UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Dear UCD community, I am proud to announce that the second volun-tourism trip to Guatemala to work on the agricultural education initiative the "Guatemalan Mayan Bean Project" is scheduled for June 15-22, 2012 (just after finals and back in time for summer session I) and we are now accepting applications. Details about the trip and applications are attached.  If you are interested, please contact me at clspurlock@ucdavis.edu . We will be holding a fundraiser to help pay for the students to go on the trip at a lunch of beef or veggie stew over pasta at Little Prague Restaurant @ 330 G St, Davis on Thursday, May 17th any time from 12 PM - 4 PM (so any office staff can come during lunch!). The cost is $15/ ticket. Please contact me if you would be willing to help sell tickets or if you would like to buy a ticket. There are also other fundraising opportunities for students. Alma Cautiva NGO is also looking for a motivated volunteer(s) to help with soc...

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!! Five MBA students from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management are presenting their project in the finals at the Hult Global Case Challenge in a live webcast which starts at 2:00 PM PST Thursday, April 26th. The 2012 Hult Global Case Challenge is focused on solutions to global poverty in three areas: housing, education and energy. The UC Davis MBA team is competing in the energy track. $1 million in seed money is at stake for these innovative solutions. UC Davis MBA students Keith Weissglass, Evan Howell, Emma VanGenderen, Adam Baillie and David Fisher will present their very creative and out-of-the-box-thinking business plan for non-profit SolarAid to replace dangerous and dirty kerosene light with ecofriendly, less expensive solar lanterns for more than 140 million in rural Africa. You'll be impressed with their strategy, cell-phone battery powered prototype and prospects to test this idea -- and their pledge to use prize money to roll o...

"The experience of working with three microfinance institutions in Peru during the summer of 2011 left me with a greater interest in the planning component of program design and strategic implementation of development initiatives that ostensibly seek to improve social and economic justice rather than simply assist in poverty alleviation. In Peru, a country that as of 2009 was home to over 220 regulated and unregulated microfinance lenders this is particularly striking. In recounting my experience from working abroad, I’d like to highlight the intermediary role institutions like Freedom From and consultants like myself play, using the case of just two of the microfinance institutions: FINCA Peru and Financiera Confianza, for they reflect the nuanced difficulties of adapting a social and economic equity program, such the Credit with Education Program, to different geographic and social circumstances. For interventions to be effective their design must account for the var...