Words like eco, organic, healthy, tasty, and sweet can be found in one single product: chocolate.
If the word “chocolate” is not sufficient enough, the other good part is that many of these organic chocolate products are also fair trade chocolate bars that are creating a social change and an environmental impact.
Besides being socially and environmentally good, there are some brands of chocolate who also donate to different humanitarian and environmental causes.
Here are six chocolate brands that are creating social change:
1. Madécasse
This is a social enterprise that makes chocolate products and vanilla in Madagascar. According to their website, Madécasse measures their success by the quality of the product and the social impact they make in Africa.
The enterprise started by empowering cocoa farmers in Madagascar, and by providing training and higher wages. The brand also creates an environmental impact by protecting around 70,000 cocoa trees, that are part of the habitat of over 65 species of flora and fauna, through cocoa farming.
Some of the chocolate bars that Madécasse sells are Salted Almond, Sea Salt & Nibs, Toasted Coconut, among others.
2. Alter Eco
According to the Alter Eco website, the brand is reliably delicious, socially fair, and environmentally responsible. They work directly with farmers that grow cacao, sugar, rice, and quinoa through fair trade and organic practices. Alter Eco assists these farmers by improving their food quality and their life quality.
Some of the areas that Alter Eco works on are fair trade relationships, development of programs, and the empowerment of women. The brand’s products have compostable packaging and are organically grown.
Despite of not being a brand that only sells cocoa products, Alter Eco counts with a variety of chocolates and truffles. Some of the chocolate bars and truffles available are Dark Brown Butter, Dark Quinoa, Dark Mint, Dark Velvet, Salted Caramel Truffles, Sea Salt Truffles, among others.
3. Divine Chocolate
Divine Chocolate is an entity co-owned by 85,000 farmers in Ghana. From Kuapa Kokoo, these farmers produce fair trade chocolate through the premium quality cocoa that Kuapa’s has.
The brand also works for women’s empowerment by providing opportunities to women in cocoa farming. Furthermore, Divine Chocolate improves access to information for cocoa farmers through funds that support the Kuapa’s radio program.
Some of the chocolate products that Divine Chocolate offers are 38 percent Milk Chocolate with Toffee and Sea Salt, Dark Chocolate with Hazelnut Truffle, Dark Chocolate with Whole Almonds, and 70 percent Dark Chocolate with Mango & Coconut.
4. Equal Exchange
Through fair trade, Equal Exchange counts with different natural food products offered to consumers. They work with small-scale farmers and their co-ops from different countries around the world, such as India, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Uganda, Chile, among others.
Some of the products that the brand offers are coffee, organic tea, organic bananas, fair foods, and chocolate & cocoa. The brand sells organic chocolate bars, chocolate mints, candy bars, cocoa, and chocolate chips.
Some of the chocolate options available for purchase are Organic Very Dark Chocolate, Organic Panama Extra Dark Chocolate, Organic Mint Chocolate with Delicate Crunch, Organic Baking Cocoa, Organic Spicy Hot Cocoa, Organic Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, among others.
5. SHAMAN Organic Chocolates
This brand of chocolate was created in order to support the Huichol Indian population from central Mexico. SHAMAN Organic Chocolates’ goal is to create good and ethical chocolate while they help this Indian population from Mexico.
The brand’s chocolate is a 100 percent organic, GMO free, it is fair trade chocolate, and 100 percent of the profits are donated to charity that supports three Huichol villages in Mexico.
6. Endangered Species Chocolate
Endangered Species Chocolate promotes global change by donating 10 percent of their profit to their partner organizations that support different humanitarian and environmental causes.
The causes that the brand’s partners support are the conservation of species, habitat conservation, and humanitarian efforts.
The brand pays for premium ingredients for their chocolate in order to make sure that cocoa farmers are being supported and helped, and species are being protected.
The products that Endangered Species Chocolate offers are Natural Cocoa Spread, Natural Hazelnut with Cocoa Spread, Natural Almond with Cocoa Spread, 60 percent Dark Chocolate with Lemon Poppy Seed, 60 percent Dark Chocolate with Blackberry Sage, 60 percent Dark Chocolate with Cinnamon, Cayenne & Cherries, Dark Chocolate with 88 percent Cocoa, and Dark Chocolate.
With many brands offering fair trade organic chocolate products, helping the environment, people and donating to charity can be a way to support many humanitarian and environmental causes, and contribute to the social change that these chocolate brands are creating.
– Diana Fernanda Leon
Sources: Madecasse 1, Madecasse 2, Madecasse 3, Alter Eco Foods 1, Alter Eco Foods 2, Alter Eco Foods 3, Alter Eco Foods 4, Alter Eco Foods 5, Divine Chocolate 1, Divine Chocolate 2, Endangered Species Chocolate, Shaman Organic Chocolates, Equal Exchange
Photo: Dubaruba
8 Colombian NonProfit Organizations
From building housing for people living in vulnerable conditions to the promotion of education, Colombian organizations work on humanitarian causes in the country.
Poverty, education, health and living are the main areas that many nonprofit organizations in Colombia work on in order to contribute to the betterment of the Colombian community.
According to the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE), 784,000 people in Colombia prevailed out of poverty in 2014. In the same year, extreme poverty also experienced a decrease of 407,000 people.
These results represent a reduction in the poverty rate of Colombia, making them the lowest results in the past 13 years.
Nonprofit organizations form a part that contributes to the betterment of the Colombian society. Here are 8 Colombian nonprofit organizations that are making a difference:
Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia
Considered one of the biggest rural nonprofit organizations in the world, the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia works for the betterment of the Colombian coffee farmers.
Representing more than 563,000 families, the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia works to improve the life quality of Colombian coffee producers by optimizing production costs and maximizing the coffee quality.
Fundación Antonio Restrepo Barco
Responding to the issues of a country that has different social conditions and tending to social problems are some of the activities that members of the Fundación Antonio Restrepo Barco do.
The foundation believes that the families living in crisis areas are more afflicted by social issues and problems. Fundación Antonio Restrepo Barco forwards projects related to the protection of children rights, education, health and social and regional development of attention to vulnerable communities.
Fundación Juan Felipe Gómez Escobar
This foundation, also known as “La Juanfe,” works to bring a better life to the children and young people from Cartagena, Colombia. They do this by providing health care, and by bringing psychological and affective care.
The entity works with various partners that are national and international businesses, and public and private agencies.
Asociación Metrópoli Colombia
This association works for the creation of spaces where people living under vulnerable conditions could experience personal growth, the transformation of their surroundings, and equal opportunities through education and culture.
Through the program “Espacios de encuentro para la construcción de la vida y la paz,” Metrópoli Colombia proffers the availability of spaces that provide access to education, wellness, arts and culture as a means of improving the life quality of children and young people.
Corporación Día de la Niñez
This is a nonprofit organization that promotes the importance that childhood has in the development and progress of the community and families, especially in communities that live under poverty and/or violence.
They have as a mission to promote children games in the familiar and communitarian aspects.
Fundación OCMAES
This is a nonprofit foundation that works to promote people’s talent. Fundación OCMAES foments the education among young Colombians that have an academic potential, but do not have the economical facilities to afford professional programs or continue with their studies.
Through the “Programa de Apoyo Universitario,” the foundation gives scholarships to young Colombians with academic potential.
Fundación SERVIVIENDA
This organization improves the life quality of the communities living in vulnerable conditions by the construction of houses for these Colombian communities.
The foundation is compromised with integral development and brings security, identity and the sense of social belonging.
Fundación Terpel
They work to bring quality education to Colombian children. The entity implements programs that develop competitions in leadership, mathematics and language for children and young people living under vulnerable conditions.
– Diana Fernanda Leon
Sources: DANE, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, Fundación Antonio Restrepo Barco, Fundación Juan Felipe Gómez Escobar, Metrópoli Colombia, Corporación Día de la Niñez, Fundación Ocmaes, Fundación Servivienda, Fundación Terpel,
Photo: Fundación Juan Felipe Gómez Escobar
Kate Hudson and Michael Kors Team Up to Watch Hunger Stop
An Instagram post by @michaelkors announced that longtime pals, Kate Hudson and Michael Kors, have joined forces to end world hunger with Kors’ campaign, Watch Hunger Stop.
In the social media post, Hudson and Kors can be seen donning watches from the designer’s own collection, seemingly hinting that just as time is paused in the photo, hunger must be stopped in reality.
The award-winning actress’ first act of charity for Watch Hunger Stop will be to advertise Kors’ new styles of his Bradshaw watch. Each sale of one of these watches will provide a meal for one hundred children in need. Hudson showed her support by posting the ad on her Instagram, @katehudson, as well as speaking about her thoughts of world hunger.
“As a mother, I can’t think of anything more important than raising a healthy and educated generation of children, and World Food Program’s School Meals Program is committed to exactly that,” Hudson said. “This is a cause that I’m eager to be a part of because I believe we can all make a real and significant difference.”
The feeling of excitement was clearly quite mutual. Kors said he chose to work with Hudson because she contributes a positive and irreplaceable vibe to the charity.
“Not only does she have a unique star quality, but she also brings an incredible amount of generosity and a can-do attitude to a cause that is extremely important to me personally,” Kors said.
Kors creates timepieces specifically made to benefit his charity. He was named a United Nations Ambassador for his efforts, which presented meals to 10 million children in need. Kors’ determination is much appreciated by the UN, which said that almost one billion people worldwide go to sleep hungry–that’s 1 in 7 people on this Earth.
The UN also said that hunger not only affects the people suffering but also stifles economic growth in regions where hunger prevails.
“We also should remember that food is good business. When nations solve the problem, it fuels their economy,” said Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme in 2010.
With the help of donors and, now Hudson, Kors will continue to fight and raise awareness for hunger for the UN World Food Programme.
Hudson is no stranger to charity. The actress has also worked with Donate Life America, Fulfillment Fund, Healthy Child Healthy World, Last Chance for Animals, Red Cross and WildAid. Her partner in the Bradshaw watch campaign has also contributed greatly to multiple charities. Kors has volunteered to benefit disease, poverty, mental health, environment, conservation and of course, hunger. Kors will release the limited-edition styles of the Bradshaw watch in October of this year. With each sale, Kors will donate $25 to World Food Programme.
To learn more about the cause, visit https://destinationkors.michaelkors.com/watch-hunger-stop/ or search the hashtag, #WatchHungerStop.
– Fallon Lineberger
Sources: Daily Mail, Look to the Stars, Look to the Stars, Michael Kors 1, Michael Kors 2, United Nations
Photo: Destination Kors
6 Chocolate Brands Creating Social Change
Words like eco, organic, healthy, tasty, and sweet can be found in one single product: chocolate.
If the word “chocolate” is not sufficient enough, the other good part is that many of these organic chocolate products are also fair trade chocolate bars that are creating a social change and an environmental impact.
Besides being socially and environmentally good, there are some brands of chocolate who also donate to different humanitarian and environmental causes.
Here are six chocolate brands that are creating social change:
1. Madécasse
This is a social enterprise that makes chocolate products and vanilla in Madagascar. According to their website, Madécasse measures their success by the quality of the product and the social impact they make in Africa.
The enterprise started by empowering cocoa farmers in Madagascar, and by providing training and higher wages. The brand also creates an environmental impact by protecting around 70,000 cocoa trees, that are part of the habitat of over 65 species of flora and fauna, through cocoa farming.
Some of the chocolate bars that Madécasse sells are Salted Almond, Sea Salt & Nibs, Toasted Coconut, among others.
2. Alter Eco
According to the Alter Eco website, the brand is reliably delicious, socially fair, and environmentally responsible. They work directly with farmers that grow cacao, sugar, rice, and quinoa through fair trade and organic practices. Alter Eco assists these farmers by improving their food quality and their life quality.
Some of the areas that Alter Eco works on are fair trade relationships, development of programs, and the empowerment of women. The brand’s products have compostable packaging and are organically grown.
Despite of not being a brand that only sells cocoa products, Alter Eco counts with a variety of chocolates and truffles. Some of the chocolate bars and truffles available are Dark Brown Butter, Dark Quinoa, Dark Mint, Dark Velvet, Salted Caramel Truffles, Sea Salt Truffles, among others.
3. Divine Chocolate
Divine Chocolate is an entity co-owned by 85,000 farmers in Ghana. From Kuapa Kokoo, these farmers produce fair trade chocolate through the premium quality cocoa that Kuapa’s has.
The brand also works for women’s empowerment by providing opportunities to women in cocoa farming. Furthermore, Divine Chocolate improves access to information for cocoa farmers through funds that support the Kuapa’s radio program.
Some of the chocolate products that Divine Chocolate offers are 38 percent Milk Chocolate with Toffee and Sea Salt, Dark Chocolate with Hazelnut Truffle, Dark Chocolate with Whole Almonds, and 70 percent Dark Chocolate with Mango & Coconut.
4. Equal Exchange
Through fair trade, Equal Exchange counts with different natural food products offered to consumers. They work with small-scale farmers and their co-ops from different countries around the world, such as India, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Uganda, Chile, among others.
Some of the products that the brand offers are coffee, organic tea, organic bananas, fair foods, and chocolate & cocoa. The brand sells organic chocolate bars, chocolate mints, candy bars, cocoa, and chocolate chips.
Some of the chocolate options available for purchase are Organic Very Dark Chocolate, Organic Panama Extra Dark Chocolate, Organic Mint Chocolate with Delicate Crunch, Organic Baking Cocoa, Organic Spicy Hot Cocoa, Organic Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, among others.
5. SHAMAN Organic Chocolates
This brand of chocolate was created in order to support the Huichol Indian population from central Mexico. SHAMAN Organic Chocolates’ goal is to create good and ethical chocolate while they help this Indian population from Mexico.
The brand’s chocolate is a 100 percent organic, GMO free, it is fair trade chocolate, and 100 percent of the profits are donated to charity that supports three Huichol villages in Mexico.
6. Endangered Species Chocolate
Endangered Species Chocolate promotes global change by donating 10 percent of their profit to their partner organizations that support different humanitarian and environmental causes.
The causes that the brand’s partners support are the conservation of species, habitat conservation, and humanitarian efforts.
The brand pays for premium ingredients for their chocolate in order to make sure that cocoa farmers are being supported and helped, and species are being protected.
The products that Endangered Species Chocolate offers are Natural Cocoa Spread, Natural Hazelnut with Cocoa Spread, Natural Almond with Cocoa Spread, 60 percent Dark Chocolate with Lemon Poppy Seed, 60 percent Dark Chocolate with Blackberry Sage, 60 percent Dark Chocolate with Cinnamon, Cayenne & Cherries, Dark Chocolate with 88 percent Cocoa, and Dark Chocolate.
With many brands offering fair trade organic chocolate products, helping the environment, people and donating to charity can be a way to support many humanitarian and environmental causes, and contribute to the social change that these chocolate brands are creating.
– Diana Fernanda Leon
Sources: Madecasse 1, Madecasse 2, Madecasse 3, Alter Eco Foods 1, Alter Eco Foods 2, Alter Eco Foods 3, Alter Eco Foods 4, Alter Eco Foods 5, Divine Chocolate 1, Divine Chocolate 2, Endangered Species Chocolate, Shaman Organic Chocolates, Equal Exchange
Photo: Dubaruba
Top Mobile Apps Made in Africa
Not only do Africans use their smartphones to make calls, send text messages and browse the Internet, but they also use their devices to access mobile money services and locate healthcare facilities.
This list compiles the most popular mobile apps in Africa that are available on either Android or iOS devices.
1. Find-A-Med
This location-based mobile application allows its users to find the closest healthcare facility. The app also provides a place where its users can store their basic healthcare information in case of an emergency. Find-A-Med is available on both Android and Apple devices.
2. PesaCalc
PesaCalc is a free Android app that allows users to streamline access to mobile money services in Kenya. This app is compatible with all three of Kenya’s mobile money services. In addition, the app allows users to prepare the correct amount of cash to send, including fees, to both registered and unregistered users.
3. SnapnSave
SnapnSave is a shopping app that gives its users cash back on their everyday grocery purchases. The app was recently launched in Cape Town, South Africa, and its developers are hoping that it will influence their consumers to make smarter purchases.
4. Wumdrop
Wumdrop is a South African-made app that allows for the delivery or picking up of packages. The user is able to request a courier, track them on a map and receive notification of the pending delivery.
5. Slimtrader
This app was founded in 2009 and is popular in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Slimtrader allows its users to perform e-commerce transactions, such as buying or paying for goods and services. In other terms, the app allows its users to effectively shop by text messages. However, it is only available on Android devices.
6. M-Farm
Launched in 2012, M-Farm is primarily aimed at Kenyan farmers in order to keep them informed of crop prices and other farming-related matters. The app runs on an SMS-based service and is now available to users in five major towns in Kenya. This app is only available on Android devices.
7. Voicemap
Voicemap allows its users to explore places such as Cape Town with the help of its walking tour setting. These audio walking tours are available in voices belonging to expert correspondents, veteran broadcasters and passionate locals. This app is available on both Android and Apple devices.
8. Kids First Aid
The Kids First Aid app gives parents and teachers access to emergency first aid information when they need it. Ideally, this app will be able to give information to parents when they are travelling in a place where they do not speak the local language or when help is not readily available. This app is available only on Apple devices.
9. Suba
Suba is a location-based group photo album that creates a group photo stream. Once the stream is created, users can add pictures and send invites to others. Suba is available on both Android and Apple devices.
10. Safari Tales
Safari Tales was developed in order to eliminate the shortage of books in Kenya. The app is interactive and available in multiple languages. Safari Tales offers African stories that may not be easily found in countries that lack educational books for children. This app is available on Android devices.
– Kerri Szulak
Sources: IT News Africa, Voices of Africa
Photo: Flickr
Taken From the Streets: The Disappearing Homeless of Japan
A resident of Osaka recently informed me that the homeless in Japan’s Nishinari district are disappearing.
In some contexts this could be positive, for they could be disappearing due to lowering poverty rates or a growth in the number of available shelters. But as it turns out, the Osaka homeless are disappearing to a nuclear plant.
In 2011, an earthquake caused a nuclear accident in Fukushima. Apparently, the disaster was so destructive that the cleanup process was too difficult to regulate adequately. Therefore, when the government tasked Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) with cleaning up the disaster, TEPCO called on outside subcontractors. These subcontractors had difficulty recruiting a large enough workforce willing to work on such a dangerous, health threatening job. As a result, these subcontractors asked Japan’s notorious gangs to come to their rescue.
The Yakuza are well known for exploiting the homeless such as through putting up, “vulnerable individuals in shoddy, inadequate apartments to scam the welfare system, taking the lion’s share of any benefits from the state they may receive under threat of violence,” says the Japan Visitor Blog. In this circumstance, the gangs pulled on their affinity for exploiting the country’s poor by recruiting them to work in cleaning the Fukushima plant.
The homeless population in Japan, the Nishinari district Osaka in particular, is vulnerable to this sort of exploitation due to their desire to work. The Nishinari district was once a place where men would come to find jobs as day laborers. These jobs now barely exist, though men – especially older men – still live in these areas in hopes that they may one day find some sort of opportunity.
Japan’s Disposable Workers quoted a man in the Nishinari district saying that, “I really want to work but I’m mentally prepared that I will never get another job for the rest of my life.” So when the Yakuza come around offering any sort of job, it is hard for the Japanese homeless to refuse. Especially when there is some threat of violence if they did turn down these “opportunities.”
Beyond the innate exploitation involved in targeting a vulnerable population for such dangerous work, the homeless were not even well compensated. Often the Yakuza took some of these workers wages for themselves. In addition, Russia Today stated that, “many of the cleanup workers, who exposed themselves to large doses of radiation without even knowing it, were given no insurance for health risks, no radiation meters even.”
Reuters’ report on the homeless working for Fukushima discusses the occurrence of workers having such a significant amount of money deducted from their paychecks by companies that they were left with only US$10 at the end of their work. The deductions were for food and accommodations through the company. So sometimes the workers put themselves into a severe health risk for essentially no pay.
I heard that the homeless are likely still disappearing, though there is little to no coverage on the recruitment of workers in the past two years.
It is possible that the homeless are being treated with more respect, or perhaps the effect of growing media censorship in Japan is preventing further news about the exploitation of Japan’s homeless from being released.
– Clare Holtzman
Sources: The Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s Disposable Workers, The Japan Times 1, The Japan Times 2, Japan Visitor Blog, Reuters, Russia Today, World Nuclear Association
Photo: Japan’s Disposable Workers
Unilever’s African Operations
In Africa, there are many foreign corporations investing in and fueling industry, many of which are part of extractive industries that may not be economically beneficial for the continent in the long run. A company that stands apart from this ilk is Unilever.
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods corporation whose products reach 2 billion consumers in over 190 countries, making it one of the world’s top 500 largest corporations. Unilever has been in Africa for over a century and produces annual sales there of more than $5 billion, employing 40,000 people on the continent in offices and building factories in 40 locations.
This megalithic corporation has built an impressive reputation for itself. FORTUNE Magazine consistently recognizes Unilever among the World’s Most Admired Consumer Food Product Companies and in 2013 recognized Unilever as a Top 50 World’s Most Admired Company. Much of this admiration stems from the numerous gender diversity and environmental sustainability awards Unilever has garnered over the years.
Despite these accolades, criticisms are aplenty and certain truths are unavoidable. For example, Unilever’s biggest purchases are palm oil, soya, paper and beef. These are commodities whose global trade is responsible for 50 percent of global tropical deforestation, admitted Gavin Nearth, senior vice president of sustainability at Unilever.
Significantly, these criticisms are not necessarily thrown in a dark corner at Unilever with the hope that they will wither and die. There is an acknowledgement that the vast corporation’s practices have enormous environmental and social impacts that have not been, and still are not in many instances, sustainable.
Yet things do seem to be changing. In 2009, Paul Polman, previously an executive at Nestle and before, Proctor & Gamble, became Chief Operating Officer of Unilever. Within a year he introduced the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, a series of goals that aim to transform the company by doubling its size while increasing its positive social impact and reducing its environmental footprint by 50 percent. Despite the worry of many stockholders, according to Financial Times, Mr. Polman believes that these goals are necessary to maintain a “license to operate” in an age of public scrutiny.
Increasing social impact includes increasing workplace rights, ensuring that women get a fair deal and improving health and well-being for more than 1 billion people. Reduction of Unilever’s environmental footprint entails ensuring that their products and supply chain meet environmental requirements covering everything from forest protection to pest control. The impact of working toward these goals will manifest in Unilever’s sizable African operation.
Furthermore, Unilever’s business model in Africa impacts the African poor. According to Frank Braeken, Unilever Executive Vice President for Africa, “There is a growing realization that the future of Africa is based around a consumer rather than mining. This is a consumer that has been under-served and over-charged.” For Mr. Braekan, there are hundreds of millions of untouched consumers, most of whom are low-income, known as bottom of the pyramid (BOP), consumers.
A method through which Unilever reaches BOP consumers is low unit packs (LUPs). These are small consumer goods, worth as little as half a cent. Small shop owners buy goods from Unilever companies in large packs and resell them in smaller portions.
LUPs is just one method by which Unilever plans to meet Africa’s poor and their needs. In conjunction with its vast operations on the continent and increasingly sustainable business model, Unilever will be able to be quite the developing force in Africa.
– Connor Bohannan
Sources: BDlive, Financial Times, How We Made It in Africa, Telegraph, Unilever
Photo: Telegraph
Greenfield Microfinance Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa
The attention of foreign entities intent on aiding the development of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is often focused on providing basic services such as water, electricity and healthcare. And while rightly so, another crucial ingredient for development in Africa is finance. Access to capital for the average African would allow households and small businesses to leverage their savings and earnings to increase productivity, earn higher incomes, create jobs and ultimately, stimulate economic growth.
Unfortunately, SSA has the lowest level of access to finance than any other region in the world, with an average banked population of 24 percent. Microfinance institutions (MFIs), organizations that offer financial services to the poor, are a promising solution to this gross deficit.
Microfinance has played a large role in South Asia with a mixed record. Initially termed micro-credit, it was viewed as a panacea to world poverty when it began to rapidly grow 15 years ago. Since, people have realized that while such loans can empower women and help entrepreneurs, they are not a magic bullet against the characteristics of poverty such as a lack of healthcare, education, access to power, clean water and a reliable food source. In addition, over the last 15 years it has not been uncommon for lenders to charge usurious interest rates on these loans, creating vicious cycles of debt for borrowers.
As the perception of this financial instrument was tempered, no longer viewed as a ‘magic bullet’ to poverty, the term micro-credit became microfinance and the concept was relegated to the toolbox of poverty alleviation. To be clear, microfinance, if not abused by exorbitant interest rates, and if it works within a framework of poverty reduction, can dramatically help the poor by giving them access to financial services.
Access to financial services that are not traditionally available to the poorest segments of society is what microfinance is all about. And that fact is no different in SSA, where most MFIs are greenfields. Greenfield MFIs are local institutions formed by holding communities in communities without pre-existing financial infrastructure, staffs, clients or portfolios.
Microfinance made its debut in the region in 2000 when ProCredit Holding, a German banking group with 21 banks operating in developing and transitioning economies, opened a bank in Mozambique that offered microfinance services.
Since then, many companies have followed suit. In 2006 there were seven Greenfield MFIs in SSA, staffing 1,564 people, with 37 branches, and 220,337 deposit accounts. By 2012, there were 31 Greenfield MFIs in SSA, with 11,578 staff, 701 branches, and almost 2 million accounts. In that time the Gross Loan Portfolio increased from $57 million to $769 million.
To begin a Greenfield MFI in the region, $6-$8million is required over the first 3-4 years of operation. And only after months 42-48 do they emerge fully sustainable. While this investment may seem daunting, research shows that the average SSA Greenfield MFI has been able to sustain fairly rapid revenue growth. Over its first 60 months, it will increase its revenue by $500,000 every 6 months, reaching $5 million by its 5 year anniversary.
The growth of microfinance in SSA is undeniably impressive. The Greenfield MFI model has come a long way in a short time in Africa. And while in the grand scheme of a region containing around 1 billion people, these numbers seem meager, the financial performance of these Greenfield MFIs indicate a future in which Africans have much greater access to capital, and therefore a brighter future.
– Connor Bohannan
Sources: Business Insider, International Finance Corporation, Making Finance Work for Africa, The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
Photo: European Commission
NBA Africa Game to Raise Funds for South African Nonprofits
The National Basketball Association will soon be holding its first ever game in Africa, with proceeds from the historic event going to support local charities.
The NBA Africa Game will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa. It will feature a face-off between Team Africa, captained by South Sudan native and Miami Heat star Luol Deng, and Team World, led by Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Proceeds from the already sold-out event will go to the local Boys and Girls Clubs of South Africa, SOS Children’s Villages Association of South Africa and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Official partners of the game include Econet Global Limited, Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa, NIKE Inc. and others.
First and second-generation African players will represent Team Africa in the game, honoring the NBA’s history of recruiting players from Africa as well as their commitment to giving back to the struggling continent. The nonprofit NBA Cares has helped create 58 homes or community centers in Africa and has raised over $250 million for charities.
The exhibition-style game will be played August 1 at Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg and will “impact young people throughout the continent, both on the court and in the community,” according to NBA Vice President and Managing Director-Africa, Amadou Gallo Fall.
– Gina Lehner
Sources: Biz Community, NBA
Photo: Wikipedia
The Consequences of Cutting Aid to Palestine
When it comes to the polarizing issue of the $400 million of foreign aid the United States is giving to Palestine, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says, “There’s a new game in town.”
On January 7, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a new bill in the wake of Palestine’s application and recent acceptance to the International Criminal Court. Rand, Graham and their proponents argue that this action is in direct conflict with the one of United States’ three stipulations regarding aid to the West Bank, which is that the Palestinians will never seek to persecute Israel at the Hague.
Graham believes this bill presents a change in the dynamic between USAID, Palestine and Israel. Formerly, Israel fought against cutting assistance to Palestine and viewed international aid as an investment in national security and a movement toward the elusive “two state solution.” Rand and Graham now believe that it is time for the tide to turn in favor of a more aggressive statement.
“I cannot tell you the number of times the Israelis have engaged me to try to stop an emotional reaction by the Congress to terminate aid,” Graham said to Foreign Policy. “[But now] I’m going to lead the charge to make sure the Palestinians feel this.”
This aggressive approach is lauded as a defense of Israel, one of the United States’ closest allies. Yet research has shown that making the people of Palestine “feel” the loss of roughly $400 million could have the opposite effect, putting the civilians of the West Bank at a greater risk than ever before.
Primary defenders of the “cut aid” camp argue that aid to Palestine is akin to bankrolling the terrorist group Hamas. When they look at that $400 million, they see missiles pointed directly at Israel’s iron dome. What they do not see is the 515,000 Palestinian civilians who have been raised from poverty by the affordable water programs, infrastructural efforts and humanitarianism that flow from this aid.
According to an investigation done by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), USAID to Palestine has been carefully vetted and primarily channeled through in-kind efforts to change lives on the ground. In 2011, they found that the majority of aid was focused on the building of five hospitals, six clinics, the upgrade of 23 schools and the revamping of over 20 small- and medium-sized water systems. It was used to computerize hospitals in the main city of Mendabollah and provide 127,000 people with access to potable water.
“These aids are very helpful for us,” said Dr. Niha Sawaheh, head of the ER at the Palestinian Medical Center (a USAID project hospital) in Ramallah. “When they stop, they will affect us.”
What happens when the aid stops is not a theoretical question to Sawaheh. It is a recent memory. When the United States froze half of their allocated funds to Palestine in 2011, the hospital saw sharp declines in efficiency and diagnostic potential. After those cutbacks, the new, computerized CT system sat unused in Ramallah’s largest hospital, yet there was no discernible decline in Hamas-initiated bombings of Jerusalem.
Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the Palestinian government, commented that “by such a decision, [Congress is] punishing the Palestinian public in education, and in health, in a way that is very, very difficult to understand.”
Research has shown that declines in public education, health and accessibility to necessities such as clean water have little effect on ethnically charged violence like that between the Israelis and Palestinians.
In their famous 2010 paper, Professors Christopher Blattman and Edward Miguel of the University of California Berkeley argue that “greed” or the desire to improve one’s living conditions by targeting another regime is a much more powerful incentive to violence than is “grievance” or deep-rooted primordialism. “At present,” they write, “the economic motivators for conflict are better theorized than psychological or sociological factors.”
Removing the programs that allow Palestinian civilians to live above the margin — where they do not have to live on Hamas’ assurance that the downfall of Israel will put water in their wells and computers in their hospitals — will not, as some argue, quench Hamas’ thirst for terror. Rather, it would push those who in better times would not raise arms to Israel to resort to those same desperate measures. From this perspective, it is likely that Israel (America’s ally) would be the one to feel the effects of the $400 million cuts, not the terrorist groups hell-bent on Israeli destruction.
As this bill and others like it move through Congress, there is no doubt heated debate over “our duty to Israel” and the “message we send to Hamas” will circulate. Yet from a national security standpoint, the answer is simple: $400 million can buy lasting infrastructural development, something that in 30 years will drive off more missiles than even the iron dome.
– Emma Betuel
Sources: Berkley, NPR, Foreign Policy, Huffigton Post, Al-Monitor, GAO, FAS, Reuters
Photo: Caritas
Global Public Goods: Knowledge
The idea of knowledge as a Global Public Good is multifaceted and complex, dealing with issues like technology transfers, intellectual property rights and which type of knowledge should be provided by public institutions and how to do so. These are important areas of study as knowledge, its production, dissemination, uptake and development plays a large role in ending poverty. It helps make the world a more prosperous, safe and interesting place. One of the largest differences in living standards between developed and developing nations has been attributed to differences in knowledge.
One important aspect of knowledge is that it has positive externalities. The production of knowledge by one person can have a positive impact that extends beyond the individual responsible for its producing it. In other words, the public benefits from the hard work of an individual. This misalignment of private and public interests can mean that knowledge is undersupplied, as it indeed is.
In an interconnected and interdependent world, ensuring the proper level of knowledge and education is a global challenge. The spillovers of investment in knowledge and the problem of “human capital flight”, or brain drain, require an integrated global response.
Looking at knowledge from the view of Global Public Goods helps strengthen the case for the global response, and can broaden our understanding of how to plug the knowledge gap plaguing the developing world.
Demographic trends mean that a greater share of human capital will be born in the developing world, a place that is struggling to provide quality education to all. Part of the problem is that it might be unfair for these places to be expected to provide national education through national taxes. Take India for example, where the government is tasked with providing education to a quarter of the world’s future work force, of which many will live outside India and work for non-Indian companies. In 2012, “human capital flight” was estimated to cost India $2 billion yearly, a number that is rising.
Still, there is a collective interest in having an educated populace in all countries on the planet, so solving issues like the one above are a high priority for ending poverty. However, this does not necessarily imply more taxes and public provision of the good, as most attempts at correcting externality failures focus on.
The insight that “businesses, donors and governments alike have a mutual interest in co-investing in the outcomes which will benefit all,” which is gleaned from the Global Public Good school of thinking, may incentivize more involvement from the private sector.
Creating a market mechanism whereby private money can be funneled into education — hiring teachers, building schools, updating software and retraining to make teachers more effective — for the payoff of better access to more talented employees in the future may prove to be crucial in addressing the $26 billion funding gap for reaching the goal of universal primary education.
This does not entail the privatization of the education system, it is simply businesses integrating up the supply chain all the way to education, ensuring a global pool of well educated and talented workers.
The concern that “the global talent gap is the issue that keeps me and every other CEO I know up worrying at night,” was voiced by the CEO of a fortune 500 company and reveals that demand for such a market mechanism may already be in place.
Knowledge as a Global Public Goods offers many insights into how to effectively increase the level of knowledge worldwide, and the above example of private funding is just one way in which this new field promises to make the world a better place.
– John Wachter
Sources: Brookings Institution, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, SPARC, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Photo: Stilo