Bridging the Education Gap

Improving education is a universal problem. ASAP's
Bridge the Gap project had some success.

Improving education is a universal problem. ASAP Bridge The Gap project - working to improve Math skills in 179 rural schools in Zimbabwe from 2000 - 2012 - had some success. Click here to learn more. 

In 2008  Gates and Zuckerberg joined forces to form 63 Bridge International Academies, offering cheap, standardized, technology-driven education in Africa and Asia. The Ugandan government has ordered the closure of these schools. What went wrong? Click here to learn more. 

World Toilet Day is Nov. 19th

'Hail to the Blair Toilet' - November 19 is World Toilet Day. 

Tomorrow, Nov. 19,  is World Toilet Day. Time to take action and reach out to the 2.4 billion people living without a toilet.  Focus on how sanitation, or the lack of it, can impact people’s livelihoods. Click here to learn more.

The Resilience Age

Resilience, according the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is "the ability to become strong, healthy or successful after something bad happens."

But what does a resilient city look like? Click Here to watch an incredible, thought-provoking video pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation.

Love to Change the World?

Duncan Green's new book, How Change Happens, will be released on Oct. 27th. He's uniquely qualified to "write a book that can provide sophisticated theories of social change, while providing practical advice to activists". Click here to pre-order your copy.

If Africa Had 100 Citizens

Afrobarometer, a research network, has analyze data gathered from 37 African Nations.
Click Here to view their newest video - If Africa Had 100 Citizens.

Edible Drones

Rethink Food Distribution - Pouncer, the Edible Drone 

Humanitarian aid is  changing. Click here to read more about Pouncer - the edible food distribution drone.

Fighting Global Poverty

Achieving Global Impact. That's a challenge and the goal of upcoming Inside NGO conference in Nairobi, Kenya. But is another meeting of experts really the solution?

Not according to William Easterly. In his recent book, The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor, he traces the history of the fight against global poverty. How tactics have trampled the individual freedom of the world's poor, suppressing a vital debate about an alternative approach to solving poverty; freedom.

The currently disputed 500-ton US peanut donation to Haiti is just one example of humanitarian aid that could actually undermine the economy of the nation it aims to help. Click here to learn more.

If the World Were 100 People

Here's an interesting two minute video from Good Data.

Financial Inclusion Report

The Brooking Institute has released the 2016 Financial Inclusion Report. This year's edition includes five new countries, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Egypt, Haiti and Vietnam.
Click here to read the report.

ASAP Summer Newsletter

  Click here to read our summer newsletter.

Thank you for your interest!

2016 Global Food Policy Report

"How We Feed the World is Unsustainable" concludes this 2016 Food Policy Report, from the International Food Policy Research Institute.  If we are to meet SDG targets, we must promote and support a new global food system that is efficient, inclusive, climate-smart, sustainable, business-friendly plus nutrition-and health-driven. Click here to read the report.

The Trees Of Tomorrow

Dan Balluff, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, has produced a documentary film to increase awareness of the plight of street children in Zambia.
Click here to watch the beautiful and informative film.

Map Africa

With the Map Africa tool you can learn about over 800 African Development Bank  "High 5" projects on the continent.

The interactive online tool tracks progress on the five highest priority sector projects: energy, industrialization, integration, food and quality of life .

Click here to go to Map Africa.

100,000 Chickens for Africa

The Gate's Foundation will hand out 100,000 hens - because they are "easy to take care of" -  announced Bill Gates on June 7th.  What a fascinating, and controversial, approach to alleviating poverty.

Click here to read the article. 

Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2016

The annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit begins Wednesday in Silicone Valley.
Click here to learn more.

"Development Event of the Year" Tomorrow

Converge, Exchange, Inspire

DevEx 2016 will offer 30 workshops, expert interactives, multimedia & hands-on experiences, and conversations with leaders.

Click here to learn more.

Topics include:

Data Revolution

From Story-telling to Movement Building

New Funding Models

Innovating at Scale

Business Transforming Development

Connecting Your Work to the SDGs

By working together, these 17 Sustainable Development Goals can we achieved

The Foundation Center will host a free webinar on June 30th - "How to Connect Your Work with the SDG's."  The outcomes:

• Be inspired and learn how and why the 17 global goals impact your work
• Gain insight on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are relevant to your day to day work in philanthropy, nonprofits, and civil society
• Discover ways to connect local and regional work to global development progress through partnerships and funding opportunities.

Click here to register and learn more.

Women's Empowerment - Girls On The Move

Angelina Jolie is in the spotlight again. Now as guest professor of a new course offered at London School of Economics. The aim is  to develop “strategies to promote gender equality and enhance women’s economic, social and political participation and security” Click here to learn more. 

Click here to see the powerful new video - Girls On The Move.

 



At ASAP, girls have been in the spotlight since day one.Click here to see the powerful new video - Girls On The Move - from Plan International. In Zimbabwe and Malawi ASAP is honored to partner with Plan - helping to keep girls in the spotlight. 

Savings Groups go Digital

 Savings Groups go digital in Uganda

Savings Groups have been transforming the lives of the poor since 2000. Groups meet regularly, deposit contributions to savings accounts, and take out small loans. At the end of the saving cycle, they receive a payout of the collective interest and fees collected.

Technology is now transforming these groups - as they go digital.

Click here to learn more.

Millions Learning

Good news - around the world school attendance has increased.
Bad news - the rapid scaling-up of schooling has not translated into scaling of learning.
In fact, students are often not mastering core academic content and cognitive skills. A new Brookings report, Millions Learning, explores how effective education interventions have scaled-up around the world.

Five recommended main actions to scale-up quality learning

Click here to download the report.

To read about ASAP's past projects to improve education in Zimbabwe Click Here.

Beyond Blogging?

March for Tools For Empowerment @ UMC Hopewell UMC

Thanks to Steve West & Roni Fody @ Hopewell UMC

Thanks to everyone at the  Hopewell United Methodist Church in Tyrone GA, for making our first annual March for Tools For Empowerment a great success. Special thanks to Rev. Billy Beard, Roni Fody & Steve West for the warm welcome on "Tool Sunday". By donating unwanted tools you help poor vocational school graduates use their newly-learned trade skills to find jobs or to start an enterprise. 

Click here to read more about ASAP's Tools For Empowerment project.

International Development Data

If you need reliable international development data fast - check out these 10 sites.

1 | Economic atlas and the globe of economic complexity
2 | International Energy Agency atlas
3 | Transnational land database – the Land Matrix
4 | IMF data site, data mapper and IMF Article IV reports
5 | The Armed Conflict Database maintained by the International Peace Research Institute of Oslo and Uppsala University
6 | World Bank Doing Business database
7 | The World Bank’s World Development Indicators
8 | UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI)
9 | UN COMTRADE database
10 | OECD aid database

Click here for Joseph Holden's overview of these resources. 

March for Tools

Thanks to Steve West & Roni Fody @ Hopewell UMC 

March is for Tools for Empowerment at the Hopewell United Methodist Church in Tyrone GA. Thanks to Rev. Billy Beard, Roni Fody & Steve West for the warm welcome on "Tool Sunday". When you donate your unwanted tools you will help a poor vocational school graduate use their newly-learned trade skills to find jobs or to start an enterprise. 

Click here to read more about ASAP's Tools For Empowerment project.

Teach For Ghana has Launched

Improving education is the "Elephant in the Room"

Accolades to Daniel Dotse. The 29 year-old CEO gave up his career with a pharmaceutical company in NY to dedicate himself to improving education in his home country where he has launched Teach for Ghana - part of the Teach For All global network.

ASAP worked in improve education in rural Zimbabwe for two decades, so appreciates efforts to tackle this "Elephant in the Room".  Click here to learn more about our work.

Good luck Daniel, we look forward to your huge success!

Positive Deviance

Positive Deviance - ‘spot the novel in the familiar’

When evaluating project impact, there is always a distribution of results. Positive Deviance asks the community itself to identify and investigate the outliers, not the norms. To ‘spot the novel in the familiar’.

More difficult than it sounds -  this requires development "experts" to give up the 'answers looking for problem to solve' project approach.
Richard Pascale, Jerry & Monique Sternin describe this powerful new idea in their book The Power of Positive Deviance.  Click here.

"Reusing is much better than recycling"

According to Bill Gates - of the "three R's" - reduce, reuse, recycle - "Reusing is much better than recycling". Click here to read the article.

ASAP's Tools For Empowerment project reuses tools to empower youth in the developing world. Tool donations are refurbished and provided to vocational school graduates in Haiti.

Once Bill's on board;-), Tools For Empowerment will serve vocational graduates throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, working through our project partners.

Webcast January 20th

The Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings will host a panel of leading Africa experts on the most pressing challenges facing the continent in 2016. Click here to register.
To read the newly released Foresight Africa report Click here.