Do you have an idea that you think could change the world?  Are you looking for mentorship and cash to help you bring your innovation to developing countries?  Do you want to meet with other student social entrepreneurs and innovators from across the globe?

The TechCon 2014 Innovation Marketplace showcases the concepts, innovations, and research of young innovators focused on international development. The Innovation Marketplace will take place on Monday, November 10th on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, as an integral part of USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) TechCon 2014 agenda.

Cash  and in-kind awards will be made to the top innovators and researchers. This is an excellent opportunity to get exposure for you and your idea, build support for your project, receive technical feedback, and to practice your pitching skills.
Projects can be submitted to one of three categories:

• Innovation- your device, approach, or system is ready to go in the field!
• Research- wow, what you have just figured out is incredibly interesting, important, and changes everything!
• Concept- you have the next great idea and have begun working on it!

All applications, including all supporting documents and links to required multimedia files, must be submitted to SEAD by 
Monday, September 22nd. The SEAD team will evaluate all applications for completion and merit. The top ranked applications will then be submitted to USAID for final review and selection of Innovation Marketplace participants. SEAD will have a limited number of travel grants available to participants. 

View the documents below for submission requirements and how sell your idea through multimedia:

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns have been sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Divya Giyanani, who interned with USAID in the Global Development Lab.  The Global Development Lab "brings together a diverse set of partners to discover, test, and scale breakthrough solutions to achieve... the end of extreme poverty by 2030."

A wicked problem is like a tangled ball of yarn.  Each piece of the yarn that you pull can have positive and/or negative effects on the rest of this tangled ball; while some implications are expected and accounted for, others are unexpected and sometimes even unknown until much too late.  Thus, it is important to exercise immense amounts of caution when dealing with a tangled ball of yarn…or a wicked problem, if I might end my analogy here.

International development is one such wicked problem, and I would argue that it is likely one of the most significant. Between malnutrition and abject poverty, low literacy and inadequate access to basic healthcare, the challenges facing developing areas of the world (not excluding those in our own backyard) are vast, urgent, and complex. And with increasing globalization, the landscape of international development is shifting dramatically; public and private organizations as well as individual philanthropists are entering the field in droves to address these challenges.  As such, the methods and strategies once used are becoming increasingly obsolete. 

In an effort to address these challenges, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently launched the Global Development Lab with a role of discovering, testing, and scaling breakthrough development innovations to find solutions to some of the most critical global issues.

As a summer intern with the Lab, I work in the Center for Global Solutions to build platforms and tools around adoption at scale, focusing specifically on scaling adoption of drought-tolerant maize in sub-Saharan Africa.  And if I could describe my experiences thus far, I could, at best, sum it up to be a whirlwind of intense challenge and thrilling opportunity.

During my past month here at USAID, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with various teams across the Lab to conduct value chain analyses and market studies, in order to under the industry as a whole. I have had the opportunity (and the challenge) to think widely, critically, and extensively, and I have been asked to consider the unconventional…then to take it a step further.  I have had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in development, and the opportunity (along with the encouragement) to try, fail, and then try again.

My past month here at USAID has taught me much more than I could ever hope to learn in a classroom.  It has reinforced the idea that development work is hard, that development work is complicated, frustrating, and messy.  But if development work were not difficult, would it even exist?  This work is complicated, frustrating, and messy, but it is also fascinating, enriching, and ever so important. 

As old methods and strategies of development work become obsolete, the Lab seeks to find new ideas, new innovations, and new strategies.  In essence, it’s trying to change the way we do development. And I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it.

Divya is a senior studying corporate strategy and global health through her self-created major.  During her studies, Divya has made a point of practicing what she learns through her coursework through a variety of fieldwork.  She has worked for a national NPO in San Francisco to mobilize students in the fight against HIV/AIDS and also worked with a Duke research team to measure cumulative mental health trauma in Leogane, Haiti.  Last summer Divya participated in the Geneva Global Health Fellows Program through the Sanford School of Public Policy.

We think YOU could uncover a Blind Spot!

Blind Spot: an overlooked challenge in international development that can be solved using science, technology, innovation, and strategic partnerships.

The Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD) invites you to enter the Blind Spots Essay Contest today for a chance to win recognition and a cash prize.  Deadline October 1.  Sponsored by USAID’s Global Development Lab, of which Duke University is a part, and Big Ideas @ Berkeley.  This contest is open to all Duke-affiliated students and researchers.

Details:
USAID and Big Ideas@Berkeley want the help of students and researchers to uncover and analyze the “blind spots” in international development. Through your development and field experience, you can help USAID identify development challenges that are currently overlooked, yet are in need of immediate attention. In particular, we want to hear about those unrecognized challenges that would benefit from the power of science, technology, innovation, or strategic partnership (STIP) and potentially improve the lives of millions.

This contest seeks essays, 1750-2000 words in length, which address the following questions:

• What and where is the unrecognized development challenge that you have observed?
• What social, economic, political, and/or environmental barriers exist that are related to this development blind spot? (Please cite studies, reports, and/or data to provide proof/background.)
• Is there a population subset—children, youth, women, minorities, LGBT, etc.—whose lives could be improved as a result?
• If the development blind spot were overcome using STIP, what might the impact be locally, regionally, nationally, or globally (qualitatively and quantitatively)?

The winners of the contest will receive the following cash prizes, as well as a variety of recognition prizes. 
                First place: $3,000
                Second Place: $2,000
                Third Place: $1,000

Deadline: October 1, 2014 
Full details here: http://bigideas.berkeley.edu/compete/blind-spots/ 

If you have any questions, please contact .  Good luck!

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Ishan Thakore who has been interning with USAID in the Global Development Lab.  The Global Development Lab "brings together a diverse set of partners to discover, test, and scale breakthrough solutions to achieve... the end of extreme poverty by 2030."

It’s always refreshing to feel the cool rush of the Ronald Reagan’s Building air conditioning as I step outside the Metro (I now understand why DC and its associated humidity is sometimes called a swamp).  The building itself is sprawling, and it’s one of the largest federal office buildings in the district. A giant courtyard surrounds the eastern entrance of the building, and it’s generally teeming with tourists eager to see daily outdoor summer concerts. I arrive everyday to intern for one of the building’s tenants, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The entire agency is huge- hundreds of staff members occupy its headquarters here. While regional and country missions have their own staff overseeing the actual disbursement of on-the-ground assistance, most of the policy gets hammered out in DC.

Being stateside during a college summer is a completely new experience for me, as I’ve spent my past two summers (and the beginning of this one) in foreign countries. The morning rush of a metro, having to adjust to a new apartment and watching English-language TV are more mundane changes compared to adjustments I made while staying in Kenya and India. Those summers were more fieldwork based, and were purposefully designed to get a much more local view at health and technology challenges. USAID takes that a step further, by actually shaping recommendations and policies for those local realities.

Most of my perspective so far has come through a digital lens, as I intern with the Digital Development Team, within the Center for Global Solutions, a subset of the Global Development Lab. Yes, that’s a lot of layers. The Global Development Lab is a newly formed entity within USAID that resulted from a merger between the Offices of Science and Technology and Innovation and Development Alliances. It relies on a variety of partnerships and design challenges to foster innovation from within the agency and the non-profit, public and private sectors. The Center for Global Solutions seeks to adopt proven solutions and bring them to scale across a wide geographic area. Within the Center, the Digital Development Team supports projects related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The Team’s work revolves around three workstreams: digital finance, digital inclusion and mobile data/data collection services. The team believes that, if leveraged correctly, ICTs can play a crucial role in development challenges and in furthering USAID’s mission of ending extreme poverty by 2030.

While I was placed in the team by chance, the field of ICTs for Development (ICT4D) has interested me for quite some time. In the summer of 2012, I worked with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India to help them start an e-Learning training program to reach their grassroots members. My work was part of a Service Opportunities in Leadership (SOL) grant from the Sanford School of Public Policy. As a capstone to my SOL project, I completed a portfolio on how access to ICTs is largely impacted by gender. In 2013, I traveled to Muhuru Bay, Kenya with a DukeEngage grant, and studied how mobile phone ownership was distributed among church and school leaders, and how they could be leveraged for teaching and health purposes. For the first month of this summer, I spent my time in Eldoret, Kenya, researching how a mobile phone system can help Community Health Workers (CHWs) assess and treat maternal depression. I’ll call it fate that I ended up with this specific team, as I’m getting a much deeper dive into policy aspects of issues. Digital finance and mobile-money, for instance, is a huge field In Kenya. It’s very common to see people using M-Pesa, which is a mobile money platform. But I haven’t understood any of the regulatory implications of such a service, or how the government involves itself in the process. Having to comb through mobile money materials, and sitting in on related meetings, has been fascinating. Even if I get hung up on development acronyms or don’t feel qualified to say anything, I gain a lot just from listening. My specific team is an exciting place to work; it looks more like a vibrant start-up with comfy chairs and a relaxed dress code than the more typical cubicle set-up of the Agency. I appreciate that everyone is excited to work on their specific issues, and cognizant of the end-goal. For instance, through digital financial services and digital inclusion efforts, a whole range of the poor and the marginalized will gain access to banking services we take for granted, like loans and credit lines. The digital data team understands that through more widespread mobile data collection services, raw data can efficiently be turned into actionable results. Even though the team is small (circa 10 people), its existence indicates that USAID is dedicated to promoting digital services for years and years to come.

Ishan is a rising senior studying public policy and global health with a focus on how technology can provide solutions for low-resource settings.  He has traveled the world studying the current tech environment in global heath including researching e-learning solutions for the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad and traveling to Eldoret, Kenya, to study the potential role of mobile phones in treating postpartum depression in rural areas.

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Vinesh Kapil who has been interning with USAID on the Saving Lives at Birth campaign.  Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development works to find innovative ideas around the world that can help reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.  Vinesh shares with us the work he has been doing while in DC this summer.

The heat is on in DC. When I step outside in the morning to head to work and it’s “only” 85 degrees, I count myself lucky. I begin the journey to the Ronald Regan Building (where USAID is based), maximizing time spent in the shade while dodging cars, checking the metro schedule and crafting a “to-do” list for the day.

After I pass through security, I settle into another day at the office. Sometimes I have to catch myself- if it weren’t for the multiple boxes of Spongebob macaroni and cheese in my cupboards at home, I would almost feel like I’m living the adult life. The heat, the busy commute, the work I do, it all seems so very real.

Through Duke SEAD, HESN and USAID, I am working on the planning and execution of the Saving Lives at Birth Development Exchange. My internship is multifaceted, fast-paced, and I can say with 100% accuracy that no day is exactly the same as another. The DevX, an event that brings together entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists, donors and organizations from all around the world, is a chance for “game-changers” to showcase how their work is improving maternal and child health. It is a chance to share ideas, to learn from each other’s successes (and mistakes), and to inspire one another with the passion that pushed so many of the participants to find a way to improve health outcomes for mothers and children in the first place.

When I consider the internship at a more “macro” level, I realize that the goal of this project, indeed, the goal of the entire “Grand Challenge” from which it arose, could not be more real. The effect of such a program, funding these innovators, and exposing the public to what has been done, and what is left to do, is not only real work but it is one of the most worthwhile things I could be doing. Sure, I’m not in the field every day saving lives. And there are days when I wonder exactly how what I’m doing is improving health for others around the world. But then I recognize that the work I’m doing is contributing to a larger cause, to a larger machine. By doing my work (doing it well, I might add), I am helping to further a cause. So yes, some days, I might jokingly tell myself that the fact that I’m living the adult life is just an illusion. But I must remember that the work I’m doing is indeed real. It is concerning a problem that is a reality for many around the world and I am proud that I am able to contribute to alleviating those problems in my own way. It is an absolute pleasure to represent Duke here at USAID, be that as a young student pretending to be an adult, or an adult holding on to his Spongebob macaroni for all he is worth.  

Vinesh Kapil is originally from Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated in May 2014, with a BA in Int'l Comparative Studies and a minor in Global Health. He spent this summer as the Saving Lives at Birth Intern, in the Center for Accelarating Innovation and Impact in the Global Health Bureau at USAID. His next project at AID will involve publishing an innovation scale-up tool-kit that will be available online. In his free time, Vinesh enjoys eating his way through D.C., keeping up with new music and, of course, Duke Basketball. 

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships. Today's post comes from Megan McCarroll.  Megan participated in the Duke Global Health Fellows Program based out of Geneva, Switzerland.  She tells us about the work she did with the International Organization for Migration and her visit to the Human Rights Council.

I tried to begin my internship in Geneva with as few expectations as possible. I failed, of course, but my efforts have allowed me to be as open as possible to the myriad of perspectives and opinions surrounding the United Nations. I began my internship with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on June 2, so I have now been here for one month. I am interning in the migration health division under the Senior Policy advisor for migration health.  She is one of those “larger than life” people—trained to be a pediatrician in the Philippines and began working in a refugee camp for the IOM, has worked in war zones and now works in the headquarters while traveling to countries in the midst of crisis to address major pressing health issues, such as a cholera outbreak in a refugee camp. While it is awesome to be working for such an interesting person, she has been away on mission for most of this month. She was in Iraq for a week, then South Sudan for 2 weeks, and now she is heading to Zimbabwe at the end of next week! She says (and I am hoping) that she will be staying in Geneva for the rest of the summer after Zimbabwe, so we’ll see… 

As for my duties as an intern, I have written two IOM position papers—one general paper on HIV and migration and the other on HIV in emergency settings—which will be used as advocacy tools for IOM staff and various officials in the field, and I made an info sheet on HIV as well. I do not have much of a background on migration health, so there has been a steep learning curve while doing research and liaising with staff in regional offices around the globe. Some of points that have stuck most with me:

• Migration is a loaded word with a negative context, causing migrants and mobile populations to face issues with stigma. 
  
• There are many different kinds of migrants— immigrants from particular countries, emigrants in overseas work, ethnic minorities, internal migrants, victims of exploitation and abuse, and irregular migrants and displaced persons, though they are often clumped into one category when making global policy. 
  
• National policies often forget to include migrants in their strategic health plans, especially in emergencies. 
  
• Migrant populations + HIV = Stigma x 2   
  
• Migrants are good for a host country/community. The common stereotype is that they are “carriers” of disease and steal away jobs from local people. These ways of thinking affect national policies and local attitudes. 
  

Several weeks ago, I participated in a two-day departmental retreat that really helped me gain insight into how a headquarter organization functions. Some of the main issues discussed were: 

• The need to harness information systems to produce quality data 
  
• Visibility—IOM’s role within the UN, relationship with UNHCR, and distinguishing its role as the lead organization for migration 
  
• The need to strengthen coordination between IOM divisions and departments, UN organizations, and other sectors 
  
• The need to establish a Migration Governance Conceptual Framework to improve the organization’s focus, strengthen communication within the IOM and partners, and identify cross-cutting issues. 
  
• Lack of human resources—headquarters staff cannot be experts in every part of the world so they are always sprinting to keep up

I also had the opportunity to attend meetings at the Palais des Nations during the Human Rights Council in June. I was sent to take notes in meetings specifically addressing migration and/or health but I also got to attend a few that interested me personally. The Palais is a huge maze of fancy buildings and rooms and it is very hard to navigate (a symbol of UN bureaucracy?). For the Human Rights Council, country Ambassadors typically led the meetings, while other member states had country cards that they would raise when wanting to make a point. Watching countries argue over wordings of resolutions was both fascinating and mind-numbing. The politics surrounding migration created subtle tensions between certain countries, but on the surface, the mood was mild and the pace was extraordinarily slow. That, I believe, is one of the more frustrating aspects of the UN system. Last week I heard a U.S. diplomat say that Americans are obsessed with efficiency and forget that global policy has to move slowly to affect real change. Change does not happen in a couple weeks or months. It often entails major shifts in ways of thinking about a problem. Today during a talk from the World Health Organization, the speaker stated, “better to walk together slowly than to run ahead alone.” I know that I need more time to reflect on this statement and see where it lies in relation to my values and where I see my future self in the global policy field.   

Megan McCarroll is from Portland, Oregon, and is a rising senior in Public Policy with a minor and certificate in education.  After graduation, Megan hopes to gain some teaching experience in a low-income country to better understand the obstacles children face in obtaining a quality education.  She someday hopes to combine her interest in global policy with her passion for education.  In her free time, Megan enjoys hiking, swimming, and skiiing.

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Pablo Ramos who has been interning with salaUno in Mexico.  SalaUno operates a network of eye clinics in Mexico that aims to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality eye care to low-income populations.  Pablo shares his observations on how salaUno's mission drives the entire company towards success.

I spent two months of my summer working at salaUno. The company is a fantastic Mexican startup, built by young, kind-hearted entrepreneurs who see beyond building a profitable business. The company’s core activities are focused on helping the underserved population in Mexico and the company’s mission of Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico is adhered to by everyone in the company. In fact it is part of the reason the company has been able to attract great talent from young individuals and external consultants. Witnessing this work culture had taught me three main lessons from salaUno.

Hard work will always be rewarding. For some time now, I have been looking for the perfect moment to launch my own company.  Now I realize there is no such thing as “the perfect moment”. I may come out of my MBA highly indebted, using that as an excuse to wait for better timing but later I may have kids and the same thing will happen. Working at salaUno made me realize that no matter what the circumstances are, with hard work and a good team everything is possible. After losing support from the federal government to subsidize cataract surgeries, salaUno lost a significant revenue stream that could have taken the business down. Nevertheless, hard work and perseverance made salaUno find new avenues to keep growing. I am certain these avenues will take salaUno beyond what they imagine.

Building a great team is of utmost importance. I was thrilled to see all the talent that salaUno has been able to attract due to its amazing mission. This mission allows salaUno to attract plenty of young, qualified individuals that are doing a great job and impacting the company’s future for the better. I also realized the value of a well-diversified top level management team. Both founders of salaUno have very similar careers and while they have been able to manage and grow the business for 3 years now, I believe they need to include someone with medical expertise in top-level management. Working in healthcare involves so many specific details that having this expertise will very helpful. As a business man, one can think a lot of things are possible but when dealing with people’s lives having this expertise at this level in the organization is imperative.

Businesses with a social mission are a reality.  This is the most important lesson that I got out of my experience. SalaUno reached breakeven after only two months of operations.  Today it is a company that employs over 80 people and impacts thousands of lives by providing accessible eye care to everyone. By aligning the company’s mission with its profitability, the company will make more money as long as they do more surgeries and impact more people. Aligning interests and incentives for employees is not a simple feat and I believe that it is a key feature of salaUno’s business model: increasing profitability and impacting more lives with growth hand-in-hand.

Overall, working with salaUno was a great experience. I was able to see firsthand how startups are run, all the challenges they face and how they need to be solve, but most importantly that being a successful social entrepreneur is possible!

Pablo joined Fuqua from Mexico where was born and raised. He has been focusing on social entrepreneurship and finance and he wishes to leverage his previous financial experience to invest in social endeavors that seek a social return in parallel to the financial. He is a soccer and a tennis fan, which he loves to watch and play in his spare time.

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Our first post comes to us from Michael McNeil who participated in the Duke Global Health Fellows Program.  Based in Geneva, this internship gives students the opportunity to learn from a variety of global health-related organizations over the summer.

In four days my family and I will be returning to the United States after a whirlwind European adventure. Adventure is the only word that can adequately describe the incredible experience and opportunity that I gained as a member of the 2014 Duke Global Health Fellows Program.

This program allows students from around the country an opportunity to be involved with an eight-to-twelve week internship with a variety of international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based in Geneva, Switzerland. Along with this internship is a weeklong course directed by Dr. Anthony So entitled “Health Policy in a Globalizing World”. In this course we receive a series of seminars and lectures by a variety of health professionals in multiple international organizations around Geneva as well as multiple site visits of several of those organizations. 

Every summer, IPIHD selects an elite group of MBA students from the Fuqua School of Business to go into the field to work internships with their innovators.  This year we're excited to have four of their interns working with SEAD innovators over the summer.  Join us for a peek into the work the interns have been engaged in so far this summer.

Tim Morilla, a second year MBA, is working with salaUno in Mexico.  SalaUno operates a network of eye clinics in Mexico that aims to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality eye care to low-income populations.   

Cristina Arellano, a second year MBA, is working with SughaVazhvu in India.  SughaVazhvu operates a system of Rural Micro Health Centers (RMHCs) that provide critical healthcare to impoverished, remote villages that traditionally have not had access to the healthcare they need.

Wonjae Lee, a recent Fuqua alumnus, is working with North Star Alliance in Kenya.  North Star Alliance converts shipping containers into Roadside Wellness Centers (RWCs) strategically placed alongside transport corridors to provide medical services to migrant populations such as truck drivers and sex workers.

John Emami, a recent Fuqua alumnus, is working with Jacaranda Health in Kenya. Jacaranda Health operates a system of affordable, comprehensive maternity clinics that provide maternity care for 1/5 the cost typically found in private hospitals in Kenya.

Jose Magaña Paredes, a second year MBA, is working with IPIHD innovator Medica Santa Carma in Mexico.  Medica Santa Carma provides affordable prevention and treatment of kidney disease to low-income populations in Mexico.

This year marks the Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) inaugural year of their HESN Summer Internship Program.  The program gives students from the HESN Labs, including SEAD, the opportunity to bring their talent to the US Global Development Lab and USAID.  Duke is being represented in the program by four outstanding students that are providing a wealth of experience and ideas to their internships.  Throughout the summer these interns will be providing the SEAD blog with insights into the work they are doing for USAID and the developing world.

Meet our HESN interns and get a peek into the work they are engaged in after the break!