Terms Of Reference Podcast

The challenges faced by communities in developing contexts around the world are anything but simple. Climate change, protracted conflict, gender issues, food scarcity, natural resource management... these and the hundreds of other topics that development professionals work on everyday are complex by their very nature. Working effectively within these complex system requires an integrated approach that considers the many factors affecting a community, all at the same time. As one, off the cuff example, adequate health care systems require educational support, which requires funding and facilities, which need a sound foundation of infrastructure and policy. And, that's just looking at if from a practical "how to" perspective - adding in cultural, environmental and unsavory factors, such as conflict, weaves a web that is difficult to untangle. My guest for the 139th episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast, Patrick Fine, sees the creation of an evidence base for integrated development as a critical success fact

Do you ever have the feeling that your work in the Social Impact sector is akin to "plowing the sea?" That is - despite all of the time and effort you've put into your particular program or project, the effects are less than expected or, worse, completely disappear in a relatively short time? This was a lament of Rainer Arnhold, a pediatrician who, despite having helped countless children around the world and dedicating his life to serving others, felt that his work had not produced lasting change. Upon Dr. Arnhold's untimely death in 1993, his family created the Mulago Foundation in his honor. My guest for the 138th Episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast, Dr. Kevin Starr, who was Rainer's mentee and serves as the Managing Director of Mulago, has led the foundation in investments that see to create lasting change at scale. With alumni such as the One Acre Fund, RootCapital and Sanergy, its plain to see they understand what it takes to go the distance.

If you're listening to this podcast, you're clearly a part of the digital revolution. Social media is a part of your life. Blogging may even be something you do. And... you even have a host of expectations about what minimum requirements you have for a job or an organization regarding your interaction with all things interweb. But how do we align this increasingly frenetic universe of digital options to ensure that they support the social impact we want to create? Enter Chris Wolz as my guest for the 137th Terms of Reference Podcast. Chris is the CEO of ForumOne, digital agency that works with mission-driven organizations to create the stunning designs, smart messaging, and custom built technology tools they need to realize their goals and extend their influence in the areas they care about most.

Would you agree with me that it is easy to become overwhelmed - in general? If I'm honest, which I always try to be, it actually pains me that this reality is, well, a reality. But, the truth of the matter is we are all a part of this brave new world where information, opinions, new ideas and old obligations are hurtling at us with both unprecedented speed and in abundant volume. So what, then, do you do, when its you're job to coordinate the implementation of innovation - of new solutions to old problems? With the wrong person or team in place, it could quickly become a case study in watching people go crazy as they attempt to absorb all the information about shiny new objects, while effectively staying the course to roll out the technology or process that has been developed for the needs at hand. This is exactly what my guest for the 136th episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast does day in and day out. Sean Blaschke is the ICT4D coordinator for UNICEF in Uganda and, as you'll hear in just a second, he ha

Have you ever stopped to think about how many things in your life depend on the weather? Everything from your mood to your travel plans to whether or not you'll get to wear that awesome brand new pair of blue suede shoes you've been dying to show off. The weather is also, of course, important for farmers. Being able to predict when it will rain (or not) could mean the difference between raising a successful crop or ending up with a field of dead plants. For farmers outside of the tropics, weather prediction has gotten fairly accurate over time (and, no, this podcast is not about global climate change). However, for farmers in the tropics, because of unique micro climates and rapidly shifting patterns, predicting the weather has been troublesome, at best. At worst, it just hasn't been available. Enter my guest for the 135th Terms of Reference Podcast. Sable Bender is the Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategist for Ignitia - the world's first weather forecasting service specifically designed for the tropi

What do libraries have to do with innovation for aid and development? Total honest answer from my side: when I was doing my research for the 134th Terms of Reference Podcast, I knew there would be high value in a conversation with Chris Coward - who is the co-founder, Principal Research Scientist, and Director of the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington - but I had no idea that our conversation would be such a fun, far ranging and wild ride. From TASHA's convening of the first tech conference in 1999 about how society will be affected by the "new" interweb, to how MOOCS are used in the developing world, to how adoption of smart phones in Myanmar fundamentally changes that populations view of what computing is all about... to libraries, and how these institutions are becoming - not less - but more and more relevant in the age of information. I know you're going to love this show.

I have a confession to make: I'm fairly certain I under-appreciate design. Especially design as the cultural phenomenon it has become in everything from mobile phones to toilets. If you're paying attention to the same types of feeds as me, (you probably need to get out more) you know that design, as a critical practice for success, has come into its own in a massive way over the past 10 years - ever since Apple took over the hardware space in technology. My guest today for the 133rd Terms of Reference Podcast, Ravi Chhatpar, believes that design also has an important seat at the humanitarian aid and development table. He is one of the co-founders of Dalberg’s Design Impact Group, which is dedicated to helping their clients find creative approaches to breakthrough innovation for social impact. As you'll hear in our talk, DIG's process can help lead to better strategies for innovation, user focused products and services and catalyzing unique and creative outcomes from groups.

I always get excited at the beginning of a new year. I think here is something important about moments like these that allow us a collective opportunity to not only enjoy time with friends and family, but also take stock of where things stand, and what we might like to change. While I remain humbled that you're now listening to the 132nd episode we're publishing here on TOR, I've also spent the closing of last year receiving feedback, working with our team and getting energized for how we will continue to grow, shape and evolve this show to do our part in helping to make aid and development better. As I'm recording this we're standing at the precipice of a time when the aid and development sector will come under unprecedented scrutiny and pressure. With Brexit, and now the election of Trump, it is not a question of if, but when, this will happen. The time couldn't be more ripe for taking bold steps to better define why what we do to help others not only matters, but is effective in ending suffering and creati

One of the things I love the most about the stories here on the Terms of Reference Podcast is listening to the always incredible, but retrospectively obvious, paths which have lead all of our Aidpreneurs to their current passions. In fact, as I've documented in the eBook "Making It," this is one of the factors that defines those who have created a sustainable and satisfying career in development and humanitarian aid. My guest for the 131st episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast, Noam Angrist, is no exception to this rule. Noam is the Executive Director of Young1ove, an organization that finds health-related messages that have been shown to create change, through a pile of evidence, and then finds creative, culturally appropriate ways to deliver these messages for youth, by youth. While this model, on the surface, may not seem ground breaking, as you'll hear in just a minute, the results that Noam and the Young1love team are achieving in Botswana through their "No Sugar" program are.

What would you do if your job was to figure out, on a global scale, who doesn't have enough to eat? Or, more importantly, who had insecurity in their life specifically because of food scarcity? Just thinking about the scale of the problem blows my mind a little bit. But then, wait for it, what if you then had to also design and execute interventions that would, to a large degree, address those food security issues. Oh, and did I mention that this is a constantly evolving and changing process? This is exactly what my guest for the 130th episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast does along with the team at the World Food Programme's Vulnerability and Analysis Mapping Initiative. Jean-Martin Bauer is a Senior Analyst at WFP, where he leads the mobile VAM initiative, which involves deploying digital innovations to collect food security data in near real time. He has been on the front lines of understanding food scarcity for years and in this episode he tells us about how VAM has evolved since its paper-survey beg

For those of you who've been listening to the show for a while, it is fairly obvious that there is, quite literally, a ton of data out there related to development initiatives and humanitarian assistance. If you had the time, money and desire, you could find data about almost any aspect assistance: things like baseline data about a population, damage assessments, geospatial data, demographics of the people affected by a crisis, or things like which organizations, governments and companies are on the ground helping. The problem is, in the humanitarian sector, organizations don't have the time, money and people power to hunt down this data. And, even more of a problem is the fact that the data is locked in spreadsheets on individual laptops, only captured in written notes or, unfortunately, kept hidden as a potential competitive advantage. Sarah Telford, my guest for the 129th episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast, is on a mission to change all of this. She is the Chief of Data Services at the United Nation

You don’t have to be in development or aid to know that mobile has been disruption banking for a while. But those of us in the sector are acutely aware of how mobile banking has literally changed the lives of millions of people by providing financial access to even the most remote areas, and the results have been, generally speaking, fantastic. As just one example, we know that people who have access to mobile banking are more resilient to shocks and emergencies, a potential game changer in many parts of the world. While its well established, the use of mobile in the banking world is far from complete. In fact, its still just beginning. Where it is going next is the primary focus of Xavier Faz, my guest for the 128th Terms of Reference Podcast. Xavier is the Lead of the Digital Financial Frontiers Initiative for CGAP, which is housed at the World Bank, where they look to leverage innovations around mobile phones and mobile payments that allow new services to be delivered.

So, let's say that you had a great idea for a commercial product or service that ultimately grew into a fairly large, sustainable and profitable company. Would you be the type of founder entrepreneur who would step back and say to yourself, "I wonder how we might give back some of the success we've had to help solve some of the world's more important problems?" Lucky for everyone, that is exactly what the folks that started Tableau Software have done through the Tableau Foundation. In this, the 127th episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast, I speak with Neal Myrick and Steve Schwartz. Neal is the Director of Social Impact at Tableau Software and Director of Tableau Foundation. Steve the Marketing Manager for Tableau Software’s Social Impact efforts and supports the Tableau Foundation’s work. Steve is also a co-founder of Upaya Social Ventures, a nonprofit incubator that is building businesses and creating jobs in India’s poorest communities. Specifically, we focus our conversation on how Tableau has partner

Finding ways to empower those in need through better access to education has been a hallmark service of the development and aid community for decades. The education sector, like any other, is ripe for disruption, especially as we consider how we deliver curriculum over distance, customize education for individual needs, provide alternatives and outlets for both the gifted and those that have special needs, and much more. Michael Trucano, my guest for the 126th Terms of Reference Podcast, has dedicated the past 18 years of his life to thinking and advising governments how they can enhance education through the use of information and communication technologies. Michael is the World Bank's Senior Education & Technology Policy Specialist and Global Lead for Innovation in Education. He is also the principal voice behind the World Bank's influential and widely read EduTech blog.

Getting an idea off the ground is incredibly difficult, even when you have access to the right resources, tools, funding and networks. So what happens when you not only have none of that access, but the very place you live is known as an active conflict zone? Can entrepreneurship be used as a bridge to not only help people out of poverty, but also to change the dynamics of conflict? My guest today on the 125th episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast, Hen Ben Saadon, believes this is possible. He is the Vice President for business development and operations for Unistream - an organization in Israel that empowers teens from underprivileged communities, and all walks of life, buy helping them to create their own entrepreneurial ventures.

There is no shortage of talk about innovation in the aid and development space - but how much of this talk has actually moved beyond small scale piloting programs into standard operations for funders and implementors? My unscientific read from the field continues to say "not much," especially in the case of large-scale implementors. Like any established system or process, fundamentally shifting the way business is done takes both time and unwavering leadership. The US Global Development Lab at USAID seeks to be a mechanism for taking ideas to change-making action. As explained by Alexis Bonnell, my guest on the 124th Terms of Reference Podcast, the Lab seeks to be a catalyst for nothing less than "the transformation of the development enterprise by opening development to people everywhere with good ideas, promoting new and deepening existing partnerships, bringing data and evidence to bear, and harnessing scientific and technological advances." Alexis is the Division Chief in Applied Innovation and Accelerati

Having an idea to change the way we help others is one thing - getting it off the ground and into reality is an entirely different matter. While there are any number of amazing stories about Aidpreneurs who have bootstrapped their way to success, even those who started with no funding eventually find themselves in a place where filling the coffers is necessary to scale, pivot or just grow. My guest for the 123rd episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast knows a thing or two about funding innovation. Kim Scriven is the Manager of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund. Kim is responsible for the development and management of the Fund, and oversees both its grant making processes and innovation management work. Kim has been a longstanding advocate for increased investment in innovation by the humanitarian system, previously working within the Secretariat of the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP), where his work focused on supporting innovation in humanitarian org

So often we find ourselves talking about innovation in the humanitarian aid and development space in terms of gadgets or technologies - the "shiny objects" of the future. While there is certainly a lot to be said about how the brave new digital world will allow us to help those in need more effectively, sometimes... it just isn't necessary to take a massive leap. My guest today on the 122nd episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast, Wanjala Wafula, is a classic problem solver and think-on-your-feet innovators. His organization, called The Coexist Initiative, has been working on gender issues in Kenya and beyond for more than a decade and, while they absolutely use the latest in technology, social media, and more, they also often rely on the most simple tools and ideas to help create change.

As any Aidpreneur will readily tell you, putting together even the most simple service or product to help those in need becomes an all consuming affair rather quickly. That is, if you want to actually get it on the street, refine, grow scale and have a sense of sustainability that can see beyond the next payroll cycle. Then if you add in the need to measure impact and managing or marketing real human behavior change while satisfying the needs of government or private donors... well you see where I'm going. All of this is to say that it is the exceptionally rare bird who can do all of this alone. In fact, I honestly don't know of anyone who has - no matter our level of genius, we all have a network of support we call upon to breath life into our projects and companies and help them grow from seed to oak tree. Randall Kemper, my guest on then 121st episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast, knows and preaches this everyday. He is the Executive Director of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) -

Would you be willing to give up everything you have, and go into debt, to help some of the most impoverished people in the world? Would your answer change if I told you that you had to jump off that cliff without knowing exactly how you'd go about helping those people? This is exactly what my guest for the 120th episode of the Terms of Reference Podcast did when she founded the Blessings Basket Project - an organization inspired by the small acts of kindness shown to her when life didn't work out as expected in 2002. Now, years later, Theresa Carrington and the Blessings Basket project has not only helped thousands of women, but created a system for identifying, supporting and ensuring that women entrepreneurs break out of poverty, into prosperity. Theresa is my kind of entrepreneur - she jumped head first into solving the problem she identified without knowing anything about the business of helping those in need. She's brought along some of the voices of the people she's help and works with as extra inspirat