WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009 - (Page 6)
Around the NPCA AFRICA RURAL CONNECT Peace Corps networks can lead to innovative ideas for Sub-Saharan Africa by Mackenzie Monserez T he challenge: Generate innovative, implementable ideas for agricultural development rooted in the reality of rural African farmers. The answer: Create a state-of-theart online social action network that facilitates communication and engagement by communities who have firsthand experience with the problems facing African farmers—and the solutions they imagine. And who better fits this description than Peace Corps Volunteers and the African Diaspora? Africa Rural Connect (ARC) puts the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) at the forefront of a new approach to rural development in Sub-Saharan Africa. By using a custom-made Internet platform, ARC establishes connections among people who know Africa intimately. The innovative work collaboration technology ensures that the real needs of farmers can be heard, problems identified, and actions taken on practical, timely, and cost effective local solutions. The NPCA is in a unique position by virtue of its connections to over 100,000 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who lived, worked, and have ongoing communications with Africa’s rural poor. To ensure the ARC Community will be a space for vibrant discourse, NPCA also will rely on PCVs and RPCVs to invite their friends and colleagues in the African Diaspora, Africa Studies and agricultural academic programs, and the development community to participate. The African Diaspora is an essential element of ARC. With 1.8 million people in the U.S. and representing virtually every country and level of society in Africa, this group presents a broad, rich and—most of all—trusted flow of ideas and information about conditions and opportunities in Africa. The Diaspora offer an “untapped wealth of knowledge and experience,” according to Liberian national and RPCV, Preston Tulay, who served in Ghana from 2004-2007. “We are excited by the possibilities of helping PCVs, RPCVs, Africans and Diaspora members connect and create this self-sustaining community in which the ideas from those who understand Africa best can be heard, and even one day implemented,” says Molly Mattessich (Mali 02-04). “It’s an opportunity to tap into our collective successes and challenges. We see this as be to have these ideas incorporated into the new strategic plan aligned with the new President’s objectives that the next director of the Peace Corps will be developing over the next year or so. Thanks to all who have contributed to the success of the NPCA’s More Peace Corps campaign in helping raise our community’s profile and so effectively making the argument for a bigger Peace Corps. While continuing to encourage the Congress to provide more resources, way to continue our service to Africa, in the spirit of Peace Corps’s Three Goals.” To bridge the gap between words and action, ARC is coordinating a contest on the ARC site for the best business plans developed to improve agricultural practices and directly improve the lives of Africa’s poorest populations. It is an opportunity for someone with a great idea to “get it out there,” to seek advice and comments from others—and perhaps win the $20,000 grand prize for the project’s implementation. NPCA believes that collaboration generates the best ideas and solutions. ARC provides a powerful collaborative workspace for those who care about the development challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. Now all it takes is a desire to get involved and a willingness to share ideas on how to build Africa’s future economic and agricultural success. Contribute your ideas for Africa, visit the ARC website at www.AfricaRuralConnect. org. Mackenzie Monserez was the ARC Program Intern from March-June 2009. She studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland and is working in Tanzania this summer on HIV/ AIDS education projects. we would like to focus more attention on how best to build a better and bolder Peace Corps. I look forward to working with you to make this a reality. Your ideas and suggestions on how we do this are most welcome. Kevin F. F. Quigley is President of the National Peace Corps Association. He served in Thailand, 1976 to 1979. Please send your comments to president@rpcv.org. Continued from previous page which we think would ultimately assist in securing ongoing needed political support. We would also explore how a variety of partnerships could enhance the Peace Corps’s recruitment, training, and programming efforts, while potentially providing co-financing. These ideas would be developed by community leaders and through extensive input from community members via on-line survey tools. Our goal would Summer 2009
http://www.AfricaRuralConnect.org
http://www.AfricaRuralConnect.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
Contents
More Peace Corps Campaign: Better and Bolder!
Africa Rural Connect
Readers Write
You Too Can Be Bill Gates
Taking Peace Corps Back into the Field
Come for the Information, Stay for the Dancing
A “Green” Community Rising
Microfinance Pioneer Receives 2009 Shriver Award
The Colombia Project
A Voice for the Unheard
Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Microfinance Podcasts
Selected Microfinance Resources
Bicycle! Bamenda! Orange!
Luck and Fame
A Step in the Right Direction
Bringing What She Loves
Letter from Botswana: First Tongues of the Kalahari
Letter from Tanzania: Homo Sapien in Africa
In the Beginning (There Was John)
The Peace Corps Community Making a Difference
Community News
Advertiser Index
WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/fall09
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/summer09
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/spring08
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/winter07
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/fall07
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com