This week’s episode opens up with discussion about the recent elections in Botswana and Mozambique, the anti-sanctions protests in Zimbabwe, post-peace prize Ethiopia, and more.
Co-host Rachel Beatty Riedl moderates this week’s conversation on agriculture and innovation in Africa. Our guests are Kudzai Kutukwa, Kitso Dube, and Andrew Dillon. Kudzai and Kitso were YALI Mandela Fellows at Northwestern University earlier this year, when this conversation was recorded.
Kudzai is the co-founder and CEO of Mobbisurance, which is a startup that develops multi-based crop insurance products and other financial services for small-holder farmers. Kitso currently serves as a loan officer for FBC Holdings, helping communities that are marginalized access financial services in Zimbabwe. Andrew is a development economist, appointed as a Clinical Associate Professor within the Kellogg School of Management’s Public-Private Interface Initiative and a Research Associate Professor in the Global Poverty Research Lab at the Buffett Institute.
Books, Links, & Articles
- “Botswana’s ruling party has been in power 50 years. That could change this week.” by Shana Warren
- “Mozambique’s elections saw violence, vote rigging and a landslide victory for the Frelimo party.” Analysis by Anne Pitcher
- “Abiy Ahmed’s Nobel Peace Prize reflects his olive branch diplomacy. But some of these overtures have fallen short.” Analysis by Goitom Gebreluel
- Making Citizens in Africa: Ethnicity, Gender, and National Identity in Ethiopia by Lahra Smith
- Mr Agriculture’s Twitter
- “Foresight Africa 2016: Banking on agriculture for Africa’s future.” by Makhtar Diop
- Making a Market: The Institutional Transformation of an African Society by Jean Ensminger
- Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport