Sustainable development — Ethnic Supplies

Fashion fights poverty part 1

September 18, 2011 By idahorner 4 Comments

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On 9th September 2011 I served as a panellist at the launch of the African Fashion Guide by Jacqueline Shaw. The event showcased some African designers, considered issues of ethical sourcing, labelling as well as the current status of African Fashion.

My point of view of the fashion industry in general is that it provides a superb opportunity to fight poverty especially amongst women but they are challenges to be overcome

the culture of transacting business in Africa vs Europe
infrastructure- in some landlocked countries products can go through 3 countries before reaching the shipping port. This has implications for freight costs and production costs
knowledge of the market that African fashion designers are trying to supply into
Africans failing/refusing to consume African fashion affects growth of this industry
The terms that the media use to describe Africa fashion- Tribal, Ethnic etc and lately Italian Vogue added a new term to the list SLAVE EARINGS
Technology
Lack of skills
Capital to scale projects
Access to markets
Competition from China and India
The Second Hand clothes market

This event started a very important conversation that I would like us to continued especially around issues of certification and labelling- are these always realistic in an African setting or even affordable?

What about Aid? How can it contribute to fashion as a tool to fight poverty?

On my way out I was stopped by a young lady who had a very long question for me. It was 10PM and I was keen to get home so we agreed to continue the conversation. A few days ago she sent her question and comments by email and that will be the subject of part 2 of this conversation

As usual join the conversation by sharing your views here

Why do 60% of UK public think overseas Aid is wasted? Part 2

July 27, 2011 By idahorner Leave a Comment

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As promised in the last post I am revisiting this question . But before I add my views here is what some of you the readers thought

@JesseOsmun Aid is wasted because it is funneled through goverment hands, with Corruption skimming it instead of direct aid to people

Bob Hayward-Because after years of aid the root cause of the various problems remain unsolved.

Both these points raise interesting points but Bob’s question answers the question

Why do 60% of UK public think overseas Aid is wasted?

Do we actually have proof that overseas Aid is wasted?

If we do have proof of Aid being wasted why is it wasted?

Is it because the UK can actually spare this money?

Is it bad planning?

Is it poor policies?

Is it poor distribution of Aid?

Who is responsible for ensuring that Aid is not wasted?

What can be done to ensure Aid isn’t wasted?

Does @JessOsmun have a point? Aid should not go to governments but instead to projects directly?

This point reminds me of a similar scheme here in the UK. Those that cannot afford to cover their housing costs get help from the government, in some case the money goes directly to the landlords. But can they be trusted to let the government know when the tenant has moved on so that the government stops sending the money?

In other cases the person(claimant as we call them) is paid housing benefit (money to pay their rent/landlord) directly but the person might chose to divert the money to something else say clothes leaving the landlord out of pocket.

What should the government do to come up with a system that does not produce either of those scenarios?

Can you see any similarities between Housing benefit and Overseas Aid?

Finally what can done to stop overseas Aid being wasted?

I will keep this short so we can have a conversation

Filed Under: AID, International Policy, Latest, Poverty in Africa

Why do 60% of UK public think overseas Aid wasted?

July 23, 2011 By ethnicsupplies 1 Comment

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The British government pledged to ring fence its Overseas Aid of 0.7% of national income. To date the British public continue to ask why is that? In fact in a recent BBC Radio 4 interview , Andrew Mitchell The Secretary of state for International Development DFID had to answer the question

Why do 60% of UK public think overseas Aid is wasted? And if that is the case should we continue to send our hard earned cash overseas?

and his answer

If we do not send the money to help alleviate problems like poverty, extreme hunger, these problems will turn up on our door step

Does he have a point?

On the face of it he does. So the question is has our sending overseas Aid stopped these problems turning up on our door stop?

The answer is NO.

British people are generous and are quick to respond to calls of help when there is an emergency elsewhere and have responded generously to the crisis in the horn of Africa and that being the case why would 60% of them think that overseas Aid is wasted? This article in The Mail Online has some answers

I have previously asked the question Why do parts of Africa remain desperately despite the Aid that we send? and in another post I asked why India, a country that reportedly has its own Overseas Aid program has more poor people than some parts of Africa?

This all sounds to me like either

Mr Mitchell has not not been effective at getting his message out there
or that he needs to show us the UK public where our money goes in real terms and unfortunately for some that will mean that some of those “problems” he mentioned during his radio interview do not continue to show up on our door step

What do you think?

I am going to keep this post short to encourage discussion and will return to the topic in the next post – but in the mean time do join the conversation and don’t forget to invite your friends

Filed Under: Development Policy, Latest Tagged With: Africa, AID, Andrew Mitchell, BBC Radio 4, David Cameron, Department for International Development, Government of the United Kingdom, Horn of Africa, Secretary of State for International Development