How to Build Peace in a Region Once Beset by al Shabaab

The Somali-based terrorist group al Shabaab has launched some devastating attacks in Kenya over the last decade. One way that al Shebaab fighters are abler to enter Kenya undetected is through a lush forest along the coastal border of Kenya and Somalia. This is called the Boni Forest. It is a rich ecosystem, but its geography and location makes it an ideal hideout for al Shebaab.

In 2015, the Kenyan government launched a military operation to rid al Shebaab from the Boni Forest region. However, their tactics were heavy handed and ended up hurting the local population and therefore undermining the government’s strategic goals.

That was until Judy Kimamo got involved. She is the Kenya director of the international peace building NGO, Search for Common Ground. Judy Kimamo lead an effort to bring various stakeholders around the table to create a grassroots strategy for peace, security and development in this region.

That was in 2017 and today, the region is far more secure, peaceful and prosperous because of this effort.

Judy Kimamo is on the podcast to discuss how this grassroots peace process worked, and what others can learn from this effort.

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How “The Girl Effect” Has Changed International Development

The “Girl Effect” is a concept that has been around international development for the better part of a decade. It refers to the community and societal benefits that can accrue when investments are made in the education and health of girls. The concept has been backed up by research over the years and is now a driving force guiding many health and development projects.

“The Girl Effect” is also the name of a non profit dedicated to catalyzing its namesake, and on the podcast today is the organization’s CEO Jessica Posner.

In our conversation, Jessica Posner kicks off by explaining the concept of the girl effect, and then we have a longer conversation about the work of the organization she leads. This includes projects aimed at increasing the demand for reproductive health services and education among young women and girls in the developing world.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how the girl effect has evolved as a driving force in international development, have a listen.

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How to Eliminate the Global Problem of Online Child Abuse

The spread of child sexual abuse material on the internet has grown at an exponential pace in the last fifteen years, since the advent of social media.  This is truly a global problem, affecting every country on earth.

The tools of technology can be harnessed to combat the spread of images and videos depicting child abuse and one non-profit is leading the way.

Thorn is a technology driver non-profit founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore that develops tools to combat online child abuse and child sex trafficking. On the line with me to discuss some of these tools and strategies is Julie Cordua, the CEO of Thorn.

In this conversation, Julie Cordua describes the scope of the problem, which she refers She also describes how emerging technologies developed by Thorn are being used to detect when this material is being uploaded and is aiding law enforcement around the world.

We kick off discussing a recent announcement that Thorn was one of the winners of the Audacious Project, housed at TED, and will share in $280 million prize to eliminate Child Sexual Abuse Material from the Internet. We discuss how Thorn will work toward that goal and we have a broader conversation about how global efforts to combat the spread of child sexual abuse online have evolved since the early days of the internet and social media.

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This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

How Big Data and Text Messaging Can Prevent Suicide Around the World

Credit: Crisis Text Line, via Instagram

According to the World Health Organization 800,000 people die due to suicide every year. My guest today, Bob Filbin is helping to pioneer a way to sharply reduce that number.

Bob Filbin is the Chief Data Scientist of Crisis Text Line. This is a text based mental health crisis intervention platform, operational in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Individuals in crisis are able to text trained mental health workers anonymously, who can then help them through their emergency.

Hundreds of millions of texts have been exchanged since the launch of crisis text line, which is providing researchers with key insights into how to prevent self harm.

Mental health is a crucial public health issue that is, indeed, a global heath issue. Crisis Text Line’s approach is also scalable — and Bob Filbin does discuss crisis text line’s global plans.

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This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

A Revolution in Access to Medicine is Underway in Five African Countries

credit: Dave Clark via Flickr CC license

Among the many barriers to quality healthcare in the developing world is the high cost of medicine. This is due, in part, to frequent disruptions in the supply chain. Customers who visit a pharmacy to purchase medicine can’t be guaranteed that the medicine will be something they can afford– or even if the medicine will be there at all.

My podcast guest today, Gregory Rockson, is a social entrepreneur who is pioneering a way to make medicine in several African countries more affordable and access to that medicine more reliable. He is the c0-founder of  a social enterprise called mPharma, which uses data analytics and supply chain management to help small and independent pharmacies control their costs.  This is crucial because unlike here in the United States where big pharmacy chains are ubiquitous, in the places mPharma operates small and independent pharmacies are serve the vast majority of people.

mPharma essentially manages the drug supply of participating pharmacies, and assumes the financial risk if drugs are over or under stocked — sharply driving down the costs.

This is an absolutely fascinating business model and it’s already revolutionizing access to medicine in five African countries and is poised for further expansion.

If you have twenty minutes and want to learn why drug prices in many countries are so high and what can be done to drive down those costs, have a listen.

Get the Global Dispatches Podcast

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

How a Social Entrepreneur is Fighting Counterfeit Medicines in the Developing World

Not long ago, the social entrepreneur Bright Simons tried and failed to create a platform to pair organic farmers in Ghana with consumers of organic products. But in that failure he made an important discovery that is now revolutionizing the fight against fake and counterfeit goods in the developing world — including potentially deadly counterfeit medicines.

Bright Simons is the co-founder and lead of mPedigree, a social enterprise that combats the problem of counterfeit and fake goods — everything from medicines, to seeds, to auto-parts and more.

As Bright Simons explains, mPedigree takes a systems-wide approach to fighting counterfeits. Its core innovation is a unique product identification marker, called the GoldKeys Platform. Think of it as a scratch off label that reveals a code which people can use a phone to instantly validate the authenticity of a product.

Through this validation system, mPedigree has not only helped stop counterfeiting across many industries, but as Bright Simons explains it’s changing the behavior of individual consumers, industries and even government.

This conversation with Bright Simons will change how you think about counterfeit goods and the systems required to stop this problem and restore consumer confidence and trust.

Get the Global Dispatches Podcast

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

This episode is presented in partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

The Co-Founder of Global Citizen Describes the Future of Advocacy in International Affairs

About a decade ago, Simon Moss co-founded Global Citizen with a few friends in Australia. It has since grown into a behemoth of global advocacy on issues related to ending extreme poverty around the world.

I’ve known Simon for years and have watched Global Citizen evolve over the years. So, I thought it might be useful and interesting to learn from him how an advocacy group like Global Citizen is adapting to broader geopolitical shifts. How does a group focused on ended extreme poverty respond to China’s increasing influence in the global development space? How does it adapt to the withdrawal of the United States from its traditional role as a champion of global health and anti-poverty programs? I put these questions and more to Simon Moss in this enlightening and lively conversation about the future of global advocacy on issues related to sustainable development and fighting extreme poverty.

We kick off discussing the origin story of Global Citizen before having a longer conversation about new trends in global advocacy work.

Global Citizen is probably best known for its annual music festival in Central Park in New York that takes place during UN week, bringing together music stars, NGO leaders and government officials on stage in an effort to catalyze action on key global issues like polio eradication or girls education. Simon Moss explains the pros and cons of using a major event like a rock concert to leverage concrete policy outcomes.

If you have 25 minutes and want to learn where international advocacy is headed in the Trump era, have a listen.

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About Simon Moss

Simon Moss is a Co-Founder of Global Citizen, and is currently the Managing Director of Campaigns. He’s another Australian living in New York, has been campaigning on global issues for more than a decade, and writes and speaks regularly on the role of global citizens in ending extreme poverty.

Sunitha Krishnan Rescues Girls from Sex Slavery

Sunitha Krishnan literally rescues girls from sex slavery.

She is the founder of the Indian NGO Prajwala which both physically removes girls from sexual bondage and provides social, medical and psychological support for their rehabilitation.

She’s been beaten. She’s been jailed. But nevertheless she persists.

And as she tells me in our conversation what motivates her in this dangerous work is anger. And that anger stems from her own experience with sexual assault at the age of 15, when she was the victim of a gang rape.

I met Sunitha Krishnan in June in Yerevan, Armenia where she was being recognized for her heroic work by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.  She was one of three finalists for the 2018 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. And though she did not end up winning that award (it went to a Rohingya human rights lawyer named Kyaw Hla Aung) her work in the slums of India certainly gained wider attention.

Sunitha Krishnan is a true hero and it was an honor to get to know her.

Download this episode to listen later. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or get the Global Dispatches mobile app.

 

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins was one of the largest private landowners in the world before she gave it away

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins made history earlier this year when she completed what is said to be the largest ever transfer of land from a private entity to a government.

In a ceremony in Chile with President Michelle Bachelet at her side, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins formally handed over 1 million acres of land of while President Bachelet designated 9 million more acres to create vast new national parks.

This created areas of protected wilderness about the size of Switzerland.

That ceremony was the culmination of decades of work by Kristine and her late husband Doug Tompkins. Kristine was the longtime CEO of the outdoor apparel company Patagonia. Doug, who died in a kayaking accident in 2015, was the co-founder of the clothing companies North Face and Esprit. Together, the created the non-profit Tompkins Conservation.

In this conversation, Kristine Tompkins discusses the origins of her work as a conversationist and as a pioneer of corporate social responsibility. She also describes the process of creating wilderness areas in partnerships with governments.

We caught up while she was in New York to receive an award from the United Nations Environment Program.

Among other things, this is an interesting conversation about the impact of philanthropy in global affairs and conservationism.

Episode 190: Suzanne DiMaggio

Suzanne DiMaggio specializes in what is called Track Two Diplomacy with countries that have limited or no diplomatic relations with the United Stats. In practice, this has meant that she’s spent countless hours over the last nearly twenty years in meetings with North Koreans and Iranians and those encounters have lead to some major diplomatic breakthroughs.

We kick off defining our terms. She explains what track two diplomacy means, as opposed to, say “back channel” diplomacy. We then preview an upcoming major summit between the Kim Jong UN and South Korean president Moon Jae-in. And that meeting, of course, will lay the groundwork for the Trump-Kim meeting, which we discuss in detail.

As diplomacy with North Korea intensifies in the coming months, Suzanne DiMaggio is someone you will see quoted often on TV and radio and so I also wanted to use our conversation to learn how she first got involved with this kind of unique diplomatic endeavor. She has some great stories to tell.

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