African Consultants Network

According to the most recent report on the status of the world’s fisheries by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, fisheries supply at least 15% of the animal protein consumed by humans, provide direct and indirect employment for nearly 200 million people worldwide and generate $US85 billion annually. This same report indicates that 28% of the world’s fisheries stocks are currently being overexploited or have collapsed and 52% are fully exploited.

Continue reading How can the world’s fisheries be sustainable?

First comprehensive analysis shows 58 percent of seagrass meadows in decline

Cambridge, Md. (June 29, 2009) – An international team of scientists warns that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems. The team has compiled and analyzed the first comprehensive global assessment of seagrass observations and found that 58 percent of world’s seagrass meadows are currently declining.

Companies need to find the best way to do what they do. Agile businesses are determined in their efforts to ensure the best people create the best processes, which leverage the best and most relevant technology.
People and the relevant experience they bring are critical to this effort. The right people have designed similar processes before. They have skills to lead an implementation and the ingenuity to find the most effective solution to challenges they face.


Process is key to driving down costs for any activities that are repeatable. If faced with a new complex challenge, it’s important to draw upon actual experience, best practices, and industry standards to design and execute any process.

Technology crosses all industries, all business units, and all business functions. In any instance, selecting the right technology to enable your business processes is no trivial task. This selection should include input from those who have implemented the same technology for the same purposes before to anticipate and avoid complex potential future issues.

Operational Efficiency is – what occurs when the right combination of people, process, and technology come together to enhance the productivity and value of any business operation, while driving down the cost of routine operations to a desired level. The end result is that resources previously needed to manage operational tasks can be redirected to new, high value initiatives that bring additional capabilities to the organization.

Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organisational processes or practice. An established discipline since 1991 (see (Nonaka 1991)), KM includes courses taught in the fields ofbusiness administration, information systems, management, and library and information sciences (Alavi & Leidner 1999). More recently, other fields, to include those focused on information and media, computer science, public health, and public policy, also have started contributing to KM research. Many large companies and non-profit organisations have resources dedicated to internal KM efforts, often as a part of their ‘Business Strategy‘, ‘Information Technology‘, or ‘Human Resource Management‘ departments (Addicott, McGivern & Ferlie 2006). Several consulting companies also exist that provide strategy and advice regarding KM to these organisations.

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Dr. Joel Selanikio’s innovative technology is not only saving lives, it is changing the face of the public health system around the world. Merging his expertise in the areas of computer science, medicine and public health with his business partner’s background in technology, spurred the development of a sustainable mobile software tool to aid in disease surveillance and the collection of public health data in developing nations. Officially established as an electronic data collection standard by the World Health Organization, Selanikio’s EpiSurveyor is now the most widely adopted open source mobile health software in the world.

Much has been said about the potential of the Internet and its related technologies to help businesses improve their performance in several areas. Nevertheless, we should not forget the internal challenges that SMEs face in Africa. These are challenges that have accompanied the opportunities that eCommerce presents.  Thus , if we are to see  wealth creating activities by SME all over Africa, then the internal challenges must be addressed successfully. Through the experience we have had with SMEs in Africa, we can capture the internal challenges by looking at a supply chain diagram.  Supply Chain Management for African SMEs

A ‘supply chain

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 is the system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. In sophisticated supply chain systems, used products may re-enter the supply chain at any point where residual value is recyclable. Supply chains link value chains

A typical supply chain begins with ecological and biological regulation of natural resources, followed by the human extraction of raw material, and includes several production links (e.g., component construction, assembly, and merging) before moving on to several layers of storage facilities of ever-decreasing size and ever more remote geographical locations, and finally reaching the consumer.