Global Development Timeline: August 2008

August on the Global Development front... (photo: Erat)


This is Part II of our Global Development Timeline. You being our stakeholders, we'd like to catch you up on what we have done thus far. Read Part I: July 2008 here.

In August 2008, we formulated a strategy for moving forward. First we took stock of our own theories of development and where we thought the most pressing needs of the poor in the developing world were. Both Emeka and I come from different parts of the world, and from very different backgrounds. Having understood where the Foundation stood, we needed to know our own stances both with regards to the Foundation's ideas and global development. Synchronized, we then interviewed and brainstormed with our contacts both internally and from across the globe to understand what they thought. In general, the issues boiled down to seven broad domains. They are, in no order:

• Transportation
• Agriculture
• Mobile/IT/Wireless
• Water/Sanitation/Waste Management
• Energy
• Public Health
• Financial Markets/Investing/Banking

We plan on spending the next eight to ten months working further on these, as well as building a strong group of advisors who can help guide us as we move forward. Our hope is that by the end we will have enough information to carve out an X PRIZE that will be robust, meaningful and impactful. Please note that we don't expect the prize to sit exclusively in one domain, rather we expect that it will be a hybrid of two or more of these.

Tomorrow, Part III of our Timeline...what happened in September 2008.