Two thousand and nine harbored the death of aid in Africa, at least in the public discourse. While notable figures have questioned the efficacy of aid efforts in the past new books such as Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo, challange the entire industry with a force previously unknown.

If aid is dead, what, then, will replace it as a popular concept? It would make sense to call a spade a spade. Current aid efforts fall under three categories: charity, government services, and investment. The line between the three is blurred but can be generally understood by this rule of thumb: if the same thing were done in the West, what would it be?

Beyond the realm of charity development agencies in effect do what the private sector or government or civil society are supposed to but cannot due to a lack of money or means. The solution has been to circumvent, co-opt, or support these entities in ways that are not the most efficient or effective.

Where does Project Best Grade fall into this mix? In the States software projects are neither charity, nor government services, nor modes of investment; they are plain, old private enterprise. The same could be said for Africa- our product has a number of for-profit competitors, though none has gained more than a half-dozen clients.

So why not be a for-profit enterprise? Firstly, because people are reluctant to change the way they operate and pay for that change at the same time. Demanding payment upfront would greatly reduce the project’s economy of scale and shrink the customer base to the richest and most technologically advanced schools. But beyond this fact there is a more general problem of payment. Schools collect a few thousand dollars a year in school fees and could easily afford software, but they can’t mail a check or send their credit card information over the internet because they don’t have either. Mobile phone banking is one possibility, but it is still just hype at the moment.

There is a solution to this, but it requires some creative thinking. Instead of working out payment methods with those without a payment system, why not find something with easy means who is happening to be looking for a way to get money to schools. In essence, one could do a charitable default swap: Organizations, for example, looking to award scholarships but which lack an efficient means of doing so could find schools who want to buy software but have no method of payment. Instead of paying for software, the schools would simply waive the school fees the following year for a certain number of children, and the organization looking to fund educations would direct their funds through Project Best Grade. In effect, schools would pay for Best Grade by offering free educations to students. Organizations would be accomplishing two goals; financing students and improving the quality of school administration. And Best Grade would effectively be 100% funded by local sources.

Any takers?