Today was our second day for meetings. We started off the day with a great company called Technoserve represented by Alex Mkindi who is the Deputy Country Director. He explained how they go in to areas in Africa and South America and with the help of the local governments analyze the value chain of the agriculture in the area. We went through three case studies of Coffee, Cashews, and Banana. Their philosophy is to use private enterprise to drive positive social change. They bring agricultural know how and technology along with strategic management to help these farmers who are at the bottom of the chain gain the most they can. There are many times where the farmers gets taken advantage of through long, confusing value chains filled with middlemen, buyers, retailers who pay so little for the crop. I really enjoyed listening to how they go in a decide how to change the traditional agricultural sales system for the better of the farmers.
The next meeting was at the Department of Agriculture and Marketing. We met with various leaders in the field of SME's including the Director of Policy and Planning and the head of SIDO which offers services for young businesses. They spoke about the issues surrounding small businesses in Tanzania and invited us to raise issues, question current policies and procedures, and share our ideas. It was an open atmosphere and welcoming. They seemed eager and very driven to continue improvement upon the current state of things.
We then left to go back to the University at Dar es Salaam for lunch and a discussion on Social Entrepreneurship. Dr. Olomi lectured on the subject of how to define Social Entrepreneurship and what has been done so far in Tanzania. I found it interesting how from the different sectors, he could not name one political figure who has contributed. I was thinking why is this? Not even one political leader has set up an organization or business to help any one group of people. However, with social entrepreneurship having such a vauge definition, I think that many of the ventures started also can be considered social because they continue to bring the standard of living up and increase the expansion of the free market system.
Tonight we have the Africa Dinner which I hope will be fun after a long day of meetings. For some reason, I felt very tired as if I am still adjusting to the climate.
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