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Friday, July 29, 2011 - Volume 3, Number 7
GFI Newsletter

This Issue: Women-Led Growth

Our Work: South to South Exchange a Reality!

The World Bank has awarded a grant to GFI's partners Pagsung and SEWA
for women shea nut pickers from Ghana to travel to India to learn
from SEWA's experience in building a successful model of a women-led
business venture. This is a unique opportunity for women to share
stories and strategies for overcoming economic, legal, and cultural
barriers and for developing business practices tailored to their
needs. The training in Gujarat will be held in early September and
will focus on the development of the Trade Facilitation Centers and
SEWA's brand, RUDI. Read more about their history below.

Women-Led Growth

Thanks to the leadership of the Self Employed Women's Association
(SEWA) and its 1.5 million members, Trade Facilitation Centers (TFCs)
are now a reality in Gujarat, providing a safe space for women
producers to develop business plans, learn about finance options,
discuss policy changes, and more. The centers also serve as marketing
and sales hubs for producers of agricultural commodities such as
cumin, wheat, chili, sesame seeds, and castor oil as well as garments
and other finished products.

SEWA used an initial grant from the Tecovas Foundation and support
from the Global Fairness Initiative to advance the RUDI (Rural Urban
Development Initiative) brand. RUDI (meaning pure and beautiful in
Gujarati), which began as a pilot project for rural retail managed by
small and marginalized women producers, has expanded to over $300,000
in sales and plans to cover all 15 districts of Gujarat. The profits
are shared among members of the rural self-help group, improving
economic conditions and empowering marginalized women farmers and
workers.

GFI was involved from the beginning -- supporting some of the first
ventures helping small rural female farmers get fair prices for their
goods, improve processing, and create sales jobs. SEWA's focus on
stringent quality control, advance bulk purchasing, targeted
marketing, strategic geographic expansion, and the recruitment and
training of high quality front-line sales staff, has made RUDI a
competitive venture, successfully selling its brand to local
retailers. Hours are adapted to women's schedules, benefitting the
poorest members of SEWA.

Feature: The Myth of Organic Certification

For a year our team in Guatemala has been searching for ways to make
organic certification feasible for subsistence farmers in Northern
Guatemala. With no roads, nascent quality control and uniformity of
production, and not even a common language to communicate with
cooperatives or buyers, the poorest producers - mostly indigenous
farmers and women - have little buy-in on certification. For example,
many farmers collaborating with GFI under the Verapaz Community
Empowerment Program (VCEP) who did achieve organic certification for
achiote (annatto) under a now-defunct non-GFI program cannot continue
without the significant assistance external donor funds provided.

After analyzing capacity, product quality, available infrastructure,
and existing markets, we determined that organic certification was
not feasible under existing conditions. Talks with the certifiers
made this quite clear: they explained that small farmers who
previously found a market niche for organic production when supply of
non-organic production was high (and prices low) no longer had an
incentive to continue producing organic as soon as prices for
non-organic produce rose again. Without subsidies, and being able to
get good prices without the extra work and paperwork required for
organic certification, farmers reverted to the most cost-effective
methods they found.

Organic certification is a false promise for subsistence farmers who
live under extreme poverty and cannot sustainably or independently
achieve certification. So how to make certification truly inclusive?
Start by promoting the process rather than the certification.
Sustainable adoption of organic production will require small farmers
to own the process, building better agricultural practices that are
friendlier to the environment while also learning how to manage their
small farms as a business. When small farmers see a livelihood
benefit to organic production, they are more likely to pay the fees
for certification themselves and then won't forego their investment
easily.

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http://cts.vresp.com/c/?GlobalFairnessInitia/b1b3e10dbf/b91e6a0e30/79c7ac994e

DID YOU KNOW ?

Fifty percent of the world's population earns less than $2 a day and
largely lacks access to basics like nutritious food, sanitation,
potable water, education, energy, and medical care.

New technologies and low-cost green innovation can bring essential
services and economic opportunity but remain inaccessible to the
world's working poor communities.

GREEN ECONOMIES FOR THE POOR

The Global Fairness Initiative launched the BeFair campaign to bridge
this technology gap and leverage renewable technologies to improve
lives. Each year the BeFair campaign promotes a new technology that
creates livelihood opportunities, addresses the innovation gap, and
delivers real environmental and economic sustainability.

YOU CAN HELP

With your support the BeFair campaign will deliver over 5,000 Farmer
Livelihood Kits to smallholder farmers in Guatemala. These kits use
low-cost drip irrigation and specialized trainings to help farmers
improve their nutrition and increase their incomes by as much as 50%.
Your contribution of $40 will deliver one irrigation kit to an
indigenous farming family in Guatemala.
DONATE $40 OR MORE AND RECEIVE A FREE BE FAIR WATER BOTTLE MADE OF
RECYCLED PLASTIC!

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http://cts.vresp.com/c/?GlobalFairnessInitia/b1b3e10dbf/b91e6a0e30/472f68bc6d

LEARN MORE AT

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http://cts.vresp.com/c/?GlobalFairnessInitia/b1b3e10dbf/b91e6a0e30/48ae69169c www.befaircampaign.org

BeFair Events Update

This year the Befair Campaign will be spreading the word about
greener livelihoods throughout DC!

In the month of July, the team was at the Bethseda and the DuPont
Fresh Farm Markets to share on what a low-cost technology can do to
improve nutrition, water access and increase incomes.

Don't miss another opportunity to get first hand information on the
progress of the campaign. Connect with the GFI team on Saturday
morning August 27, at the Columbia Heights Fresh Farm Market.

BeFair!!!
Call for BeFair Fundraisers

Help the BeFair Campaign bring innovative, life-changing technology
to Guatemalan farmers.

Support GFI's drive to deliver 5,000 irrigation kits to smallholder
farming families by hosting a local fundraiser, a Happy Hour, or a
House Party.

For just $40 anyone can send a Farmer Livelihood Kit, which includes
the irrigation system and trainings on water management, crop
diversity, and more.

Contact Alessandra at adelgado@globalfairness.org -
abeach@globalfairness.org for more information on hosting a
fundraising event.

GFI's sister organization The Synapse Market Access Fund is filling
the often overlooked need for mid-level financing in poor communities
around the globe. Making investments where microfinance cannot and
commercial banks will not, Synapse is helping small producer
communities access financing and connect to high-value, sustainable
markets for their products.

Learn more about the Synapse Fund! -
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?GlobalFairnessInitia/b1b3e10dbf/b91e6a0e30/4ea1ec1ac7

The Global Fairness Initiative - 1800 Wyoming Avenue, NW -
Washington, DC 20009
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http://cts.vresp.com/c/?GlobalFairnessInitia/b1b3e10dbf/b91e6a0e30/585c112f38 www.globalfairness.org - info@globalfairness.org - 1 (202) 898-9022

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