to build an entire town out of nothing but sand and solidarity.

Startlingly yellow: Inca Kola is a popular drink in Peru. Picture: arnold | inuyaki/Flickr

Despite this deep sense of community spirit, Villa El Salvador is not without its problems. Drug addiction, gang culture and child prostitution are all issues facing the youth of the area. To deal with this, the organization we are working with aims to provide an alternative for kids outside of school.

Here in Peru, it's the summer holidays, so a lot of the work we are doing is keeping young people occupied and off the streets. Teaching English has been a completely new for me personally, as I have entered a whole new world of lesson planning and worksheets.

Lesson time: teaching an enthusiastic class

The one thing that really has made it worthwhile is the sense of achievement you feel at the end of a lesson, when a class can come out with a stream of English words that only a couple of hours ago, were nothing more than alien sounds to them.

Or possibly even better than that is the sense of pride you feel in small, but important personal achievements: when that one shy child who had been keeping quiet all lesson, starts getting involved and jumps out of their seat to answer a question.

It's only been a week, and, as you can probably tell, I'm already getting really attached to Peru, to our students, and (worryingly) to Inca Cola.

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Podcast: returned ICS volunteers.

Ceri, Esi and Mohammed volunteered for ICS last year. Hear them talk about their experiences in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya in the latest DFID podcast. Listen here, or subscribe on iTunes.

Ready to learn: with some of my students

"Do they drink anything apart from tea in England?" That was just one of the questions our students had for us in our first week of teaching at a youth centre in Villa El Salvador, Peru.

Although I couldn't entirely deny our love of tea, the children were surprised to find out that, just like them, we English folk are also partial to a coke every now and then!

However, they were disappointed to discover that we don't have the popular Peruvian beverage 'Inca Cola' which is an incredibly sugary, incredibly yellow, fizzy drink.

A love of Inca Cola is just one of the many things we have been taught by our students. Although we are supposed to be teaching them, you can't fail to find yourself learning so much from the people here and their inspirational attitudes towards life.

Forty years ago, Villa El Salvador was just another part of the desert: no houses, no life, and definitely no infrastructure. It is incredible to me that they have managed to build an entire town out of nothing but sand and solidarity.

Startlingly yellow: Inca Kola is a popular drink in Peru. Picture: arnold | inuyaki/Flickr

Despite this deep sense of community spirit, Villa El Salvador is not without its problems. Drug addiction, gang culture and child prostitution are all issues facing the youth of the area. To deal with this, the organization we are working with aims to provide an alternative for kids outside of school.

Here in Peru, it's the summer holidays, so a lot of the work we are doing is keeping young people occupied and off the streets. Teaching English has been a completely new for me personally, as I have entered a whole new world of lesson planning and worksheets.

Lesson time: teaching an enthusiastic class

The one thing that really has made it worthwhile is the sense of achievement you feel at the end of a lesson, when a class can come out with a stream of English words that only a couple of hours ago, were nothing more than alien sounds to them.

Or possibly even better than that is the sense of pride you feel in small, but important personal achievements: when that one shy child who had been keeping quiet all lesson, starts getting involved and jumps out of their seat to answer a question.

It's only been a week, and, as you can probably tell, I'm already getting really attached to Peru, to our students, and (worryingly) to Inca Cola.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Podcast: returned ICS volunteers.

Ceri, Esi and Mohammed volunteered for ICS last year. Hear them talk about their experiences in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya in the latest DFID podcast. Listen here, or subscribe on iTunes.