By 2030, every rural town in Africa could be equipped with an undulating red brick droneport, designed by starchitect Norman Foster, to serve as a hub for deliveries of crucial medical supplies. Dubbed the “world’s smallest airport,” a full-scale prototype of the first droneport has been unveiled at the 15th International Architecture Biennale in Venice.
At a time when the information world becomes increasingly shallow, journalists ought to join forces with experts. The alliance would bring deeper knowledge to journos and sharper story-telling to eggheads.
Michael E. Porter has announced the launch of the Social Progress Imperative, a new rigorous index rating the social performance of more than 50 countries. Developed with the AVINA, Rockefeller, and Skoll foundations, this is the first index to fully separate social indicators from economic ones. In examining data on basic needs, well-being, and opportunity it creates a global agenda for country level policy.
Imagine vast and beautiful savannah grasslands as two million wildebeest migrate from the Serengeti National Park in the Mara region of Tanzania to the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. This trip is 3,000km in length, and represents, in many ways, the very best of what Africa has to offer the international community. But is this all Kenya puts on the plate? The answer is a definitive “no”. Kenya is moving from a frontier market to an emerging market, and is beginning to attract investment from all over the world.
ORANGE lights flash in the setting sun as Chinese workers lay train tracks on the dry edge of Tsavo national park in Kenya, lowering a 25-metre steel rail into place as gingerly as a dental filling. The men fret, with good reason: safety rules may protect them against falling sleepers but the African bush adheres to no regulations. Few workers dare to venture out of their sheet-metal camps at night for fear of big cats on the prowl: in January a watchman was mauled by a cheetah.
Alibaba CEO Jack Ma has said that “customers are number one; employees are number two and shareholders are number three.”
Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever [UN], has denounced “the cult of shareholder value.”
The continent skipped land lines for mobile phones. Now a new generation of start-ups is trying to bring sun power to rural Africa – and leapfrog the fossil fuel era.
The chairman of Volans John Elkington and the B Team’s Jochen Zeitz say leaders need to do more than talk; they need to take action – fast. The B Team announces its Plan B for Business to help steer the global economy on a more sustainable course this week in Davos, Switzerland
Today, an increasing number of academic scientists are paying attention to how their hair looks in photos, considering whether they should blog, and figuring out how to translate their life’s work into a brief and attention-grabbing YouTube clip for strangers.
Value is the only commonality in an increasingly complex, challenging and interdependent world.
Laurance Allen: Editor + Publisher