Out of Poverty with Dignity

Posted on 14/10/2008 by martinrstone

 This blog item is in support of Blog Action Day 15th October 2008 where bloggers undertake to blog about poverty all on the same day.

There must be many ways of tackling poverty.  I am concentrating on ways of helping the poor in the underdeveloped world to rise out of their poverty with dignity.  I’m not so interested in huge government sponsored projects which I feel are so difficult to prevent from succumbing to corruption.  I’m really keen on those projects and charities that aim to support the individual, small communities and coops to get beyond subsistence and into surplus to trade.

I believe that there are three approaches that combine to make this work

  • Projects that provide the appropriate tools and means.
  • micro finance to fund small groups and individuals and start the investment and trading
  • fair trade that doesn’t put barriers in the way of these groups from trading their goods on the world markets.

Here are some examples that I happen to know about and support: 

Provision of appropriate tools and means

Practical Actionworks with poor communities to provide them with appropriate technology solutions that they can manage, maintain and control.  such as cooking devices which use less wood and the smoke is funneled out of the hut.  See their technology blog

Send A Cowdon’t provide just animals but the training on how to care for them and how to use the manure to fertilize their crops.  This way the poor are able to produce more than they need and can therefore sell the surplus to earn enough to buy things like medicine and schooling.

Spanaprovide veterinary care and training for the owners of donkeys so that they can get the most out of their donkeys without causing them pain and discomfort.  The donkeys also live longer.

Microfinance

microfinance came to the fore after the success of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and its founder  Muhammad Yunus who together won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Now there are a number of examples.  I am particularly fond of Shared Interestbecause it will fund microfinance as well as fund startup groups to begin trading

Fair Trade

I am a great supporter of Fair Trade whether it is through bananas or coffee or now even through cotton clothing. I just love the thought that what I need and then buy will actually provide a reasonable, consistent return for the producer and thereby help that person to trade out of poverty.

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8 Responses

  1. embejo, on October 14th, 2008 at 9:56 pm Said:

    Great post! I’ve looked at some of your links…I agree that micro-enterprise loans are such a great way to help people out of the cycle of poverty….

  2. Toaf, on October 15th, 2008 at 8:07 am Said:

    A holistic approach, like the one you outline, is definitely what’s needed. And let’s not forget the involvement of people themselves.

  3. Katrina, on October 15th, 2008 at 1:53 pm Said:

    Thank you for this post! I work for an organization called Millennium Promise and we are working in many of the areas you described above. One of our initiatives, the Millennium Villages project, uses a holistic, integrated and community-led approach to help rural communitites in sub-Saharan Africa lift themselves out of extreme poverty. We provide tools and resources for interventions in agriculture, education, health and infrastructure – and we do it all at once, with the community leading and managing all of the projects. Currently, the project reaches 80 villages in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
    Check out our site: http://www.millenniumpromise.org
    Thanks again!

  4. kouji haiku, on October 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pm Said:

    i love kiva because it allows for microfinance from an individual donor’s perspective. :) am currently unable to make a donation though, so i put up its banner on my blog (as well as that of freerice and goodsearch).

    saw this post via the front page of blog action day. it’s great that you’re participating. :)

  5. KivaB4B Team, on October 15th, 2008 at 5:23 pm Said:

    HI all.
    KivaB4B is contributing $10,000 to support Blog Action Day. KivaB4B is a new partnership between Kiva and Advanta Bank that lets you double the loans you make through Kiva, up to $200/month. It’s a very cool program. Check it out at KivaB4B.org. There’s also a very unique affiliate program they offer to blogs and other sites. There’s a description on the blog, http://b4bcommunity.org/2008/08/the-kiva-affiliate-program-hel.html

    KivaB4B Team

  6. Blog Action Day: More interesting posts « Sahar’s Blog, on October 15th, 2008 at 5:27 pm Said:

    [...] Out of poverty with dignity: Sounds like another great plan to me! [...]

  8. Patrick Dodd, on January 26th, 2009 at 11:47 am Said:

    Hi Martin,

    Thank you for mentioning Shared Interest. I would like to add a clarification if I may. The loans and credit that Shared Interest provide do not qualify as microfinance or microcredit as the average loan we currently have to producers is £60,520 and to buyers is £331,736. Shared Interest also does not supply start up costs- the customers we work with are already established Fair trade businesses.

    However, the Shared Interest Foundation supports businesses that are just starting out in the Fair Trade world, or who are in the process of achieving fair trade status with training in business skills and capacity building, primarily in Africa.

    Thank you again for the mention and if you are passionate about fair trade we’d love to have you as an ambassador – http://www.shared-interest.com/ambassador.php

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