I may have just met the man with the answers to eradicating poverty

I’ve read all the books and I’ve talked to the global experts, but today, I think I’ve stumbled upon the man who can end poverty. After hours of listening, with pages of notes flowing out of my pen, I was sold. This man addresses the causes of poverty, the barriers to overcoming poverty, the solutions to the barriers, and he provided concrete examples of successes he has already implemented.

With over twenty years of rock solid experience building the informal sector around East Africa, Dr. Makange has both the theory and detailed plan to eradicate poverty. It’s not guess-work, he has done it in many places. Now he is ready to scale-up.

So, how much would it cost to roll-out his solution in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania? Was this a Gates Foundation level of investment? More to come on that topic, but first more on Dr. Makange.

Doctor Makange has been working in the informal development sector for longer than many social entrepreneurs have been alive. He has built successful informal sectors all over Africa. He knows what works and he is open about the failures.

With a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, Doctor Makange’s intellect is radiant, but that’s not what drew me into his message. Earlier in his career, Dr. Makange was an operations manager in a manufacturing plant. He knows the value of theory, but he also knows that theories are of no value unless you can actually turn the theory in actionable steps to reach goals. Actionable steps are what operations managers do.

So how much would it cost?  The answer literally left me speechless - we are talking about roughly $150,000 dollars to eradicate poverty for an entire region of East Africa. As I looked across the parking lot at a brand-new Range Rover, it wasn’t lost on me that for the price of two Range Rovers, you could eliminate poverty for hundreds of thousands of people. Wow…

So, how do we help secure funding for this?