I have started companies in Tanzania working to help fill gaps in agricultural value chains where a private sector actor is more efficient. This was determined to be a more sustainable option than a traditional NGO route etc. as profitability would show that the “intervention” should exist. In addition, I have started with other like minded individuals a biochar company for carbon sequestration which will also work to improve soils for small scale farmers in East Africa, we believe this model is scalable to be able to remove a significant amount of carbon from the atmosphere on a yearly basis (>>10M T per year).
Arno
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No, global shipping is already ultra efficient. The problem isn’t the shipping industry except in niche cases.
Nightmare, many people have tried and failed to boost trade internally, and it will happen (and already does) but it’s easier for me to export to EU or US than it is to neighbouring countries due to both tariff and non-tariff barriers. Very political and will be a while until that’s finalised. Also, the market sizes are just tiny in comparison, you don’t have large economies nearby to take all your product, middle class is limited, and so then you’re very limited in the number of products that you can sell into it. Myriad other reasons
Knowing Daniel quite well (and this having being my approach to development for years being an exporter in Tanzania), I’d dare say on the financing side it’s the “right” capital that’s hard to find. There exists already much of the capital around, however it’s all very low risk debt funding and small grants that make it hard to scale. And we aren’t talking about VC scalability typically, which again makes it hard to fall in that pigeon hole.
In terms of why is it only Westerners? I think you’ll find it’s not, lots and lots of local (and many Chinese) businesses operating, but in the end of the day you need many, many more. And the ones that come from Western founders are possibly higher likelihood of scaling due to the cultural influences that bring systems into companies and allow them to build trust internally outside of family circles.
I think it’s too long, YouTube etc. People get bored quickly
We are starting an industrial biochar project in Tanzania that aims to build soils through biochar addition which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers whilst at the same time sequestering carbon from the atmosphere (>1000 yr permanence). Dark Earth Carbon is the company name. Also looking at financial mechanisms of how this can be better implemented and small holder biochar options.
Let me know if you want to chat about it more!
Yeah, I agree with you that it’s a common sense idea, however unfortunately, we’ve seen that it’s practice in development circles is fairly poorly executed. The bigger idea from an EA perspective is to work on trying to help move some of these flows into the right direction, lobbying for better industrial policies and action effective enterprises which act to build the growth trajectories of countries in the global South.
The most tractable method (although very thankless) is to start a business that employs people and produces things in the Global South which helps to do all these things (the authors have done this, so might be biased however). If it’s something that is interesting to you, I’d be more than happy to chat more on the subject! One day will aim to write an article on this too.
Just a coincidence!
Yeah, we weren’t aware of global priorities institute until after we’d already set everything up. All good though, not a lot of overlap
The Goldilocks Approach to Doing Good
Thanks Constance!
Let me know if you’re looking to apply and want to do something together. I have a few ideas around this area as someone that has worked in Sub Saharan Africa for 10+ years now, and actually wrote a small post around this subject ((1) Large Language Models for Development: Why Information Matters (thegpi.org))
[Question] Why isn’t Global development broken out in the EA world?
Hi Constance, thanks! Will hit them up, though looking at their website they seem to be more US focused?
Looking for partners in the Carbon Policy space
100%! I’ve been trying to look at how to frame the EA conversation for our Tz chapter, not just for people who grew up here, but also for development workers who are already mostly aligned with the values of EA.
As an additional doctor into a developing country doesn’t equate to the marginal value of how much better that doctor is than you taking the place of someone else there is a much larger benefit as you’ve stated above. Living in rural Tanzania for years, you can see the benefit that (competent) doctors have to the community, and the answer is lots!
I think the above is correct, on top of what Elizier has written one should also consider the legal issues around this mess.
I’m by no means a lawyer and so this is definitely not legal opinion, but it’s very likely that this will be mired in bankruptcy procedures for a very long time (Lehman Brothers is still unwinding for instance) and even if the money was returned to FTX ventures it isn’t certain that it would then be sent on to the ultimate people that you think are most deserving (i.e. the ones that had their accounts wiped out). It sounds as though the structure overall was a shit show and there were multiple entities in between, so where each account was held and how those liabilities sit in terms of priority of debt is probably very very unclear. There are still some chances that there will be some amount of money given back to the account holders as well.
In addition (and this might be even more controversial), I hope that the people that did get wiped out were using money that they could lose to some degree. Keep in mind that they were investing in crypto in offshore exchanges, and although FTX was thought to be a trustworthy partner, the entire space was known for scams and other mess, so hopefully there was an element of buyer beware for mos t of the account holders.
Historical experience and links to subjective happiness
Nice one, thanks Ben! Will dig into these a bit!
I agree, that before trying to get them kaiboshed completely it would be very good to understand what that looks like for the ag space and what the alternatives are and how cost effective are they? From my knowledge of pesticide usage in Tz and SSA, there are definitely alternatives that exist in the market which are being used already to reasonable effect which indicates the alternatives are comparable on a price to efficacy level (smallholders wouldn’t spend money on these things if they don’t see some results).
Let me know how you’re moving forward on this, would be happy to chip in/help where possible as I think there’s some low hanging fruit that can be gotten based on my experience of the regulatory environment. Can get me on whatsapp +255763998637Cheers!
Hi Ben, congratulations on winning! Fantastic post!
I’m based in Tanzania, and have connections to the ministry of agriculture (can get this in front of the minister pretty easily if we have a good case for how large an issue it is in Tz). How would you recommend trying to find out how big an issue this might be here?
Good post! I think much focus of EA has been lost as to how best improve long term development and state capacity. I’m very supportive of what you guys are doing in Zambia. However, the only thing I would say is missing is discussion on how the private sector can be leveraged into these development objectives to both build state capacity and increase economic growth. EA in general doesn’t focus enough on private sector led actions (ironic considering where all the funding comes from). And especially in a Sub-Saharan African context where the vast majority of development spending is garbage/wasted, you see much larger results with much smaller inputs via the private sector (the project that you are supporting being a great example of this!)
Sure, but I don’t think diaspora are better equipped from what I’ve seen over immigrants. Already lots of support for these specific groups, but in general always need more.