I came across two interesting articles last week, one in the Wall Street Journal and the other one when looking for more information about it on Google. Both relate how innovation and to a lesser extent peanut could help Africa. I am not involved in the activities around social ventures at school, which host a very active Net Impact chapter, but I liked the stories of these two projects.

First, there is the Plumpy’nut, a peanut-butter based paste developed by French company Nutriset as a “rapid renutrition or supplementary feeding”. The results are quite stunning according to the WSJ:

Plumpy'nut has been fed to some 30,000 children in Sudan's Darfur region and aid officials there say it has helped cut malnutrition rates in half.

Second, let me introduce you to the daughter-in-law who doesn't speak, as it has been nicknamed by its female owners/users (from a marketing and a poetic point of view, I love this name). This new relative consists of a diesel engine adapted to the African daily life. Shared with their village by the women who bought it, it can be used to produce peanut butter and electricity through various modules. According to a 2002 article by the WSJ, the results on the living conditions, education and women’s status are tangible:

"It's changing our lives," said Mineta Keita, the 46-year-old president of the Sanankoroni women's association, which manages the machine and the flourishing business that has sprouted around it. Before it arrived a year ago, only nine women in this village of 460 people were able to read and write. Since then, she said, more than 40 have attended literacy courses. The training to prepare the women to manage the machine usually takes four to six months, and it gives them the basics in reading, writing and arithmetic. Most then continue with other courses to get better and better.

Known blandly as the "multifunctional platform" in United Nations parlance, the contraption was invented in the mid-1990s by a Swiss development worker in Mali who believed that easing the domestic load of African women would unleash their entrepreneurial zeal. The machine, simple and sturdy, was tailored for rural Africa.

Entrepreneurial spirit can clearly help the development of the poorest regions of the world but, as the formula to balance social and capitalistic (money needs) constraints is a difficult one to find, this approach has to be backed up (by NGOs, the UNICEF…) to remain viable.

I will leave the final word to John and Paul. “Working for peanuts is all very fine / But I can show you a better time” –The Beatles