Activity Description:

The Full Belly Project, spearheaded by Jock Brondis, an ex-Peace Corps volunteer and light and sounds engineer, is a non-profit organization that designs and delivers simple agricultural machines to people in developing countries around the world. This project teaches people how to build hand-operated machines with common materials.

The peanut industry is not only huge in the Philippines but the reach goes as far as the different corners of the hemisphere, to almost 100 countries, feeding 500 million people and making it a great source of protein. It is also a cash crop which provides livelihood for poor people of developing countries.

But for such a big industry, the agricultural technology of peanuts is still trailing behind. People are still shelling peanuts by hand, painfully one by one. In Africa, most of those who do the work are women. (To save on fuel, peanuts are left dried under the sun which makes their shell hard to open.)

Jock Brandis, on his way to visit a friend in Mali, saw the heart of the problem and decided to use his technical skills to provide an agricultural solution. Thus the Universal Nut Sheller was born.

Invented by Brandis, the nut sheller can work 40 times faster than by hand. This coincided with the establishment of The Full Belly project spearheaded by Brondis which aims to “to relieve hunger through appropriate agricultural technology.” The goal of the organization is to distribute these machines around the world and make peanut a number one source of protein of third world countries. Brandis, out of his generous heart, didn´t patent his invention because he believes that it is “a gift to those in need.”

Not only can peanut provide livelihood but it contains highly nutritious properties which could solve worldwide hunger and eventually poverty-this time on a full stomach.

The machine is made of concrete and simple metal parts which only cost 50 dollars to make. It can shell “50 kilograms of peanuts per hour, and one machine can serve the needs of a village of 2,000. Its life expectancy is 25 years.” The Full Belly Project is now working in Uganda, Senegal, Zambia and Ghana. Filipino MIT graduate and Centromigrante head Illac Diaz has also collaborated with Full Belly Project with the help of a local cement company to teach locals how to build the machines.

Activity Description: Working with local communities in rural Ghana, this research project by IICD is testing ways to help the ‘push’ for local content by building community capacities to create and distribute local knowledge on mother and child health in a digital format. The project is co-financed by IICD and Gamos, and implemented by the Health Foundation of Ghana.

The International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) assists developing countries to realise locally owned sustainable development by harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). IICD works with its partner organisations in selected countries, helping local stakeholders to assess the potential uses of ICTs in development.

Activity Description: Tools for Self Reliance is a UK-based charity that aims to empower artisans working in developing countries so that they can better participate in the development of themselves and their communities. To achieve this, TFSR works with local partner organisations to provide tools and skills training, thereby increasing self-reliance, diversifying incomes, and improving livelihoods.

Recognising that tools are only a small part of the answer to the problems facing the poor, TSFR works with local organisations to take an integrated approach to meeting the needs of rural crafts-workers , such as ensuring availability of credit to crafts-workers, teaching tool-using and repairing skills, as well as business and enterprise training.

Activity Description: The International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) is an independent, non-profit organization that assists developing countries to realise locally-owned, sustainable development, by harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). IICD works with its partner organisations in (currently nine) selected countries, helping local stakeholders to assess the potential uses of ICTs in development.

Activity Description: The 12 organization partnership that is The West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI) focuses on the provision of rural water supply and sanitation - in the form of latrines and water wells - as the entry point for community development.

WAWI's full range of activities undertaken by all partners includes enhancing local governance and an enabling environment, well drilling and rehabilitation, alternative water source development, construction of latrines, household and school-based sanitation and hygiene education, community mobilization, hydro-geological analysis, policy development, income generation and food security, information management and gender mainstreaming.

Activity Description: TechnoServe helps rural farmers and communities increase their income and benefit from the global economy. The organization helps these communities to organize for more price-leveraging power, provides business and entrepreneurship mentoring, and teaches efficient, organic farming methods.

Since its inception in 1970, TechnoServe has helped more than 3 million men, women and children throughout Africa and Latin America to build small, farmer-owned businesses producing, processing and marketing basic agricultural commodities.

Activity Description: As the first fully-integrated generic pharmaceutical manufacturer in West Africa, LaGray produces both active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and finished dosage forms. Their focus is on drugs for treating endemic diseases such as HIV-AIDS, opportunistic infections, malaria, tuberculosis and parasitic, bacterial and fungal infections. Although there are currently effective drugs for treating most of these diseases, the issue is affordability and availability.

Activity Description: Makes primarily debt investments in small businesses which demonstrate impacts on biodiversity conservation in global priority areas. Starbucks uses it to allow small farmers access to credit.

Activity Description: The UNEP's AREED initiative fosters the development of rural energy entrepreneurs in Mali, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, and Zambia through partnerships with local NGOs. With the support of international development organizations and financial institutions, the initiative provides a combination of business development services and start-up financing. AREED aims to attract investments from mainstream financial partners to these entrepreneurs.

Activity Description: In 1999, Unilever Africa Regional Group created a separate business unit called Popular Foods to target mass-market consumers with nutritious foods at affordable prices. One of their first products was Annapurna, a refined iodised salt sold in small sachets to help preserve the iodine - a product originally developed for the Indian market by Hindustan Lever. The salt has important health benefits for those who suffer from Iodine Deficiency Disorder, which can cause retardation, brain damage, and, in pregnancy, stillbirths and congenital abnormalities.

Activity Description: Partnering with Racom S.R.O. of the Czech Republic, Arrow Network Systems is building nationwide wide area networks across Africa using wireless narrowband technologies. These low-speed, inexpensive wireless networks can be deployed very quickly to cover vast geographical areas because of their minimal terrain restrictions. By manufacturing the networking components in Ghana, the company further reduces costs for users.