Economic and Agricultur​al Policies and their Impact on Access to Food by Vulnerable​

Atsuko Toda, Country Programme Manager in Vietnam of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) delivered an engaging presentation at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy as part of a lunchtime talk series.

Speaker started with sharing some numbers, such as 70% increase in food production is required to meet demand in 2050, 90% of this increase can be achieved through higher yields and intensive agriculture. She further added that unpredictability of food prices makes food crises post 2015 in South and South East Asia very likely.

Ms. Atsuko Toda talked about the difference between chronic and transient poor, where the latter refers to people coming in and out of poverty. Transient poor represent a larger proportion of population and they are also called a productive poor. However, they still remain vulnerable and susceptible to exogenous shocks, such as volatility of food prices, natural disasters, pest outbreaks. Moreover despite the fact that majority of rural poor are involved in the agriculture, the increase in food prices had an overall negative effect on rural households in Vietnam. Therefore, national policies should address these risks to permanently push transient poor out of the poverty.

Ms. Toda highlighted private sector opportunities in developing localised soil, water, livestock management solutions for less-favoured lands (dry land, upland). IFAD recognizing inherent risks of starting a business and public benefits of it, provides start-up grants to pro-poor businesses in Vietnam. IFAD currently focuses on attracting public-private partnerships, integrating smallholders into high value production chains, creating non-farm activities in rural areas and promoting market-based approaches.

The session closed of with a lively Q&A. One of the guests brought up Oxfam study in Vietnam that demonstrated effectiveness of unconditional cash transfers to help chronic poor (evaluation report can be found here), whereas another guest asked why innovative solutions are not being brought from Africa to Asia.

New Social Innovation Center to be launched in Singapore

Lien Centre for Social Innovation (partnership between the Lien Foundation and Singapore Management University) and the School of Thought (part of the Thought Collective, a group of social enterprises founded by Tong Yee) organized an info session on new Social Innovation Centre to be launched in Singapore in 2012.

The idea behing the centre is the creation of collaborative environment where ideas flow freely and nurture creativity.The Centre will provide cutting-edge education programme for the youth and social sectors and an incubator for social enterprises.

Some existing incubators/cheap rental options for start-ups with social mission in Singapore:
1) NVPC Incubator Hub for New Start-ups: 8 cubicles for start-up non-profit organization, at SGD150/per cubicle.
2) ECOsphere: for green start-ups, different rent packages.
3) Tanglin International Centre: affordable rentals for not-for-profit organizations
4) SE Hub: Incubation centre in Singapore Polytechnic provides support with funds, facilities, mentorship.

Social Entrepreneurship Forum July 26, 2011

Stanford Club of Singapore organized a Social Entrepreneurship Forum to share insights and exchange ideas with experts, practitioners and supporters of the movement.

Kenny Low (City College and O School founder) and Benny Se Teo (18 Chefs Food and Beverage chain), Singapore-based social entrepreneurs, shared their stories of establishing businesses with social mission.

Benny talked about tweaking the business model and finding the right balance between social and business goals, whereas Kenny emphasized real value creation for the audience an organization serves. He also suggested borrowing successful examples of engaging your target population from other sectors and implementing in your own business, such as transforming teachers into “rock-stars” for their students.

Stefan Jacob, co-creator of BoP Hub talked about a funding gap to scale base-of-the-pyramid-focused  business models and how strategic partnerships with corporations can help to overcome it. Rob Kraybill of Impact Investment Exchange Asia discussed challenges of marrying social and profit objectives and shared plans for launching social stock exchange next year.

It is always such an inspiration to meet like-minded individuals advancing innovation and solving social problems.

What is Cannonball Tree Capital?

We promote rural development around the world.

We plan to achieve this in two ways:
1) Providing advisory services to social enterprises, impact investors, philanthropists and other individuals who support activities creating positive social and ecological impact in rural areas.
2) Managing investment vehicles and funds targeting triple bottom line enterprises aimed at/in rural areas in their growth/expansion stage.