David South Consulting Scale-up | 2017

Pitch + Vision

The time has never been more urgent and propitious for our work. As we travelled the world producing content for the UN's Development Challenges, South-South Solutions e-newsletter and the groundbreaking magazine Southern Innovator, we also developed two Action Plans. One was developed in partnership with the UNOSSC to scale-up Southern Innovator magazine. Whilst that experienced significant obstacles we were only to discover as a result of various court cases (more on this here: The Strange Saga of South-South News), the other Action Plan was for scaling up David South Consulting. And that we are full steam ahead with!

David South Consulting will be structured as follows: 

1) Headquarters and domicile: London, UK.  Our mobile products are developed at the Google Campus London for Startups.

2) Global Hub: Geneva, Switzerland.

3) Data Centre: Reykjavik, Iceland. 

I will sketch out the vision further below and can give greater detail to interested partners and/or investors. In the course of working in international development since 1997 (either as a consultant or staff member), I have developed significant insights into what works and what does not. I have also worked with or met some amazing people and talents along the way. I have had the privilege of seeing first-hand the breadth and reach of the international system, visiting and working in its headquarters and sprawling 'campuses', from Geneva to Nairobi.

I have worked with some outstanding clients who in turn have shaped new thinking in the international realm. And it is time to put all that experience to good use. The world faces an epochal turning point. In the course of researching the e-newsletter and the magazine, I saw first-hand not only the scale of the challenges but also the solutions that either already exist or just need that extra push to be deployed.

Looking back on three decades of working internationally and chronicling its vicissitudes, a few things stand out: one is an ability to spot trends, another is to make strategic interventions that move things along, and finally, an ability to work ethically, and with a joy for the adventure of the journey and the amazing people you meet along the way.    

Partners

Funding Phases

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Past Work

Impact

Testimonials

Documents

We accept payments and donations here: https://www.paypal.me/davidsouthconsulting

 © David South Consulting 2017

Southern Innovator Scale-up | 2017

Pitch + Vision

Team Biographies

Funding Phases

Phase 1

Design Specifications for Southern Innovator Magazine 1.0

Southern Innovator (2007-2017)

Editor-in-Chief: Cosmas Gitta

Editor and Writer: David South

Consultant: David South

Magazine

Editor-in-Chief: Cosmas Gitta

Editor and Writer: David South

Consultant: David South

Managing Editor: Audette Bruce

Copy Editor: Barbara Brewka

Circulation Manager: Amanda Armoogam

Published: 2011 to 2015

Electronic issues: ISSN 2222-9280

Issue 3: ISSN 2227-0523  

Issue 4: ISBN 978-0-9920217-0-2

Issue 5: ISBN 978-0-9920217-1-9

Font: Akkurat

Format: 60 pages full colour

Paper: Paper from responsible sources www.fsc.org and Nordic Ecolabelled Printer 141825

Energy: 100% renewable sources

Produced according to the UN Global Compact unglobalcompact.org

Countries: Canada/Iceland/United Kingdom/USA

Development Team (2010-2011)

Editor-in-Chief: Cosmas Gitta

Editor and Writer: David South

Managing Editor: Audette Bruce

Copy Editor: Barbara Brewka

Graphic Designer and Illustrator: Sólveig Rolfsdóttir 

Design and Layout: Sólveig Rolfsdóttir and Eva Hronn Gudnadóttir

Commissioned by: United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC)

Contracted by: United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) unops.org

Implemented by: David South Consulting (United Nations Global Marketplace Vendor 375229) and solla.net

Website (www.southerninnovator.org)

Archive: www.southerninnovator.com 

Launched: 2011 

Location: New York, New York, USA

Web Design: Carina Figurasin

Content: David South

E-Newsletter (2006-2014)

Launched: 2006

Location: New York, New York, USA

Editor-in-Chief: Cosmas Gitta

Researcher and Writer: David South

Consultant: David South

Social Media and Social Sharing (2007-present)

Location: London, UK

Head: David South

Phase 2

High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, Nineteenth Session, New York, 16-19 May 2016.

In 2016, the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation urged the UNOSSC to re-start funding the publication of Southern Innovator Magazine and the influential e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions.

Phase 3

Back Issues 

Impact 

Testimonials 

"What a tremendous magazine your team has produced! It's a terrific tour de force of what is interesting, cutting edge and relevant in the global mobile/ICT space... Really looking forward to what you produce in issues #2 and #3. This is great, engaging, relevant and topical stuff." Rose Shuman, Founder & CEO, Open Mind and Question Box

"Question Box was featured in Southern Innovator, a new publication of UNDP that profiles some of the most innovative ideas coming out of the global South. We were pleased to see many friends in the sector profiled as well, such as Ushahidi, Medic Mobile, and TxtEagle. Take a look at the magazine, as it is a great primer on ICT and mobile innovation from around the globe." Question Box News. 

"Looks great. Congratulations. It’s Brill’s Content for the 21st century!" Conan Tobias, Managing Editor, Canadian Business

What they are saying about SI on Twitter: From @CapacityPlus Nice job RT @ActevisCGroup: RT @UNDP: Great looking informative @SouthSouth1 mag on South-South Innovation; @UNDP Great looking informative @SouthSouth1 mag on South-South Innovation; @JeannineLemaire Graphically beautiful & informative @UNDP Southern Innovator mag on South-South Innov. 

And on Pinterest:

Peggy Lee • 1 year ago 

"Beautiful, inspiring magazine from UNDP on South-South innovation. Heart is pumping adrenaline and admiration just reading it"

“@SouthSouth1 is one of the best sources out there for news and info on #solutions to #SouthSouth challenges.” Adam Rogers, Assistant Director, Regional Representative, Europe, United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC)

"I liked your latest Southern innovator! Always inspiring." Joana Breidenbach, betterplace.org, Berlin, Germany

"Thank you David - Your insight into the issues facing us a[s] [a] "global Village" is made real in the detail of your article - 10 out of 10 from the moladi team." Moladi, South Africa (http://www.moladi.net/index.htm)

Documents

 

We accept payments and donations here: https://www.paypal.me/davidsouthconsulting

© southerninnovator.com 2017

© David South Consulting 2017

Why David South Consulting (DSC)/David South International (DSI)?

How we work is as important as the results we get. In fact, we believe it shapes the result. Get the journey to the goal right, and the goal will be better for it; more substantial, more effective, more long-lasting. We have developed a methodology and way of working that can take complex and complicated mandates and turn them into clear achievements.

Through our case studies, we show how messy, complex and often conflicting mandates are re-shaped into substantial achievements that inspire others. We have done this for large institutions undergoing great stress and transformation (usually in some way brought on by digital change), and for smaller organizations and start-ups. 

Modern organizations are diverse, often under stress, and buffeted by shifting political demands. 

We understand complexity is the norm for any organization working with highly educated professionals seeking to be leaders in their field. If you do not engage them, they leave for greener pastures. 

We listen, we review the mandates and research the data; we get to know the players and stakeholders; and then we act, with the staying power and focus required to get substantial results. It has made many of our past clients’ careers - and money. 

This includes offering strategic support to senior large institution leaders, including high-profile women leaders and senior UN officials and healthcare professionals. 

For example, we have twice helped in making UNDP (the UN’s development agency) relevant to the digital era, adapting to the new way of doing things, in particular how young people can be better engaged. We have worked in a major crisis in Asia, during rapid transformation to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) (being called a “role model”), and with a wide range of clients, from youth media start-ups to a prestigious academic research institute. 

Quick to spot trends and consistently viewing them from a human development perspective (UNDP’s development methodology, which is championed every year in its global and national human development reports), DSC/DSI was able to build a respected profile and brand for the United Nations, while drawing others into the innovation and South-South space, making it ‘cool’.

When this work had started at the end of 2006, there was very little coverage online and in the media of the quiet solutions revolution in the global South; today there are many services, media outlets and websites covering stories on the global South and innovation. Examples include The Guardian, SciDev, Devex, Planet Earth Institute, Quartz, etc. And the innovation message has been picked up by governments around the world. 

While consulting for UN missions in the early to mid-2000s, we had noticed a disconnect between how development was being done and what was happening in information and mobile technology and its potential. 

As far back as the late 1990s in Mongolia (then embroiled in a major crisis), DSC/DSI was able to leverage the emerging Internet and information technologies to address the crisis response. Called a “role model” for other UN missions in a global UN assessment, this work inspired the wider UN to alter its approach to these new technologies and capabilities.

During several years of working as a consultant in various UN missions around the world, we also noticed further disconnects. The rapid take-up of mobile phones being the most important. This had gone on quietly but it was revolutionary in what it could do for development. In fact, it was clear there was a quiet revolution happening in how people solved problems and dealt with the problems in their lives and it had little to do with ‘high-level’ declarations or elaborate plans. Instead, people were adapting these new technologies and potentialities to solve their problems organically: how to make money, how to support their families, how to get an education and learn, how to live in the rapidly urbanising world of their lived experience.

In 2007 we were hired by the UN’s then-Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (now the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation) to document this quiet revolution and champion its innovators and pioneers.    

© David South Consulting 2017

Southern Innovator Scale-Up Begins: Get on Board! | 4 June 2015

 

Southern Innovator achieved a great deal during its first phase. The magazine’s concept was beta tested as five issues were developed and rolled out across the global South. Feedback and comments came in from around the world and the magazine was refined based on user responses and experience.

During this time, a plan was developed to scale-up Southern Innovator over the next five years. We would like to do this in two phases. Contact us to learn more about the plan, what resources we require and how to get involved. What is on offer is truly remarkable: an ability to connect with the best and brightest of the global South at the very moment they are shaping the new world of the 21st century. Many have failed to grasp this opportunity and thus have been heavily damaged during the economic crisis; principally because they have failed to understand profound global changes and to see how they can use them to improve what they are doing (though, if they had been reading Southern Innovator, they would have been very clued up!).

Southern Innovator is a product of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), so it is able to directly plug into the UN’s network of global resources helping countries and people. This is a substantial resource and not to be overlooked. Getting involved gets you plugged in and switched on!

http://www.davidsouthconsulting.com/case-studies/southern-innovator-magazine-2015-2017.html

Southern Innovator Summary of Impact 2015

Southern Innovator: The Next Phase | 2 August 2013

 

So much has been accomplished in the first phase of developing Southern Innovator magazine. It has reached out around the world to uncover a thriving global innovation culture comprising many pioneers and innovators. Three issues were printed and distributed across the globe from 2011 to 2012: a total of 15,000 print copies. A fourth issue is ready on the theme of cities and urbanization and awaits funding to clear so it can be printed.

The magazine uses an eye-pleasing design and layout developed in its design studio in Iceland. Experts in public design and cross-cultural communications work on each issue. A further two issues will be completed in 2013 and they will cover the themes of waste and recycling (Issue 5) and science, technology and innovation (Issue 6).

The magazine is currently seeking partners to help with the costs of printing and distributing the magazine. There are also opportunities for the right partner to support the magazine’s brand with tools that can help our readers. Stay tuned for more news on the magazine’s development!

© David South Consulting 2017