My Beauty Best Teacher

"...Kenyas middle class has grown to 10 percent of the urban population — or 1.5 million people — making Kenya home to one of the largest middle class populations in sub-Saharan Africa.Government deregulation stimulated economic growth and turned Nairobbery — a former nickname for the city — into a booming economic center. Nairobi reflects this trend with multinational businesses, towering office buildings and a growing middle class..."More here
HT June Arunga

TED Fellow 2007 June Arunga recounts her experiences while raising money for the startup BSL:
June Arunga on Western Attitudes Towards Business in Africa from DRI on Vimeo.
via MootBox

Excerpts from participants at a recent Development Research Institute conference:

Yaw Nyarko:
"No nation has ever developed because of aid and outside advice".

Andrew Mwenda:
“Aid money makes African governments accountable to the aid agencies rather than to their own people.”

June Arunga:
"Aid money is diverting African skilled professionals away from private enterprise to writing proposals for NGOs.”

The Economist reports on a debate between Richard Cockett,June Arunga, Mike Gidney and Tunde Zack-Williams the subject being-Who's keeping Africa Down? Listen here
via PSD Blog

June Arunga a TED fellow, speaks at DLD about growing evidence of demand for goods and services within the continent:

ABC News reports on the Myth that "...foreign aid will cure poverty...". Reviewing various statements by celebrities from Bono to Angelie Jolie and supported by Jeffery Sachs, June Arunga states "...You look like an angel if you have all these poor people behind you," she said. "Of course, they'll be smiling. Who wouldn't be smiling if they've just been given stuff? But that's not real life...she wonders why Americans waste money on foreign aid to Africa … when many politicians just steal it..."

Commenting on the viewpoints of Anti-Globalization agitators the writer and presenter of the documentary 'The Devils Footpath' Akinyi June Arunga stated that,"...Like many other globalization protesters I've encountered, they seemed to believe that Mexicans and other poor people don't want the same conveniences of life that they themselves enjoy: running water, permanent homes, affordable clothes and food, leisure time, cars. They preferred things to stay "exotic"—underdeveloped and poor.The "indigenous" customs enjoyed by such tourists are not so charming when they make up one's day-to-day existence. The protesters curse the use of DDT, the only effective control of malaria, because it harms birds. But they never have to wonder if their children will survive the current malaria epidemic. They argue against the use of pesticides and pest- and drought-resistant crops, but they never have to wonder how they will survive if a pest invasion or drought destroys all their grown food.They argue against new technologies, such as the genetic modification of crops, that might increase productivity and help us move from subsistence farming to cash crops, but they never have to worry that there might not be food on the table..."