Entrepreneurial diplomacy

I believe that one can bring an entrepreneurial approach to just about anything, not just to start a business.  As I've mentioned in an earlier post, my favorite definition of an entrepreneur is 'one who recognizes opportunities and organizes resources to take advantage of the opportunity'.  And here's an exciting example of entrepreneurship in a small social venture with lasting impact - from a diplomat, no less.

I heard about this over dinner a little while ago with J. Ravikumar, the High Commissioner of India to Cameroon (full disclosure, he's a 'cousin' in the Indian sense, which defies ordinal numeric categorization).  Cameroon is a small nation, but while it is a typical African country in some ways, in others it has a lot going for it - a literacy rate of 76% for example.  What Ravikumar noticed was that the rural areas in particular were limited in their access to power and that caused a variety of attendant problems, the most critical, from the villagers perspective, was the fact that they had to trek a long way and pay exorbitant amounts to charge up their cell phones.

So Ravikumar worked with others to put together a disarmingly simple but highly sustainable solution.  He arranged for women from the village to go to India and get trained on installing and maintaining solar panels - middle-aged women because they would be more likely to stay in the villages and provide support vs. youngsters who would head for the bright lights in the big city.  They came back and successfully got solar power to the first village - and along with solar power, the inhabitants will get three critical items: a light (so kids could read at night), a stove (so they could stop chopping wood) and a fan to keep the mosquitoes away.  Best of all, they can charge their cell phones right in their village!  With success at this site, the model can be repeated in other areas.

To be sure, there are other goals being met through this project - not least of which is the furthering of Indo-African ties (read about that aspect here).  The fact that Ravikumar has a business background probably had a lot to do with his seeing an opportunity and pulling together various resources (local and Indian governments, United Nations Development Programme etc.) to fill it.  Still, is is extremely encouraging to see how an entrepreneurial mindset can make 'foreign relations' more relevant and productive, and to deliver so much potential for future entrepreneurship for the women who're now trained solar panel installers, as well as all the people in the village who are now em'powered' - couldn't resist the pun ;) 
Kudos to Ravikumar and the multi-national team for their innovative approach!