Business & Fund Development Committee

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International Fund for Agricultural Development

The Business and Fund Development Committee wrote a major grant in response to an IFAD Request for Proposals on the topic of “Rural youth employment opportunities: Support to integrated agribusiness hubs.” The proposal team included Monica LaBiche Brown, Ellen O’Connell, Rajan Kapur, Kanekwa Kachinga and Mercy Chelangat and Robin Podmore. The Smart Village Entrepreneurs included Etienne Kanjo, Ernest Bah from Torchbearers Foundation, Jude Numfor from REIc and Crystal Mogensen from The Maa Trust. From this proposal, the concept of IEEE Smart Village acting as a hub for facilitating exchange of best practices across IEEE and Rotary subject matter experts and Smart Village Entrepreneurs was formulated. IFAD aims to deliver a total program of work of at least $11 billion from 2022-2024, so it is opportunistic for ISV build a long-term relationship with this funding agency.

United States Trade and Development Administration (USTDA)

REIc, an authorized SunBlazer IV system provider, has been selected as the Prime Contractor for a USTDA-funded $1,000,000 feasibility study to electrify 130 villages in Cameroon while increasing US exports. National Renewable Energy Labs in Golden, Colorado, USA, will act as a subcontractor to perform the study. The pilot system to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach was funded by IEEE Smart Village.

Proposal for Major Energy Infrastructure Company

A proposal has been developed to work with a major energy infrastructure company located in Latin America to provide vocational training and jobs for orphans in an area surrounding a large energy plant. The vocational training and jobs will be focused on brick making, home/office construction, PV mini grids and E-Vehicle charging. The vocational training and jobs will be focused on brick making, home/office construction, PV mini grids and E-Vehicle charging. The vocational training will be provided by subject matter experts from The Maa Trust in Kenya and REIc in Cameroon. This will be an example of IEEE Smart Village Entrepreneurial expertise being shared across different continents.

Power and Energy Society

A budgeted amount of $400K for ISV from the PES is expected to be released in 2021 following reorganization of IEEE Smart Village governance and management committee along with completion of the independent audit.

Coaching for Grant Writing

Ellen O’Connell has developed a presentation on the topic of “Best Practices for Grant Writing.” This is being presented with excellent feedback to ISV Regional and Management Working Groups and Rotary E-Club of Silicon Valley Smart Village. With continued mentoring of this excellent standard, we anticipate that ISV Entrepreneurs and Volunteers will significantly increase their capacity to write professional and successful grant applications based on sustainable and profitable LEAN canvas business plans. Ellen O’Connell has over three decades of experience working with non-profits in the conservation and humanitarian aid sectors, including a project spearheaded by conservationist and paleontologist Richard E. Leakey to build a museum in the Rift Valley of Kenya that will tell the story of the origins of humankind.

Global Telehealth Networks

The Global Telehealth Network project is being developed by a cooperative venture of Rotary International and IEEE Smart Village under the auspices of Rotary E-Club of Silicon Valley Smart Village. The project is being jointly funded by IEEE Smart Village and Rotary International under the Rotary Global Grant process. The project is being directed by Dr. Jack Higgins CEO of NGO Global Telehealth Networks. Jack is orchestrating all the in-country participants, managing the Rotary Global Grant, setting requirements for medical instruments along with the patient – doctor matching software and enlisting all the volunteer doctors. The goal is to bring remote expert medical advice from screened and qualified doctors to three clinics and one hospital in Kenya and two medical clinics in Uganda. The sites include Talek and Sekenani clinics in the Maasai Mara, Nambale Magnet School clinic and Matibabu hospital and clinic in West Kenya, Kyangwali Refugee camp clinic and Rukungiri school clinic in Uganda. IEEE Smart Village Entrepreneur Jude Numfor and REIc, will oversee installation of PV power supplies, computer systems and internet access. The design, development and testing of the patient – doctor matching software is being performed by an expert team of African software developers. Design is performed with UML tools, React for the user interface, Postgres for the database and Python for the patient – doctor matching algorithm.

Contact: 
Robin Podmore