Working Villages International

Forty years ago, the residents of the Ruzizi Valley, in Eastern Congo, had a peaceful prosperous happy life. Today, after more than a decade of civil war, the entire area is devastated, and the people have been reduced to the status of refugees, dependent on foreign assistance.

Now, in a unique partnership with Working Villages International, the people of Ruzizi are working hard to rebuild the paradise they once enjoyed. The development formula is simple – village based redevelopment with an emphasis on self-reliance and appropriate technology.

Somdiaa sugar cane producer, distributor

Somdiaa is the leading sugar cane producer, refiner and distributor in Central Africa. Through its plantations in Cameroon, Chad and Congo-Brazzaville, the Company produces approximately 80% of the sugar sold in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community free-trade region. The Company also owns and operates flour mills in Gabon and produces a range of other agricultural products.

Building big, starting small by Ethan Zuckerman

A radical new way for poor countries to get the phones, power, and roads they need

By Ethan Zuckerman | August 5, 2007

IN 1997, IN the midst of a vicious civil war that was tearing apart the Democratic Republic of Congo, entrepreneur Alieu Conteh decided it was time to build the country's first mobile-phone network.

The odds were stacked against him: He couldn't get equipment or loans. The handsets cost too much. He hired welders to build towers, one by one, out of scrap metal.

Now his phone network is the most important piece of infrastructure in the country, the only way most Congolese can communicate with their neighbors and with the wider world. Conteh's company, CWN, grew into Vodacom Congo, with 3 million mobile phone users and a market valuation of $1.6 billion.