Good Practice — Ethnic Supplies

How fair are we?

March 3, 2010 By Ida "ethical gifts" Horner's blog at Ecademy Leave a Comment

It is week 2 of the #fairtrade fortnight and I am here to share with you some of the thoughts running through my mind with a view to encouraging debate. To that end I have some questions and will share with you something from my travels. 1. why would you choose to buy fair-trade over any other brand 2. Should the concept of fair-trade be extended to European farmers? Why Last year was an interesting year for me in more than one way. Ethnic Supplies headed out in a new direction as service provider. The first person wanting my services was a coffee roaster based in North London and my brief was to help him trade more ethically! The first thing we did was to hit the road to Uganda so that I could introduce him to some coffee growers. Our first stop was Eastern Uganda, home to the famous Bugisu Arabica coffee beans.

We were met by the co-op's Managing Director, a really pleasant man. My client tasked him whether his coffee was fair-trade certified. The answer was an emphatic NO! And before we asked nay more questions he continued , "we used to be but had to pull out" neither I nor my client asked why. But our host went on to say, since pulling out we are exploring the idea of processing and roasting our own coffee prior to exporting it. We believe we can earn more money for our growers that way!" We really couldn't argue with this. if you think about it coffee beans in their raw form are of no value but it the fact that value can be added to them to the extent that the end user would happily pay £3 or more for a cup of coffee that makes them interesting.

raw coffee beans So my question is, Are we being fair to the coffee growers by allowing them only 3% of the overall profit by adding value else where? What is the worst that could happen if we transferred technology and skills to them that enabled them to export a fully packaged coffee to us and thus capture more of that 97% profit? What do you think. are we as fair as we could possibly be? If you enjoyed reading this you may find this post interesting too Ending poverty in Africa isn't about being fair

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Filed Under: Community, Good Practice

Dambisa Moyo- Is she Dead Wrong?

November 27, 2009 By idahorner Leave a Comment

She is a beautiful African woman with brains to die for and author of a sensational book DEAD AID that has rocked the world of International Development.

Amongst those who have reviewed her thesis is Chola Mukanga a fellow Zambian and Head of Aviation Economics at the Department for Transport UK.

http://www.zambian-economist.com/2009/03/dead-aid-by-dambisa-moyo-review.html

Chola has said that he is not conviced by Dambisa’s arguments and that her radical solutions are ineffective and could potentially lead to failed states.

I do agree that turning off the AID tap in 5 years could potentially be catastrophic and that AID from the Chinese is not the answer to ending poverty in Africa nor are remittances from the diaspora. I am very nervous about the Chinese involvement in Africa!

I however don’t believe that we should sit back and do nothing. I understand that some if not all sub-Saharan African countries rely on AID to make up budget deficits. My question is, how effective are these governments are at collecting Taxes?

Most African countries have a large percentage of people in informal employment/economic activities that go untaxed mostly because there are no systems and processes in place to gather this revenue. How much would this revenue be worth to these governments, if it were collected? Could it go some way in balancing those government budgets perhaps?

Whilst AID remains crucial in cases of emergencies and jump starting African economies it also creates dependency and Chola asks how can this AID be made smarter, better and beneficial to poor?

I am not an economist but common sense tells me that so long as African governments continue to see AID as the only way to balance their books then we are in trouble.

A process that will see countries reducing their reliance on AID is desirable and in my mind this process includes increased Trade but through a VALUE ADDED system as opposed to exporting of raw materials, as well as increased internal revenue collection through income taxes.

Chola’s has point to some extent AID cannot be turned off in 5 years without due regard to the consequences likewise Dambisa’s solutions would require hard work and commitment on the part of African governments and citizens as well as donor governments but not doing anything is not an answer

What are your views?