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Thursday, December 31, 2015

south afruca - sad reports on maharishi /cide - the free university

i found this report on cida - i welcome updates


The new loan-based model is meant to ensure the institution's long-term self-sustainability. (Madelene Cronje, M&G)
The new loan-based model is meant to ensure the institution's long-term self-sustainability. (Madelene Cronje, M&G)


A consortium has thrown Cida City Campus a last-minute lifeline in the form of a multimillion-rand proposal to rescue South Africa’s only fee-free university, which is currently closed and threatened with liquidation.
Instead of recommending final wind-up of business of the institution, provisional liquidators have invited creditors to a meeting next week to vote on the proposal to salvage the facility. 
Johannes Muller and Eugene Januarie of Tshwane Trust, whom the Johannesburg high court appointed as joint provisional liquidators of Cida, have sent creditors a circular detailing the proposal. 
The circular, which the Mail & Guardian has seen, details the multimillion-rand rescue offer from the consortium comprising Africa Integras, the Cida Empowerment Trust and the Africa Alliance of Young Men’s Christian Associations. It has offered to invest millions in the institution and will operate as Cida Holdings.
“Cida Holdings has approached the provisional liquidators with the intention of returning the company to solvent circumstances and facilitating the resumption of the business of the company for the benefit and interest of the students and employees,” said the circular.
‘Salient features’
The “salient features” of the proposal to rescue Cida, according to the circular, are that three major creditors agree to write down their claims by significant percentages. The City of Johannesburg is being asked to write off 100% of its R9.6-million claim. 
The South African Revenue Services is being canvassed to write off 65% of its claim; Cida owes it R4.9-million.
The Joffe Charitable Trust is being asked to agree to write off 75% of the university’s debt. 
With the big three out of the way, provisional liquidators anticipate that the claims of the concurrent creditors total about R5.289-million. Just more than R3.4-million “shall be available for distribution to the concurrent creditors”, said the circular. 
Cida was initially said to owe creditors about R30-million, a debt that led to its directors applying to the courts in 2013 to have the institution placed under administration. When this failed, Cida went into provisional liquidation and finally closed the gates in December.
Groundbreaking institution
The Lyndhurst-based institution, which offers a bachelor of administration degree, had about 400 students when it suspended operations. 
Cida burst on to the scene in 1999 as a groundbreaking institution to uplift thousands of poor black matriculants. An institution whose sustainability depended on donors, its fortunes dwindled after founder Taddy Blecher, an accomplished social entrepreneur, resigned in 2007.  
It cracked after years of mismanagement and failure to attract donors following Blecher’s departure. 
The new proposal will be adopted if 51% of creditors in attendance vote in its favour. It would then become an order of the Johannesburg high court “on or before” September 30. 
“Cida Holdings shall [then] resume business of the company to facilitate resumption of the provision of tertiary education to the indigent students immediately upon the sanction date or upon the agreement with the provisional liquidators upon approval of the proposal by creditors,” said the document. 
Provisional liquidators warned that if any of the conditions to the proposal fail, Cida would be placed in final liquidation. “And in such a scenario, the provisional liquidators submit that the creditors will receive a reduced dividend.” 
But if all goes well, “the company will be discharged from provisional liquidation resulting in the resumption and continuation of the business of the company and the continued employment of the employees”. 
“The creditors will receive their payment/dividend in relation to their claims sooner than would have been the case if the winding-up of the company was to proceed to finality.”
Confident of acceptance
Andrea Christie Pizziconi, responding from New York on behalf of Cida Holdings to the M&G‘s emailed questions, said they were confident the latest offer would be accepted. 
She said their proposal brings in more than R100-million in “socially responsible financing for Cida from several highly credible international and local institutions”, including Africa Integras, Cida Empowerment Trust, African Alliance of YMCAs and the US government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation. 
“Our consortium is very excited to be able to present to Cida’s creditors a solution that not only settles with creditors equitably but also provides Cida with the kind of material investment it needs to emerge as the international model for economically accessible high-quality higher education it was originally created to become,” said Pizziconi. 
“This funding will revitalise the campus facilities, repay creditors and invest in strengthening the human capital and academic offerings at Cida. In particular, we will focus on providing substantial holistic support for Cida’s students and staff to ensure their long-term success.”
Loan-based institution
Cida will no longer operate as a free institution, but a loan-based institution. The circular said Cida Holdings would facilitate “financial support for the students, in the form of affordable loans and scholarships”. 
The company would also “facilitate the employment of students in part-time capacities to assist the students with their financial obligations in respect of living expenses”, according to the document. 
But it will remain a home to poor students, Pizziconi said. “Our investment also allows all students access to a combination of affordable funding options including support from the Cida Empowerment Trust, affordable loans, some ongoing donor support and paid part-time internships. These various options ensure all students, regardless of their economic means, can continue to afford to attend Cida.”
The new model is meant to ensure the institution’s long-term self-sustainability. “Going forward, Cida will not be at risk of funding shortfalls if donor support wanes and we will be able to expand enrolment back up to Cida’s historic levels, allowing access to a newly revitalised Cida for even more economically disadvantaged students,” said Pizziconi.
Student Mpume Nkabini said she couldn’t wait to go back to the institution and complete her degree. “We have been sitting home the entire year doing nothing. We wish to go to class as soon as possible, even if it takes pushing to cover a semester in December.”
Pizziconi said they “hope to reopen Cida as soon as possible so that we can start to get the existing Cida students caught up on the time they’ve lost this year so far.  
“The welfare of the students and ensuring they are able to get their studies back on track as soon as possible is by far our top priority in the near term.”

Bongani Nkosi


update october 2019
Dear Andrea

We met at the end of the superb #girlsedu event that christina hosted in brookings 

I write up notes on new university models- and clearly you know a lot more about south africa and taddy blecher since 2015 than I do- it sounds a sad situation from something that was at one time near its beginning in 1999 was associated with mandela and all youth hope out of south africa

My purpose is not necessarily to try and help anywhere - i dont have the resources for that at tech scale needed
i will be publishing a card game in early 2020- basically the top 50 people  -eg attenborough on nature - whose knowledge i believe my father would want all youth to know exists- father http://www.normanmacrae.net  was The Economist's sub-editor of 3 movements- end poverty; love each others people east to west ; leapfrog with each new decade of tech- he was awarded the japan emperors main international award for connecting sustainable trade between japan and rest of world-
in 1984 he and i co-authored a book the 2025 report on humanising tech timelines to sustainability goals - we are badly overshooting them especially with the last 5 years of political inertia and misinformation media both with brexit and congress- it is time as director from unicef to find transformative models of education

I would like to understand which of these things were working at one stage - to see if any are eg transferable to places where they could work

My friends, student union clubs and i have done extensive interviewing of taddy on 3 occasions 
around 2006-2008
around 2012
around 2015

in the first 2 cases i was associated with london hubs which also had south african branches or diaspora and it was they who collected much of the info before i actually met taddy

in 2006 the interesting thing was taddy was looking for missing curricula
entrepreneurship curriculum which he later built with richard branson and the billionaire founder of spanx who also linked in people like oprah winfree and jeff skoll 

coding curricula which i thought he built with google africa
financial literacy curricula
consciousness/belief in self curricula which he built with maharishi and which his wife had practised in china i think

several of his alumni came to present at be the change summits in london around 2007 - they were remarkable in that they had a shared culture- it seemed like the loyalest and most self-confident of alumni clubs

taddy's story in 2012 was that by now he has nearly 10000 alumni - some were earning high wages and giving back- others were scaling social franchises with appropriate digital models across rural and other deprived ares

when i last met him in 2015 july i was introducing him to an owner of an elearning satellite - he was still positive- he had a new emphasis because most children in south africa leave at about 7th grade - his graduates wanted the curricula they had learnt to have equivalent 7th grade curricula - again with apparent partnerships like oprah winfree schools that had fed into the university and branson etc this sounded possible if not to scale at least to clarify lessons on

what i dont want to do is to get into debates of where something never worked- what i do want to do is know if any of the above is still transferable- for example if patrick does host a collaborative

the general idea of a nations new university that understands the tech and prepares ethical graduates to be the future of public servants is i certainly hope what patrick in ghana has all the connections to do

also in asia the universities i know have a different problem- they certainly have no survival problems but equally they dont have eg patricks connections with pretty much every diaspora person who has worked in a top 5 internet company in usa and who wants to give back

andrea i would love to meet and improve shared knowledge - if you are mainly based in new york i can come up there or i am mainly based in dc region when i am not in asia- i do know people quite high up in 1 wise education laureate 2 various chinese education laureates- i know some of the tutors of schwarzman scholars; i want to end universities that get youth in debt without livelihoods - i have interviewed at least 50 leaders of historically black universities  during 2010 -2012 when muhammad yunus and about 70 of his supporters promised to find at least one hbuc but we all failed partly because yunus himself  got into political row and lost almost everything back at bangladesh a place where fortunately everything continues to grow and grow around brac and blash and the world's largest ngo partnerships- for those interested in bangladesh lessons always happy to share

I think there are many tipping points now as we accelerate through to 5g so i really want to tidy up any past histories of cases as important as blecher once was- coincidentally during un week  in new york when i attended facebook session with patrick i also found a pop up version of branson connected with his jamaican networks- they said they are moving from education to hubs but have found a couple of wealthy new yorkers to continue the discussion at least in terms of the jamaican networks

look forward to hearing whether you think its worth meeting - i have quite a lot of information on livelihood education at all ages but i certainly want to correct any misimpressions i (or all girls researchers and hubs i linkin to) have about south african situation

sincerely chris macrae DC region norman macrae foundation
whatapp and wechat and mobile +1 240 316 8157
Anticipated chinese commitments to africa -source 2015
Total Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in Africa between 2005 and 2016 was estimated at US$293.36 billion by the Heritage Foundation. • The Chinese side will scale up its investments in Africa, and plan to increase China’s stock of direct investment in Africa to US$100 billion in 2020 from US$32.4 billion in 2014. • Construction is underway for the six Chinese overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in countries including Zambia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Egypt, and Ethiopia. These cooperation zones offer incentives such as tax holidays and import tax waivers to attract Chinese companies and other Foreign Direct Investments. Some of the zones have witnessed progress in attracting investment, with businesses moving in and production getting started. In addition to investment the zones are expected to provide employment and technology transfer to further economic development. • Special loan of US$1 billion for African Small and Medium Enterprises development will be gradually expanded to $6 billion. • The Chinese side will set up a China-Africa production capacity cooperation fund, with an initial pledge of US$10 billion, to support China-Africa industry partnering and industrial capacity cooperation.

EDUCATION • UNESCO established a one-to-one inter-institutional cooperation model - the 20+20 Plan for Chinese and African Institutions of Higher Education. • The Chinese government will implement the “African Talents Program”. In the next three years, China will train 30,000 African professionals in various sectors and offer 18,000 government scholarships • China will provide US$2 million annually under the framework of the UNESCO trust fund to support education development programs in Africa. • The Chinese side welcomes the inclusion by African countries of Chinese language teaching as part of their national education systems and will support more African countries in their efforts to establish Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms. • China provided training for 200,000 local African vocational and technical personnel an

Friday, August 28, 2015

rebecca pls phone 2403168157  or meet bethesda or silver spring if any of big 4 african mediated intervention below urgently interest you- sorry unable to be at io hub event yesterday- was taking daughter to college


1 can we openly connect ihubs as africas leading entrepreneur summit hosts with world banks format
1 spent 3 days at world bank youth entrepreneur accelerator run by athgo- in its 10th year it claims to be world banks approved entrepreneur competition facilitator
athgo's founder armin directly runs millennials entrepreneur competitions for kagame rwanda (which before kim left partners in health became their epicentre for all africa community health training)
and while armin is los angeles based our dc region's naila is a co-director of athgo events -every millennials or diaspora summit i attend at world bank fails to connect that summit's leader with parallel ones; i see hubs as the huge opportunity to fix this in parallel to your speech that an ihub is a first point of contact world bank african project coordinators should include if living up to kim's view that only millennials can make 2030 now happen; i think i have found the missing youth coordinator on the 13th floor; how to approach her is urgent collaboration networking question; maybe the ethiopian in world bank who compered diaspora summit and you could ; the internal ability of the world bank to live jim kim's vision is structurally non-existent- even when kim viralises video content of hos own or with tedx costars like dbanj the world banks own coursera curriculum completely exclude him-- helping fix this is biggest opportunity southern diasporas and open learning leaders who link presence through dc will ever have this or any year to contribute to sustainability and net generation being the most creative one; the reason for this is the way communications is used in pr and lobbies is exactly the opposite of the way milliennials networks need to communicate to end poverty bottom-up ; exponential valuation impact metrics of brand valuation are also wrong as my researchers proved while hired by big 5 consultants in the 1990s and guest edited in triple issue of journal of marketing management 1999




2 which african national leaders of first ladies could now unite transform their youth's future with a university of the underprivileged?
2 starting next week, my 8 year long co-worker mostofa has been assigned to 2 year project by dubai rulers on youth summits and universities for underpriviileged youths-  structurally dubai doesnt just have an emerging ihub it has a whole metro "internet city as an emerging ecosystem - the boston model (ie MIT's square mile round kendall metro)
amyworldfirstblecheratyazmibysamara
he was co-introduced to this by south africas taddy blecher the leading free university partnerships designer of total educatuon system transformations to create jobs; yazmi is trialling relationship with blecher; blecher has long seen hubs as pivotal - he asked mostofa and i start searching them in 2006- while mostofa was in london and i had lent money to the-hub.net's founder jonathan robinson - dubai and chinese friends want job and tech youth hubs connected across the world- what is is role in this and urgent for me is do you have favorite silicon valley hub relationships; i know which chinese diaspora women most linkin and will go with that unless guided elsewhere

3 taking back millennials UN  -leadership to replace inequality of women by mobile women4empowerment as core collab process of sustainability goals with a little help from fans of pope francis and other whole truth faith/peace leaders
3 women have an opportunity like no other to support jim kim , pop francis or any real empowerment curricula- the next 6 weeks will be critical- for example will one of the 2 women who could most change sustainability goals by and women be elected next un secretary general- and if so what will yazmi's relationships be with their activist alumni network; in case of candidate bachelet she is asking yazmi can a learning satellite be reconnected from the americas and will this issue be included in world bank start year meetings out of lima peru in early october; in case of the candidate who changes how un selects university partners to value women empowerment and nanotech for the poor, naila's first ladies networks led out of africa by rachel ruto and mrs toure wife of former itu president are on that case and friends of yazmi also have long standing connections with the kerala meta-hub of all these partnerships gravitated arounf amma.org


4 mirror mirror on the wall what can african owned satellites out of silver spring do for youth www  empowerment of 21st C NOW?
4 monday morning event hoisted br dr ranga at www.yazm.comi explores whether cameroon schools  can be a leading organic content developer for ages 6 to 11; our other 3 ,main sources for that age group are also operationally connected by ranga - 1 round amma, 2 round indian orghanages already with tablet content, 3 mostofa and my great friends in lucknow who run worlds largest school by being epicentre of montessori-gandhi style eduvation systems and unesco's only awarded peace curriculum


cheers
chris macrae n.bethesda  www.economistafrica.com   satellite alumni networks  publishers world record book of jobs creation

Monday, August 24, 2015

Most of Africa's Best jobs haven't been invented yet

Sixty percent of the best jobs in the next 10 years haven’t been invented yet. At least that’s what futurologist Thomas Frey is fond of saying.
New jobs – and lots of them – will be needed for Africa to reverse staggering youth unemployment rates which, in parts of the continent, are as high as 43 and 51 percent for men and women, respectively.
What skills will young people need in order to be ready for them? And where will these jobs come from?
Recommended: 6 international organizations that support jobs and businesses
One source will be social entrepreneurs in Africa who are creating new market opportunities as they transform their chosen fields. Here is a list of top jobs I expect to see employing young people in Africa over the course of the next decade:

University Founder

South Africa’s first free university, CIDA City Campus, was founded in 2000 by Taddy Blecher. Since then, 6,000 alumni have received a free education in exchange for managing day-to-day operations. Some 4,500 alumni have started businesses and those in employment are, on average, earning as much as $30,000 a year five years after graduation. The CIDA “learn and earn” methodology not only ensures that entrepreneurial students have hands-on learning experiences, but also guarantees that the university education is free for all. Six other institutions founded on these principles have educated more than 600,000 young people, but demand is still skyrocketing across Africa. University founders who can provide a world-class, entrepreneurial and FREE education will be in huge demand.

Wellness Coach

Paige Elenson insists “our economies and our bodies are unhealthy.” In Kenya, when she started the Africa Yoga Project in 2006, more than 60 percent of young people were unemployed and noncommunicable lifestyle diseases were on the rise. She tackles both challenges simultaneously by training yoga instructors. Today you can book a private yoga lesson online with one of more than 70 trained instructors or join more than 300 weekly yoga classes in Nairobi. Someday, when AYP expands across the continent and its alumni launch new companies in the global wellness and health tourism market (already worth an estimated $3 billion annually), you’ll have to hire a wellness coach to help you navigate all the options.

Diversity Designer

As the world becomes more interconnected and the challenges we encounter more varied, the ability to build, engage, and lead diverse teams will be critical, regardless of sector. In Kenya, Fred Ouko founded ANDY (the Action Network for the Disabled) in part to help large employers be more inclusive of people with disabilities. With help from ANDY, large employers employ dozens of young people with disabilities and report that diverse teams are better able to adapt to changes and create new solutions. Does your company need a diversity designer?

Invisible Executive

Across West Africa, independent and entrepreneurial workers at Karim Sy’s network of JokkoLabs are turning traditional employment on its head. At these collaborative spaces, entrepreneurial “invisible executives” build teams around emerging opportunities, coming together to share their best ideas and tackle new challenges. In a world where workers are autonomous and challenges are shared, “invisible executives” will emerge to virtually build and lead more flexible, independent workforces around compelling social challenges. Have a tricky challenge? Surf over to one of the six JokkoLabs where more than 3,000 coworkers are already solving 21stCentury problems.

Ecosystem Advocate

For too long human economic activities have not properly accounted for nature’s abundant contributions. But now there is widespread recognition that natural ecosystems are at a breaking point. In Benin, Salim Daralaunched Solidarité Rurale to build a network of demonstration farms where students experience the interconnectedness of nature and the importance of balanced, sustainable ecosystems. In the future, graduates could be employed as Ecosystem Advocates protecting cities’ watersheds or vulnerable landscapes for future generations.

Cultural Navigator

Where will we find employees with enough global empathy to navigate “normal” workdays filled with international video chatting and intercontinental brand strategies designed to appeal to customers whose cultures you barely understand? Start by recruiting talent from Nafisika Trust, which was founded by Vickie Wambura in 2006. Nafisika works to transform Kenya’s prisons into thriving centers of rehabilitation and enlightenment. By bringing community volunteers into prisons to run their programs, they simultaneously tackle two big challenges: under-resourced prisons and the stigma society attaches to convicts. Last year alone Nafisika’s hyper-empathetic volunteers gave more than 11,000 hours of pro bono support to 4,500 prisoners. These volunteers are expert cultural navigators that can easily tune into and navigate new markets and consumer behavior.

Nutrient Banker

Tools for measuring nutrients in soilfood, and our bodies are increasingly sophisticated and accessible to average consumers. Soon, home gardeners and smallholder farmers will be able to buy Soil IQ, a wireless soil sensordeveloped by Jason Arambaru. The device helps farmers by converting a measurement of soil health (moisture, acidity, and micro-nutrient content) into instant agricultural advice. When farmers, food industry actors, and consumers are able to easily measure the most important component of food – nutrients – we can expect to see new professionals creating, maintaining, and supplying a full spectrum of nutrition in landscapes as soil health experts, nutrient trackers, and nutrient bankers.

Climate Change Adaptability Agent

In Zimbabwe, Verengai Mabika’s Development Reality Institute conducts online courses and primary school clubs focused on the earth’s changing climate system and its economic, environmental, and political implications. Hundreds of primary school children in Zimbabwe regularly participate in what the institute dubs “Cool Clubs,” and DRI has conducted online courses for 800 students from 28 countries. Verengai’s ultimate goal is to build society’s adaptive capacity by preparing young people to tackle 21st century challenges. Future employers will thank him.

Smallholder Super Farmer

In the future, small will be big business. There are more than 33 million family farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, but most are still producing at subsistence levels. However, what eBay did for the odd collector or reseller in the U.S., M-Farm is doing for smallholder farmers in Africa. By creating a mobile marketplace and a nationwide network of collection agents, farmers – no matter how small – are able to sell to buyers big and small. With more reliable outlets for products and a steady income, these “Smallholder Super Farmers” might even be able to hire members of another emerging occupation: “Farm Innovation Managers.” In South Africa, more than 350 young people have gone through Future Farmers’ two- to three-year apprenticeship and training program with 70 percent of graduates already employed as farm managers.

Rat Trainer

If you are reading this and are still finding none of these applicable, then this last job might be the one for you. Designer, Buddhist monk, and social entrepreneur Bart Weetjens was frustrated that the world’s best solutions for detecting both unexploded ordinance and diseases relied on expensive, foreign technologies. That’s especially irritating considering a hardy African rodent had all the tools for the job: a strong sense of smell and an eagerness to be trained. Today APOPO rat trainers across Africa and Asia say they have de-mined more than 62,000 acres and detected 5,087 previously misdiagnosed tuberculosis cases. Given the many applications of this “technology” – from shipping ports to airport security – demand for rat trainers is increasing.
Some of these careers are still a bit ahead of their time, but you can prepare for all these future professions by cultivating a changemaker mindset through hands-on experience. The hot jobs of the future will go to empathetic, creative action-takers who dare to think big, build teams, and change the world.

The Future Forward partnership between Ashoka and The MasterCard Foundation aims to identify and support the most innovative problem solvers to youth employment challenges in sub-Saharan Africa and convene conversations about solutions that can move #AfricaYouthFwd.