Tufts' Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) is inviting students to participate in its 2008 Micro-Commerce Contest, a competition in which contenders will seek to alleviate poverty through the use of technology in developing countries.
The competition, which has a grand prize of $200,000, is part of the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program's 23rd annual International Symposium. This year's symposium focuses on issues of global poverty and inequality.
Students participating in the competition will form teams and work to invent a social-enterprise project that can be sustained in a developing country, IGL Director Sherman Teichman explained.
In order to qualify for the competition, students must attend the symposium's events. These events, which began yesterday, will be taking place through Sunday.
This year, for the first time, the IGL has invited foreign students from universities throughout the world to attend the symposium, according to Teichman.
"Kids have all been chosen in different ways - through contests and scholars programs - to be here for five days," Teichman said. "They will attend all the workshops, all the public sessions, and interact with Tufts students."
The international delegates, along with any members of the Tufts community who attend the five-day event, are eligible to participate in the competition.
"Nothing would make me happier than to see Tufts students working with students from other countries and watch them win this prize with a really quality design," Teichman said.
To initiate the competition, the IGL joined forces with the Elevator Foundation and Internet Bar, two international organizations focused on combating poverty through micro-commerce. Micro-commerce is the use of technology to provide populations in developing countries with the opportunity to trade in a global, online marketplace. This is meant to help them climb out of poverty by putting them in direct contact with traders in developed countries.
According to Teichman, the Elevator Foundation recently provided every child in the rural village of Ban Samkha, Thailand with a laptop computer as part of its One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.
He said that while OLPC was a huge accomplishment, owning these laptops is not enough to pull Ban Samkha residents out of poverty. "Now that these people have access to the Internet, what do you do with the technology?" Teichman said. "What do you do with this access? How will this help alleviate global poverty?"
Students will use this question as a motivator when formulating their own micro-commerce plans, in which they will develop a project that links people in the developing world to an online marketplace.
Teams in the competition will focus on ways that entrepreneurs from resource-poor regions can expand their businesses through the application of technology.
First-, second- and third-place projects will be chosen, and each will receive funds to help students enact them. The first-place team will receive $200,000, and its members will be placed in full-time or internship positions from the Elevator Foundation as they work to implement their plans at one of the foundation's sites. The second-place team will receive $7,500, and the third-place team will receive $5,000.
"This is part of a cutting-edge initiative, Teichman said. "We are running a professional workshop here. It's a workshop between Interbar ... and a brand-new [non-governmental organization], Elevator. It's bringing lawyers, entrepreneurs and Internet specialists in to take a look at micro-commerce."
"The competition is blending e-commerce and micro-entrepreneurship," said senior Jeffrey Goldberg, a student in EPIIC. "Technology will let people [in the developing world] exchange goods and services with the outside world for the first time."
Inquiries about applying for the contest should be directed to the IGL.
In addition to the Micro-Commerce Contest, Teichman is enthused about EMPOWER, the IGL's newest interdisciplinary program that provides funding for students who wish to do research and site work on the global issue of their choice.
"EMPOWER is going to provide a legacy for many years to come ... This kind of citizenship is critical," Teichman said. "We wanted to provide a direct initiative that would enable students to be educated, trained, mentored and provided with an extraordinary network of established organizations."
Students can apply to the program for funding to do site work in disadvantaged areas of the world. EMPOWER's grants currently range from $500 to $2,500, Teichman said. He added that the IGL plans to raise more money for student funding.
Teichman explained that EMPOWER was created after EPIIC students expressed frustration while studying issues of global poverty.
"Students were [agitated by] how intense these problems were and concerned about what they could do," he said. "We knew we had to create a framework for people to make [a] difference."
Goldberg recently received an internship through EMPOWER at Accion International, one of the world's leading microfinance institutions.
"Accion offers micro-credit loans to people who typically don't have access to financial services in the developing world," Goldberg said. "They recently expanded into China, Africa and India. What I'm doing is really exciting. I'm helping them open a new regional hub in Accra, Ghana."
According to Teichman, Goldberg is the first undergraduate to land an internship position with the company in its 43-year history. Internships "are usually reserved for Harvard's graduate students," Teichman said.
The IGL director hopes that EMPOWER will partner with other organizations that can provide similar internships and fieldwork opportunities for students interested in poverty alleviation and social entrepreneurship.
"We have created an international global network, allies and partnerships, which will enable Tufts students to fund themselves in any corner of the world in effective organizations working to confront poverty," Teichman said.
