MVP: Scaling Up

Yesterday I presented on a panel with the other so-called MV3s, third-generation Millennium Villages. We were allowed two slides, a rule I find ridiculous inasmuch as you can cram infinite amount of information on two slides and still talk for 10 minutes instead of the three that were allocated to each of us. And btw, three minutes is not enough time to introduce and describe a village, the unique operating model involving the first hands-on corporate funder and a SWOT analysis. Nonetheless, the presentation went well. And it helped to get up in front for a few minutes so everyone knew who I was and why I am here.

This is, btw, the most impressive gathering of world experts I’ve ever seen. Everyone has a PhD in something or is advisor to a head of state. And the setting lends an extra aura of significance: We are meeting in the United Nations center in an auditorium that looks very much like the General Assembly.

The challenges we are discussing here are related to scaling up – taking the lessons learned and the approaches developed and refined in the original 10 research villages to hundreds, thousands or even millions of villages worldwide. So national governments could adopt the approach on a country-wide basis. And it’s already happening in Nigeria, Mali and other countries. Amadou, who heads the MDG Centre in Bamako, Mali, just noted that government leaders from countries where there are no MVs are visiting existing villages and coming to him for advice on setting up MVs in their countries. The concept is viral – and the more communication about what’s happening, the better.