Arno
Bio
I have started companies in Tanzania working to help fill gaps in agricultural value chains where a private sector actor is more efficient. This was determined to be a more sustainable option than a traditional NGO route etc. as profitability would show that the "intervention" should exist. In addition, I have started with other like minded individuals a biochar company for carbon sequestration which will also work to improve soils for small scale farmers in East Africa, we believe this model is scalable to be able to remove a significant amount of carbon from the atmosphere on a yearly basis (>>10M T per year).
How others can help me
Looking to make new contacts, and find collaborators for projects that I'm working on. Also discussions to help stimulate ideas.
How I can help others
I think I'm slightly different from most EA attendees, in that I've been more in the operational side of things (starting companies in sub-saharan Africa) etc. so would have a different perspective. Also would have potential operating projects that people could work with me on, slightly different from the more research based projects that are typical in the EA community.
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Nightmare, many people have tried and failed to boost trade internally, and it will happen (and already does) but it's easier for me to export to EU or US than it is to neighbouring countries due to both tariff and non-tariff barriers. Very political and will be a while until that's finalised. Also, the market sizes are just tiny in comparison, you don't have large economies nearby to take all your product, middle class is limited, and so then you're very limited in the number of products that you can sell into it. Myriad other reasons
Knowing Daniel quite well (and this having being my approach to development for years being an exporter in Tanzania), I'd dare say on the financing side it's the "right" capital that's hard to find. There exists already much of the capital around, however it's all very low risk debt funding and small grants that make it hard to scale. And we aren't talking about VC scalability typically, which again makes it hard to fall in that pigeon hole.
In terms of why is it only Westerners? I think you'll find it's not, lots and lots of local (and many Chinese) businesses operating, but in the end of the day you need many, many more. And the ones that come from Western founders are possibly higher likelihood of scaling due to the cultural influences that bring systems into companies and allow them to build trust internally outside of family circles.
We are starting an industrial biochar project in Tanzania that aims to build soils through biochar addition which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers whilst at the same time sequestering carbon from the atmosphere (>1000 yr permanence). Dark Earth Carbon is the company name. Also looking at financial mechanisms of how this can be better implemented and small holder biochar options.
Let me know if you want to chat about it more!
Yeah, I agree with you that it's a common sense idea, however unfortunately, we've seen that it's practice in development circles is fairly poorly executed. The bigger idea from an EA perspective is to work on trying to help move some of these flows into the right direction, lobbying for better industrial policies and action effective enterprises which act to build the growth trajectories of countries in the global South.
The most tractable method (although very thankless) is to start a business that employs people and produces things in the Global South which helps to do all these things (the authors have done this, so might be biased however). If it's something that is interesting to you, I'd be more than happy to chat more on the subject! One day will aim to write an article on this too.
Thanks Constance!
Let me know if you're looking to apply and want to do something together. I have a few ideas around this area as someone that has worked in Sub Saharan Africa for 10+ years now, and actually wrote a small post around this subject ((1) Large Language Models for Development: Why Information Matters (thegpi.org))
Sure, but I don't think diaspora are better equipped from what I've seen over immigrants. Already lots of support for these specific groups, but in general always need more.