Project Nicaragua Inspires Collaboration, Cross-Continent Expansion
Sylvain Boko experienced a light-bulb moment while observing students teach business skills seminar as part of the Babcock School’s Project Nicaragua.
Boko, the Zachary T. Smith Associate Professor of Economics at Wake Forest, traveled to Managua, Nicaragua, this spring to see students and faculty reach out to aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners in the economically deprived area.
“As we observed the students teaching these business concepts, I thought, ‘Wow, it would be easy to replicate this in another setting,’” said Boko, who is planning a summer trip to native country of Benin, a nation in western Africa that similarly struggles with poverty. “I thought it was a great opportunity to try and get them out there as well.”
Babcock School Dean Ajay Patel helped Boko secure funding for the project’s extension to Benin. A Babcock contingent of five students and two faculty members will join Boko as the group transports the successful Nicaragua business seminar model to Africa.
“Teaching business skills is sort of the meat and potatoes of poverty reduction,” Boko said.
The expansion of the project to Benin follows two significant developments—outreach by project leaders and interested parties on campus, and encouraging results from the project’s efforts on the ground in Managua.
Patel and student and faculty project leaders have kept various groups on campus apprised on the project. Those groups have included the office of Provost Jill Tiefenthaler and a Microenterprise Committee, an interdisciplinary effort on campus that has brought together faculty and administrators who are involved with a variety of social enterprise projects in the U.S. and abroad.
Boko learned about the project when its original organizers—Babcock MBA students Christopher Burch (‘08 MBA), Megan Glaser (’08 MBA) and Chris Yuko (’09 MBA)—sought him out for advice. Boko has overseen a Wake Forest study-abroad program to Benin since 1997.
Boko headed to Nicaragua during the university’s spring break to see the project in action. Among those joining him and Babcock students leading the seminar were Wake Forest faculty, administrators and student James Beshara, an economics major whose work with Boko in Africa inspired him to start the Dvelo Fund to address poverty issues in developing countries.
Boko said he liked what he saw. He particularly liked the case method students used to teach business skills. He also liked the approach of “training the trainers” so that seminar attendees helped teach and learn from one another.
“The focus is on small entrepreneurs,” Boko said. “Most of the job creation and wealth creation (in the developing world) will come from small entrepreneurs. There is a huge need for entrepreneurs to understand marketing and finance and all of the other business skills.
“… Participants are applying the concepts right away. It’s more practical. They aren’t just going to lectures.”
Boko acknowledges that there will be challenges in transferring the seminar concept to a different culture. All of the seminar materials, for instance, will need to be translated from Spanish to French, the language of Benin, and case studies will need to be adapted for a different audience and culture.
Those challenges, though, should provide a vital test to determine how well the seminar model translates to other regions of the developing world.
“The question is how do you come up with business training and adapt it in a culturally sensitive way?” Boko said.
Babcock’s Benin group is expected to include Patel; Sherry Moss, associate professor of organizational studies and the faculty adviser for Project Nicaragua; and students Burch, Zach Forward (’10 JD/MBA), James Russell (’08 MBA), Serena Rwejuna (’08 MA) and Neela Rajendra (’08 MBA).
