Southern Innovator Issue 4 Launches in Nairobi, Kenya at Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD) 2013 | 5 November 2013

Volunteers help launch Southern Innovator’s fourth issue at the Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) in Nairobi, Kenya.

The fourth issue of Southern Innovator magazine has launched at the Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya. Southern Innovator Issue 4 visits the new cities being built to tackle the challenges of a rapidly urbanizing 21st-century world. The magazine also highlights some of the solutions being devised to the challenges people face as the world becomes a majority urban place.

Some innovators are building new cities from scratch, applying the latest thinking and hard-wiring in cutting-edge information technologies and innovative environmental measures to create ‘smart’ cities and eco-cities. Architects are designing and refining homes that are beautiful and functional, easy to build, affordable and conserve energy. Social entrepreneurs are innovating ways to create liveable and socially inclusive urban areas, often in places where planning has been scant and where incomes are very low. All those featured in the magazine were chosen for their focus on improving human development and their ingenuity and fresh thinking.

Southern Innovator champions a 21st-century global innovator culture. The magazine profiles and celebrates the innovators across the global South finding new ways to tackle poverty, create wealth and improve human development and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In its first issue in September 2011, Southern Innovator featured the people who are re-shaping new information technologies – from mobile phone apps to Internet technologies. Many of the innovators profiled in that first issue came from Kenya.

SI (southerninnovator.org) is based on intensive research and produced by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation in UNDP (UNOSSC) (formerly the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation in UNDP). UNOSSC organizes an annual Global South-South Development Expo (southsouthexpo.org), a roaming celebration and gathering of Southern innovators previously held in New York, Washington, D.C., Geneva, Rome and Vienna. This year’s Expo is being held in Nairobi, Kenya (28 October to 1 November 2013) and is hosted by the UN Environment Programme (unep.org).

SI is being distributed through the United Nations’ network and partners and reaches some of the world’s poorest and remotest places, as well as the vibrant but stressed growing global megacities. It is hoped the magazine will inspire budding innovators with its mix of stories, essential information, facts and figures, images and graphics.

We hope you enjoy the magazine and find its content interesting and illuminating: a snapshot of a fast-changing world awash, as we found out, with innovators, creators and do-ers making their world a better place. It is possible to sponsor issues of the magazine, either through helping to fund its print run, or through sponsored inserts covering that issue’s theme with relevant content for our readers.

Southern Innovator Goes Forward with Issues 4 and 5 and an Expo in Kenya | 19 September 2013

As I write, Issue 4 of Southern Innovator is at the printer and being readied for its formal launch (ISBN 978-0-9920217-0-2). Issue 5 (ISBN 978-0-9920217-1-9) is in production and being readied for its launch at the Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) to be held in Nairobi, Kenya from 28 October to 1 November 2013.

At this point, Issue 6 is also in the works and scheduled for release in 2014.

This next phase for the magazine is critical: the magazine has developed a reputation for chronicling a growing innovation culture in the global South. It is reaching highly influential readers around the world, many of whom are leaders in their countries and communities. In short, it is a powerful communications tool for reaching these individuals.

It is now possible to sponsor the magazine (sponsorship helps to pay for the printing of the magazine) or to fund relevant inserts to be included in the magazine to help our readers. Southern Innovator is a cost-effective tool for reaching a large audience spanning many cultures, countries and communities.  The magazine, for it to continue to be successful, requires adequate funds to cover the costs of research, editing, design and printing. Why not include supporting Southern Innovator in your plans to reach innovators in the global South?