Sunday, February 21, 2010

Togolese Elections 4 March, 2010

The Togolese population is ready for change, but channels for that momentum and energy are difficult to find and organize. Elections have been postponed from February 28 to March 4, at the request of the opposition. President Faure Gnassingbe noted that the elections are being delayed "with the aim of permanently seeking consensus and maintaining a peaceful climate during the electoral process."

While I have my opinion on what the outcome of the election will almost certainly be, all I can do is hope, both personally and professionally, that the government, the opposition and the population can find a balance of non-violence during the campaigns and the election. May peaceful means of protest be tolerated and violence towards the status quo be restrained.

Here are a few links to Togolese election news:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201002171118.html (Togo's First Female Candidate! Although she withrew fearing fraudulent results and in protest of flawed electoral processes...joining the main opposition party, the UFC, who withdrew in mid-February)










More on the UFC withdrawal here:

Five Opposition Parties come together under the umbrella of FRAC in support of new UFC candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre:

More information on Jean-Pierre Fabre - interesting character - can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Fabre






And here is his campaign site and the UFC site (en francais):
Et bien sur, the RPT (ruling party of President Faure) site, synonymous with the official site of the Republic of Togo:

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Introducing Monsieur Ayite Gaba

An email came to me on January 8, 2010 from my Togolese friend John in California:

Ayite, please meet Kira.

Kira please meet Ayite. I believe you both are in Togo now and you should try to meet.

Let's start talking and make something happen here :)

I have struggled, since founding SunPower Afrique in 2008, with my lack of an MBA...and while I have learned as I've gone along, and no longer feel that an MBA will be my advanced degree of choice, the ability to design financial models in excel spreadsheets and properly construct business plans have proven themselves again and again critical to SunPower Afrique's success...

To compensate for my lack of business management experience I have reached out to many. From MBA students to retired executives to wall street financiers to nonprofit managers...not only could networking and market-researching be a full time job in its own right, but finding someone to help me who a) understands exactly where I am coming from b) will follow through and c) most importantly, can do all of this for free...has been quite challenging. (Not to say that I am automatically entitled to any of this, nor to render insigificant any of the monumental support I have received thus far!)

Then I "met" Ayite, who immediately understood me and my project. Our partnership is strengthened by the fact that Ayite is Togolese and quickly noted how Togolese-at-heart this Yovo actually is...(I have recently undergone some self-recognition, vindicated by a "What Color is your Personality" test at Rotary a few weeks ago, realizing how much I, a Blue, thrive on peoples' recognition of my passion and "unique contributions to the world" :))

In one of our first email conversations, Ayite wrote, "It has been 12 years since I left Togo and I have ever since been searching for an opportunity to do a meaningful work there. I think SPA is a rare opportunity to put my knowledge of technology and business to use in Togo ."

A Togolese expat, Ayite has worked for over 5 five years in various engineering and product management roles in the high-tech industry both in the United States and in Germany before deciding to return to Africa to put his knowledge to use there. He has just accepted a Business Development Associate role with Google in Senegal, where he wants to help bring technology to the masses in Africa. Ayite has an MBA from INSEAD in Singapore and France and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from San Jose State University in California. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have him working with me.

Ayite dove right in. asking comprehensive and pointed questions about my product, my impact, my goals...my value proposition...sustainability and scaleability...He is enthusiastic, encouraging and practical, telling me that yes, the potential for this project is paramount and we are going to get the funding we need, but first we've got to do something about this cash flow situation Kira...

A little over a month later, we are days away from a thorough, sensibile, self-sustaining financial model and business plan for SunPower Afrique, something I have been trying to put together for far too long...Thanks to Ayite's and my similiar philsophies, understandings of international development and committment to responsible business, I have been able to trust and delegate.

Even since I started SunPower Afrique at the beginning of 2008, the concept of expanding the use renewable energy in the developing world has grown dramatically. And there are organizations and people, such as SELCO, SELF and the late and beloved Walt Ratterman, that have been working in this framework for years. There are so many models, from charity to non-profit to public-private partnerships to for-profit and everything in between - which is where SunPower Afrique falls, somewhere in between. In the burgeoning world of social-entrepreneurship and social investment (http://www.ashoka.org/social_entrepreneur; http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/whatis/) that is exhilarating, competitive, exciting, terrifying and inspiring...And Ayite is helping me to find my place there, by putting all of my foundations and partially constructed building blocks in place, filling in the holes and lining them up for success.

Since the beginning I have spoken about my Ashoka-Skoll-Schwab aspirations, however amorphous and remote...I continue to hold these ambitions close, but now I can see them more tangibly...the huge piles of research on initiatives and institutions that support social entrepreneurs are ready to be picked through again. I am ready to approach and re-approach the big guns with creative and strategic ways to invest money in social change. With a strong written portfolio to back up my dogmatic ideals, SunPower Afrique might just be unstoppable :)

Akpe ka ka Ayite. Akpe loooo.

"For me sustainability and acting responsibly are unequivocally inseparable. I know most capitalists will disagree with me on this but that is alright..." - Ayite Gaba, Feb. 2010