By Titus
Tobias Itegereize , FADECO-Chairman and Economic Advisor Wales, 25th
September, 2004 By Titus
Tobias Itegereize , FADECO-Chairman and Economic Advisor Wales, 25th
September, 2004 Dear Honourable Chairman, Friends of FADECO, Ladies and Gentlemen.
"If liberation Theology and its reference to the gospel of Jesus are to be meaningful for our people today, then it must be lived and expressed within the liberation project of the poor as: housing, feeding, employment and empowering. The liberating love of God is ever historically linked to the poor and alienated. For it is there that our relationship to the world as religious will find real historical roots. The overwhelming fact about the third world is that the majority of its people are poor, exploited, and marginalized. This is a sign in all its force and meaning and the chief sign is Jesus the poor person. We cannot dissociate of the poor and oppressed from the ministry of Christ. Jesus still presents Himself to us as the chief liberator and we can easily recognize Him as such"
I take this opportunity to thank you for inviting me to come to Wales and meet you. Due to much work in doing my research at Durham University was not easy for me to get time convenient to visit you, share some experiences and make FADECO grow tall as I had promised earlier. However, through God's mercy we are meeting today just a few days before going back to Tanzania. I would also like to thank Mr. David who insisted for my coming otherwise it would have been a shame to make a U-turn to Tanzania without visiting our friends. Officially and on behalf of FADECO and our friends the poor farmers of Karagwe, I sincerely thank you for all the efforts of identifying FADECO problems and your decision of supporting our people.
As you already know the Goal of FADECO is to improve the social Economic standards of communities at the grass roots and o empowers the poor people to fight through the poverty trap they living in. Our major activities are divided into five themes.
1. To promote Agricultural Development in the district and elsewhere
2. To address health problems i.e. HIV/AIDS prevention
3. Environmental conservation
4. Improve communication through the Information and Communication (ICTs) promotion in the rural areas
5. Entrepreneurial skills training
Family Alliance for Development and Corporation (FADECO) is a local based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Karagwe District, Kagera Region, Tanzania registered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1996.
Karagwe district is one of the districts in Tanzania and is estimated to have 450000 inhabitants. Among these, 95% live in 117 scattered villages with very small family holdings ranging from 1-2.5 acres of land per family of about 10 people. The small framers grow bananas as their staple food crop, beans as a secondary cash crop, coffee, maize and a few traditional root crops such as yams and potatoes. Experience in recent years has shown that crop production in Karagwe has deteriorated due to prevalence of diseases, insect pests, low soil fertility; decline of crop prices and to the greater extent the environmental destruction brought about by the Rwandese and Burundese refugees who covered more that 60% of the district's land during the 1994 genocide. For example the maize harvest dropped from 8-10 to 3-5 bags per acre. The rural women who are basically involved in farming are living in absolute poverty and have no alternative economic activities to enable them to generate substantial income for themselves and to support their families. Worse still the case of adverse climatic changes brought about by El Nino rains which is assumed to result from global warming has made the rural people especially the women who are engaged I agriculture and household keeping more vulnerable to poverty and dependence.
Poverty is today one of the most threatening obstacles in the marginal areas in Tanzania. Women poverty broadly means people earning and surviving on less than £0.55per day compared to that in the UK of a normal person surviving on more than £60 per day ( Christian Aid 2004, and World Bank ‘2001'). These are socio-economic disparities caused by "globalization" or "free-trade" in the World of today.
A chief feature which cannot be denied is that increasing mass of poverty, destitution, and degradation is a socio-economic landscape which has been going on in the last 20 years in the African continent, let alone Asia and Latin America where the situation is worsening as well. This was the period when globalization policies came into force. Poverty continues to be a widespread in almost all parts of Africa and threatens the very fabric of human existence especially the women in the region (Kopoka, 1996).The United Church of Christ (UCC) (2004) argue that "…the global economic order has created an increasingly disparity which is relative few are hoarding an increasing large amount of the world's resources which over two thirds of the world fall further and further to miserable, grinding poverty". Christian Aid "2004" has revealed a few incredible statistics as follows: "…three rich individuals control more wealth than the whole Sub-Saharan Africa…in 1970; the richest 20 percent of the world's people had 32 times the income of the poorest 20 percent. By 1999, this group had 78 times the income of the poorest group". Indeed, the human race has gone astray! They have forgotten that creation belongs to God and human beings were given responsibility to look after them (Genesis 2:15). Psalms (24:1) reminds us "…the earth is the Lord's and that all in it, the world, and those who live in it". Again the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales (CCR, 1992) argue that, "… a preferential love should be shown to the poor, whose needs and rights are given special attention in the God's eyes.' Poor' is understood o refer to the economically disadvantaged who, as a consequence of the status, suffer oppression and powerless.
The statement given by a few economists (Lawson and Baker, 2004) that "…many countries of the world are in their early stages of development and cannot afford to live up to the standards of a rich country" is meaningless because the word "rich" is a relative term and cannot be used to define the countries of the "privileged or favoured" few who play double standards in economic games which cannot be accommodated by simple economic principles of market forces in equilibrium settings. The economic principle in public policy demands that the benefits of any economic activity should flow equally to all people to alleviate poverty on global earth and advance equitable power and fair economic relations among the peoples and the nations.
According to Amos (8:4-5), the exploitation is condemned by God. It is equivalent to exploitation taking place today through trade (Christian Aid, 2004). It true that trade can be made good to work in the interests of the poor people provided it is well designed to cater for interests that will enrich both buyers and sellers at a reasonable exchange value and at a given time period. Impersonal economic terms used today such as "market forces", "invisible hand", best espoused by the historical economist Adam Smith "voluntary or free trade", "specialization in production and trade" and " comparative advantage" are not representative to the poor who are not well treated in the global economies. Models that allow riches to flow to one side and leave the other impoverished have to be changed
From my experiences, Tanzania has recently privatized most of its economic activities creating unemployment for many people. Worse still, plantations owned by the foreigners export their products fully processed and packed using advanced technologies while crops such as coffee, cashew nuts, cloves which are owned by the peasants are bought cheaply and exported as raw materials. A proof can be noted when one cup of coffee (equivalent to 1grm of coffee powder) is sold in one hotel in London at an average of £2.00 equal to 5kgs of first quality grain coffee bought from the farmers in Tanzania during 2002/2003 season. Even if you remove all f.o.b and other related overhead costs, there is still a marked "exploitation".
The economy of Tanzania has been stagnating over the last 20 years when globalization came into force and to much extent declining.The slump is attributed mainly to declining of production due to high investment costs and failure by some industries to compete effectively in local and export markets, marked with institutional weaknesses, inadequate infrastructures and low level of human resource investment (Tibandebage 2000). Similar diminishing trend can be seen in the mining sector, agriculture, tourism, trade, manufacturing and services sectors. The economic data (Tibandebage, ‘ibid', World Bank 2001) reveals that Tanzania is importing more than it exports always making a negative balance of payments.
Another example can be cited from Honduras the gap between the rich and the poor is widening as some 80% of the Hondurans are living in absolute poverty (Mennonite, 2004).It is reported that "…social services have been slashed in recent years as mandated by ‘the Structural Readjustments Programs (SRP)'called by the World Bank and other Institutions while 35% of the Hondurans budget goes to the payment of its national debt". The Christian Aid (2004) has noted that, "…the production of rice in Honduras fell from 50000 metric tons (1990) to 8000 tons(2000) as farmers struggled to survive on cheap imports of rice and corn because of falling of prices in their domestic markets".
Since 1992, there has been a decline in coffee prices and other agricultural commodities both in the domestic and export markets. Frequent hailstorms and drought have made the inhabitants more marginalized making each person to live under 50 pence every day (Christian Aid report, 2004, World Bank, 2001 and Tibandebage 2000). Even those who generate about 50p per day are called rich people in the area. This is incredible!
Coming back to my priority issue, the Family Alliance for Development and Corporation (FADECO) has put its concentration on agricultural and environmental development issues, entrepreneurial skills training, promotion of small scale cottage industries, HIV/AIDS awareness especially in Secondary Schools, promotion of ICTs for rural development and horticultural/ fruit trees planting in Schools and households all aimed to solve the prevailing socio-economic problems of Karagwe inhabitants beginning from the grassroots(www.fadeco.org). However its efforts have been constrained by inadequate funding received from local contributions and aid agencies. Presently, it is difficult for FADECO to raise funds to support it because in the rural areas where we live there no opportunities for consultancy services apart from giving charitable services to the farmers. One of the FADECO major achievements has been the introduction of post harvest solar fruit and vegetable drying technology intended to enhance food/ nutrition security and reduction of post harvest losses caused by pests and rodents. The technology has attracted many farmers but its application is becoming difficult due to initial investment costs of constructing the dryers and trade barriers imposed in selling dried organic products in the world markets i.e. high costs of certifying the farmers involved in producing bananas.
During 2003 an attempt was made to introduce marketing of solar dried fruits and vegetables in the domestic markets particularly the products produced from the use of small cottage processing units i.e. jams, sausages, banana wines, honey and juices but again the farmers could not expand their capacities due to lack of funds to buy needed tools and equipments.
FADECO is planning forward to engage and sensitise the farmers in other post- harvest processing technologies for cereals, root crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, maize and millets which are drought and disease tolerant as alternative crops for famine preparedness and greatly contribute to family income and food security. Though solar technological impact can be seen in the district but still there is no financial support from the government to give our initiatives a priority.
FADECO is at the moment in the promotion of agricultural diversification, transfer of post harvest technology and marketing research/development, transfer of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), capacity building of its staffs and the farmers, and upgrading its resource centre at Kayanga and construction of a multipurpose training centre in the rural area at Nyakasimbi which will be used mostly by the rural targeted poor farmers. FADECO is actively collaborating and sharing skills with the local government officials, the local agricultural research institutions (ARIs- Maruku and Ukiriguru), other NGOs and CBOs in the district. Also there is a close contact with the international organizations such as INIBAP of Uganda in the promotion of in-situ banana conservation technology and with the Kenya institute of Organic Farming (KIOF), and ICRISAT for promotion of sustainable agriculture, cereals and pulses respectively.
Since its inception in 1993, the women farmers have repeatedly and constantly approached FADECO asking for support in the provision of affordable inputs, technical knowledge i.e. business skills and market information, credit facility and other socio economic issues disempowering them. FADECO believes that an intervention which uses a modern Christian approach that will activate women's interests and needs and make them know their rights in the community they live in and in the church they worship will yield positive results in terms of poverty alleviation, social development and will extend women producers into the mainstream of trade. This is the main reason which prompted FADECO to come up with an idea of supporting the marginalized women in the district. We are now trying to establish a model that could empower the women through education, fair trade, women's rights and application of micro credit scheme.
Over the past few years, FADECO has been involved in the promotion of solar dried fruits and vegetables at the grass roots levels. It has raised awareness of the plight of marginalized farmers and formed production groups the majority being the poor women engaged in drying sweet bananas. Due to poor management and lack of entrepreneurial skills, the women who obtain small loans fail to produce for the market. The problem is exacerbated by the low domestic prices offered for the produces which fail to cover the small farmers' investment and reward them financially.
FADECO'S recent diagnostic survey recognized that the Church, as a propagator of morals and Christian ethics, has also a mission to engage in the practical realization of its preaching, by offering leadership and development and promoting love through faith and justice. The study also highlighted the need for FADECO to work more closely with the local churches and with the Fair Trade Organizations in Europe, who have much experiences of and devotion to trading with exploited, neglected and isolated rural communities from developing world. Traidcraft was identified as an organization to work in partnership with FADECO, primarily through supporting the marginalized Christian women and enabling them to work towards sustainable development.
The Christian approach is not discriminating but is preferred at this point to promote and advocate changes in the people's attitude towards gender balances in the government, the church and the communities they live. Again, we would like to see that the Church live what is preached as described by St. John 13: 34-35 " As My commandment I give to you, that you love one another, by this I will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" and another demonstration is from St.Mattwew 5:16 "… Let your light shine, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven". Non-Christians will also be allowed to join the battle against poverty deprivation trap in our people.
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
|
-Office premises -Committed Staffs(2) -Small resource centre with used old computers -Dried bananas Storage facility under construction -Small and medium solar dryers constructed at family levels awareness is created. - one commercial dryer constructed at Nyakasimbi, the second will at Nkwenda. -Multipurpose training centre is under construction at Nyakasimbi rural. -Expecting a VSAT to be installed on loan |
-Lack of capital (funds)to run the programs -Unequipped storage facilities i.e. cooling system to store dried bananas before export -High overhead costs due to the use of telephones for internet connections and -Running very old and dangerous car -Lack of transport facilities to supervise and monitor the activities in villages and collection of bananas in a more hygienic way. -Few dried bananas are produced because FADECO has no enough funds to buy bananas at competitive prices. -Export market for the dried bananas not fully explored due to export barriers -Lack of training materials for the multipurpose centre being constructed. |
Opportunities |
Threats |
|
-Capacity building for the staff (ToT) and the farmers is possible. -Small scale cottage industry and trade possible -Ability to supervise and control the distribution of agricultural inputs and micro credit, savings and credit cooperative societies for the small farmers. -Provision for agric. consultation services in the Region is possible. -Resource Centre expansion through ICTs development. -Ability to train young future farmers in the use of internet to communicate to other parts of the world. Cyber cafe to generate income for FADECO possible -More and advanced private research activities to remove bureaucratic and expensive research programs run by the government. -Volunteer recruitment is possible |
-High levy imposed on imported agricultural inputs which cannot afforded by the farmers -Lack of collateral security to get loan for farmers -Poor quality products for export -Export barriers for the small women farmers causing unnecessary competition and fear of "dumping" of products in the world market done by the subsidised farmers from developed countries and unclear WTO policies for LDCs. -Unstable local currency resulting to high import tariffs for production inputs as related to declining output prices in the markets. -Aggressive local government policies against women farmer's i.e. tax charged on small women businesses for small loans borrowed. -Poor transparency and accountability from businesses conducted by the farmer groups. |
The food situation for Karagwe people is uncertain. Bananas are used as a staple food crop in the district but a recent decline in its production due to soil infertility and diseases and pests i.e. panama, black sigatoka root weevils, nematodes and streak virus led many farmers to hunger and bodily weakness which can not make them work gainfully. Cassava and Sweet potatoes require few inputs and are less labour intensive. When the planting materials are well selected and planting is done timely, and then the incidences of disease and insects are very rear. The crop can be dried using our solar dryers on any other improved traditional methods and stored for future food. On the other hand cassava and sweet potatoes have a wide market in the region and in the neighbouring countries (Itegereize T and Joseph S 2004). In this context therefore, apart from developing the multipurpose training centre at Nyakasimbi I would request you to look into the possibility of assisting us to remove famine problem in the district. The project may look big but when implemented in phases at a strategic pase famine can be reduced
There are many opportunities which FADECO could embark on, but how can we preach people with empty stomach? This has been always our worry and concern. FADECO has designed a project of promoting cassava and sweet potatoes in the district. The project intends to multiply planting materials and distribution to the farmers in the district. We have more than 40 acres of land in two sites which can be used freely to multiply planting materials and demonstrations. One of the FADECO's motto is "to help people how to make bread better rather than feeding them always with sugared bread with butter, which will make them worse off in the long run" or we cannot pour money into the peoples' pockets but we should use money to develop skills for the needy. Indeed, charity is a temporal relief of poverty but if prolonged may leave the recipient dependent on the one who gives and on a continued giving. No one wants to be continually a recipient of charity. Moreover, welfare charity sometimes fails to address the deeper causes of poverty (Committee for Community Relations, 1992).Therefore, the cassava project which has a training component will be used to empower the farmers especially the poor women to be shapers of their own destiny, the strategy will create space which the marginalized people can come together, discuss and share their ideas, make sense of their experiences, and communicate to the people around them when distributing the cassava and sweet potatoes planting materials. Ultimately, they will know their rights, gain entrepreneurial skills and get access to micro credit facilities.
In the past decade FADECO has been growing tall able to extend its operations outside Karagwe district. New activities have been implemented in Bukoba, Mulemba and Ukerewe district an island in Lake Victoria. There I a time when we were called to conduct training and research in Rwanda and Uganda. The main problem encountered however is related to limited funding. FADECO is demanded to expand its activities with limited funding base. Most full time and periodical staff members work long hours without remuneration. The most technical challenge is how to motivate the farmers who are willing to enter into business with FADECO but cannot do so.
Lastly I am very much grateful to allow me to stand in your midst to explain who I am, what I am doing at Durham and what the future of FADECO is. I am now extending and invitation for more friends to come to Karagwe to share and advise us right in the field.
I would like to say in Swahili, "KARIBU TANZANIA, KARIBU SANA KARAGWE"
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