What does it take to disrupt traditional ways of fighting poverty, delivering aid, and providing healthcare in Africa? Veteran digital health / healthtech entrepreneur Rowena Luk interviews social entrepreneurs, impact investors, and activists on how they went from an idea to demonstrating impact, raising funds, and creating sustainable social enterprises. For anyone looking for a better way to do good, explore the strategies and tools successful innovators are applying to make change that lasts. AidEvolved.com
Episodes
Tuesday Jan 26, 2021
Starting Up in South Africa with Nneile Nkohlise of 3DIMO
Tuesday Jan 26, 2021
Tuesday Jan 26, 2021
Nneile Nkohlise is well known in South Africa for her work as an innovator, founder, technologist, and risk-taker. She was recognized by the World Economic Forum in Rwanda in 2016 as one of Africa’s Top 5 Female Innovators for her efforts to found iMedTech, a biotech startup with a focus on prosthetics.
In this episode, Nneile reveals the early support and mentorship which started her down her career as an impact entrepreneur. She speaks openly about the struggles to innovate in South Africa, the challenges of local manufacturing, and the market dynamics which continue to limit iMedTech’s growth. Her story provides a glimpse into the energy and potential of the next generation of South African innovators, juxtaposed against the realities which still constrain their growth.
Nneile was recognized in 2017 as the South African Youth of the Year by the Office of the Presidency. In 2018 Forbes Africa magazine named her as one of the Top 30 under 30. In the same year, the All Africa Business Leaders Awards awarded her Industrialist of the Year in Southern Africa. Today she is a Harambean Entrepreneurship fellow in the class of 2018. She is actively growing her latest venture, 3DIMO, which provides data analytics to strengthen the livestock sector.
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Punching Above Your Weight with Karl Brown and the Rockefeller Foundation
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Karl Brown spent 8 years at the Rockefeller Foundation, investing across multiple domains, including pandemic response, digital health, health systems, and youth unemployment, before he joined ThoughtWorks as the Director of Technology for the Office of Social Change Initiatives.
In this episode, Karl shares his experiences working in the donor community, from his unexpected entry into the field, to strengthening pandemic response in the Mekong basin, and even building open source communities with OpenMRS. Along the way, we learn about the heavy responsibility that grant officers bear, how the Rockefeller Foundation thinks about catalytic funding, the value of honesty from grantees, and how donors can sometimes act like “herd animals”. If you’re interested in hearing a first-hand account of the work and decisions made by one grant officer in digital health, you’ll enjoy Karl’s reflections on his time at Rockefeller.
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Connecting the Roof of the World with Yahel Ben-David of AirJaldi
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Dr. Yahel Ben-David has spent most of his career bringing low-cost internet to resource-constrained communities from the Indian Himalayas to California’s Central Valley. He is CEO of Further Reach, Executive Director of De Novo Group, Founder of AirJaldi, Founder of the Tibetan Technology Center, and Founder of Xpert group (acquired by Zootec).
In this episode, we trace Dr. Ben-David’s life from his early years fighting in Lebanon with the Israeli army; how he unexpectedly fell in love with the Indian Himalayas and then worked to bring internet to the Tibetan government in exile; and his current efforts to bring low-cost broadband to rural California. Along the way we talk about the perils and pitfalls of technological imperialism (even for something as foundational as internet access), the fine line between academia and practice, and the stresses created by a windfall of grant funding.
Yahel holds a doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley, and continues his affiliation with Berkeley’s TIER (Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions) research group. As the executive director of De Novo Group, Dr. Ben-David manages multi-million dollar projects which bring together world-renowned ICTD (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) researchers, and practitioners dedicated to bridging the digital divide and harnessing technology to increase civil liberties.