realisedevelopment.net

Just another WordPress site

Community, Cultural and Economic Development – On a Shoestring…

by

This is the modest challenge I have set myself. A challenge for several reasons.  Firstly these phenomena are usually divided up and tackled by different teams, using different professional jargon, working to different policy objectives in different departments and sectors (for profit, public and third). Tackling community, cultural and economic development as a kind of holy trinity vitally important.  Yet we usually separate them and often end up with economic development that breaks community or ignores culture and vice versa… Another challenge is the fixation that many policy makers and leaders have with ‘big ticket’ solutions.  Want to stimulate culture?  Let’s build an Arena or a Gallery?  Need to stimulate economic development?  How about an Enterprise Zone or a Technology Park?  Or, anyone for high speed trains?  Multi-million pound projects that rely on politicians, bureaucrats and professionals working together to invest millions.  In these austere times there are economic development consultancies that will write you papers on how to finance these projects using tax increment finances and other such stuff! But let’s get back to basics on this. Community, Culture and Economy are like ying and yang, except there are three of them!  They are facets of the same thing: Human endeavour (or as the policy makers prefer to call it enterprise). So, if we want to develop community, culture and economy we are in the business of developing Human Endeavour. And that need not cost a lot….

Danone Think Tankery

by

Last week saw a trip down to London to join a dialogue with

  • Myriam Cohen-Welgryn, Danone Vice-President Nature,
  • Laura Palmeiro, Vice-President Nature Finance,
  • Bernard Giraud, Vice-President Sustainability and Shared Value Creation and
  • Laurence Foucher Danone New Media Manager.

The Danone team were joined by

There was no clearly mapped out process or agenda relying instead on getting some interested people into a convivial setting and seeing where the conversation went.  In both cases I suspect that some real learning accrued on both sides.

Once again Danone showed an incredible openness in sharing with us some of their projects and challenges relating to food security, poverty alleviation, health and sustainability and showed how several projects had moved on from our last round of discussions with them.  Highlights for me included investments from their 100m Euro ‘Nature Fund’ to support the development of Cooperatives of  Ukrainian Farmers to supply the high quality milk required to keep the Danone Production lines in full swing.  Danone invested in milking equipment to be shared by small farmers through the cooperative structure and animal welfare standards and husbandry.  These investments were made with no requirement to tie framers into contracts with Danone.  Also Danone say that paying these farmers cooperatives a fair price for milk ensures the long term stability of supply which is more important to them than any short term profits that might be gained through price squeezing.

I was also intrigued by  their research into the fatty acid content of milk and how this can be correlated with the production of methane allowing accurate offsetting of methane production based on the actual methane production of each herd.  Now I am not an expert on off-setting and have a lay persons suspicion of how much can be achieved through this methodology.  Can we possibly plant enough mangrove, mangoes and other carbon fixing crops to ever truly offset production?  The whole conversation about carbon trading was one that left me a little cold.  I am far from convinced that putting a price on carbon is really the way forward.  Especially now that it can be speculated upon.  I am of the school that thinks the next great bubble to burst will be the carbon market….I hope I am wrong and am certainly no expert in this field.

But perhaps most impressive part of the conversation for me was around needing to re-connect consumers to the production process, the reality of farming and food production.  A simple realisation that for Danone, and the rest of us, ‘Nature IS our business’ and simple tools for ensuring that this realisation is that the heart of innovation in the company.  So for example they are using a wonderfully simple compass to provide a test for new developments:

N = Nature – will the development respect nature?

S = Social – will the development lead to improvements in society?  Fair wages, good governance etc

E= Economic – will the project work economically? (I was impressed by Danone’s willingness to flex their normal investment rules to allow projects that would only work with a more generous interpretation of ‘payback periods’)

W= wellbeing or health – the Danone mission is to improve health for the greatest number of people through food.  If the project does not fit the mission then it will not move forward.

My guess is that this compass will be well understood throughout the business and used to assess new business developments and ensure that balances and tensions are effectively managed.

It is a strange phenomena for me to rub against a corporate whom I like, respect and trust.  Generally I am always lifting up the carpets looking for where the dirt has been hidden.  And still questions remain for me at least about the bottling and distribution of mineral water in rich countries (Danone are behind both Evian and Volvic I believe).  But whenever I meet Danoners – be they ‘top brass’ or ‘frontline’ I am always impressed by their passion, openness (‘we have many challenges and we don’t have the answers but we will experiment…’) and commitment to co-invention of ideas and thinking through conversation.

I am already looking forward to the next conversation…when we hope to get some more skeptics involved

 

 



There is Another Game in Town….and she is called Elsie


 by   
You might be forgiven for thinking that traditional ‘economic development’ is the only game in town.  Shopping centres, arenas and enterprise zones, vocational education and training producing a workforce to meet the needs of employers.


This kind of stuff has been the mainstream of economic development for as long as I can remember.


But there is another game that WE can play..


One which relies less on ‘attracting’ talent and wealth from outside and more on developing the passion, aspiration and skills of the people that already make up our communities.  It works with what we have got, starting from where we are.


It relies on the ability of local people to support each other, with knowledge, skills, networks and wherever possible custom.   Instead of looking to buy ‘star players’ to join the team we instead set up an academy, a place and a process in which we can explore our potential and find the people and other resources that we need to move our projects forward.


This is where Elsie comes in.


Leeds Community Enterprise Accelerator (Elsie) is a project designed to build the capacity of ordinary people in the Leeds community to shape their own future according to their own hopes and aspirations.  It starts with what we have, and works with what we have got.  The project needs you to get involved.  It runs on a ‘pay what you like but free is fine policy’ so cost should not be a barrier to getting involved.


So, please, if you want to see another game in town when it comes to developing an economy that serves our community have a look at Elsie and get involved.