I found Kofi Anani's contribution on the needs of the poor very thoughtful
and thought provoking. However I wondered why Kofi's list of ICT-related
needs did not include better access to market information - indeed better
access to markets. This is one area where carefully developed and deployed
ICTs should be able to support positive impacts. Is it simply that this is
taken as given, or perhaps that for most poor rural people that it simply
isn't of major significance?
Addressing Kofi's main point about poverty reduction, if we are serious
about reducing poverty by half by the year 2015 some of the rules of the
game need to change. One of the most interesting examples of changing the
rules that I have come across recently is Divine Chocolate
(http://www.divinechocolate.com/). Coincidentally it involves a producer
coop in Ghana (apologies to Kofi who probably knows far more about this than
I do). Divine is a fair trade brand but with a mainstream market position.
In common with other fair trade businesses Divine tries to improve the share
of the value for the producers. However they have a unique ownership
structure. The cocoa producers, Kuapa Kokoo own 30% of Divine. In other
words they own a substantial part of the high end of the value chain, not
just the commodity. Kuapa is a cooperative of 35,000 farmers operating in
650 villages.
The relationship with Divine has led to some interesting side developments.
For instance the website of the latest chocolate brand to be launched,
Dubble (http://www.dubble.co.uk), has been partly built by school children
from Effiduase a school in Ghana - and they get to tell their stories. A UK
charity, Comic Relief, provided funding for the equipment and on-site
support.
Of course one of the big problems with poverty reduction is access to
finance. To address this issue Kuapa set up a credit union last year. Since
the launch in October they have attracted savings of $170,000 which is
tremendous progress.
I think this is a good example of cooperative development involving ICT
although the ICT is simply one of the tools not an end in itself. Just where
it should be.
Best wishes,
Malcolm Corbett
P O P T E L
The Co-operative ISP with the mission to
Connect * Inform * Empower
Building .coop - The Trusted Alternative to .com
T. +44 20 7284 6900
W. http://www.poptel.net
On 3 April 2001, Kofi Anani wrote:
>
> It has been a while since I posted to the GKD forum. Between
> then and now, a lot has taken place at the front of harnessing information
> and knowledge for development. Perhaps the most significant is the
> pronouncement of the world community leaders to reduce poverty levels to
half by
> the year 2015, and the corresponding trumpet phrase of "attacking poverty"
> enunciated in the latest World Development Report. The following is a
> reflection of my thoughts on this pledge in light of the precarious
conditions
> of the poor, and past attempts to address the issues at the root of
world poverty.
>
<snip>
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