Africa has received over $500 billion in aid over the last 50 years and yet despite this the continent remains mired in poverty, disease, and systemic corruption. A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee Brand is a manifesto for a change in the way the West sees, and deals with, Africa. Using his experiences in running the Good African Coffee Company, Andrew Rugasira sets out the arguments for building a sustainable trade framework, reducing Africa's reliance on aid handouts and discusses the barriers that currently prevent fair and equal trade between Africa with the rest of the world. He argues that Africa should take its destiny in its own hands and dictate the future that it wants and deserves: more trade and less aid. Infused with optimism and belief in what Africa's future could be, Rusagira tells the story of thousands of African farmers who have, through the Good African Coffee model, been able to earn a decent living, send their children to school and get out of a spiral of debt and dependence.

Andrew Rugasira is the Founder and CEO of Good African Coffee, an African-based social enterprise that brings quality coffees to the global market. He grew up in Kampala during the terrors of Idi Amin's reign in the 1970s. A graduate in Law and Economics from the University of London, he has written numerous papers and articles and was a research fellow at the Centre for Basic Research, Kampala. In 2007, he was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He has won several awards, including the Legatum Pioneers for Prosperity award, and in 2010 was nominated for a Financial Times/ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business award. He is Uganda's Country Chairman of the Eastern African Fine Coffees Association and a Member of Uganda's Presidential Investor Roundtable.

Sponsored by Rathbone Greenbank Investments.

Ticket prices: £7.00 full / £6.00 concessions.