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January 13, 2020

Two new flags will be flying high at the Olympic Games in Rio.

For the first time, South Sudan and Kosovo have been recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Kosovo, which was a province of the former Yugoslavia, will have 8 athletes competing; and a good shot for a medal in women's judo: Majlinda Kelmendi is considered a favorite. She's ranked first in the world in her weight class.

(South Sudan's James Chiengjiek, Yiech Biel & coach Joe Domongole, © AFP) South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, will have three runners competing in the country's first Olympic Games.

When Will Chile's Post Office's Re-open?

(PHOTO: Workers set up camp at Santiago's Rio Mapocho/Mason Bryan, The Santiago Times)Chile nears 1 month without mail service as postal worker protests continue. This week local branches of the 5 unions representing Correos de Chile voted on whether to continue their strike into a 2nd month, rejecting the union's offer. For a week the workers have set up camp on the banks of Santiago's Río Mapocho displaying banners outlining their demands; framing the issue as a division of the rich & the poor. The strike’s main slogan? “Si tocan a uno, nos tocan a todos,” it reads - if it affects 1 of us, it affects all of us. (Read more at The Santiago Times)

WHO convenes emergency talks on MERS virus

(PHOTO: Saudi men walk to the King Fahad hospital in the city of Hofuf, east of the capital Riyadh on June 16, 2013/Fayez Nureldine)The World Health Organization announced Friday it had convened emergency talks on the enigmatic, deadly MERS virus, which is striking hardest in Saudi Arabia. The move comes amid concern about the potential impact of October's Islamic hajj pilgrimage, when millions of people from around the globe will head to & from Saudi Arabia. WHO health security chief Keiji Fukuda said the MERS meeting would take place Tuesday as a telephone conference & he told reporters it was a "proactive move". The meeting could decide whether to label MERS an international health emergency, he added. The first recorded MERS death was in June 2012 in Saudi Arabia & the number of infections has ticked up, with almost 20 per month in April, May & June taking it to 79. (Read more at Xinhua)

LINKS TO OTHER STORIES

Dreams and nightmares - Chinese leaders have come to realize the country should become a great paladin of the free market & democracy & embrace them strongly, just as the West is rejecting them because it's realizing they're backfiring. This is the "Chinese Dream" - working better than the American dream. Or is it just too fanciful? By Francesco Sisci

Baby step towards democracy in Myanmar - While the sweeping wins Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has projected in Sunday's by-elections haven't been confirmed, it is certain that the surging grassroots support on display has put Myanmar's military-backed ruling party on notice. By Brian McCartan

The South: Busy at the polls - South Korea's parliamentary polls will indicate how potent a national backlash is against President Lee Myung-bak's conservatism, perceived cronyism & pro-conglomerate policies, while offering insight into December's presidential vote. Desire for change in the macho milieu of politics in Seoul can be seen in a proliferation of female candidates. By Aidan Foster-Carter

Pakistan climbs 'wind' league - Pakistan is turning to wind power to help ease its desperate shortage of energy,& the country could soon be among the world's top 20 producers. Workers & farmers, their land taken for the turbine towers, may be the last to benefit. By Zofeen Ebrahim

Turkey cuts Iran oil imports - Turkey is to slash its Iranian oil imports as it seeks exemptions from United States penalties linked to sanctions against Tehran. Less noticed, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the Iranian capital last week, signed deals aimed at doubling trade between the two countries. By Robert M. Cutler

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Solving the world’s most pressing social challenges.

"The power of a good idea"

***LIVE LINK TO TODAY'S FINAL's AT 5pm EST HERE ***

(HN, April 22, 2012) - Three years ago, a Hult International Business School student named Ahmad Ashkar had an idea to change the world. Today, the Hult Global Case Challenge (Hult GCC) has become an international competition which invites college and university students from around the globe to solve the world’s most pressing social challenges; emphasizing the creation of real-world, implementable solutions on a grass-roots level.

The annual case competition is the world’s largest case study challenge, featuring thousands of students competing from over 100 countries and a coveted $1 million US dollar prize which goes towards the funding of the winning idea. Led by a management team that includes Ashkar himself, who work directly with students and campus officials from the Hult International Business School’s five international campuses, the group whittles through thousands of innovative ideas to find the best - which this year will be three.

In a case competition, participants compete for the best solution to a business case study under a time limit. Teams then deliver business presentations, competing against other teams in front of a panel of judges, who rate how well the teams responded to the challenge.

(Crowdsourcing 101/CoolTownStudios) Hult GCC competitions announced in September, begin in 5 cities - Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai, and online - moving through local and regional contests to get to the Global Championship in New York City. The key driver of the Hult GCC's success is the utilization of an innovative crowd-sourcing platform which allows "many" to participate - allowing lots of students around the world to enter their ideas and solutions for the challenges put forth by partner NGO's.

Through its strategic partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative, the Hult GCC has committed to working with fellow CGI commitment makers and every year, the CGI and the Hult GCC evaluate the very best partners from among the thousands of commitment makers within CGI.

Last year, the competition focused on bringing clean water to the billions around the world who don't have access to it, in partnership with Matt Damon's organization Water.Org. This year the $1 million prize will be split equally among three organizations and three winning teams; one in each of three categories.

And this week, is crunch time.

On Wednesday and Thursday in New York City an esteemed group of judges which includes former US President Bill Clinton, Founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation; Muhammad Yunus, Founder, Grameen Bank; Michael Treschow, Chairman, Unilever and Mario Cuomo, 54th Governor of New York will choose from among 6 winning teams in each of three categories focused on solving Poverty, through solutions dealing with Energy, Housing and Education.

Student teams this year are represented by Carnegie Mellon, ESADE, Aarhus University, American University Iraq, Dartmouth, NYU Abu Dhabi, the Asian Institute of Management, University of California Davis, the European Institute of Technology, the University of Belgrade, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Presidio, University of California Berkeley and the Hult International Business School.

This year's NGO case challenges were put forth by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), whose mission is to empower the world's poorest children through education facilitated by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop; Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) , whose mission is that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live; and SolarAid which works in rural areas across East and Southern Africa installing solar power on schools, community centers and clinics, known as macrosolar.

For OLPC: Can OLPC get 10 million laptops to children in 5 years, drive the industry to make laptops more affordable, and improve education with its principles?

For SolarAid: Can SolarAid get off-grid solar power and light to one million households by the end of 2013?

For Habitat For Humanity: Can HFHI find the right combination of partnerships, innovative business models, and scalable housing solutions to reach 50 million people (10 million homes) in ten years?

President Clinton will be the keynote speaker at the 2012 Global Final as he was for the 2011 event.

All this week, HUMNEWS will focus its attention on the innovation of social good which the HULT Global Case Challenge fosters and we'll follow the winners as they bring their solutions to fruition along with One Laptop for Child, SolarAid, and Habitat for Humanity later this year. Stay tuned.

---HUMNEWS

Entries in SolarAid (1)

Tuesday

Apr242012

Hult GCC 2012 - Innovative Ideas in Energy (FEATURE)

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 11:15AM

(HN, 4/24/12) - The mission of the 3 year-old Hult Global Case Challenge is to collectively overcome social challenges in education, energy and housing; to solve global poverty on a grass-roots level utilizing the world’s largest crowd-sourcing initiative to seek ideas and solutions from the world’s best and brightest future business leaders. In partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative NGO members meet their own `Commitment to Change' when working with the bright minds of the Hult Global Case Challenge.

This year, the Hult GCC has focused its attention and challenge work on solving Poverty through step change innovation in Energy, Housing and Education; working with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), SolarAid and Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI). Here you'll see just some of the ideas presented to the panel of judges related to Education and OLPC's Challenge, whose winners will be announced later this week:

The Challenge: Can SolarAid's SunnyMoney get off-grid solar power and light to one million households by the end of 2013?

Description: This is the Thunderbird School of Global Management (OD) submission for the Hult Global Case Challenge 2012. Our team chose the Energy track and our challenge is to help the company Solar Aid with "Revolutionizing the way to make energy affordable for everyone".

Description: By Micah Melnyk. We will deliver electricity and light to rural communities in Africa by combining two existing but new technologies: house-hold scale Pay-As-You-Go solar PV systems and the rapidly growing Mobile Banking Network. A network of tens of thousands of profitable SunnyMoney Care Agents will promote, install and maintain Home Electricity/Light Systems.

Description: By European Institute of Innovation and Technology students. A basic explanation of one of the principles of the EIT's innovative solution to help Sunny money sell 1,000,000 solar lamps by 2013 and help eradicate the use of kerosene lamps by 2020. We kept it simple and short for the video, the solution has several more elements and is based on 3 principles - FOCUS, EMPOWER, GROW, which incorporate solutions at all levels of the value chain to build a tangible, win-win model for Sunny Money and its partners. Most importantly, it aims at scaling up the sales of solar lamps in Africa so that the industry as a whole can benefit from this to reach a critical mass, that will mark the beginning of the end for the dangerous, dirty, and expensive kerosene.

Description: By students at Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka. Our underlying principle in this rebranding and restructuring of SunnyMoney by Project SunCharge is to exploit the locale's need for cell phone use and use cell phone chargers as a way of producing demand for solar powered light. Their monthly expenditure will not increase while paying the sum in installments as they will not have to pay any more than what they were previously spending on alternative fuel for lighting purposes. This business model will work anywhere in the world with a high penetration of cellphone usage. Furthermore, to ensure sustainability, the model is complete with Discount Networks which are operated under direct supervision of the community opinion leaders and continue to extend the ever-growing network of consumers beyond the reach of the touch points as well.

Description: By students at University of Warwick, UK. We propose that in the short term solar products should be sold on a pay-as-you-go basis, with a 2 month trial period to increase product awareness. In the long term we propose the production of solar product batteries in Tanzania to prevent their depletion and increase employment.

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