Preliminary Observations€¦ · Web viewActivities Completed During Last Six Months, March to October 2007: In this section, we have provided an update on activities that have

Trip #2-October 2007Commune: Mahabo/Mamanivo

District: FarafanganaRegion: Atsimo Atsinamana

MadagascarReport issued December 8, 2007

Prepared for Johnson Andrianahy, Chef de Region, Atsimo Atsinamana, Madagascar

Prepared by Ken Harrington, Kristen Wagner, Judi McLean Parks

Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial StudiesOlin Business School

George Warren Brown School of Social Work

Reviewed and Translated by the Missouri Botanical Garden

Discussion Draft--For Comment OnlyComments and Inputs Welcome

Not Confidential---Not for PublicationShould Not be Cited Without Discussion and Permission

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EXAMPLE OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND COLLABORATION

MBG personnel (MBG Mahabo conservation library) supporting 170 Mahabo Blessing Basket Project weavers who spent the day discussing quality, deciding on the legal entity for their weaver association, voting on leadership, coordinating training

needs, and planning for a 400% capacity increase.



Table of Contents

PageContext i

Executive Summary ii

I. Purpose 1

II. Activities Completed During Last Six Months, March to October 2007 2

III. Summary of Meetings and Activities 4

IV. Research Approach-Trip #2 5

V. Trip #2 Observations and IssuesOverview 61. Family and Society 72. Law and Community Rule 83. Entrepreneurship and Economy 84. Local Public Institutions and Their Sustainability 105. Blessing Basket Project Impact 106. Missouri Botanical Garden, Community Conservation Program Impact 137. Technology-Productivity Enhancement 158. University , NGO, and Other Collaborations 159. Government 16

APPENDIX SECTION

APPENDIX A Screen Shot-Yahoo Group Website and linkAPPENDIX B Project Madagascar Faculty BiosAPPENDIX C Research Plan Trip #2APPENDIX D Evaluation Template-Fokontany Economic DevelopmentAPPENDIX E Tentative-January 2008 Community Conservation Manager Workshop

Saving Madagascar’s Rare Forests-Contingent upon fundingAPPENDIX F Washington University Class: Course DescriptionAPPENDIX G Research Areas for Trip #3 and Philosophy and Hypothesis for Implementation



Context

This report is a best efforts assessment of the entrepreneurial implementation of this initiative in the Mahabo Commune. Readers are cautioned that it is neither statistically based nor scholarly in nature. It is meant to promote dialog and continued implementation. The goal is to raise issues, continue work, and to discover by doing.

Still we feel that many of the findings and much of the information is helpful and that it will aid our multiyear support for the Missouri Botanical Garden in their Madagascar Community Conservation Program. Similarly we hope it provides useful information and perspective that the Blessing Basket Project finds valuable. We hope it is of some use to the Chef de Region and to the Mahabo community. Last, we wish to share it in hopes that thinking and research follows this initial implementation effort.

We welcome all inputs including criticism and strong disagreements. Such thoughts will help us towards our goal of finding replicable solutions for developing-world subsistence agriculture rural communities where forests and biodiversity are threatened.

Appendix Section Page iDiscussion Draft--For Comment Only

Comments and Inputs WelcomeNot Confidential---Not for Publication

Should Not be Cited Without Discussion and Permission

Executive SummaryTrip #2-October 2007

Commune: Mahabo/Mamanivo District: Farafangana Region: Atsimo Atsinamana

MadagascarReport Issued December 8, 2007

Prepared for Johnson Andrianahy, Chef de Region, Atsimo Atsinamana, Madagascar

I. The Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG), Blessing Basket Project (BBP), and Washington University in St. Louis (WU) are achieving better than expected outcomes in Mahabo commune

Economic growth is faster than expected Comparisons to other BBP countries indicate the MBG partnership may be achieving

faster and more substantial economic growth Early sales of baskets in the United States indicate strong demand for the Mahabo

design In country basket prices have increase because of the BBP orders

a. Prices on traditional Mahabo designs doubled from $.40 to $.80 when weavers used BBP’s offers as leverage.

b. “Knockoffs” of BBP design are selling in country for $1.50 or morec. Full quality BBP baskets are all exported at a price of $7.50 each

Other NGO’s and private investors are being drawn to Mahabo commune by the momentum of economic growth

The value of the MBG + BBP collaboration is maturing and has high potential for being a replicable model supporting conservation (forest preservation) and people (poverty reduction) on a larger scale

II. Some conservation and weaver issues have arisen but appear fixable over the next six months MBG feels conservation efforts need to be reinforced with two of the three issues they

observed related to poverty and not BBP economic stimulationa. Charcoal production was uncovered by MBG in one section of the forestb. Cassava field fences are being constructed from young and important species of

treesc. Sedge for baskets is being pulled-up rather than being cut

Quality problems have occurred on some first shipment basketsa. Leather handles are not securely attached is some instancesb. Basket bottoms are not always squarec. Die color can vary somewhat for a given basket

Training and administrative activities need strengthening to scale production by a factor of 4 over the next six monthsa. Resolving quality issuesb. Going from 28 to 170 or more weaversc. Spreading production across more Fokontany (villages)

Appendix Section Page iiDiscussion Draft--For Comment Only



d. Agreeing tasks and costs between MBG and BBP as both parties experience some “mission stretch” in their collaboration

e. Forming a new Malagasy legal entity owned and managed by the weaversIII. Larger numbers of WU faculty, Malagasy government groups, and community members are

supporting Mahabo expansion plans by BBP and MBG Senior faculty at WU are engaged

a. Approximately 15 faculty members from Business, Social Work, Law, Political Science, Economics, Art, Anthropology, and Entrepreneurship are collaborating

b. Judi McLean Parks, senior faculty in the Olin Business School, is creating a cross-campus curriculum for students from all degree levels and types

c. Kristen Wagner, doctoral student, in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work is proposing dissertation research on Mahabo

d. Numerous faculty have agreed to support a Community Conservation Manager workshop in January training ten newly hired MBG Malagasy site managers who will be resident in new endangered forest locales by donating their time and tailoring curriculum

e. Case study and preliminary observation working papers are being considered for sharing

Johnson Andrianahy, Chef de Region, Atsimo Atsinamana, Madagascar and the Mahabo Mayor are supportive of MBG and BBP effortsa. Convened a meeting upon our arrival with all related ministriesb. Shared regional and local plans for developmentc. Discussed MBG provided list of the numerous NGO’s and groups that have now

become active in Mahabod. Openly discussed the benefits, shortcomings, and costs of “bottom-up

entrepreneurial” and “top-down public” approaches to solving problems Meetings with leaders of the weavers showed strong commitment to quality

improvement, expansion, knowledge sharing, and design innovation, although some “growth tensions” were apparenta. The weavers have strong motivations and entrepreneurial instinctsb. Most tensions seem to center around how to organize for a larger order commitment

o Fairness and transparency of quality control effortso Specialization of labor optionso Engaging weavers from more villages or concentrating production in fewer

Fokontany (villages)c. Weavers are aggressively acting on quality issuesd. Weavers are aggressively proposing new designs that they hope will reduce cost,

increase quality, increase “natural” materials, and improve fashion uniquenessIV. Mahabo commune economic growth could exceed 20% and may reach 30% in 2008 when all

factors are considered BBP latest order is for 3900 baskets and will contribute an estimated 11% to 14% In country trade of higher priced baskets may contribute and additional 10% to 15% MBG employment and investments may add another 5% to 7%

Appendix Section Page iiiDiscussion Draft--For Comment Only



Numerous private and public infrastructure investments will provide jobs and new institutions that will add an undetermined amount to these estimatesa. Most road frontage land has been acquired b. Three to five new buildings will be completed or have construction started in 2008,

including a secondary school, hospital, bank, pharmacy, and general store We believe that MBG’s support and guidance, particularly Reza Ludovic’s on site

collaborative efforts supporting BBP, government groups, NGO’s, private investors, and the community are a significant factor contributing to Mahabo commune’s growth rate

MBG’s management outside Mahabo is also a large contributor to success through their many thoughts on conservation, economic, and social outcomes. Armand Randrianasolo’s efforts at Mahabo and other CCP sites as well as in St. Louis, Chris Birkinshaw’s support and guidance from Antanarivo, Peter Lowry’s perspective from Paris and in Madagascar, Andry Rajosoa’s efforts, and numerous others.

V. Weavers are using new wealth to invest in assets that may add to future growth Food, education, clothing, and hiring others continue to be the most frequently cited

uses Land, housing, Zebu purchase, and a weaver initiated “emergency saving fund” have

occurred over the last six months To date, men continue to support the newly acquired woman wealth and it is reported,

although not confirmed, that women are getting more say in community affairsVI. Begin work on increasing agricultural yields on a permanent basis across the Mahabo commune

Work with other NGO’s and collaborators that specialize in agriculture yield improvementa. Begin discussions on setting a goal to increase agricultural yields on targeted fieldsb. Aggressively pursue large and small solutions to irrigation and drainagec. Investigate and test new technologies

Find seed and strains of rice and cassava that will suit villagers and positively impact food security and daily nutrition and health

Plan for knowledge sharing, training, and dissemination of new approaches Consider how weaver wealth may help support technology investments and improved

techniquesVII. Continued Mahabo success may lead to replication that favorably impacts

Madagascar’s biodiversity and rural peoples Consider and plan for replication across ten (10) rare forest sites representing up to 15%

of Madagascar’ remaining biodiversitya. Hold the hoped for CCP training workshop in Januaryb. Send some faculty and students to a second site in Marchc. Investigate non-BBP options that would stimulate entrepreneurial economic growth at the site investigatedd. Develop evaluation methods for entrepreneurial economic growth across MBG’s ten targeted sites

Complete the next semester curriculum evolution at WUa. Finalize the spring semester plan

Appendix Section Page ivDiscussion Draft--For Comment Only



b. Develop details for the March visit including selecting 15 students to go with four to six faculty

c. Begin formal curriculum review process in appropriate schools Continue to measure outcomes and respond to conservation and economic growth issues Continue dialog with residents, government, MBG, and others that uncover approaches

that result in the momentum that will ensure self perpetuated conservation and quality of live improvementa. Alternatives to MBG funded forest enforcement costs and fundingb. Assimilating new infrastructure and related public or community shared operating

and support costsc. Finding more consistent funding for education with measureable outcome

improvementsd. Considering alternative ownership of common assets such as MBG facility by

communitye. Thinking through solutions to on-going and adequate funding of shared public goods

like health care, education, and other factorsf. Convergence of local Dina law system with national institutional systems

Begin feasibility assessment for expanding beyond ten sites with the goal of reaching eighty (80) sites representing preservation of nearly all of Madagascar’s rare biodiversity

The overall report and related appendices provide additional detailed information and observations.

Appendix Section Page vDiscussion Draft--For Comment Only



I. Purpose:

This report provides information on the outcomes resulting from the partnership between the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Blessing Basket Project in Mahabo Commune. The report has been prepared by Kenneth Harrington, Managing Director, of the Skandalaris Center of Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis; Judi McLean Parks, Taylor Professor of Organizational Behavior, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis; and Kristen Wagner, Doctoral Candidate, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis. The Missouri Botanical Garden, Madagascar and the Blessing Basket Project have contributed to this report.

We would first like to express our thanks for all the inputs that have been provided by the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) personnel, Theresa Wilson, Blessing Basket Project (BBP) Founder, Mahabo Commune residents, various government officials, and others. We accept full responsibility for any errors or omissions in this document.

This report should be read in conjunction with the first report on the same project. In this report, we provide updates on several outcomes, and assume that the reader is familiar with the initial report (March 2007). Like the first report, this report has been translated and commented upon by MBG but in the interest of time has not been rigorously reviewed.

It is our intent that this second report also should be used to:

Promote additional dialog Update the first report and report on outcomes Inform and engage more people Recommend next steps to move the project to the next stage of

implementation and research Plan for Trip #3 Use findings to fund-raise for US workshop in January, 2008 Highlight areas of progress and areas of concern

This report summarizes three Washington University representatives’ observations made during five days in Mahabo. During this trip a series of large and small meetings were held. Four additional villages were visited, including Rorobe, Iabomary School (multiple Fokontany), Iabomary, and Lohagisy. Meetings were held with weavers and other community residents. Four markets were observed Farafangana, Mahabo, Vangandrano, and Antananarivo. Additionally, multiple one-on-one discussions were held with MBG personnel, representatives from US-AID and Catholic Relief Services, as well as others. MBG personnel served as hosts, guides and interpreters. We would not have been able to hold these meetings without the support and help of the MBG. Additionally, two videographers were retained to record several interviews, meetings, and conservations. These tapes provided a record, but the videographers’ presence influenced comments and responses.

Appendix Section Page 1Discussion Draft--For Comment Only



II. Activities Completed During Last Six Months, March to October 2007:

In this section, we have provided an update on activities that have been completed since the first report (March 2007), including the activities of BBP, MGB, and Washington University.

BBP AccomplishmentsBBP has experienced continued growth over the past six months. Its Board of Directors has authorized the formation of a new for profit legal entity as well as a large capital campaign ($1 million) for the existing 501(c)(3). The intent of this capital campaign is to raise funds to support working capital and other needs required for continued growth.

BBP has authorized a second order of 3900 baskets for the Mahabo commune contingent upon quality improvements for an initial order of 900 units. This represents a nearly 400% increase in production over the initial order.

BBP also has been involved in fund raising support along two dimensions. First, BBP has helped to raise funds for a new hospital. BBP has raised $1500, which has been transferred to MBG to support the cost of the new hospital. This increases the total dollars raised to $21,500. An additional $13,000 is needed based upon construction bids that have been submitted to MBG. Second, BBP also has engaged in personal philanthropic support for Mama Dada. Mama Dada, a weaver with failing eyesight caused by cataracts, received direct BBP support for her needed cataract operation. This operation has been completed, and despite some complications, appears successful.

MBG AccomplishmentsMBG has increased the Community Conservation Project (CCP) expansion on three fronts. First, Reza Ludovic has been involved in numerous social and economic development activities in Mahabo commune and the region. These will be summarized in the body of the report and include government activities, engaging other NGOs, support for private investments, and a number of other activities.

Second, Armand Randrianasolo has worked with four additional CCP sites. The hope is that site specific social and economic development opportunities can be identified by Washington University for these sites and their people. Mahabo’s preliminary success indicates such replication activities would be useful, although BBP weaving may not be the best opportunity.

Third, MBG, with funding from the Goldman Foundation, has been researching ten additional sites with the goal of having five given initial protection status by the national government. Once complete, MBG expects to undertake full CCP-like implementation at these five additional sites. CCP personnel are currently being selected and trained in anticipation of this expansion.




MBG also collaborated with BBP to hold an exclusive sale of Mahabo baskets. This was done in conjunction with the MBG gift shop and resulted in the sale of 400 to 500 baskets in five weeks (about one half of the original BBP Mahabo order).

Washington University AccomplishmentsWashington University added capacity to its faculty involvement and completed research related to Madagascar and community development. The research including continued dialog with economics Nobel Laureate Dr. Douglass C. North and other faculty, especially those engaged with the Center for New Institutional Social Sciences and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. Additionally, a research assistant, John Boumgarden, completed work that is posted on the new Mahabo Yahoo! Group website. This website is open to all partners and is administered by the Skandalaris Center. It serves as a repository for shared information and work. (See Appendix A)

Three presentations were made to outside audiences in the United States. One was a presentation by Wash U, BBP and MBG to the Soros International Fellows. This audience of about 55 people included faculty and Master of Social Work students from Columbia University. Additionally, a presentation was made to a group of 12 visiting Eisenhower Fellows visiting Washington University. The third presentation was to the International Business Outlook Conference in St. Louis. This audience was about 50 people, primarily from St. Louis. Numerous other presentations and audiences saw the BBP prepared video which helped raise awareness across several university and community audiences.

MBG and Washington University held a workshop to engage additional faculty on May 15, 2007. This meeting had the following attendees.

Missouri Botanical Garden Pete Lowry Armand Randrianasolo

Washington University in St. Louis Teresa Wallace Russell Kohn Judi McLean Parks Margaret Lou Brown Itai Sened Jim Little

Gautam Yadama Charles McManis Paul Rothstein Ken Harrington Kristen Wagner

Four faculty attendees committed to Trip #2, agreeing to collaborate on research and curriculum to support the project. Skandalaris Center agreed to fund the faculty trip. (See Appendix B for a completed list of faculty bios)




III. Summary of Trip #2 Meetings and Activities:

The section summarizes meetings between the Washington University team and others. In all, twenty-nine (29) meetings and activities occurred during our eight day visit. Nearly 1000 people were involved. These meetings are summarized below:

Activity Walking time (hours)

# Total People

Community MBG Wash U Other Government

Antananarivo-Briefing - 6 0 3 3 0 0MBG House CCP Presentation

- 31 0 28 3 0 0

Antananirovo-Independent Business School

- 6 0 1 3 2 0

Faranfangana Market - 16 8 4 3 1 0Community Greating - 217 180 8 3 1 25Chef de Region; Mayor Planning Session

- 75 40 8 3 2 22

Weaver Meeting-Quality review and new order

- 65 58 2 3 2 0

Review Research Plan and Schedule

- 11 0 7 3 1 0

Rorobe Village-Meet with villagers

3.5 61 52 6 3 0 0

Mahabo Village-Funeral Mayor's Mother in Law

- 48 45 2 1 0 0

Iabomary School-Students and Teacher

- 55 46 4 3 1 1

Iabomary School-Teachers - 20 14 2 2 1 1Iabomary School-Parents - 25 21 2 1 0 1Lohagisy Village-Village Leaders

1.5 53 43 5 3 1 1

Iabomary Village-Village Leaders

93 82 6 3 1 1

Hospital Discussion 3 0 2 1 0 0Weaver Leadership Meeting #1-Quality and training

9 3 3 2 1 0

Mama Dada Interview 7 3 1 2 1 0Rice Field Interview and Video

0.5 10 2 4 3 1 0

House Interview and Video 0.5 10 2 4 3 1 0

Clinic Video - 30 21 5 3 1 0Visit to Lemur Forest 1.5 9 4 3 2 0 0Weaver Leadership Meeting #2-Organization and Training New Order

- 7 2 3 1 1 0

Visit to Vangaindrano - 21 15 3 3 0 0Market in Mahabo - 47 42 3 2 0 0Video on Road Frontage around MBG

- 6 2 2 1 1 0

Antananarivo-University Meeting

- 11 0 3 2 6 0

Antananarivo-USAID - 6 0 3 2 1 0Antananarivo-Catholic Charities

- 6 0 3 2 1 0

Total 958 685 127 67 27 52




IV. Research Approach-Trip #2:

In this section, we describe the makeup of the Washington University team and our approach to Trip #2 research. The section summarizes the Washington University faculty involved in Trip #2.

Faculty Subject Matter AreasHarrington, Ken Entrepreneurial Implementation and GrowthMcLean Parks, Judi Organizational Behavior and Conflict ResolutionWagner, Kristen International Development and Family Social MattersBrown, Margaret Lou (unable to travel)

Anthropology and Madagascar Community Research

The research plan for the trip in its entirety appears in Appendix C. Some meetings were not held due to conflicts. A meeting had been planned with both the Mayor and Chef de Region but these were not possible for separate reasons.

Skandalaris Center staff supported travel planning and funded the trip cost. Total cost for transportation, lodging, food, and incidentals totaled approximately $12,000 including videographer costs and MBG support.




V. Trip #2 Observations and Issues

Overview:This section updates Trip #1 observations and summarizes favorable outcomes and areas of concern. Trip #2 took place in the spring. Rainfall was below normal causing a drought in some areas. Paradoxically, low water level may be increasing flooding on the commune’s southern river. This is caused by what seems to be a river mouth blockage to the ocean. A large shifting dune, which reportedly comes and goes over time, was observed on the beach of Rorobe Fokontany. This is causing flooding in the surrounding rice fields. Rice planting is lagging with many fields uncultivated at this time. Some areas are substituting cassava as an alternate crop.

Overall, it appeared that food was in shorter supply than during Trip #1. The villagers seemed less healthy, although we may have visited more remote villages with higher poverty levels. Two of the villages lost Zebu to theft two years ago and without Zebu it is more difficult to cultivate fields. All areas were suffering from either a shortage (drought) or excess (flooding) of water. There was less food for sale in the Mahabo marketplace. Some villagers stated that food shortages were causing physical weakness and difficulty in working fields. Women reported spending a large part of their day gathering water and searching for food for the day’s meal.

This section has nine categories of observations and issues including:

1. Family and Society2. Law and Community Rule3. Entrepreneurship and Economy4. Local Public Institutions and Their Support and Sustainability5. Blessing Basket Project6. Missouri Botanical Garden, Community Conservation Program7. Technology-Productivity Enhancement8. University , NGO, and Other Collaborations9. Government

1. Family and Society Women’s influence has increased with their BBP wealth. To date, this seems to

be well accepted by men. Tangible outcomes that indicate this to be the case include:

o Ownership of land, new houses, Zebuo Input on selected community matters

Increasing women’s wages could affect men’s motivation to work the fields. This needs to be investigated during Trip #3.

Some specialization of labor may be emerging although this is uncertain. Women weavers have hired men for labor in the field. One man commented that




traditional wages of $.40-$.50 per day are insufficient for the level of effort required. This may indicate wage increases are happening but more research needs to be done on Trip #3.

Discussions about conflict indicated that most disputes occur around food shortages or the factors of food production. Most seem to be resolved through negotiation and occasionally compensation.

Some villages felt isolated from BBP income. This is due to lack of training, the type of weaving that is traditionally known (mats v. baskets), and distance to Mahabo. Some conflict may result if wealth does not grow across a larger percent of the total commune. More research needs to be done on Trip #3.

o Sedge sellers may have constrained sedge sales for a short period until prices increased

o Some villagers were uncertain if they might get in trouble for copying the BBP design before they were trained.

o It may be that we are observing a typical adoption cycle and that more weavers will naturally shift to BBP weaving with the larger second order.

Several weavers were initially reluctant to convert to BBP baskets although this seems to be changing as they see BBP weavers’ benefit. Comments included:

o Harder to doo Not sure this would be worthwhileo Let the initial adopters prove the concept and value

2. Law and Community Rule Community (Ampansaka Dina) rule of law and formal institutional (government)

law have some instances of shared enforcement and cooperation.o The Chef de Region deployed soldiers to help reduce Zebu theft. This was

well received by villagers.o Land recording and property right law seem to be evolving although these

are still a mixture of formal and informal law. We do not believe the women-acquired land was formally recorded. More observations are needed during Trip #3.

A recent murder resulted from a land ownership dispute where a father and son had planted land and then had the crops destroyed by a second owner disputing the planters’ rights. The resulting punishment for the killer was handled under the community rule of law system (Ampansaka Dina). It seems that punishment will be settled through compensation payments. The community felt more comfortable with this approach versus remote government courts that might be influenced by corruption.

Immediately following our visit a second example of the possible convergence and rationalization of community rule and formal institutional law may have occurred. A fire was started and when the originator lost control three buildings were destroyed. The Farafangana gendarmes (institutional law) arrested the perpetrator and he was jailed in Farafangana. The local community appealed for his release and for the option to enforce the Ampansaka Dina law (more




compensation related punishment versus incarceration punishment). This request was honored. However, the Mahabo Fokontany President who is a locally elected official for the national (institutional) government openly gave strong input on his impressions of this incident. He stated that the community rule of law needed to be more consistently, timely, and fair in its administration. He suggested that the council membership be reviewed and possibly changed based upon these factors. He supported the community rule (ancestral Ampansaka) but pointed out that to be honored that it needed to be legitimized across the populace including the Farafangana resident, national system.

The recently created Dina requiring that sedge be cut versus pulled-up is not being observed. More outreach and education regarding sustainable harvesting methods are needed or basket raw materials could become scarce.

Land inheritance decisions are made by the family father with the oldest son often the recipient of land. This causes some conflict among families due to land shortage by excluded family members.

3. Entrepreneurship and Economy Despite strong work ethic and a continued sense of entrepreneurial spirit food

insecurity, shortages, and nutrition reduction can limit villager ability to work. A second review of weaver payment use showed that BBP weavers continue to

use money for high priority needs (see table in section #5 BBP Impact). Of particular interest is the desire to increase personal assets by purchasing capital goods and beginning saving (weaver community emergency insurance fund).

The Chef de Region covered his MAP priorities. This will be highlighted in detail in the government section. Drainage and irrigation was the first that he mentioned. Government assistance in this area is critical for parts of Mahabo. The river mouth blockage has been mentioned by numerous southern commune villages as a constraint to increasing agricultural yields. This and plows may be critical to agricultural yield productivity improvement opportunities.

Urgent Recommendations:o Investigate short term ways to clear the river mouth. This may require

inputs from water shed experts, civil engineers, or drainage teams.o Investigate opportunities for individually operated pumping devices that

can be used on a rice field by rice field basis. KickStart, other NGO’s, and Engineers Without Borders may have design options that would work.

Labor rates have not increased when we compared comments from Trip #1 (white rows in table below) and Trip #2 (green rows in table below). However, we visited villages that had not benefited from BBP’s first order. Reza reported that wages in Mahabo were reported to be higher (nearly double), but we did not confirm this information on Trip #2. As mentioned above this should be researched in Trip #3.

Village Primary Income Source Daily Labor RateFirst Trip (March 2007)

Mahabo Rice, Market, Weaving $.40-$.50Appendix Section Page 8



Nosiala Rice, Cassava, Fruit, Weaving, Fresh water shrimp

TBD

Iobotako Rice, Weaving, Vegetables, Fruit $.60 plus food (needs confirmation)Baboaka Fishing, Cattle, Rice (own field in

Mahabo village$.75-$.90

Manakara (Seaside Resort-Not part of Mahabo Commune)

Larger town. Multiple activities including some tourism.

$1.50 unskilled daily temporary$2.00-$2.50 skilled monthly contract $3.00 skilled daily temporary rate

Second Visit (October 2007)Rorobe Fish, Cattle, Rice, Mat Weaving $.40-$.50Iabomary School NAIabomary Village Rice, Cassava, Basket Weaving $.40-$.50Lohagisy Village Rice, Cassava, Placemat Weaving $.40-$.50

Numerous government aid, NGO, and private investments appear to be happening in Mahabo around the MBG facility. These indicate that the MBG, BBP- generated wealth, and in country basket sales are having a large impact on the commune’s economic growth.

o EEC financed secondary school is nearing completion (cement building).o Land is acquired and has been cleared for the NGO, MBG, and BBP

funded new seven-room hospital. The government provided the design specifications for bids and will provide staff, consumables, and other operating support (cement building).

o Tiavo Bank, a micro lender, is acquiring land for a new bank and branch manager residence (cement building).

o Land adjacent to MBG and close to the planned hospital has been acquired by a private investor who plans to open a pharmacy (expected to be a cement building).

o A second private investor has acquired land across the road from MBG and is considering opening a trading type general store.

o A third individual investor (military officer living in Antananarivo who is from Mahabo area) purchased non-frontage land for residential construction.

o A village entrepreneur owning residential land next to MBG has added several buildings and is renting three of them as rental income properties.

o MBG has worked with villagers to acquire and clear land behind MGB for a new soccer field.

o MBG has added one new building housing Reza (traditional wood structure).

Regional export may provide some opportunities. Vegetables and other products could be sold if transportation and distribution/sales systems evolved.

Public works projects might add jobs and wealth if funding were available. This includes flood control, irrigation, expanded reforestation and other possibilities.

4. Local Public Institutions and Their Support and Sustainability




Local Public Institutions exist and are evolving but need to be strengthened further.

o Schools and extended education concepts have the potential to increase knowledge trading beyond the basic skills being offered to the primary school children. An example of conservation education curriculum spreading from children to parents was observed (living fence concept).

o Ideas for a youth center had continuing education goals and were cited as a need by villagers. School funding is a mixture of private and government support, which can be intermittent or untimely.

o Educational supplies and materials are limited. Strengthening the public-private partnership with a more reliable teacher and supplies funding approach would be preferred. Finding education specialty NGOs like Room to Read may be useful. More research needs to be done before Trip #3.

o Hospital creation is once again a private government partnership. The design, staffing, and consumables are provided by government. Construction costs, many drugs and treatments, along with other items, are private pay or non-government sources.

o The hospital could add to economic growth if it attracts patients and support investments from outside Mahabo commune.

o As wealth grows, law enforcement resources may need to be added. The presence of a bank, substantially improved hospital, private pharmacy, basket inventory, and other concentrations of material items may attract attention. This issue will be worsened if large disparities in wealth develop, e.g., concentrations of weaver wealth vs. broader involvement of BBP across multiple villages (see Section 5).

The initiating of the numerous new entrepreneurial ventures and businesses may serve as models for learning that increase entrepreneurial activity by “follower” entrepreneurs.

The existence of a micro loan bank may cause additional entrepreneurial activity and economic growth as capital availability and related agreements and institutions evolve.

Blessing Basket growth (see next section), and potentially related other economic outcomes, seem to be multiplying discretionary personal wealth.

5. Blessing Basket Project In March 2007, we estimated a best case scenario for BBP to add up to 15% in

commune income over the first two orders (5,000 baskets). It now appears this increase will be from 3% to 4.5% in 2007 and between 11% and 14% in 2008. The gains for 2007 have been achieved at this point. Forecasts for 2008 assume production, training, and quality issues will be fully addressed and resolved, including involvement of multiple Fokontany (villages).




Blessing Basket Project Economic Growth Impact 2007 2008 2009Number of Baskets - - - - - 1,500 5,000 8,000 Cost per Basket - - - - - 7.50$ 7.70$ 8.00$ Weaver Wages per Basket - - - - - 5.35$ 6.10$ 6.50$ Estimated Blessing Basket Weaver Wages -$ -$ -$ -$ -$ 8,025$ 30,500$ 52,000$

BBP Only Impact @ Weaver Wage* 3.2% 11.0% 17.4%BBP Only Impact @ $7.50* 4.5% 13.9% 21.4%

* Assumes a 50% economic multiplier for direct payments.

To date, we estimate that BBP payments in just the Mahabo Fokontany (the village with the highest weaver output) have caused income increase of 7% to 10% over 2007.

Following the initial training, BBP weaving activity has been highly concentrated in only two Fokontany. Most of the current wealth has been concentrated in Mahabo and Vohimasy, although a good number of baskets may have been woven in Nosiala. (See below)

Mahabo Vohimasy Nosiala Iabotako Other TotalEstimated # Weavers 234 155 155 168 419 1132% BBP 20% 11% 5% 1% 2% 7%

Initial Training 16 6 3 2 2 29Second Training 30 11 5 0 5 51

Subtotal 46 17 8 2 7 8058% 21% 10% 3% 9% 100%

Cumulative 58% 79% 89% 91% 100%

Fokontany

Discussions with Mahabo weavers resulted in a plan to train more weavers in outlying villages. Acceptance of the BBP design and quality goals is not certain in some villages.

Some quality problems occurred with the initial order and weavers will concentrate on eliminating handle durability problems, exactness of shape, and color consistency.

The largest economic gain has been caused by a BBP stimulated externality related to an increase in traditional and “knock-off” BBP baskets prices. We confirmed that the BBP inspired design shifted the power of price from local collectors to Mahabo weavers.

Traditional basket prices have doubled. Weavers have been successful in increasing the prices paid by collectors for traditional baskets, affecting all commune weavers.

We hypothesize that this may be adding as much as 10% to 15% to the local economy beyond the BBP and MBG caused gains. If this hypothesis is correct the total increase in wealth caused by local basket price increases, MGB investments, and BBP trade to the US could well exceed 20% over CY 2008. This hypothesis needs to be carefully tested on Trip #3.

The March (white rows in table) and October (green rows in table) prices are shown in the chart below. These prices and weaver production levels need to be validated on Trip #3.




Basket Type Price in Mahabo

(collector)

Price in Closest Market

Payment to Weaver

% Change from Pre-BBP

Traditional Type

Days to Weave on

Basket

Observations in March 2007Pre-BBP Traditional

$.40 NA $.40 0% 1

BBP low quality “knock-off”

$1.00 NA $1.00 250% 2

BBP high quality “knock-off”

$2.00 $2.50 $2.00 500% 2

BBP original for export

NA NA $5.30* 1325% 2

Observations in October 2007Pre-BBP Traditional

$.80 NA $.80 200% 1

BBP low quality “knock-off”

NA $1.50 $1.25 313% 2

BBP high quality “knock-off”

NA NA NA NA 2

BBP original for export

NA NA $5.30* 1325% 2

* Excludes $2.20 in material costs that are paid by BBP. Total price to BBP for @ basket is $7.50. (1875 % change from Pre-BBP )

We have assumed a multiplier effect of 50% that occurs due to new wealth. This is a common multiplier in developing countries. If this occurs it will add additional growth as new wealth is spent and then respent by others. No attempt has been made to investigate the economic growth impact of new buildings and businesses that are planned (school, bank, hospital, pharmacy, store, other). Economic growth impact from all these items should be investigated on Trip #3.

In March, BBP weavers’ had self-reported how new wealth was used (white rows in table below). We observed that it showed good stewardship and was driven by needs to improve their quality of life.

This good stewardship choice seems to be continuing (see green rows in table below). There were two notable changes from March.

o Clothing (fashion, status, or warmth) showed large gains.o More weavers mentioned that they are hiring others to do tasks they might

normally do, including working in fields. o The other large change was that weavers are now engaging in durable

good purchases and saving. This is strongly positive and supports continued economic growth.

o It should be noted that the interviews were done as a group potentially introducing bias into the responses.




Results from weaver interviews in March 2007“How using BBP payments?” Frequency of Mention

(19 BBP weavers asked)% of Weavers Mentioning

Food 17 89%School or educational supplies 9 47%Hire labor to work field so can weave 9 47%Clothing 4 21%Medicine 3 16%Seeds for replanting 2 11%Care for elders 2 11%Kitchen utensils 1 5%

Results from weaver interviews in October 2007“How using BBP payments?” Frequency of Mention

(23 BBP weavers asked)% of Weavers Mentioning

Food 23 100%Cultivate or grow food 23 100%School or educational supplies 12 52%Hire labor to work field so can weave 16 70%Clothing 23 100%Medicine 0 0%Durable Good Purchases and Savings

Zebu 3 13%House (New) 2 9%House (Enhance) 2 9%Land 3 13%Shared emergency fund 23 100%

Sedge prices have doubled over the past six months. This is in line with basket prices.

Pressures for finding food, even when fields are not ready for planting (drought or excess water) reduce time for weaving. Women are most able to weave in the late morning and afternoon.

As mentioned earlier, hourly labor rates may be increasing but this is most likely in Fokontany with high BBP incomes. This will to be tested during Trip #3.

6. Missouri Botanical Garden, Community Conservation Program

Solid leadership (MBG with Reza Ludovic in particular) and government involvement are causing Mahabo investments by outside groups (see Section 3 for specific list of private, international aid, NGO, and other investments).

MBG’s presence is critical to continued conservation, economic, and social evolution of Mahabo Commune. Reza’s leadership and day-to-day engagement provide huge value to the community.

Conversations with BBP indicate that economic growth in Mahabo is higher than other BBP villages in other African countries, specifically Ghana and Uganda.




Ghana, in particular, has experienced more BBP sales as well as increases in local basket prices. However, overall economic growth is not thought to be as significant in those villages. This hypothesis needs to be investigated, perhaps on a separate trip.

Research was done and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Index of African Governance was selected as a uniform comparison for five African countries including the three BBP countries (shown in green in the table below). These ratings may provide a starting point for further thinking. Of the five countries we selected, South Africa has the “best” scores and Somalia the lowest.

African Country

Overall Ranking

Safety & Security

Rule of Law, Transparency, & Corruption

Participation & Human

Rights

Sustainable Economic

Opportunity

Human Development

South Africa 5 61 75 81 67 71 Ghana 8 86 70 78 47 64 Madagascar 17 86 58 58 40 46 Uganda 25 71 56 51 50 50 Somalia 48 64 19 24 5 29

We hypothesize that the higher Madagascar economic growth may be caused by four factors:

o Higher level of trust established by MBG as they worked with villagers on conservation efforts. This trust is a critical component for collaborative exchanges that lead to innovations in other areas.

o The presence of social and economic thought leadership (Reza) that expands capacity of government institutions. This leadership may also be perceived as more approachable and neutral given the conservation mission and related trust.

o Higher amount of knowledge trading around the BBP design. This was not as great in Ghana and Uganda where baskets were taken “as is” with smaller modifications. If this is true then communes requiring more knowledge trading support (“more difficult” communes) might derive greater relative benefit from BBP and MBG support.

o Relative poverty levels, access to transportation, markets, and numerous. Other variables have not been considered.

MGP guide, forest patrol, and other local employment add an estimated 5% to 7% annually to the Mahabo economy. This assumes an annual total salary budget (all headcount) in the range of $25,000 US.

MBG continues to be active at four other sites with CCP efforts. Mahabo is still the most developed. Trip #3 should begin work on other sites where MBG personnel are active.

MBG will expand to five additional sites based upon outcomes from the Goldman grant. We should develop a plan to support multiple sites, including the possibility of engaging other universities inside and outside Madagascar.




MBG has identified 77 potential sites, which, if substantially preserved, would protect nearly the entire known remaining Madagascar flora. Very preliminary estimates indicate that a budget of between $18 million to $25 million over a ten to fifteen year period would be needed to pursue this number of sites. This is based upon Mahabo and other CCP site experience.

7. Technology-Productivity Enhancement

Increasing agricultural yields are critical to quality of life improvement. Additionally, positive outcomes in this area would cement more permanent conservation by reducing forest pressure as alternative life options evolve. In March, Kristopher Kelley identified several technologies. These need to be tested and presented to villagers during Trip #3.

Higher weaver income may help support selected capital investments and micro loans for tools and technologies.

Irrigation and drainage are critical to agricultural productivity increases. These continue to be cited as the largest problem by villagers throughout the commune.

Weavers who have purchased land state that three plows exist in Mahabo so it is possible to hire others to plow fields. Possible productivity gains from plows were reported to be lower than what had been heard in March (field preparation of three days versus one half day). The impact of plows, assuming irrigation and drainage are improved, needs to be understood during Trip #3.

Irrigation and Flood Technology, Agricultural Tools, and Crop Enhancements need to be uncovered to help increase agricultural yields. This needs to be done to dampen the impact of increased consumption that will result from higher wealth.

Internet Connectivity over Wireless seems to now be possible. Communication and access to information will improve knowledge trading and coordination of trading.

Recommendation: Other NGOs and groups need to be engaged to help educate residents about technology options. This should be a top priority for 2008 including bringing potential technologies to Mahabo in March.

8. University, NGO, and Other CollaborationsWe met with representatives of US-AID, Catholic Relief Services and the University to discuss potential collaboration and joint efforts. USAID is engaged in development projects in approximately 1,100 communities across Madagascar. The primary need identified by USAID staff is food security. The recommended strategy for addressing this need is to focus on building regional capacity. This can best be accomplished by working closely with the Chef de Region to coordinate activities within the established regional development strategy.

The primary activities of CRS include: 1) Food security and agriculture issues such as improving food production 2) health and nutrition education such as healthy foods and hygienic preparation of food 3) markets;




particularly ensuring access to markets, providing training to identify markets for income (has developed a curriculum around this) and training on negotiations involved with markets 4) justice and peace. CRS staff shared that the history of communism has influenced agricultural production; the mentality of many Malagasy is to grow enough food for one’s own consumption, not as a means of income. Therefore, education and supports related to agribusiness may encourage agriculture as a viable employment option. CRS is not currently engaged in the Mahabo Commune, but the Director expressed interest in exploring potential partnerships to serve the area. Additional meetings to flesh out the possibilities will be discussed on Trip #3.

There are a number of agencies and NGO’s involved in Mahabo. The following lists those that have been referenced. No meetings have been held with this group and this should be an activity during Trip #3.

o BVPI-Irrigationo DRDR-Irrigationo PKNLS-Healtho ASOS-Healtho SEECALINE-Nutrition o UADL

9. Government Support seems to be strong from the top ranking government official for the

region, Johnson Andrianahy, Chef de Region. He and other ministers met with us for a half-day planning session. During that time we reviewed the region’s MAP and local plans. Meetings with these entities should be planned during Trip #3. Attendees included:

o GIDR-Group de Travail Pour le Development Ruralo Tranobe Tantsohao Santeo Direction Regional de Development Ruralo Office Regional Administrationo Office Regional Nutritiono SD MAP Agriculture

The Chef de Region, his staff, the Mahabo Mayor, and regional ministers provided thoughts and inputs on approaches we might support. Approaches varied between large centralized projects that were government administered to small, lower cost, entrepreneurial tests of new concepts. We discussed the need for both approaches and explained our bias for smaller, high impact projects that were funded by villager self-earned income. The stated MAP and other priorities were:

o Irrigation and Drainageo Development des Legumes (vegetable cultivation)o Fish farming and natural fishing




o Tropical fruit plantationso Education (beyond secondary school) and university (SUNY Stonybrook)o Tourismo Tiavo-Microloano Plows-Revolution Verde

The need for coordination with government will increase as local public institutions expand. Perspective (knowledge support) and long term funding (public goods support) will grow. Funding evolving institutions, identifying villagers’ priorities and community support for shared services will be an important cultural evolution. Institutions and value systems will need support as they evolve.

In March we stated that a mixture of simple economic activities that reinforces existing villager capabilities and desires was preferred over complicated approaches that require broad support and community alignment before they begin. We continue to support this philosophy of market growth. We hypothesize that healthy evolution will be best spurred by causing a broad cross section of residents to achieve higher earnings. These residents will collectively determine growth by how they choose to spend their new wealth.

An evaluation methodology was developed for assessing Fokontany by Fokontany economic growth and quality of life options (see below). The purpose of this template is to serve as a decision making tool for MAP options on a Fokontany by Fokontany basis. A full explanation of the template appears in Appendix E.

Fokontany Development Option Evaluation TemplateRorobe Example

Village: RorobeType of Development

Forest Threat

Transport Cost

Trading Area

Operating Cost

Capital Cost

Individual Earned

Village Interest

Ease of Implement

ation

Risk of Failure

Quickness to Outcome

Uniqueness

Premium

Level of Impact-Wealth

Level of Impact-Food

(Village)

Level of Impact-

Education

Knowledge Trade

Comments

Irrigation/Drainage

Low NA NA Low High Low High Med Low Slow Low Slow High Low Low Critical Importance. River mouth. Pumps? Windmills? Big vs. small?

Vegetables

Low High District Med Low High Low Hard High Slow Low Med Low Med High Individual Farms. Need Distribution and Selling Logistics

Fish Farm

Low Med District High High Low Low Hard High Slow Low High High Med High Logistically difficult

Fish Natural

Low Med District Low Med (Engine)

Med High Simple Low Quick High (lobster)

High Med Low Med Lobster deal. Need to get trader involved. Boat for river?

Tropical Fruits

Med High Country /Export

High High Low Low Hard High Slow Med High Low Med High Coop model? Individual Owner? Land Ownership?

Plows

Low NA NA Low Low Med High (if drainage)

Simple Low Fast Low Low High Low Med Individual who specializes? Zebu needed. Drainage needed first

School

Low NA NA High Med High Med Med Low Slow NA Slow Med High High Teacher and Supply Costs. Public Good

Tourism/Researcher

Low High Global High High Med Low Hard High Med Med Low Low High High Entrepreneur, Jobs, Ocean, Crocodiles?

Blessing Basket

Med (sedge)

Med Global, District

Low Low High Low Med Med Fast High High Med Med High Need training from Mahabo. Currently Weave Mats. Sedge in other villages

We did not include ideas for public infrastructure projects since we felt these were not Fokontany development opportunities. Rather, we considered them as investments or outcomes that were needed by the full commune. A compressed version appears below.




This template will prove useful if others find it valuable. We will have students test its usefulness on Trip #3.

* * *




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APPENDIX B

Project Madagascar Faculty Bios




Article I. Margaret Louise (Lou) BrownAcademic Coordinator, American Culture Studies, Arts & Sciences, and Director of the Research Seminar, Center for New Institutional Social Sciences Email: [email protected]

Ph.D., Washington University, 1999My research is motivated by long-standing questions in the social sciences concerning the relationship between structure and agency, in combination with an interest in the relationship between individual beliefs and their social and cultural foundations. Currently, one of the primary questions driving my research is: In what ways do cultural beliefs and practices provide a "toolkit" for evaluating and demonstrating trustworthiness? In my dissertation research, conducted in northeastern Madagascar, I focused on the structural underpinnings of trust and mistrust in families. I am currently working on a book manuscript, based on my dissertation, addressing the connection between the depth of interdependence between related individuals and their capacity to develop trusting social relations outside of familial relationships.

Article II. David Deal(a) Administrative Director of the Intellectual Property and Business Formation Legal

ClinicActing Associate Director of the Center for Research on Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Lecturer in Law

E-mail: [email protected]

B.A., University of Missouri - Columbia J.D., University of Missouri – Columbia

David Deal, lecturer in law, is the administrative director of the School of Law's Intellectual Property and Business Formation (IP/BF) Legal Clinic and acting associate director of the Center for Research on Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CRIE). CRIE supports the study of research and development with an emphasis on the commercialization of technology developed in academia. The IP/BF clinic provides students with opportunities to work in early stage legal strategies on behalf of innovators who would not otherwise have access to legal counsel.

Deal has a long history of legal work in the area of intellectual property. As an associate at Thompson Coburn LLP in St. Louis, he focused on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications as well as on trademark, copyright, trade secret, licensing, and litigation matters. As a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Washington, D.C., he examined patent applications for compliance with applicable statutes prior to approving the award of a United States patent.

Kenneth A. HarringtonManaging Director, The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and Senior Lecturer in EntrepreneurshipEmail: [email protected]

M.B.A. (Finance and Marketing) 1987, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton SchoolB.S. (Business Administration) 1970, University of Vermont

Mr. Harrington is Managing Director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at







Washington University in Saint Louis and a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship. He serves on numerous not-for profit and early stage company advisory boards. He directs a fully encompassing, cross campus entrepreneurship effort impacting all schools and academic disciplines.

He spent nearly 30 years in the technology industry prior to joining Washington University. He worked for Booz, Allen and Hamilton in New York, focusing on technology strategy consulting for such clients as AT&T, United Technologies, Stanford University and numerous other technology hardware and software companies. Mr. Harrington spent his early career in corporate settings focused on strategy and turnaround situations. Following this experience, he spent nearly 20 years founding or growing seven technology start-up businesses.

Russell KohnEmail: [email protected]

B.A., Washington University, 2007

James T. LittleDonald Danforth, Jr. Distinguished Professor of BusinessEmail: [email protected]

Ph.D. 1977, University of MinnesotaB.Comm. 1967, University of British Columbia

Professor Little did his undergraduate work at the University of British Columbia and received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Professor Little joined the Washington University faculty in 1971 and served on the faculty of the Department of Economics until 1982, when he joined the faculty of the Olin School. From 1983-89, he served as associate dean for academic affairs. He is Academic Director of the Olin School's EMBA Program and directs the School's European Programs. Professor Little's extensive experience as a lecturer in executive programs includes two extended tours of China as a member of a U.S. team. His current research interests include the study of the implications of globalization for corporate strategies, the economics of the European Union, and regulation of insurance companies.

Areas of Expertise: Business Policy and Strategy; Economics - Economic Development; Economics - Economic Policy; Economics - International Economics; Finance/Investments - Corporate Finance; International Business; Management Strategy; Monetary PolicyResearch interests: Microeconomics, international economics, corporate strategy, insurance regulation

Porter P. (Pete) Lowry II Curator and Head of the Africa & Madagascar Department, Missouri Botanical Garden Research Associate, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France Honorary Research Associate, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Email: [email protected]

Ph.D., Washington University, St. Louis, 1986 M.S., University of Illinois, 1982 B.S., University of Illinois, 1978






General Research Interests: Systematics of Araliaceae (taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography, morphology, breeding systems, anatomy, palynology); Flora and vegetation of Madagascar; Flora and vegetation of New Caledonia; Application of taxonomic information to conservation planning and management

Judi McLean ParksReuben C. and Anne Carpenter Taylor Professor of Organizational BehaviorEmail: [email protected]

Ph.D. 1990, University of IowaM.A. 1988, University of IowaB.B.A. 1985, Iowa State University

Professor McLean Parks previously taught at the Industrial Relations Center at University of Minnesota; Cornell University; and Institute d'Administration des Entreprises, Université Jean Moulin Lyon III, Lyon, France.

Areas of Expertise: Behavioral Science; Human Resource Management/Industrial Relations; International Business; Management Development; Motivation; Negotiation; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Change and DevelopmentResearch interests: Organizational behavior, conflict management and dispute resolution, psychological contracts and workplace justice, diversity and socio-cultural and cross-cultural management factors, revenge in the workplace, and organizational identity

Article III. Charles McManisArticle IV. Thomas and Karole Green Professor of Law

(a) Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program(b) Director of the Center for Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

E-mail: [email protected]

B.A., 1964, Birmingham-Southern CollegeM.A., 1972, Duke UniversityJ.D., 1972, Duke University

Professor McManis was installed as the Thomas & Karole Green Professor of Law in Fall 2002. He is active in the intellectual property area both nationally and internationally. McManis has taught or researched in the United States, China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan and has served as a consultant for the World Intellectual Property Organization.

During 1993 and 1994, Professor McManis made his Fulbright Fellowships visits to Korea to lecture and do research at the International Intellectual Property Training Institute, Taejon, Korea.Professor McManis was the co-chair for the Conference on Patenting Genetic Products (2002), organizer for the Conference on Intellectual Property, Digital Technology & Electronic Commerce (2001) and the Conference on RE-engineering Patent Law (2000). Along with Professor William Jones, he organized the East Asian Intellectual Property Conference in 1994. He is the co-author of "Licensing of the Intellectual Property in the Digital Age" and the author of "Intellectual Property & Unfair Competition in a Nutshell" (4th ed.) published by West Publishing Company.






Bruce PonmanMissouri Botanical Garden Information Coordinator and Web DesignerEmail: [email protected]

Bruce Ponman is the information coordinator and web designer for the Wm. L. Brown Center for Plant Genetic Resources at MBG. Before moving to St. Louis, he lived for many years in Charlottesville, VA, where among other things he was a graduate student in History, legal editor, production editor of scientific journals, and a writer and editor of computer-based math tutorials. He is originally from New York City and holds a B.A in Music and History.

Armand RandrianasoloMissouri Botanical Garden Postdoctoral Researcher, Applied Research Department Email: [email protected]

Ph.D., University of Missouri-St. Louis, 1998M.S., University of Missouri-St. Louis, 1993B.S., University of Antananarivo, Madagascar, 1988

General Research Interests: Flora of Madagascar, Anacardiaceae and Sarcolaenaceae of Madagascar, Conservation of Madagascar Biodiversity

Paul RothsteinAssociate Director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public PolicyAssociate Professor of EconomicsEmail: [email protected]

Ph.D. University of California – BerkeleyB.A. Yale University

Professor Rothstein's specialty is public sector economics, and he has written in the areas of local public finance, taxation, and public choice. He is currently interested in federalism, the benefits and costs of competition among local governments, and the role of political processes, legal institutions and central government in channeling this competition. His current working papers develop theoretical models of fiscal competition and federation formation and empirical work on the political economy of urban mass transportation and spending on homeland security.

Itai SenedProfessor of Political ScienceEmail: [email protected]

Ph.D. University of Rochester

A product of the Rochester Ph.D. program of the late 1980's, Itai Sened is currently a senior lecturer of political Science at Tel Aviv University and professor at Washington University in St. Louis. His main interests are theory of institutions, game theory and applied mathematical modeling. His book, The Political Institution of Property Rights, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1997. He has also published articles in The American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics and The Journal of Theoretical Politics and different edited








volumes. He is the co-editor, with Jack Knight, of Explaining Social Institutions from The University of Michigan Press (1995, now in a paperback new edition). He is currently working on several different projects, most notably two: (1) a book manuscript entitled Political Bargaining with Sage Publications Ltd., covering recent advances in the formal modeling of different forms of political bargaining. (2) A book project with Norman Schofield and others. The book will include a state of the art theoretical framework for the study of multiparty European parliaments and governments, a statistical package for estimating the positions of voters and parties in policy spaces and eight case studies.

Kristen WagnerPhD. Student, CNISS Fellow, Washington University School of Social WorkEmail: [email protected]

MSW, 2005, Washington UniversityB.A., 1997, University of North Dakota

Kristen Wagner is a doctoral student in the Brown School of Social Work. She is currently a Research Associate with the Center for Social Development and the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies both at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University. Ms. Wagner holds a Master of Social Work (2005) and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (1997). Her research interests include the role of asset building strategies in social and economic development of communities; both international and domestic. She is also interested in ethics of development and participatory research and development.

Teresa WallaceWoods Fellow, Washington University Olin School of BusinessEmail: [email protected]

MSW, 2006, Washington UniversityB.A., 2001, University of Texas - Austin

Teresa Wallace, MSW graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001, and then worked in the legal and nonprofit fields in Houston, Texas, for several years. In 2004 she enrolled at Washington University, and in 2006 received a Master of Social Work degree from the Brown School of Social Work concentrating in Social Economic Development and Nonprofit Management. Teresa is currently a Woods Fellow at Washington University’s Olin School of Business pursuing an MBA with focus on Management and Entrepreneurship. Because her studies and career goals focus on women’s issues and the trend to social entrepreneurial endeavors for nonprofits, Teresa was particularly pleased to have the opportunity to participate in the Madagascar Program, working closely with The Blessing Basket Project and Missouri Botanical Garden and traveling abroad to experience international development in progress.

Gautam YadamaAssociate Professor of Social Work and Director of International ProgramsEmail: [email protected]

Ph.D. Case Western Reserve University







Dr. Yadama is the director of the Brown School’s International Programs. In this role, he helps train students to build new research and policy initiatives in order to foster greater participation of underserved populations throughout the world. His field research and international collaborations have taken him to most regions of Asia including most recently, China.

Dr. Yadama also serves as the School’s liaison with the Open Society Institute, helping to educate social work professionals and to develop social policy infrastructure in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

In addition, he is the coordinator of the School’s social and economic development concentration. He is actively engaged with the University community as a member of the steering committee for McDonnell International Scholars Academy and he is also the Academy’s ambassador to Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.




APPENDIX C

Research PlanTrip #2




Research Summary and TopicsMahabo Madagascar

Trip #2October 2007

The following summarizes suggested meetings and the topics for those meetings while we are in Mahabo. We will finalize the schedule when we meet with Reza and Armand on Sunday when we arrive in Mahabo. Reza and Armand will set the final sequence and timing for meetings.

1. Meet with BBP weavers (individual, small group, large group?) (Led by Kristen and Judi? All participate) What changed since MBG? What changed since BBP? Biggest issues with change? Plus and minus? Top things to make better? Subsistence? Beyond subsistence? How long to complete a BBP basket? Old type basket (pre BBP)? New but not

BBP (for sale to collectors)? When weave? More time weaving? If more time weaving then what work did you stop doing? How does that now get

done? Prices for baskets? BBP? Marketplace? Mix of BBP vs. marketplace? How using $ (open ended mention; no prompting)

o Follow up-Prices for one-day labor?o Any change in prices for items purchased?o Prices for land if purchased?o Land purchase negotiation process and recording?o House or Zebu?

What else changed?o Relationship with husband and men?o Relationship with other women?o Relationship with children?o Relationship with collectors?

2. Meet with non-BBP weavers (individual, small group, large group?) (Led by Kristen and Judi? All participate) Why not weave for BBP? What changed since MBG? What changed since BBP?

o Biggest issues with change? Plus and minus? Top things to make better? Subsistence? Beyond subsistence? New style but not BBP (for sale to collectors)? When weave? More time

weaving?




If more time weaving then what work did you stop doing? How does that now get done?

Prices for baskets? BBP? Marketplace? Mix of BBP vs. marketplace? What changed since BBP?

o Prices for baskets and other goods?o Any change in prices for items purchased (sedge)?o Other?o Good or bad?

Implications of design and knowledge trading? Biggest issue from change.

o Relationship with husband and men?o Relationship with other women?o Relationship with children?o Relationship with collectors?

3. Meet with villagers in village (s) we missed last time (Led by Reza, Armand, and Ken? All participate) Establish relationship and apologize for missing last time. What changed since MBG? What changed since BBP?

o Daily labor rate? Other factors? o Prices for baskets and other goods?o Any change in prices for items purchased (sedge)?o Other items?o Good or bad?

Largest need for your village?o Technology?o Conflict reduction?

4. Discuss if immigration or emigration is changing (Maybe split up on this? Reza, Armand, Ken? Possibly Judi and Kristen having additional meetings with Women?) Anything different?

o More people leaving?o Attracting people back who left?o Less frequent journeys?o New “ventures” started in village?o Non-family moving to area?

Other issues?5. Meet with mayor or folks involved with land transaction specifics (Maybe split up on

this? Reza, Armand, Ken? Possibly Judi and Kristen having additional meetings with Women?) Land ownership-property rights discussion. Mayor, Fokotany? Issues of how this

is becoming institutionalized and the implications for community rule of law. Anything unique about recent land transactions? (women, more volume of sales,

price increases). Other issues? Appendix Section Page 13



o Establish relationship and apologize for missing last time.o Land transfer process? Conflict resolution? Largest issueso Other institutional processes and lawo What changed since MBG?o What changed since BBP?o Largest need for your village?

Technology? Conflict reduction?

“Abandoned” land? Past land transactions? How get title before invest? Ideas for pilots on rejuvenation and restoration? How fund? Other issues?

6. Meet with Chef de Region or others in regional government to discuss first report and get their thoughts on Mahabo Fit with MAP for region? How does it fit with policy goal for region? What of greatest value? How fit with NGO relationships and commune plans? Biggest positives? Largest concerns?

o Other institutional processes and lawo What changed since MBG?o What changed since BBP?o Largest need for your village?

Technology? Conflict reduction?

7. Technology discussions and specifics (Reza, Armand, others?) (Maybe discuss this in evenings, while walking, or while traveling?) $ for plows? How fund? Implications on work mix in family and between

families? How much increase productivity? Agricultural yields? How quickly? Implications for economic growth or village income? Who benefits? Issues

$ for new types of seeds? How fund? Implications on work mix in family and between families? How much increase productivity? Agricultural yields? How quickly? Implications for economic growth or village income? Who benefits? Issues

$ for internet access? How fund? Implications on relationship in family and between families? How much increase communication and reduce coordination costs? With BBP; other knowledge trading; in region trading; other? Threat of communication exposure? Implications for economic growth or village income? Who benefits? Issues

Other technology options? How fund? Implications on relationship in family and between families? Implications for economic growth or village income? Who benefits? Issues? Priorities for economic momentum? Entrepreneurship? Micro loan financing?

8. Discuss other Mahabo events and activities for the next year (Reza, Armand, others?) (Maybe discuss this in evenings, while walking, or while traveling?) Biodiversity day (Dec 9)




International women’s day Sporting contests Forest restoration activities Other ceremonies and activities

9. Economic and technology tradeoff discussions and specifics (Reza, Armand, others?) (Maybe discuss this in evenings, while walking, or while traveling?) Cost of maintaining advances? How fund “public” goods that benefit all? Implications of growth on strong community rule of law? Implications for current leaders and development of institutions? Fairness? Other issues?

10. Hospital Discussion and specifics (Reza, Armand, health care professionals, others?) $ for land? How fund? $ for building? How fund? $ for equipment and furnishings? How fund? $ for staff? How fund? $ consumables? How fund? $ for other operating costs? How fund? Other costs? (Capital or operating)? Potential for income from patients? Potential for earned income? Largest health care issues? Plans and wishes for change? Impact on population

growth? (Lower infant mortality; increased longevity; how quickly?)11. Education Discussion and specifics (Reza and Armand-Others?)

Schools in villages and how operate? How fund? $ for books and supplies? How fund? $ for teachers? How fund? $ other costs? How fund? Other costs? (Capital or operating)? Potential for earned income? Largest education issues?

12. Religion Discussion and specifics (Reza and Armand) Most significant ceremonies? (birth, coming of age, journey, marriage, death) $ Ceremonies? Implications for economy? Changes (understand Trip #1 comments from Chef de Region about cost of

ceremonies and impact on economic growth?) Cultural factors to be sensitive about?

13. Research and Knowledge trading Discussion and specifics (Reza and Kristine) Data elements needed How gather People to involve? Malagasy? Peace Corp? Other NGO?

14. Momentum discussion (All)




How MBG activities funded as public goods? How other initiatives funded as public goods? Impact on institutions? How turn over assets to people?




Research Summary and TopicsAntananarivo, Madagascar

Trip #2October 2007

The following summarizes possible meetings and the topics for those meetings while we are in Antananarivo. We will finalize the schedule when we meet with Reza and Armand on Sunday when we arrive in Mahabo. Reza and Armand will set the final sequence and timing for meetings.

15. Meet with MBG Community Conservation and Goldman people. Workshop explaining an exploring Mahabo thinking and approach. Summary of initial thinking and report. Overview of hypothesis about five factors we have identified in implementation

effort Implications for other sites? Wash U goals and rationale Funding needs to do full effort (ten villages).

16. Discussion about possible Workshop at Wash U in December? Length? Topics? Who to involve? Funding? Timing in December?

17. Meet with University of Antanarivo people. Meet people and establish relationships Explain goals Summary of MBG and Wash U partnership

18. Meet with government people. Meet people and establish relationships Explain goals Summary of MBG and Wash U partnership

19. Meet with American embassy Meet people and establish relationships Explain goals Summary of MBG and Wash U partnership




APPENDIX DEvaluation Template-Fokontany Economic Development

Rorobe Example

October 2007




APPENDIX DEvaluation Template-Fokontany Economic Development

Rorobe Example

Explanation: An evaluation methodology was developed for assessing Fokontany by Fokontany

economic growth and quality of life improvement options. A template was created using the MAP development ideas that were describe by the Chef de Region and others. We added other ideas that were raised during the planning meeting.

The type of development options are listed in the first column on the template. Fifteen evalution criteria were then developed. These are shown in the top row of the

template and allow each development option to be rated for the Fokontany. o Example: The column 1 evaluation criterion is “Forest Threat”. Each of the

related development option cells is then given a comment to see what the impact on “Forest Threat”.

o Most development options do not threaten the forest however, we felt that fruit plantations and weaving were medium threats.

We tested the template by filling in all the cells on the template for Rorobe Fokontany. All development options and all evaluation criteria were considered and our best guess at

a rating were entered. The following template shows our initial thoughts on ratings for each cell for Rorobe.

We welcome comments or suggested changes to the ratings. Similarly we welcome comments, changes or additions to the evalution template.

After reviewing the ratings we felt that Irrigation/Drainage and Fish Natural were the best opportunities for economic development in Rorobe. These are highlighted in green. The next best opportunities were plows and BBP weaving. These are highlighted in yellow.

This template can be further tested and used by students, government, NGOs, and others to decide on action plans for individual Fokontany.

We also hope to use this template and its later refinements to assess economic opportunities at other CCP sites and Fokontany.




Evaluation Template-Fokontany Economic Development

Rorobe Example

Village: RorobeType of Development

Forest Threat

Transport Cost

Trading Area

Operating Cost

Capital Cost

Individual Earned

Village Interest

Ease of Implement

ation

Risk of Failure

Quickness to Outcome

Uniqueness

Premium

Level of Impact-Wealth

Level of Impact-Food

(Village)

Level of Impact-

Education

Knowledge Trade

Comments

Irrigation/Drainage

Low NA NA Low High Low High Med Low Slow Low Slow High Low Low

Vegetables

Low High District Med Low High Low Hard High Slow Low Med Low Med High

Fish Farm

Low Med District High High Low Low Hard High Slow Low High High Med High Logistically difficult

Fish Natural

Low Med District Low Med (Engine)

Med High Simple Low Quick High (lobster)

High Med Low Med

Tropical Fruits

Med High Country /Export

High High Low Low Hard High Slow Med High Low Med High

Plows

Low NA NA Low Low Med High (if drainage)

Simple Low Fast Low Low High Low Med

School

Low NA NA High Med High Med Med Low Slow NA Slow Med High High

Tourism/Researcher

Low High Global High High Med Low Hard High Med Med Low Low High High

Blessing Basket

Med (sedge)

Med Global, District

Low Low High Low Med Med Fast High High Med Med High




APPENDIX EJanuary 2008 Community Conservation Manager Workshop

Saving Madagascar’s Rare Forests




January 2008 Community Conservation Manager WorkshopPreserving Madagascar’s Rare Forests

An Entrepreneurial, Conservation Approach to Poverty ReductionPreliminary Agenda-Four Day Conference

Background:This conference is an extension of a partnership between the Missouri Botanical Garden

(MBG) and Washington University in St. Louis. It builds off the learning, research, and efforts that have been studied for the last eighteen months. Those efforts include the MBG Community Conservation Program (CCP), the impact of economic growth spurred by the Blessing Basket Project, and numerous other externalities that seem to be impacting the Mahabo Commune in Madagascar.

To date, our partnership has focused on uncovering people centered approaches to preserving rare forest in extremely poor rural subsistence agriculture communities. The approach observed in Mahabo is yielding quick outcomes, in both conservation and poverty reduction; is low cost, self funding, and sustainable; and seems to be causing social and institutional evolutions that are positive.

MBG’s multi site CCP effort began in 2003 in Mahabo and expanded to five endangered forest sites over three years. In 2007 the Goldman Foundation provided financial support allowing MBG to evaluate ten more endangered forests and to select five additional sites for CCP like implementations.

MBG has now completed a rigorous selection process choosing ten Malagasy CCP managers who will become resident at each site. These sites represent a diverse mix of cultures and geographies that have varied characteristics. Collectively these ten sites make up approximately 10% to 15% of Madagascar’s endangered flora and fauna. Without preservation their highly important and unique biodiversity will be lost to mankind. This CCP manage training workshop will materially impact their ability to be successful.

Washington University in St. Louis is seeking $30,000 to cover the cost of an intense one-week training session for the MBG CCP managers. The majority of the cost is for airfare and living expenses for the CCP managers. Washington University faculties (Social Work, Law, Anthropology, Art, Business, Entrepreneurship, Political Science, and Institutional Economics) are donating their time and support for this critical training session.

Objectives: 1. To share what has been learned from the Mahabo experiences, including conservation,

social, and economic outcomes2. To teach CCP managers leadership, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills that will be

critical to their success in field situations3. To provide case studies and breakout sessions that lead to increasing CCP effectiveness4. To develop curricula and materials that can be shared with others and reused by MBG5. To complete individual CCP plans for each conservation site6. To present individual CCP plans for group discussion




Preliminary Agenda:

Day 1Developing CCP Leadership Skills and Creating Trust by Working Together-The Importance of Commitments, Conflict, Outcomes, and UnderstandingMorning Session

Background Practical Ideas for Building Trust Armand, Reza, Chris, Judi

o Why it is importanto Case Studies and Examples

Leadership Judi, TBDo What makes a good leader?o Management tools

Collaboration LunchAfternoon Session

Conflict and Negotiation Judi, David, Kristen, Louo Practical approacheso Exercises

Small Team Breakouts Three to four small teams Discussion of CCP learning All

Collaboration Dinner

Day 2Stimulating Economic Growth-The Importance of People’s Needs-Poverty Reduction Approaches that Support ConservationMorning Session

The Blessing Basket Approach Theresa, Reza, Chris, Keno Prosperity Wageso Qualityo Knowledge Tradingo Practical lessons



Entrepreneurial Growth Ken, Frank, Armand o Earning new wealtho Site by site comparisono Fokontany Evaluation


Evening work time-Outline Thoughts for Your CCP siteAppendix Section Page 23






Day 3Attracting Collaborators-The Importance of Multiplying Success by Measuring Outcomes that Excite OthersMorning Session

Mahabo and Other Experiences Armand, Reza, Chris, Itaio Successeso Disappointmentso Measurementso Examples of Mahabo Collaborators



Intuitions, Laws and their Evolution Itai, Kristen, Ken, Chuck o Economic theoryo How corruption erodes trust and fairnesso Political and government factorso Finding an evolution doorway for your sites


Collaboration Dinner

Day 4Achieving Cultural and Economic Momentum-The Importance of Finding Solutions for Things We Still Need to UnderstandMorning Session

Increasing Agricultural Yields Armand, Reza, Chris, Itaio Productivityo Technologies-Toolso Knowledge-Seeds, Fertilizers, Techniqueso Storage, distribution’ and other practical matters



What Next? All o Issues facedo Concerns

Small Team Breakouts Three to four small teams Work Session All

Evening work time-Prepare for Day 5 Presentations




Day5Presenting Ideas and Plans-The Importance of Sharing Ideas, Collaborating, and Expanding on What We Have LearnedMorning Session

Presentation of Five individual CCP plans Allo 35 minutes each

15 minute presentation 15 minutes questions 5 minutes summarizing


Presentation of Five individual CCP plans Allo 35 minutes each

15 minute presentation 15 minutes questions 5 minutes summarizing

Awards and Recognition Dinner




APPENDIX FWashington University Class: Course Description

Trip #3 to Madagascar March 2008




Global Management Studies (MGT555 + MGT501)Madagascar Community Development Initiative

Note: Wash U Students from any program or level (e.g. undergrad, grad) can apply for this class

4.50 credits

Project Overview

Lead Faculty:Ken Harrington ([email protected]), Skandalaris CenterJudi McLean Parks ([email protected]), Olin Business SchoolDavid Deal ([email protected]), School of LawCharles McManis ([email protected]), School of LawFrank Oros ([email protected]), School of Art & Design









Madagascar facts:Criteria rank country as developing

More than 70% of the population lives on less than $1/dayMore than 7% of infants die before age 1Ranked 13th highest globally in malaria mortality rate45% of the population is under the age of 15.

Classified as “natural state” of economic, institutional, and political evolution

Environmentally rare, important, and threatened species

SUMMARY: Washington University in St. Louis has partnered with the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) to enrich MBG’s Community Conservation Program (CCP). We are integrating conservation goals with self-directed, economic




growth. Our pilot implementation promises discovery of a replicable approach for improving the quality of life in developing country rural villages.

GMS will provide a platform for launching an ongoing relationship involving students in the Community Development Initiative and developing a permanent curriculum. However, the Madagascar Community Development Initiative will have key differences from the more traditional class or GMS trip. Among these differences are a more traditional class format for trip preparation, including speakers and readings selected by the participating faculty as well as the involvement of students and faculty from multiple programs at the university. In addition, participation in this class will involve a selection process consisting of submission of a resume, a brief assessment and possible interview, and a short (no more than two pages, double typed) summary of what the student believes they can contribute. Due to the selective nature of participation, students will be named “Community Development Initiative Fellows”, an honor that should be listed on students’ resumes. Letter(s) of recommendation are an optional part of the selection process. Applications due at [email protected] by 5:00 pm November 19th (note that this is later than originally proposed).

BACKGROUND: For 30 years, MBG has worked on environmental conservation and preservation in Madagascar. Over fifty (50) MBG employees work at the local level to create village specific, grass roots CCP initiatives. Over the past six years MBG has established trusted relationships with villagers and found the indigenous population willing to cooperate on conservation. However, CCP goals become threatened when natural resources are needed for people’s survival. MBG realized the need for economic development plans that would reinforce CCP’s sustainability.

This challenge and opportunity was presented to Washington University in St. Louis by MBG in the spring of 2006. MBG was particularly interested in supporting Mahabo, a ten-village commune in southeastern Madagascar housing a rare forest that had been stabilized. This commune was the most mature of MBG’s five, soon to be ten, CCP sites that faced similar rare forest destruction problems.

Mahabo women had a strong reputation for weaving but no access to developed country markets. The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (SC) screened a number of international development ventures to find a suitable match for Mahabo. Following this research, SC introduced MBG to the Blessing Basket Project (BBP), a US not-for-profit that had been supported and funded by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies business formation competition. BBP supported entrepreneurial weavers and had operations in five developing countries. The founder, Theresa Wilson, had established distribution through the Whole Foods Markets. BBP agreed to consider Madagascar as their sixth country.

BBP’s mission, like MBG, CCP, was to stimulate positive outcomes and then replicate those outcomes in multiple villages. Both were using a “from the individual up” philosophy with sufficient scale to impact the entire population of an area. The SC committed to partner with MBG and BBP and assumed two roles: to measure the impact of entrepreneur driven economic growth; to advise on social and political issues that might be encountered.

This partnership has already resulted in a number of outcomes to date. For the past 18 months MBG, BBP, and Washington University have engaged faculty, students, national retailers, and others to complete Phase. A preliminary research team of one Washington University professor and five students completed an initial field visit in March of 2007. This team produced a set of preliminary observations. This led to expansion and formation of a rich interdisciplinary group of Washington University faculty. Selected members of this group, Judi McLean Parks, Kristen Wagner, and Ken Harrington made a second trip to Mahabo in October of 2007.

An initial shipment of 900 Mahabo baskets resulted in a second BBP order for 3,900 more baskets, adding an expected 15% to the Mahabo economy over twelve months. Other economic growth has begun to occur especially in the area of new in-country trading relationships. Villagers, tribal leaders, local government, and other NGO’s involved with the pilot are encouraging expansion. Outcomes are exceeding social, environmental, and economic expectations.





GMS TEAM OBJECTIVES: The GMS class will be from 12-15 students who will be supported by up to three faculty members. The primary objectives (and foundation of team projects) will be:

To continue assessment of environmental, social, economic, and political tradeoffs in Madagascar agricultural subsistence economies with endangered rare forests.

To assess NGO or other technologies that would increase villager productivity, particularly in the area of agricultural yields. Develop/gather prototype technologies to test in the field as part of the assessment process. Alternatively, technologies that reduce time consuming tasks (finding water, locating food, gathering firewood) that indirectly affect food production.

To review how formal and informal educational institutions can be used to share knowledge about conservation (already in place), economic growth, and technology introduction. Approaches must be sensitive to government sanctioned curriculum policies.

To develop a model for Mahabo commune that allows comparison of outcomes for forest preservation, economic growth, social programs, public goods, and technology introduction.

To consider the cost of conservation enforcement and other public goods (hospital, education, law enforcement, etc.) within a context of affordability and relatively nascent public funding support.

COURSE DELIVERABLESBased on objectives above, student teams will submit reports for their assigned area(s) [above] and present their findings.

CONTEXT of TRIP to MADAGASCARAlthough details still must be worked out, after initial coursework, student teams will travel to Madagascar, arriving in Antananarivo, where we anticipate spending a day meeting with representatives of Missouri Botanical Garden’s Madagascar Conservation Team, various NGOs involved in the area, as well as Embassy and US-AID representatives. Groups will then travel to the field focal area(s) where they will be briefed on local culture, activities on-going in the area, and the like. For the next several days, groups will be dispatched to specific field sites to interview villagers, complete their assessment, interviews, etc.

PRE-/POST-TRIP CLASSES (time & day TBA, although most likely class will meet on Wednesday evenings)This class is both a practicum and a GMS trip combined. Pre-trip classes will involve background material on the project, including lectures and potential speakers from Missouri Botanical Gardens, Blessing Baskets, intellectual property of indigenous peoples, bio-diversity and deforestation, subsistence and emerging economies, social entrepreneurship, and other topics as appropriate. Post trip will focus on completion of team reports in team meetings, with occasional class meetings as appropriate/needed. Projects will be presented by teams during final class periods. Pre-class lectures/speakers, as well as in-country activities, will be arranged by faculty, rather than the “traditional” GMS model of student planning. There will be a reading packet for this class (developed by the faculty). Grading will be based on team assessments, individual contributions to those assessments and class participation.

Note: This course does involve extra expense, due to the travel component.




APPENDIX GResearch Areas for Trip #3 and Philosophy and Hypothesis for Implementation




Research Areas for Trip #3 and Philosophy and Hypothesis for Implementation:

Research Areas for Trip #3 including class overviewTrip #3 will be part of the course developed at Washington University (see Appendix E). The students will complete class projects associated with the overall project. Areas that require investigation include:

1. Review of conservation goals, measurements, and success-failures-issues. 2. Thinking about the social and financial sustainability of fast growing infrastructure and

demand for common public goods. Value of education funding alternatives as well as how education can be sued to increase knowledge trading and sustainability. Other items include understanding conflict, social changes and dynamics (Particularly family, community versus institutional rule of law, property rights, conservation issues, forest preservation measurements, Hospital, Bank)

3. Collaboration Dynamics and History (Government, NGO’s, private investors, other) 4. Economics and Growth ((Labor specialization, growth rates, how $ spent update, labor

rates and wages, diversity of wealth across communes, dynamics of new wealth, inflation (food, sedge, wages, land, zebu, other), basket prices in Mahabo and regional markets, prices to collectors, village economic growth plan evaluation template and recommendations))

5. Additional Sites. Comparison to Mahabo and Mahabo implementation learning. Also the need to visit other BBP countries.

6. Identification of other BBP-like entities that might be used to spur economic growth at sites that do not weave.

7. Agricultural yields and technology- in my opinion this is the most important next step.

This initial list of research areas will be discussed and adjusted prior to the March trip. Final groupings and a research work plan will be based on continued progress, MGB inputs, BBP inputs, faculty discussions and student skills.

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY CLASSThe class will be from 12-15 students who will be supported by up to three faculty members. The primary objectives (and foundation of team projects) will be:

To continue assessment of environmental, social, economic, and political tradeoffs in Madagascar agricultural subsistence economies with endangered rare forests.

To assess NGO or other technologies that would increase villager productivity, particularly in the area of agricultural yields. Develop/gather prototype technologies to test in the field as part of the assessment process. Alternatively, technologies that reduce time consuming tasks (finding water, locating food, gathering firewood) that indirectly affect food production.

To review how formal and informal educational institutions can be used to share knowledge about conservation (already in place), economic growth, and technology introduction. Approaches must be sensitive to government sanctioned curriculum policies.

To develop a model for Mahabo commune that allows comparison of outcomes for forest preservation, economic growth, social programs, public goods, and technology introduction.




To consider the cost of conservation enforcement and other public goods (hospital, education, law enforcement, etc.) within a context of affordability and relatively nascent public funding support.

COURSE DELIVERABLESBased on objectives above, student teams will submit reports for their assigned area(s) [above] and present their findings.

In addition to the course work, the following summarizes the implementation steps that we envision. Shaded steps are ones that have already been undertaken.

Philosophy and Hypothesis for Implementation:IMPLEMENTATION STEPS: Based upon our experiences to date we have created a list of implementation concepts to guide us. We have completed the shaded tasks (Step1 to Step 5) in Mahabo. We will test Steps 6-8 in Mahabo over the next 12 months (the funding request period). We will concurrently be confirming and refining our approach and testing replication potential by targeting additional communes. We also will be involved in training and discussing our approach with expanding CCP staff that MBG is currently recruiting for fieldwork. Additional Targeted communes will have family incomes of $1 to $2 per day and rare, endangered forests. Initially we envision areas with populations of 5,000 to 10,000 residents and ten or more villages. Our implementation approach is:

Step 1 Understand the community’s social fabric, local leadership, customs.Step 2 Employ and train local CCP coordinators to educate villagers.Step 3 Build trust, personal relationships, and acceptance of CCP before making any

moves related to economic growth.Step 4 Review commune specific skills, resources, and economic attributes to

identify potential entrepreneurial growth activities, including potential US trading partners.

Step 5 Initiate villager-owned, market funded, entrepreneurial activities that add a minimum of 15% annual growth to the commune’s economy. Create the following success factors: (a) Use Knowledge Trades to ensure a value premium by collaborating on

product designs that increase quality, utility, and fashion appeal.(b) Pay Prosperity Wages (10 to 15 times the local norm) and disperse wealth

broadly.(c) Work with developed country partners to ensure adequate demand and

sales growth.Step 6 Stimulate additional productivity gains by using additional Knowledge

Trades to implement “new” technologies, especially ones increasing agriculture yields.

Step 7 Support the villager driven evolution of local public institutions that support economic growth, environmental preservation, social harmony, quality of life, and stability.

Step 8 Measure impacts of new wealth on public goods needs and financial support. Consider villager inputs on priorities for investments related to quality of life,




health, education, and other critical institutions. Evaluate and discuss relationship of economic growth and cost of public goods. Review relationship of personal wealth and public good funding. Discuss exit timing including community and government support of public goods funding and delivery.

Step 9 Share and discuss measurements and outcomes to encourage on-going entrepreneurial, economic, environmental, and institutional vigor. Support and promote Knowledge and Commercial Trading with contiguous communities.

Step 10 Ensure community momentum is self-sustaining and well governed by year five. Withdraw financial support; continue Knowledge Trading relationships. Transition ownership of local public institution assets and their ongoing operating budget support to local, regional and national government entities.

PRELIMINARY HYPOTHESIS: The following lists the hypothesis that we will test. In agricultural subsistence communities, economic stimulus, when coupled with a

commitment to environmental respect, can be sustainable if local customs and leaders are considered. If this is true, then measurable conservation outcomes can be accomplished.

Entrepreneurial activities that are naturally indigenous to a village (example: weaving baskets) can support wide participation and wealth sharing by a large percentage of villagers. This leads to stronger values and institutions that reinforce a community’s attention to fairness, trust, and innovation. If this fairness and trust are established then this increases villager motivation for entrepreneurial innovation leading to further economic growth.

Dispersed and inefficient local production, payments, and supply chain operations may be costly, but can limit theft, corruption and high levels of inappropriate rent seeking. If this is true, then efficiency and cost reduction should be foregone in favor of improved community institutions.

Respect for wealth sharing and the “law” contribute to second order innovation and entrepreneurship. If this is true, then individual villager motivations and hope can be increased spurring additional economic momentum that goes beyond the first-order economic stimulation.

Patience is essential and time is needed to establish skills, communication, understanding, and trust. If this is true, pace needs to be carefully measured and adjusted as outcomes are achieved.

Villagers make wise choices about resource and wealth uses that demonstrate good stewardship and wise investment priorities about a region’s most critical needs. If this is true improved living conditions and sustainable, self-directed economic advancement will occur naturally with a minimum of bureaucracy and controls.

High levels of relative local change will be appealing and affordable for regional and national political leaders. If this is true, then these leaders will protect, promote and help replicate successes.




The cost of implementing this community development approach relies on free market systems and global communication tools, requiring little support from aids or grants. If this is true, then underdeveloped country growth can be achieved with less bureaucratic and financial costs when compared to current approaches




Documents

Preliminary Observations€¦ · Web viewActivities Completed During Last Six Months, March to October 2007: In this section, we have provided an update on activities that have