Pilot Field Project
August 2006
Haitang Administrative Village
Baoshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province
People’s Republic of China

A world of difference

Yang Yiutang, above, pauses for thought in assessing his life as a walnut farmer. The desire of Yang and others of Haitang Administrative Village in Yunnan, China, to find new ways to a better future has drawn Hu Xinping, above left, and Li Zhengli from the Centre for Mountain Ecosystem Studies (ICRAF). They are taking part in the first Global Young Leaders Programme, below. The innovative practicable start-up leadership programme is bringing together the business skills of executives and the local knowledge of NGOs such as ICRAF to work with the villagers to turn their needs and dreams into positive results. Photo above: Law Kit-fong

The first Young Leaders gather at Kunming. GIFT photo

Harnessing a positive force for change

Photo: Marco Stark

Chandran Nair, above centre, and YLP participants discuss field work findings. Nair heads the Global Institute For Tomorrow, which designed the YLP. Hong Kong-based social venture think tank GIFT is meeting globalisation head on in Asia by linking business, public policy and civil society. Executives from top Hong Kong corporations the MTR Corporation, Hongkong Electric, diversified group Shui On, and Gammon Construction work with the Kunming Institute of Botany, ICRAF, and the Organic Food Development Center of China work in the pilot project. “This is not about charity,” Nair says: fully involved in decisions, Haitang villagers will implement a business plan the Young Leaders design for them. Earlier, Nair and GIFT managing director Thomas Tang, below left, introduce and discuss business ethics, CSR and other issues critical in globalisation.

Photos: Law Kit-fong

Hope looks towards a better tomorrow

Photos: Law Kit-fong

Three of Haitang’s younger residents turn inquisitors, above, as corporate executives from Hong Kong fan out to learn about how the more than one thousand souls live. Haitang is in one of China’s poorest provinces. The people in 73 of Yunnan’s 129 counties struggle below the poverty line, as does the woman hauling compost pictured below. A business plan designed by the executives with villagers’ input is hoped to be the basis for a better, sustainable future.