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...

 Last summer Terri Harris had the privilege of going to East Africa with the Global Women’s Water Initiative.  At the Making a Difference panel, she shared with the audience the three greatest things she learned during this experience: the technologies, working in the field and building relationships. "The Technologies-- When I first found out about this project, what most attracted me to it was the opportunity to get hands-on experience with Rainwater Harvesting Tanks.  I think that rainwater harvesting is very important -- anywhere!  I think we should be doing it here in the States. I think we should do it everywhere possible, because not only is it a good way to get water (without the heavy metals of groundwater) but it also mitigates some of the environmental damage we cause with all our impermeable surfaces. I was excited to get my hands on the technology and hoped to get a better understanding of what it takes to do rainwater harvesting.  I could n...

Kelly Taylor, an undergraduate International Relations student spoke on the Making a Difference: Challenges and Opportunities of Working Internationally panel, Wednesday February 29th at the International House. She spoke with Freedom from Hunger's Research and Evaluation specialist, Bobbi Gray, and International Agriculture Development graduate student, Byron Hoy, on her experiences gathering qualitative and quantitative data from micro finance clients in Peru over the summer. "In the beginning of this quarter, I was asked to define what I thought was my role in development. What an interesting question, but to be honest, cannot cogently describe what my role in development should be. Development is a word with a big definition; includes expectations, implications, assumptions, and many, many people’s lives. The ethics and impacts of foreign development and poverty alleviation—the whole thing is very subjective. I entered the field in Peru fascinated by different culture...

Community and Regional Development graduate student and 2011 Poverty Alleviation through Sustainable Solutions grant recipient, Terri Harris, interviews Namaganda Mastuula for her work with the Global Women's Water Initiative during the summer of 2011. Namaganda Mastuula August 4, 2011 Katosi, Uganda  My name is Namaganda Mastuula.  I am a member of the Katosi Women’s Development Trust.  Life wasn’t easy, as a widow.  I was left with nothing except a sewing machine.  I struggled very much to earn a living.  Some widows, single mothers....said, “Wow, we have to sit down and look for a solution.”  We formed a group.  Some of us were making mats.  Others there were making local beers.  Me, I had my sewing machine, because I got experience making clothes, so I could earn at least a little earning -- feed my children, educate them because they had started schooling, and they were performing very well.  That encouraged me very much, be...

Smoot interviewing farmers in Dommama, a town in the Western region of Ghana I traveled to Ghana for one month this summer in order to do field research for what will ultimately become my master's thesis for the International Agricultural Development (IAD) program. The goal of my project is to assess the prospects for increasing the percentage of cocoa beans that are actually processed in West Africa, instead of being shipped to Europe or the US for processing and chocolate manufacture. I am particularly interested in the possibility that farmer-owned cooperatives could set up their own processing factories. This would enable farmers to capture a much larger portion of the value that is added to their cocoa beans. I began my trip in Accra, the capital of Ghana, where I attended a workshop set up by the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership to discuss the state of extension services for cocoa farmers in Ghana and how to improve them. At the workshop I met a number of farmers from all ove...