GSR's Newsletter is a collection of news, reflections, innovations and ideas that our team hasfound important enough to write down and share with you. We hope you'll be as excited as weare with all the latest developments around the world and what it means for us all.

GSR NewsletterIssue No. 5

August 2013

Crowdfunding to Support a Major ClimateChange Breakthrough!

(Guest Author, Chris Danch)GSR is preparing to launch a series ofcrowdfunding campaigns to raise money to rapidlyproliferate the program. Rapid expansion willmake it possible to reduce greenhouse gas levelsin the atmosphere to pre-industrial levels. Wewould like to ask your help to make thesecampaigns successful. To reverse the devastatingeffects of climate change and land degradation, wemust rapidly reduce emissions and sequester large amounts of excess carbonfrom the atmosphere. Up to now, there hasn’t been a single financially viablesequestration technology. GSR is now ready to unveil a highly cost-effectiveglobal solution to the problem of carbon sequestration. The GSR system makes itpossible to pull more than 10 billion tons of carbon out of the atmosphere peryear, and in effect reverses the trends pushing us towards climate change. Bestof all, once the program is fully operational, it actually pays for itself. How does GSR do this? Carbon sequestration can only be effectively and safelyaccomplished by biologically-driven CO2 sequestration. What we must do isoptimally put the biosphere back to work. The part of the biosphere withgreatest carbon sequestration potential is soil. Conventional (industrial)agriculture is destructive to the soil, releasing carbon back into the atmosphere.As a result, a major cause of climate change is land degradation, ordesertification, caused by conventional agriculture. But GSR practices restorativeagriculture that sustains and improves nutrient levels in the soil. This reversesthe flow of carbon from the atmosphere back into the soil. The GSR model wasoriginally formulated as a cost-effective agricultural empowerment program forvillages in Africa, based on training farmers in the use of organic restorativeagriculture. It has proved to be highly successful and popular with villagesbecause it results in rapid growth in income for small farmers. The popularity ofthe GSR program creates the potential for rapid and widespread replicationacross Africa – on a scale that makes a real impact. The amount of CO2 that could be sequestered byGSR in the next 10 years is staggering. GSR’sprojection is that we will be capable of restoring atleast 60 million hectares of grasslands andmarginal farmland through restorative agriculturein as little as five years given sufficient initialfunding. At this scale of restoration, we will makesteady, critical progress in reducing excessatmospheric carbon to pre-industrial levels. The best place to begin this process of bio-remediation on a big scale is Africa.Currently, millions of people in African rural communities have the motivation,

energy and skill to engage in restorative agriculture on tens of millions of acresof land. But these communities need our help. GSR’s proven, working model ofrural community development is a key factor required to unleash this humanpotential. You can make a difference in this great campaign to save the planet bysupporting and effectively communicating our crowdfunding efforts. Visit oursite to find out more!

What is a Sound Development Model? Most development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa are plagued withorganizational, systemic and funding problems. There are any case studies ofschools, clinics, electric dams and factories being built in Africa. However theseprojects became failures that did not significantly improve the well-being of ruralcommunities, mainly due to many organizations working under a differentmindset required for successful development in Africa. In the Western World, an organizationworks to provide specific products orservices by plugging into the complex gridof commerce, industry, and urbane retailmarkets. The organization typicallydoesn’t expand its enterprise outside ofthe areas of these specialized products orservices. Whether it is IGO, NGO, orcorporate projects, a common theme thatresults in a failed project is specialization.Specialization is the wrong development strategy for African communities, as the“grid” has not been developed to the point where specialization can benefit thecommunity. For instance, if an electric dam is built, how will the local communitybenefit if there are no transformer stations or power lines constructed? Most ofthe people in the village are subsistence farmers will lack the capital required tofacilitate further development of the electric grid once the dam has beenconstructed. It is virtually guaranteed that none of the generated energy will beused by the people who need it the most, unless further foreign investmentcomes to the rural community. The best resolution to Africa’s problems is ageneralist and holistic approach to development. Therefore what is required is abroad holistic approach to simultaneously develop infrastructure, training andlocal enterprises (i.e. providing Small to Midsized Enterprise or "SME"investment and financial services) and create a situation where the ruralcommunity can dynamically grow on all fronts. GSR has taken note of this shortcoming andtries to use a holistic communitydevelopment model that incorporates allfacets of community growth. 'Holistic' impliesthat GSR must be prepared to deal with abroad spectrum of needs, from training,employment, market infrastructure, productsand services, as well as aiding a community’sinteractions with international partners andaffiliate organizations. The most cost-effectivemethod is by developing deep partnerships with local communities andengineering development projects jointly. Local buy-in is essential. If GSR was to sum up its community empowerment methodology in one phrase,it would be BOOT ("Build Own Operate Transer" is an acronym well knownamongst infastructure developers). We ensure that the local “grid” is well-established by helping our local partners build the grid from the bottom up. Thisis the only way that rural communities can become strong and interface with theglobal market in the same way that the rest of the world does.

What is Good Crisis Management?

Crises are a natural and frequent part of everyday life, especially for ruralcommunities in developing countries. GSR proposes a simple yet effective meansto manage crises, through prevention via planning and development ofappropriate programs, technologies, and infrastructure. The precursor toeffective crisis management for villages in the developing world is buildingstrong and stable local economies. Conventional crisis management does not

emphasize infrastructure development, which isone of the areas of primary focus in the GSR villagedevelopment model. Conventional wisdom focuseson cleanup after a crisis occurs, placing a band aidvia delivering countless tons of food aid fromacross the globe. We ask why not solve the localproblem with a local solution? GSR tries to tacklecrisis management through preventative measures. Appropriate infrastructuredevelopment goes hand-in-hand with effective training and financialempowerment programs leading to sustained improvement in supply of food,water and shelter. Solutions for overcoming development barriers are intricatelytied with infrastructure improvements. This approach makes it easier for a ruralcommunity to deal with sudden crises and keep a bulk of capital within theregion. Once funds have been appropriately budgeted, GSR acquires local buildingmaterials, either through setting up construction workshops or purchasinggoods from local craftsmen (including the services of carpenters, brick-makers,landscapers, etc.) This emphasis on local construction and craftsmanship helpsto invigorate regional commerce and industry and it paves the way for smallfarmers to integrate to local and global markets. GSR’s development model focuses on helpingour local partners build self-reliant villageclusters. We will ensure that small farmers andcraftsmen will only have to travel shortdistances to do business. The marketplace willbe right in their back yard. In a cluster of 20-30 villages GSR will build a granary, mill andwarehouse to securely clean and store cropsand goods. These storage facilities make iteasier to deal with disaster relief during hard times. For a cluster of ten villagesGSR will build a multi-purpose town hall to hold all types of public functions andfestivities and enable people to frequently gather together for grouprecreational activities. For a cluster of five villages, GSR will build a health clinicand a school. In every village, GSR will install a water system for collecting rain,river, and spring water and have it aggregated to a cistern to be treated andstored as a readily available source of clean water. GSR also seek to make thevillage an appealing place to live, where children and adults can play in parks,sports fields, and enjoy the aesthetics of beautiful gardens. Prosperity is meantto be enjoyed. A happy community is a strong functional community that can bebest prepared for any form of crisis thanks to high levels of organization,cooperation, and sense of civic pride and unity.

Warehousing and Distribution Warehousing and distribution is an important part of development planning thatcannot be stressed enough when an outside organization like GSR tries to triggerchanges that lead to a strong local economy in Africa’s rural communities. Ithelps minimize the stressors of famines, droughts, and civil unrest because itprovides opportunity for capital to stay and be reinvested back into the localeconomy as opposed to all the wealth flowing out. GSR helps local communities establish VillageDevelopment Corporations (VDC), which areresponsible for growing and stabilizing the localeconomy, handling appropriate commercial dealswith external organizations, regions and countries.Although the VDC is a business organization, itfunctions like a local government municipality. TheVDC practices risk management and ensures smallfarmers a stable market price for their goods and maintains or improves existingpublic works over time. It sets up and maintains warehouses for every cluster of15 villages and manages a forum or market square for every cluster of fivevillages and maintains the network of locally constructed roads (built by localconstruction workers and craftsmen). The emphasis on local labor andconstruction materials further promotes economic growth in rural areas asidefrom agriculture.Why has GSR chosen this as the crux of our development model for Africa? Thisis because we believe Africa needs an entrepreneurial approach rather than anNGO or IGO approach. After consulting many economists, agronomists,

anthropologists, development specialists, political scientists and other experts,GSR has concluded the VDC is the best possible means to invigorate localcommerce, agriculture and economy on the locallevel in Africa. GSR hopes to minimize thedisturbances by establishing a strong corporatemodel comprised of the local community as theybest understand their own benefits and risks.Together with GSR’s training and consultation, theVDCs can systematically tackle all the problemsthat the local communities face.Follow on Twitter Friend on Facebook Connect on LinkedIn

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