Social and Humanitarian → Humanitarian Mapping to Reduce Global Poverty

The Problems

• Within a decade the number of the world’s refugees will double to 60 million.
• On average there is a major disaster every six weeks.
• Global populations and global warming are significantly increasing.
• Local NGOs in high-risk zones are dependent on Western cash.
• Entry into disaster zones by non-locals is prevented by politics or regulations.
• Critical information to make swift decisions on poverty prevention and disaster response is currently in a confused and fragmentary form, lost in thick reports and poorly shared among thousands of relief and donor agencies.

The Market

• Out of 47 aid agencies polled in Kosovo, 40 (85%) reported and agreed that “in humanitarian disasters there is no clear map or picture of what is happening in large areas”
• UN Poverty Mapping unit recently gave up poverty maps.

The Solution is a specialist NGO >> Global MapAid <<

• Global MapAid’s mission is to assist aid and environmental efforts by exposing the needs and solutions of long-term poverty, using maps. It can best do this by proper training and preparation of sustainable local teams.
• Mapping will focus on poverty prevention meaning disaster prevention.
• Commercial mapping companies lack the specific disaster relief experience necessary to make their products relevant to humanitarian work.
• Global MapAid’s unique product-service package combines field-based personnel skilled in digitised mapping, Internet and satellite communications.
• GMA will rely on benchmarking and measurement of results to drive progress.

The objective will be to create maps that specifically:-

• Help aid workers to plan operations, as well as navigate safely to victims.
• Helping victims to find their way safely to aid, rather than ‘cut down trees.’
• Help the outside world ‘see the big picture’, driving policy and action.
• Do the above with financially self-sustaining, local teams.

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Social and Humanitarian → Sustainable Job Creation for Conflict Resolution

And what is a sustainable job ?

Sustainable employment is where someone gains a skill enabling them to create immediate and enduring income, wherever they are. Start-up costs are usually minimal. Often they creating a non-luxury value and often they are a service. Shoe mending, car maintenance, carpentry are examples. Government or public jobs, or jobs created by grants, are not defined here as sustainable, as nearly always they have to be paid for by the taxes levied on sustainable jobs.

After a war or after a natural disaster, a population experiences what is called a ‘golden hour’ which may last a few months, maybe a couple of years at most. This is a time when the whole of society is at it’s most tender and workable, open to political, social, humanitarian change on a massive scale, it is a time when everyone’s hope is high and the possibilities seem endless.

This is a vital domain that I've written about, on the basis of more than 20 years of humanitarian and commercial experience. Seewww.thecompetitonforhope.org

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Business, Products and Services → Organic Food Sales

I have set up a successful local franchise in the Bristol and Bath areas of the United Kingdom, selling to 800 homes. Products are all blast frozen, restaurant grade, mostly fish, some meat and poultry. I am happy to talk with anyone thinking of entering this business, it is a real challenge.

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Environment → Green Central Heating Systems to Reduce Fossil Fuel Emissions

Rupert Douglas-Bate is both a commercial food entrepreneur (with 800 customers in prime South West locations) and humanitarian aid worker (as a water and sanitation engineer leading teams in tough conditions). Combining these assets he decided to set up a company in Bath that could help local people reduce their dependence on expensive carbon fossil fuels whilst reducing emissions, using wood and solar energy as a powerful combination. The technologies to do this are highly dependent upon water based systems.

Victoria's Green Energy (VGE) is a company that primarily aims to install wood burning stoves and solar thermal heating for domestic locations, but seamlessly as a second medium term objective, wants to display them and sell them. Solar thermal can supply about a third of the hot water and a wood burning stove normally about half, but depends upon log usage.

To accomplish the primary objective, it will set up an installation team of three people. To seamlessly accomplish the second objective it will have a flagship showroom, modest to begin with, which will be used to demonstrate the VGE approach and help customers visualise and choose the correct systems for their particular home and budget. The company HQ and show room will probably be in a rural location, just south of Bath, which is the opposite side of the town to a major competitor, as well as being near to wealthy potential customers.

(Please note: ‘solar thermal’ means sunshine heating a fluid in a pipe and is completely different to ‘solar voltaic’ or ‘photo-voltaic’ which is sunshine creating an electrical current across layered composites’.)

The project was initiated by Rupert Douglas-Bate, who realised that people are beginning to wake up to the fact that in recent years their bills for domestic heating for oil or gas or electricity seem to swing alarmingly up and down. In addition they seem to be more aware of the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption to help alleviate critical climate change.

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Education and Academic Subjects → Creating an International Knowledge Exchange Website

Jabberwot.com is an international knowledge exchange, created to
enable individuals or collaborative groups to meet in a variety of
ways, to enjoy civilised and well informed discussions about any
subject in the universe – ‘the long tail’. The site is built on the
premise that ‘real knowledge’ comes from ‘real people’ behind the vast
array of internet pages. Jabberwot gives them a voice and ranking for
their voices, similar to the way eBay ranks buyers and sellers of
products. It has two basic users, ‘the Jabbers’ who have knowledge to
sell or give freely, and ‘the Wots’ who want to acquire knowledge. The
site therefore taps into either the financial or the altruistic
motives of its users. It capitalises on the extraordinary ability of
informal individuals or collaborative groups, to reduce the costs of
research and development. Creating something as easy-to-use as
possible, has been very important. Jabberwot does not take any
commission for this service, in the long run it aims to gain income
from targeted advertising revenue, across a massive range of subjects.
As Albert Einstein said: "If an idea isn't at first absurd, there is
no hope for it." The founder, Rupert Douglas-Bate, is looking for a
business Partner.

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