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.

Winter Newsletter

   Click here to read ASAP's latest newsletter.

Thank you for your interest!

Climate Change & Malnutrition

As the Climate Change talks continue in Paris, considerations of malnutrition cannot be overstated.

Click here for informed insights by Frank Rijsberman - CEO of the CGIAR Consortium, a global partnership of 15 international agricultural research Centers with the shared vision of a food secure future.

Click here to read the synopsis of the 2015 Global Nutrition Report.

Click here to stay up with the latest from Paris. 

Innovations in Measuring Impact

The world is changing. How we measure the social impact of our work is also changing. A new report from Acumen  examines lessons from the use of mobile technology innovations. 
Click here to read the report.

Acumen is "Changing the way the world tackles poverty" through impact investing.  Their Lean Data initiative works to build "a data collection mindset and methodology that works for social enterprises".

Click here to view Acumen's short course on Lean Data.  

Autumn Newsletter

Click here to read ASAP's autumn newsletter. Thank you for your interest!

Tools to Tackle the SDGs

What now that the Sustainable Development Goals are finalized?
Here are links to great resources to ensure your business in on the right track.

SDG Compass 
SDG Industry Matrix
Poverty Footprint
Business for 2030

The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are a plan of action for humanity, our planet and global prosperity.

Goal # ONE - End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Click here to view each goal and the specific targets to be achieved by 2030.

15th Annual Africa Forum Begins Tomorrow

What does the future hold for this child?
The Africa Forum Begins Tomorrow

Ending poverty, preserving the environment and ensuring well-being and prosperity. These are some of the topics to be addressed at the Africa Forum that begins tomorrow in Berlin. Live streaming is available. Click here to learn more. 

Thoughts on Empowerment

Since 1994, ASAP has been working to "empower" women and families with self-reliance. But what, exactly, is "Empowerment"?Jo Rowlands, in his book Empowerment Examined, identifies 'four powers' at work:

Women's Empowerment is serious business

Power within: personal self confidence and a sense of rights and entitlement
Power with: collective power, through organization, solidarity and joint action
Power to: the capability to decide actions and carry them out
Power over: the power of hierarchy and domination.

The African Development Bank is working to empower women to take a leading role in the business of agriculture. Click here to learn more.

There are still so many unanswered and difficult questions; Does women’s empowerment lead to increased domestic violence? Is power a zero-sum game? Click here to read a thought provoking discussion by Oxfam America's Gawain Kripkeon.

International Youth Day

August 12 is International Youth Day

August 12th is International Youth Day! Since 1994 ASAP has been working to empower youth through education and entrepreneurship projects.

You can participate in this very special day.  To see activities taking place around the world, click here.

A Wearable Mission from ASAP Zimbabwe

ASAP Zimbabwe Country Director, Regai Tsunga,
proudly wears the mission of his organization

Entrepreneurship in Commonwealth Curriculum

The Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers convened from June 22-26th in the Bahamas. Ministers of Educations from 52 nations resolved to include entrepreneurship in the school curriculum as one way of reducing unemployment levels. Click here to read more.