Marli Kasdan

Location / Country: Kigali, Rwanda
Organization: Hands of Mothers

Kasdan: "Overall, my internship experience with Hands of Mothers (HOM) was extremely rewarding for me. I learned a lot about development at the local level though the lenses of women’s empowerment in business, capacity building, and project sustainability. In addition, I feel that my work with HOM centered on deliverables and impact to our program participants. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the three cooperatives that HOM supports: Twiyubake, Baho, and Ejo Hazaza. I appreciate and recognize the many challenges they face, and I think that the HOM summer team was able to lay the groundwork for a sustained upward trajectory for each cooperative. My hope is that our team’s focus on capacity building through a series of trainings and workshops and our emphasis on promoting sustainable income generation has put in place the foundation for each cooperative to become independent from HOM and sustainable in the long run.”

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Hands of Mothers

“HOM worked with three women’s cooperatives in Kigali, Rwanda:

• Baho: raises kuroiler hens and sells eggs

• Twiyubake: makes hand-crafted leather sandals

• Ejo Hazaza: makes hand-crafted jewelry; applied for a grant to start a project to grow and sell oyster mushrooms”

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Deliverables and Impact to Program Participants

“During the internship, my deliverables and impact on program participants mainly focused on my work with the women in the cooperatives that HOM supports. Throughout the summer I ran a series of trainings and workshops along with my team members in order to help the women in the cooperatives improve their record keeping skills, sales skills, cooperative management and organization, and cooperative accountability structure. “

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Conclusion

“I thoroughly enjoyed my internship experience with Hands of Mothers in Kigali this summer, and I hope that I had a positive impact on the women we worked with and HOM. I gained valuable field work experience this summer, and I want to extend my most sincere thank you to Jerry and Yunie Blakeley for the fellowship.”

Ankit Grover

Location / Country: Zimbabwe
Organization: TechnoServe

GROVER: "It is often said, “You can have it all. Just not all at once.”

My summer experience as a Blakeley Fellow working with TechnoServe and the African Agriculture Fund (AAF) was nothing less than a “have-it-all-at-once” opportunity. In my ten weeks in Zimbabwe, I was afforded the chance to delve deep into each of my interest areas – small and medium enterprise development, private equity, business strategy and impact investing. ”

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About TechnoServe and TAF

“TechnoServe, whose mission is to find business solutions to poverty by connecting farmers to financial markets, recruits Fellows (or Volunteer Consultants) to work on short-term assignments in developing countries with high impact opportunities. As a Fellow, I was drafted to work with AAF’s Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) (managed by TechnoServe) in preparing a business plan, market strategy and financial projections for a Zimbabwean agribusiness company in the sesame crop value chain. TAF supports AAF’s portfolio companies in improving linkages between smallholder farmers (SHFs) and the companies, to increase local household incomes and enhance food security in communities where the Fund invests. This lays the foundation for sustainable long-term growth and developmental impact for both the portfolio partner and the community it benefits. “

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The Experience:

“It is one thing to study value chains and another to actually start from the base of the pyramid and follow the trail of the grain. A thorough analysis of the sesame business required engagement with SHFs on the ground, away from the hustle and bustle of Harare. In late July, I had the opportunity to travel to one of the remotest and most water-stressed villages in Zimbabwe, some hundred miles from the capital. I had the chance to study first- hand the various predicaments from the farmers, as well as brainstorm some quick-fix solutions for their problems. My education in agronomy came full circle when I could finally validate and tie the smallholders’ income statements to the financial model I was preparing.“

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Conclusion

“My biggest takeaway from my fellowship is to never discount the power of the value chain. It is what drives synergies in achieving developmental impact, and without it, no business can remain sustainable in the long term. I'm grateful to the Blakeley Foundation for affording me this opportunity and look forward to helping the Foundation accomplish its objectives in the future.”

Miriam Freeman

Location / Country: Bogota, Colombia
Organization: Compartamentos con Colombia

FREEMAN: "I went to Colombia in May of this year to start my internship at Compartamos con Colombia (CCC) with lots of excitement and few expectations. I had visited Colombia for the first time in March on a Fletcher Latin America Group (FLAG) trek, and was left with a taste of how special the country was, but wanting to know more. Six months later, I can say Colombia surpassed every expectation, and my internship at CCC proved an incredible opportunity for personal and professional growth.”

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Compartamos con Colombia

“Compartamos has a unique model—leveraging private sector expertise to solve social sector challenges. What makes it different from other market-based approaches is its multi-firm arrangement. The organization was founded as the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy of fifteen companies in Colombia (many of them multinational) with expertise in strategy, finance, law, and other professional services. Volunteers from these firms work as consultants on a pro-bono basis on specific projects for the Colombian social sector. The role of CCC is to connect the nonprofit and private sectors, adding value through strategic analysis and producing the final consulting deliverables. Compartamos’ projects fall into three categories: capacity building (its core), shared value, and social innovation. “

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The Experience

“Compartamos has an ongoing presence in Quibdó through partnerships with organizations like ACDI/VOCA and Fundación MIMA, as well as the Detonante entrepreneurship festival now in its third year. Quibdó is one of the rainiest places in the world and the poorest city in Colombia by some measures. Projects ground to a halt earlier this summer when there was a general strike, citing government indifference, incomplete highways, lack of healthcare, and other public services. Illegal mining, corruption, and guerilla conflict have added fuel to the fire. A former slavery hub, it is no coincidence that the region has the largest afro-descent population in the country, and one of the largest indigenous populations. With 62% of residents living below the poverty line, several people told me that the region’s development indicators align more closely with sub-Saharan Africa than Latin America. I was grateful for the opportunity to see a different side of Colombia and contribute in some small way to the growing entrepreneurial movement there.

For all of the challenges they face, Chocoanos are resilient. The ACDI/VOCA project began in January and has included a series of workshops for the 28 entrepreneurs it supports on topics from accounting to peacebuilding. Along with two colleagues, I led a strategy workshop, combining a business canvas model with human-centered design techniques to encourage entrepreneurs to think outside the box and embrace new ideas for their businesses. These entrepreneurs understand clearly that what they are selling goes beyond jewelry, chocolate, or other products—they are selling the opportunity to change the region’s image nationally and internationally, by preserving local culture and traditions. To me, this is what market approaches to development are all about.”

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Conclusions

“My experience in Colombia surpassed every expectation. During my short time there, I worked with incredible colleagues, became familiar with a number of important local players, was introduced to the world of nonprofit consulting, and in some small way participated in important efforts to strengthen the social sector in Colombia. I surprised myself with my ability to apply finance and strategy skills acquired at Fletcher, and left inspired to learn more skills that I can apply to creating social change after graduation. After ten weeks, I feel I only touched the surface of all the country has to offer, and of the diverse challenges it faces. These are exciting times for Colombia, and I’m eager to see how things progress.”

Fumi Tataki

Country: Rwanda
Organization: African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC)

Fumi: "The purpose of my summer internship is to earn an experience of working in Africa to find approaches to achieve economic development through business. By working as a mentor and consultant for clients of African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC) in Rwanda, I developed strong interest in working in human capital development for small medium enterprises (SMEs) in the future.  

After working with SMEs in Rwanda, I started to develop a career interest in human capital development, particularly skill development and change in awareness toward professional environment. I was intrigued by the need of that human capital development that can tremendously make positive impact to development of the country. Besides my work at AEC, I also had a chance to work with AIP, a program that provides training to students. With another Fletcher student, I presented Business Canvas Model to university students across Rwanda. It was a wonderful experience to interact with students and help them develop their own business ideas. After Fletcher, I would like to
pursue my career in SMEs sector to help their business to make development impact to their lives and country’s well being."

Nathaniel Rosenblum

Country: Rwanda
Organization: African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC), Inkomoko

Nathaniel spent the summer working for Inkomoko, a business acceleratory run by the African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC) based in Kigali, Rwanda. AEC through Inkomoko works with hundreds of entrepreneurs in Rwanda to help them move from start up to fully‐fledged business. They are not specialized in a particular field, and rather reflect the growth spaces of the Rwandan economy

Nathaniel: “the most important accomplishment of my time in Rwanda has to do with refocusing my career interest. I am now much more aware of the challenges of financing development in agriculture through the private sector. These challenges are not insurmountable, rather without a concerted effort to deal with them they will continue to hamper ambitious and deserving entrepreneurs. In whatever my next steps are I plan on addressing those problems thanks to this summer’s glimpse into the Rwandan agribusiness landscape.”

Anjali Shrikhande

Country: Uganda
Organization: Yunus Social Business

Anjali Shrikhande worked as a Social Business Consultant for Yunus Social Business in their Kampala, Uganda office. Her main goal for the internship was to gain a better understanding of market-based approaches to development, specifically the social business model, and to investigate how the model works on the ground in a developing country.

Anjali: “I was able to form contacts through YSB and independently that will also be valuable in trying to find jobs in this field. I found the entrepreneurs that I met and worked with to be truly inspiring and passionate about creating change in their own communities.”

Owen M. Sanderson

Country: Kenya

Organization: Ushahidi

Owen M. Sanderson worked in one of the fastest-crowing tech centers in the world: Nairobi, Kenya. He focused his summer on two objectives: supporting Ushahidi’s business development team as they think through their current business model and conducting several in-depth training seminars for a small cohort of young African entrepreneurs at Nairobi’s celebrated iHub.

Owen: “After two months in East Africa, I left feeling every optimistic about its future. I embarked upon my summer with the goal of investigating the unique link between technology and development. My summer in Nairobi underscored the widespread allure of technology and its potential to uplift millions.”

Heather Lemunyon

Country: Rwanda

Organization: AEC (The African Entrepreneur Collective

Heather Lemunyon’s role at AEC (The African Entrepreneur Collective) was to serve as a Global Business Mentor, or and entrepreneurship consultant who worked one-on 0one with AEC’s clients in business planning financial planning, developing strategies for growth, market and sales analysis, and and strategic vision.

Heather: “In every way possible, my time as a Global Business Mentor with AEC was outstanding. Not only did I fulfill all of my personal goals for my internship experience, I was allowed great opportunities to directly and positively impact the growth of East African companies that I hope will continue to grow, increase employment, and continue to develop this region of the world with such large opportunities and potential.”

Anna Valeria

Country: Lima

Organization: Endeavor Brasil / Andean Innovation Red

Anna Valeria joined Andean Innovation Red (AIR) early in the organization’s development. She acted as an advisor, identifying the purpose of every company activity to determine relevance to key objectives. Her main objective was to build a map of the entrepreneurial landscape in Lima. She interviewed entrepreneurs, investors, acelerators and university officials involved in fostering entrepreneurship. As a result AIR attracted for the first time the attention of the community by using a new technological platform (i.e. Google Hangouts) that allowed to reach more audience and to create a virtual platform where entrepreneurs and soon-to-be entrepreneurs can share ideas.

Anna: “Today I feel more prepared and confident that I have been gathering the needed tools, both in terms of the academic work and now during the summer with hands-on experience to start building my own startup with social impact.”

Julia Leis

Country: Burkina Faso
Organization: Millennium Challenge Corporation

Julia Leis was selected to work on the Diversified Agriculture Activity, a $30 million project of the $490 million Millennium Challenge Compact with Burkina Faso, designed to increase rural incomes and employment and to enhance the competitiveness of the rural economies in the Sourou Valley and the Comoe Basin. She completed an extensive value chain analysis of the project’s deliverables, synthesizing different activities along the supply chain within certain sectors, providing insight on the multitude of interventions taking place in the regions over the past few years.

Julia: “Working with MCC and Burkinabé colleagues was an incredible experience. I gained an understanding of the complexity of contract management and program implementation in the field. While I have studied international development during my undergraduate years and now graduate school, it was incredibly valuable to see how complex projects are managed and implemented on the ground, and learn about the importance of partnerships with local communities. I now feel more prepared and committed to pursuing a career in development in West Africa and I’m very grateful to have had this opportunity.”

Aditya Ashok Kumar

Country: Nigeria
Organization: The Tony Elemelu Foundation (TEF)

Aditya Ashok Kumar worked with the Tony Elemelu Foundation to help African entrepreneurs scale-up and improve competitiveness. He was selected to create products and services fir a struggling financial services company (Financial Trust Company) based in Lagos. Aditya interviewed capital market participants, competitors and regulators to understand the pulse of the industry, conducted primary market research, and held discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commissions for product approvals. His work led to the creation of the FTB Balanced Agricultural Fund, a close-ended NGN 1 Billion fund that invests in agriculture ventures in Nigeria, due to launch early next year.

Aditya: “My objectives for the summer were met and I am lucky I got to do what I wanted. This opportunity helped clearly define and refine both my long term professional and personal goals.”

Dhriti Bhatta

Country: Uganda
Organization: FIT-Uganda Pvt. Ltd: an agro-consulting firm in Kampala

Dhriti Bhatta worked as a member of the consulting team at FIT, developing a rollout strategy for FIT’s latest product, FARMIS (Farmer’s Record Management System). She conducted value chain analysis for the coffee sub-sector, wrote proposals for consultancy projects, and conducted analysis for FIT’s trademark product, the Market Analysis Report (MAR) 2013, a comprehensive collection of price information of over 40 commodities from over 35 markets in Uganda.

Dhriti: “This experience was important for me, as I got a a sense of how rural Uganda still is and how difficult it is to operate businesses there. I was pleasantly surprised by the farmers’ groups we came across there. The leaders of these organizations seemed quite entrepreneurial and were excited to test out a product like FARMIS. Overall, my experience in FIT Uganda was quite important to my academic and intellectual interests. I learnt a lot more about how the agriculture sector works, specifically in East Africa. Also visiting a growing East African country gave me a sense of how those markets are expanding and increasingly becoming more important globally.”

Sarah Ryan

Country: Paraguay
Organization: ACCION MFI partner Fundacion Paraguaya

Sarah Ryan focused on the Fundacion’s reading glasses microfranchise and investigated new microfranchise opportunities for FP. She was able to meet with microfranchises, loan officers, and potential suppliers. Her business plan suggesting strategic changes in order to grow sales and expand the number of vendors was presented to the directors.

Sarah: “It was extremely useful to get on-the-ground experience in a developing country… and to understand the cultural differences which impact the speed and implementation of new operational models.”

Evelyn

Country: India

Evelyn conducted field research with World Health Partners in rural India, in support of the social franchise’s efforts to improve access to healthcare using local market forces and cutting-edge technology. Her work in Bihar focused on understanding the organic network of Bihari health providers before the WHP network was to be started. She conducted a baseline survey of existing providers to find out how they were connected to one another, including doctors, pathological labs, pharmaceutical distributors and supply chain components. The goal was to see what gaps, bottlenecks or roadblocks existed. Data included referral practices, impact on patient in terms of cost and patient travel time, cost to patient for four priority diseases so that WHP’s franchise could be as efficient and effective as possible.

Meghan

Country: Nicaragua

Meghan conducted the Program Evaluation of a microcredit and sustainable agriculture program in Leon, Nicaragua for SosteNica, a U.S.-based nonprofit that funds sustainable agriculture and development initiatives in rural Nicaragua . As the Evaluation Consultant, Meghan developed and conducted an assessment of the socio-economic and environmental impact of this pilot program on its participants.

Cheney

Country: Sri Lanka

Cheney served as the bridge between Kiva, BRAC, micro-entrepreneurs and lenders to streamline the loan posting process, monitor and evaluate repayment schedules to improve the new and emerging micro-finance industry in Sri Lanka.

Qiamuddin

Country: Afghanistan

Qiamuddin researched the prospects for small renewable energy enterprises and the role that micro-finance can play in providing capital to small entrepreneurs to develop this industry in Afghanistan and provided recommendations to First Micro-finance Bank.

Rabeh

Country: Lebanon

Rabeh worked at the Lebanese Transparency Association conducting an assessment and developing a business strategy for the creation of a new social enterprise for organic agricultural products with a focus on access to markets for the bottom of the pyramid.

Kristy

Country: Niger

Kristy was an intern with Catholic Relief Services, working on a cell phone literacy project, focusing on helping rural farmers create improved access to markets and in the identification of avenues for obtaining current pricing of products.

Maria

Country: Tajikistan & Afghanistan

Mariah developed five program proposals for Eurasia Foundation Central Asia (EFCA) covering the creation of Youth Banks, improving the efficiency of labor markets, promoting education, integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the private sector and building relationships between small business leaders in both countries.