Empower Blog

Create local incentives to reduce illegal logging

Robert Bortner — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:46:00 +0000

Tropical deforestation accounts for almost one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Because of its substantial deforestation, Indonesia is thought to be the world's third-largest producer of greenhouse gases, after the United States and China.

The Amazon rainforest has been described as the "lungs of our planet" because it provides the global environment with the essential service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest. In 2001, the Amazon covered approximately 5.4 million square kilometers, which is only 87 percent of its original size.^[1^] Rainforests have decreased in size primarily due to deforestation. Despite reductions in the rate of deforestation in the last 10 years, the Amazon rainforest will diminish by 40 percent by 2030 at the current rate.^[²^] According to WWF Brazil, deforestation and forest fires are responsible for 75 percent of Brazilian greenhouse gas emissions.

In The Political Economy of Deforestation in the Tropics (NBER Working Paper No. 17417), co-authors Robin Burgess, Matthew Hansen, Benjamin Olken, Peter Potapov, and Stefanie Sieber find that Indonesia's decentralized and relatively weak governmental controls over forest resources in the post-Suharto era have contributed to illegal logging and widespread deforestation.

This is similar to the situation in the Brazilian Amazon. The far northern state of Roraima is very dependent upon timber sales and cattle production, and politicians are extremely beholden to these special interests. A few years ago, a group of state police set fire to a large part of Xixuaú, one of the communities where CEN has worked. The police also attempted to arrest the head of a local NGO, Associação Amazônia, on trumped charges in order to block the NGO's efforts to include the Reserva Xixuaú-Xiparinã in a new federal reserve, which would prevent forest extraction and cattle farming on the land. Ultimately, the police effort failed, but this demonstrates how far local and state officials will go to support the efforts of logging interests and cattle ranchers.

Recently, there have been increasing calls for part of the state of Pará, where CEN is working, to split to become a new state. This new state of Tapajós, of which Santarém would be the new capital, would be heavily reliant upon soy and timber revenues. Local and state politicians would be increasingly susceptible to influence by these interests, in the same way as they are in Roraima. The communities where we are working would be increasingly threatened by illegal logging, cattle ranching and soy farming, and deforestation rates in the region would undoubtedly increase.

The results of the Burgess et al. study suggest that, in their efforts to encourage conservation in forest-rich countries like Indonesia, Brazil, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, policymakers should consider the incentives of the local officials and politicians who may be profiting from the exploitation of these resources. The authors conclude that standard economic theories combined with innovative means of monitoring illegal extraction can offer powerful insights into what drives shortsighted and destructive resource management.

When a Quick Fix Gets the Deep Six

Administrator — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:42:00 +0000

CEN was featured in an article by Michael J. Carter which appeared in IPS (Inter Press Service) on December 27th about figuring out how to change the world for the better.

According to a 2009 study at Stanford University, a new non-profit organisation is registered every 10 to 15 minutes in the United States alone. As a result there are as many varieties of aid projects as colours in the rainbow.

How hard can it be? Find a problem and solve it.

Problem: Women in Afghanistan are oppressed.

Solution: Help empower them by creating a women-only shopping mall, thereby helping them earn income and gain business experience. Read the full story.

Fair trade aims to better quality of life in developing countries

Administrator — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:05:00 +0000

by Gwen Davis
Full article in Tuesday, December 13, 2011 South Seattle Beacon Hill Newspaper

The quality of life in developing countries can keep one awake at night: Children working in sweatshops; women working 19 hours a day for 10 cents a week; little access to HIV/AIDS or malaria medication; chronic starvation and institutionalized poverty.

Such inhumane conditions do not need to stay this way though. Organizations like Seattle’s Ten Thousand Villages (www.tenthousandvillages.com) — a fair-trade retailer of artisan-crafted home décor, personal accessories and gift items —is making a difference every day.

Ten Thousand Villages has spent more than 60 years cultivating trading relationships in which artisans receive a fair price for their work and consumers have access to unique, handcrafted items. The company establishes long-term buying relationships in places where skilled artisans are under- or unemployed and in which they lack opportunities for income.

“There is fair trade and free trade,” said Tyi Esha, assistant manager at Ten Thousand Villages “Free trade has an individual making a project for you, and the process is messed up and selfish. Fair trade is giving the artisans the whole profit back — not a penny more, not a penny less. It goes back to the workers.”

“Fair trade is taking a look at working conditions and transparency in business dealings, while also thinking about maintaining cultural sensibility,” Store Manager Stacie Ford-Bonnelle said. “With fair trade, the welfare of the entire community is preserved.”

Read the full story,

What HIV/AIDS Can Teach Global Development

Frances Walker-Dudenhoefer — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:41:00 +0000

With the best of intentions, global development work often falters when NGOs take a top-down approach. As “experts”, organizations believe they know what’s best for communities - routinely implementing projects that realize their concept of development and oftentimes importing Western staff to achieve this. Exacerbating this scenario is the phenomenon of Learned Helplessness, a term most frequently heard in the field of domestic violence, but also applicable to communities that over generations have become used to having decisions made for them. With communities not engaged in the initial planning and development process, it is little surprise that the developing world is now littered with technology and projects that fell apart as soon as the implementing NGO left.

Top - down development can exacerbate learned helplessness

HIV/AIDS work, both domestic and global, has frequently taken a different approach. In forcing governments to acknowledge the existence of the disease, the fight against HIV has been fought from the ground up since the very beginning. In the early days activism by the gay community in the United States forged and guided public health policy and programs at every level, creating effective and powerful models both informed by scientific research and rooted in community needs. As the HIV pandemic spread to other demographic groups, the importance of direct community input and their engagement in the decision-making process was recognized as key to the fight against HIV. The uniqueness of each community group and their own specific needs are identified through such ground-level tools as community planning groups, community-based organization capacity building and, most importantly, the hiring and training of individuals who “walk-the-walk and talk-the–talk” of their community to implement the work.

Key to this model is the concept of development sustainability – ensuring that work will continue once the funding organization has exited the community. The only way to ensure this will happen is through projects that are based directly on community need and that have engaged the community at each step of project development; truly building capacity from within. Projects lacking a feasible “exit strategy” risk creating sustainable work over the long-term solely for the NGO. Both of the two very different global health organizations for which I’ve worked, the International Training & Education Center on Health and Clinton Foundation Health Access Initiative, have examples where after several years of organizational capacity building with government Ministries of Health they have been able to exit countries leaving self-reliant and sustainable HIV/AIDS programs in place. In fact, one nation, The Bahamas, is now providing peer education and support around HIV work to other countries in their region.

Key to sustainable community work is the concept of “servant leadership”; meeting the needs of and working on behalf of others. As global health program manager, one phrase frequently used was “How can I be of help to you?” Communities are more than aware of their specific needs and it often simply takes listening, moving the pieces around and facilitating access to resources in order to create sustainable change. The CEN model works at this most fundamental level by responding to communities’ needs; then providing development tools so individuals can achieve their dreams – for themselves.

________________

Frances Walker-Dudenhoefer is the Vice President of CEN's Board of Directors and has many years experience in global health.

Breakthrough: The Movement for Women’s Economic Empowerment is at its Strongest in History

Danielle Bradford — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:21:00 +0000

“I think we are living a very critical moment actually, now, in terms of the discussion of women, and in a transitional period of our economies.”

Zainab Salbi, founder and CEO, Women for Women International

2010 provided several instances that benefited numerous communities. Nations worked together to aid neighbors struck by natural disasters, and we watched as historic revolutions were born, showcasing the unquestionable truth of what collective action can produce. Though there were a few rough spots with our own economic recovery, political playground fights, continuing wars, and questions of what we’re doing wrong, this provided a perfect opportunity to examine exactly how we can make it right.

Why it's Critical to Build a Firm Foundation of Strong Basic Skills and Mindsets

Administrator — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:13:00 +0000

When Dona Luciene, a resident of Suruacá, set out to open her own clothing business, she knew there would be countless obstacles standing in her way: a limited market, the lack of funds to buy a sewing machine and raw materials, and family illness, just to name a few, although, these did not stop her. The strong basic skills and a mindsets she and the other participants through our cCLEAR Project is a critical foundation for building self-reliance. Dona Luciene has achieved not only monetary success, but has become a community model for enthusiastic and talented entrepreneurship.

What's the difference between hard skills, basic skills, and mindsets?

If these skills are so vital to Dona Luciene, and CEN as a whole, what do they actually entail? Higher-level or hard skills are generally technical skills that can be taught and most importantly, applied in a concrete way, since they're measurable and are related to an area of expertise, such as bookkeeping, sewing and filing. Basic skills and mindsets are the foundation for building higher-level skills. Basic skills, or soft skills, include critical thinking, problem solving, and discipline, and can be described as the ability to apply hard skills to actual situations. Mindsets, or habits of the mind, are when people adopt a deeper quality of learning and thinking.

Application of these skills leads to higher-level learning and self-reliance

Mastery of these basic skills and mindsets is critical for acquiring higher-level skills. Without this strong foundation, residents often struggle with tackling obstacles and maintaining optimism with their projects. For instance, an entrepreneur might learn how to establish prices, but they won't be able to do so effectively unless they possess the discipline to keep track of their expenses, production levels, and sales. Particularly in developing countries with poor educational systems, a cycle of dependency is often established, in which residents become reliant on outside aid for assistance. Because of this, residents often adopt self-defeating, I can't mentalities.

While training and resources, such as money and equipment, might give the community members some additional confidence, they'll most likely quit when they hit an obstacle for which they don't feel equipped for. On the other hand, if given the same situation, and the person has a confident and disciplined mindset, they will likely arrive at several solutions, since they won't be discouraged by a difficult task; these skills are thus necessary for long-term self-reliance.

Consider Luciene's struggle to expand her business. As opposed to accepting defeat and a meager monthly income, she strengthened basics skills, such as accuracy, ability to accurately assess situations, discipline, and patience, which gave her a strong foundation for new bookkeeping and management skills. For example, she found a way to expand her profit by producing a couple of garments and using a predetermined amount of the profits from those sales to buy more materials. She began to keep close track of her expenditures and sales, which helped her set prices which covered her production costs and provided a fair profit. Without the ability to clearly assess the situation she faced, the patience to start slowly and build up working capital, or the discipline to accurately track her expenses and sales, bookkeeping and inventory management training would be ineffective. Dona Luciene has not only mastered the hard and soft skills she requires to make her products and expand her product line, she has adopted a confident mindset, which allows for her to overcome unexpected obstacles.

Dona Luciene is just one of the many residents who've challenged themselves to acquire the basic skills and mindsets necessary for empowerment; thus, achieving the kind of success that will pave the way for an independent, self-reliant community.

To read more about CEN's approach to development, click here.

Poverty: More than just GDP

Kelcie Prazan — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:34:00 +0000

How can you tell whether or not someone is living in poverty? What makes the quality of life better for someone living on the streets of New York rather than for someone living in a dirt-floor hut in the middle of Africa? The University of Oxford recently did a study intended to answer questions just like these, utilizing determinants of poverty rarely used before. These measurements became known as the "Multidimensional Poverty Index" (MPI), and will be used by the United Nations in their next Human Development Report.

The MPI is composed of ten indicators that help determine a person's quality of life. A family is considered poor if they're deprived of over 30% of the indicators that describe a non-poverty-stricken life. Such indicators are determined by asking a new series of questions. For example, one of the questions asked was, "Does a family have a floor made from dung?" While another question posed, "Are any members of the household malnourished?"

The reason the University of Oxford researchers decided to branch out from using Gross Domestic Product as the sole indicator of poverty is due to the fact that GDP doesn't depict the entire story. For example, incomes may rise in a poverty-stricken area, but that doesn't mean nutrition in that area will become better as well. Therefore, the quality of life cannot be determined by simply evaluating the GDP.

One contemporary example of the misrepresentation of the GDP's relationship to poverty is Brazil. This South American country is considered to hold vast wealth, although it's still ranked as one of the top fifteen poorest countries in the world. Along the Brazilian Amazon, where CEN works, over 45% of the population earns less than $2 a day. The study by Oxford University, therefore illustrates that income is only part of the story; residents lack material, health and educational opportunities that dramatically effect their quality of life. As pointed out in the article, "Income clearly matters: it determines how much people can buy and therefore whether they can afford to do the things, like eat enough, that critics of income-based measures think are more important. But rising incomes do not always translate into better health, say, or better nutrition."

The MPI also helps reduce the built-in cultural bias of using pure income metrics to define poverty, which coincides with the CEN approach of letting the participants and their communities drive their own development agenda. Many of the residents in the communities where we work don't view economic development purely in terms of earning a lot of money and having a lot of consumer goods; rather, their goal is a higher quality of life, which includes access to basic services, such as education, adequate healthcare and economic opportunities, as well as freedom from disease, war and violence. The Multidimensional Poverty Index better reflects this than poverty metrics based purely on income.

To take a look at the entire article in the July 29th edition of The Economist, click here.

Why have we chosen to focus on entrepreneurship?

Administrator — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:02:00 +0000

Of all the areas of social and economic development in which CEN could invest its energy, why focus on entrepreneurship? The basic skills and mindsets CEN helps develop are a critical foundation for overcoming a wide variety of the challenges we see in developing regions like the Amazon, including increasing access to health care, increasing incomes, preserving the environment, and improving education.

CEN's Creating a Culture of Learning and Empowerment in the Amazon Region (cCLEAR) program focuses on enabling residents of rural communities to increase incomes in a sustainable manner, through entrepreneurship. When asked directly to identify the biggest obstacles they faced, residents of the Amazonian communities where CEN is engaged expressed concerns over the lack of stable and consistent means of generating income. Nurturing and encouraging new, grassroots business development ideas creates new jobs and revenue opportunities, rather than relying upon the existing sources, which are limited.

Why focus on entrepreneurship, rather than finding jobs in existing businesses?

cCLEAR participant Rennerclay with his woodworking project

We work in small, rural communities, in a region where agriculture is the primary livelihood. This is largely limited to manioc, latex-harvesting and fishing. There are very few businesses in these communities; often the only job opportunities are in cities. Even there, the supply of workers typically exceeds the demand. Moving there often tears families apart, breaking down traditional cultures and contributing to the overcrowding of the cities. While income opportunities are greater in urban areas, so are the costs of living. As result, many of those coming from rural areas end up in poor, overcrowded slums, with high crime rates and poor living conditions. Migration to the cities hollows the communities of tremendous talent and youth, which accelerates the decline of these small, but vital, villages and towns.

In order to allow people to stay in their communities and survive, cCLEAR helps individuals start their own business to generate income and sustain local livelihoods. Many of the participants take advantage of the bounty of natural resources around them, such as wood, the forest and wildlife, in a sustainable manner, avoiding the exploitative practices that have robbed many unique areas in the Amazon of their natural assets.

In this way, CEN is responding to the needs that are specific to these Amazon communities, as well as helping instill a sense of self-reliance that will empower them to find local solutions to the problems in their communities. By working with CEN to strengthen basic skills, expand mindsets, and develop entrepreneurial and technical skills, the cCLEAR participants in turn are able to develop businesses that in time will provide sustainable incomes. In doing so, CEN empowers the residents themselves to address many of the structural weaknesses they face, such as limited access to markets and capital, and poor transportation services.

CEN inspires in our program participants the understanding that they can effect change on their own; that they have the power to change their circumstances and do not need to rely on aid from other countries. Rather than continuing to promote the sense of powerlessness and dependence that comes from simply giving people the solutions to their perceived problems, we help them achieve their own solutions.

What is the Relationship Between Business and Entrepreneurial Skills?

Woody Ciskowski — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:06:00 +0000

In order to build sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their families, residents of rural communities in developing countries need to become entrepreneurs.

The major problem in these communities is not just the lack of business skills; it is also the lack of opportunities. There are few jobs available, which leaves people to either continue with traditional occupations, which are often financially inadequate, or become an entrepreneur and start new a new business for themselves.

Entrepreneurs see and create opportunities for income generation where there were none before. Being an entrepreneur is riskier than working for somebody else, but the potential benefits are far greater, especially when there are few available job options. Any skill, even those that might have been learned out of necessity (cooking, weaving, or farming) can be turned into a way to generate income. When people are taught to use these skills in a business environment, to make money, these skills become business skills.

But what if there is no existing outlet for somebody to turn their skills into business skills? Or what if that person thinks they can do it better than what is already available? Then it’s time for that person to become an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur needs business skills so their business can actually create a product or service, but they also need entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurial skills are complex “soft-skills” that will help an entrepreneur cope with ever changing business conditions. Critical thinking, self-managed learning, and problem solving skills are all examples of entrepreneurial skills.

An entrepreneur needs to have a feeling of how to network and market oneself, as well as spot market opportunities and know how to pursue them. They need to ask questions, acquire new skills, adapt successfully to changing situations, and have the courage to innovate. Acquiring these skills and intuitions is not easy, but it all begins with an entrepreneurial mindset.

What is an entrepreneurial mindset? It is the first and most important step in helping someone become an entrepreneur. It is the belief that they are in control of their own future, the knowledge that they cannot just wait for somebody else to clear a path for them; they need to go out and find their own. An entrepreneur is confident they will succeed in doing something new. An entrepreneurial mindset, like all mindsets, is not easy to teach and is best attained by people actually going out and succeeding.

Being a successful entrepreneur requires a confident mindset, it requires knowledge and intuition, and it requires business skills. It’s not easy being an entrepreneur and taking on new responsibilities and risks of failure. However, successful entrepreneurs find ways to create new opportunities that greatly benefit themselves as well as their entire community.

Bob's visit to the Rio Tapajós Communities

Robert Bortner — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:48:00 +0000

While in Suruacá in July I met with most of the cCLEAR participants. This is the first time I’ve been back here since launching cCLEAR two years ago. I noticed a lot of changes.
About 10 new families have moved here, bringing the total to about 115. To move to the community, either the husband or wife must have family here. Because Suruacá has more infrastructure and opportunities than most communities, many newly married families have selected to move here. As opportunities in Suruacá improve, a few families have even moved back from the cities of Santarem or Manaus – reverse migration from what’s happening in much of the region.

Another change I noticed was how many more people had cellphones and TVs, especially considering there isn’t regular electricity in the community. A few years ago, only a few people had phones, now many of the youth, in particular, carry them around and use them mostly as a personal music player. Plus, they double as a flashlight in the dark. One of the cellphone carriers, Vivo, is even considering building a cell tower in the community, which will also serve passing boats.

Speaking of boats, the community is now served by three boats, compared to just two on my last visit. Two of the boats are considerably bigger. Two are community owned and one is private. One of the community boats is used primarily as a backup and to travel to other communities. The two larger boats primarily travel twice a week between Suruacá and the City of Santarem, about 6 hours away. They are the only means of transportation in and out of the community.

We were treated last weekend to a big soccer invitational, with many teams from the region, followed by a huge party. Four bands came in from Santarem to play and music raged on until dawn. The cost of putting this on must have been staggering for such a poor community. But they manage to hold a soccer invitational a couple of times a year, as well as several other large festivals. They are financed in large part by patronization from companies, government agencies and politicians in the region. Sometimes it’s a little hard for us from the US to understand how much the culture of doing “favors” is still really active in the region. This culture reinforces the cycle of dependency, which is very hard to break.

There’s no question there’s been a lot of progress in the communities over the last couple of years. In my next blog, I’ll tell more about how the participants in our program have fared since the pilot ended.