Country: United States
Organization: not applicable
3) Strategy Summary:
Innovative Open Source integration of multiple
technologies, creating an economic engine addressing rural
poverty for the developing world. REED: Boosts aquaculture
production 25 and more times Multiplies organic
agricultural yields Restores soil Strengthens education
Promotes health Establishes cooperative management and
ownership Advances families Counter-acts rural migration
Secures eco-diversity Fosters markets.
4) How the Strategy Works:
REED paraphrases a writing of Jawaharlal Nehru made early
in his life, long before he became Prime Minister of India,
and notes:
I was filled with shame and sorrow; shame at
my own easy-going and comfortable life and
our petty policies of the city which ignored this
vast multitude of the rural areas of the developing
world, sorrow at the degradation and over-whelming poverty
of their lives. A new picture seemed to rise before me:
people starving, crushed and utterly miserable. And their
faith in us?embarrassed
me and filled me with a new responsibility that
frightened me.
REED engages this challenge of human development in rural
areas of the developing world.
The 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries presented revolutionary
changes in which problems were addressed and resolved.
The Industrial Revolution provided significant increases
and
dramatic growth.
Starting with a simple water wheel, human creativity was
released from the drudgery of physical labor.
Rapid developments lead to steam driven machinery while
electricity generation dramatically accelerated the change.
Organizing and consolidating individual steps into
production lines, people such as Henry Ford further
revolutionized society and economies.
The Communications Revolution of the last decades of the
20th Century established even greater differences between
the past, present and future.
REED developed its solutions based approach integrating
technology and management methods
REED contends today's technological advances demand
the addressing of the issues of rural poverty threatening
the security of the world
REED notes the importance of integrated planning and
management of land resources to protect the safety and
stability of human society
REED catalyzes sustainable development for the rural poor
by
its integration of technological advances, including:
Basic water and wastewater technologies
Increased aquaculture capability
Improved organic agriculture
Renewable energy
Superior education and health
Monitoring and managing via the Internet, RFID, wireless,
security systems and satellite communications
Economic development enhanced with e-commerce and related
technologies
REED brings the world to the rural poor and the products
and services of the rural poor to the world
REED addresses societal security issues
REED establishes these developments as Open Source
REED nominated for recognition by the Royal Society of the
Arts, Great Britain, for the UN Conference on Sustainable
Development in South Africa, 2002
REED analysis currently being prepared for publication in
UN Journal on Sustainable Development.
REED is now in final phase for initial community
development program in Vietnam on 200 hectares of land,
employing 100
rural poor families. Final site selection underway.
REED initial three phase development underway:
First phase-ten hectares with production goals for fish of
25 kgs per cubic meter per annum on 18,000 cubic meters
production per hectare on 30% of land area.
Intensive diversified organic agricultural production on
50%
of land area with production goals of 10 metric tons per
hectare.
Balance of land to be utilized for housing, water,
wastewater and waste treatments, renewable energy,
community
areas including recreational sites.
Completion time for phase one within 15 months of
construction commencement;
Phase two to build out 50 more hectares utilizing same
ratios for production.
Second phase to be completed within additional
12 months;
Phase three to complete total land area of 200 hectares.
Third phase to be completed by end of year four.
Total employment at end of Phase Three - 100 families.
Total production revenues-exceed $10 million per year.
Systems for establishment of cooperative ownership program
initiated.
Systems for education, health, training, management,
monitoring, and oversight implemented.
Reinvestment schedules developed for funds remaining after
providing agreed return on investment to funding sources.
REED to establish further development in Vietnam
REED diversify activities to broaden and expand production.
REED employs networking, video-conferencing, Internet,
satellite, e-commerce and other methods to promote
development expansion.
REED has received requests to implement program in other
countries including: Brazil, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya,
India,
Central America, Mexico
-
REED component technologies provide:
- Multiplying aquaculture production
- Increasing organic agriculture production
- Treating water and wastewater
- Improving and restoring soil conditions
- Establishing educational opportunities
- Advancing health issues
- Providing monitoring and control
capabilities
- Creating new opportunities
REED developed from work started in Asian countries in the
late 1980s and continuing until today.
In addition, substantial research and communications have
been undertaken from the United States into numerous other
countries and regions of the world in support of the
initial conceptualization.
REED, in closing, quotes:
"Poverty is an ignorant choice for a society such as ours.
Martin Luther King said, 'A society cannot survive with
people isolated on lonely islands of poverty in the midst
of
this ocean of material wealth.'
Nobody would defend slavery nowadays, 150 years later.
In another twenty-five years, I hope we will feel the same
about poverty. We will realize that poverty is as
primitive
in a civilized society as human sacrifice. In fact,
poverty
is a human sacrifice. It is obscene and immoral, and no
intelligent people as rich as we are ought to be associated
with poverty." Statement by Andrew Young, A Wealth of
Wisdom: Legendary African American Elders Speak. p. 268.
5) Key Strategy Elements:
i. Mobilizing Citizen Support:
Citizen stakeholders in the rural areas of the developing
world are empowered through programs establishing
cooperative ownership of production and management.
ii. Generating Financial and Nonfinancial Resources:
We create and establish methods of aquaculture and
agriculture production yielding significant income
opportunity which creates an engine of self-sustaining
development in addition to providing food and income for
the participants. This program can become a blue print of
development activity in rural areas throughout the world
based upon correspondence and communications which have
already occurred and clearly indicate the need and
applicability of our methods, technology, and values/
iii. Establishing Relationships with Strategic Partnerships:
We have established relations with experts in the various
fields of undertaking, institutions of higher learning,
and have received substantial numbers of inquiries from
numerous locations throughout the world indicating their
interest to further this program
v. Developing Information and Spreading the Message:
We have participated in numerous activities over the past
several years promoting this program which have included
UN forums, internet and PowerPoint Presentations,
acknowledged and recognized by international organizations
and groups, articles written and more.
6) Increasing Self-sufficiency and Social Impact:
We engage in social development at the bottom of the
economic pyramid in such a way as to create financial and
performance measurements that allow for responsibility to
be maintained throughout the organization and operations.
Our program is based upon sound business and production
principles incorporating social and environmental values
all aimed at sustainable development, growth,
diversification, expansion and replication.
8) Organization Mission and Vision:
To empower the rural poor in Vietnam through the
establishment of community based programs incorporating
technologies and methods appropriate to create an engine
for sustainable development that then serves as a blue
print for replication, diversification, and expansion.
Looking Forward to the Next Three Years:
We are striving for the initial funding of $1.5 million
which sets the stage for the laying of the foundational
demonstration that then provides the basis for expansion
and continued development. We have the team, we have
identified the appropriate technologies, we have land
available, with the initial funding committed we will the
work to create the full-scale community development that
will bring into its immediate operations some 100 families
in Vietnam.
Contact Information:
Brian Lewis
Consultant
not applicable
(Private Business)
United States
Website: http://www.omidyar.net/home/
Return to Home Page