In partnership with Hult International Business School and Merry Year International, Team Gazelle, comprised of six master students of social entrepreneurship from South Korea, Australia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Spain and Germany will be working in the UN Millennium project, which was commissioned by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2002 to develop a concrete action plan for the world to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people.
After months of preparations, discussions, meetings and conferences, Team Gazelle is thrilled to be finally starting its sustainable development project in the Gumulira village in Malawi. Ultimately, our major outputs will be feasibility studies on business opportunities within the field and a business plan on how to implement specific revenue-generating activities to foster self-sustainable development. These reports will be developed in close cooperation with all local stakeholders in Gumulira.
Some team members are already in the MDG Center based in Nairobi, to collect relevant background information, which will be useful during our field research. The team will meet in Lilongwe, Malawi on thursday morning to start its field research. We will be using an agile project management approach (SCRUM) to plan, implement and adjust our activities in the field. Above that, we will be having regular contact with team members staying in London, coordinating and researching background information, as also being the interface between Hult International Business School and Team Gazelle.
Our field activities are basically comprised of three phases:
1) Information Gathering Phase
2) Testing Phase
3) Implementation Phase
Within the first days, we will be accomplishing workshops to embark on understanding the local people’s life in Gumulira, Malawi. The expected outcome is to understand the most pressing needs and wishes, to be able to work together in the most efficient way. Topics will cover agriculture, water and sanitation, education, health, transport, business opportunities and microcredits, among others. We will be using different techniques to gather relevant information, create new knowledge and present results.
Team Gazelle will be using IDEO’s “Human Centered Design Approach” as overall strategy to our field project. It is a method on how to interact with local people to discover the most pressing needs, create the necessary tools and services to tackle these problems to eventually deliver feasible solutions. One major key aspect is the constant interaction with the population: we will observe, interview and recruit local stakeholders to be able to deliver sustainable results for their benefit.
Original article published on http://projectgazellemalawi.wordpress.com/
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