The following is a video of how Mercy Corps is using mediation, together with economic development, to resolve land conflicts peacefully in Guatemala.
Duration: 5min 52sec
Duration: 4min 46sec
The second video in particular talks about how Mercy Corps, USAID and Walmart are working together to help local farmers move past traditional frijoles and corn for subsistence to fruits and vegetable that are in demand to supermarkets in Guatemala and the rest of Central America.
With increasing pressures on firms to operate in socially and environmentally sustainable ways, corporate social responsibility has become a regular part of the business landscape. Now those pressures are extending to one’s entire chain of product and service suppliers. But just how do you make CSR work, particularly with your suppliers? How do you justify it financially, and how do you measure its effects? In this breakout panel from the Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains conference at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Bethany Heath of Chiquita and Mike Loch of Motorola discuss the benefits that have resulted from new supplier standards in the areas of energy efficiency, health, safety, and labor. Michael Jarvis talks about how the World Bank works with companies in emerging markets to help them meet CSR standards so that they may gain access to the supply chains, markets, and capital they need.
“The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year,” [Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization author Lester] Brown says. “And what we are seeing now is the emergence of direct competition between the 860 million people in the world who own automobiles and who want to maintain their mobility while the 2 billion poorest people in the world simply want to survive.”
In a recent NYTimes Magazine piece on whether cell-phones can end poverty in developing countries, we get introduced to Jan Chipchase, Nokia’s “human-behavior researcher”. His job is to be a “design and usability ethnographer“, to find out how users in different countries actually use their cell phones and help the designers back home figure out what features they need. He moves from a Vietnamese barbershop to a Mississippi bowling alley, from a Brazilian phone booth to the Dharavi slum in Mumbai.
This sort of on-the-ground intelligence-gathering is central to what’s known as human-centered design, a business-world niche that has become especially important to ultracompetitive high-tech companies trying to figure out how to write software, design laptops or build cellphones that people find useful and unintimidating and will thus spend money on.Several companies, including Intel, Motorola and Microsoft, employ trained anthropologists to study potential customers, while Nokia’s researchers, including Chipchase, more often have degrees in design. Rather than sending someone like Chipchase to Vietnam or India as an emissary for the company — loaded with products and pitch lines, as a marketer might be — the idea is to reverse it, to have Chipchase, a patently good listener, act as an emissary for people like the barber or the shoe-shop owner’s wife, enlightening the company through written reports and PowerPoint presentations on how they live and what they’re likely to need from a cellphone, allowing that to inform its design.
The premise of the work is simple — get to know your potential customers as well as possible before you make a product for them. But when those customers live, say, in a mud hut in Zambia or in a tin-roofed hutong dwelling in China, when you are trying — as Nokia and just about every one of its competitors is — to design a cellphone that will sell to essentially the only people left on earth who don’t yet have one, which is to say people who are illiterate, making $4 per day or less and have no easy access to electricity, the challenges are considerable.
This tactic is likely part of why Nokia is doing so well in emerging markets.
[In January], Nokia announced that it had sold a record 133.5 million mobile phones during the fourth quarter of 2007. This figure was up by more than a quarter from the same period a year earlier, boosting its overall market share to 40 percent.
Meanwhile, Nokia rival Motorola reported Wednesday that shipments of its handsets had fallen 38 percent during the quarter, pushing its market share down yet again to 12 percent, the lowest level since 2001. But Motorola isn’t the only handset maker struggling; Sony Ericsson has also had trouble growing its market share. The company, which targets the high-end market in Europe, only grew its market share in 2007 by 2 points to 9 percent.
Nokia reported that it saw the strongest growth in sales in the Middle East and Africa. Shipments here were up 52.3 percent. Asia-Pacific and China also saw strong sales growth, while sales in mature markets like North America fell during the quarter.
For more of Jan’s work/though process, you can read his intriguing blog Future Perfect. A good story to start with: Recycled, Upcycled: Remade. “Is it possible to make an upcycled mobile phone entirely from recycled materials… that consumers will want to buy?”
My last weekend in Guatemala before heading back to the States, I went on a mini TecoTour to La Florida with Carlos Poza (tour leader) and 8 very cool volunteers. La Florida is one of our newest community partners as well as a favorite place of many of our interns. It’s a three hour jaunt from Xela to Colomba with the last hour and a half following a windy cobblestone road past coffee fincas, bamboo, jungles and waterfalls. The finca currently grows cash crops such as coffee, cacao and macadamia. They also plant corn, tomatoes and various fruits and as well as raise sheep, pigs, cows and bees. Their honey is excellent.
Don Lencho
Saturday evening of the tour, Don Lorenzo sat us down and told us the story of SCIDECO (Sociedad Civil Para el Desarollo de Colomba - Civil Society for the Development of Colomba), the cooperative that owns La Florida. The following is a mixture of the story he relayed to us that night, supplemented with additional information from Chris Michael and Prensa Libre.
The struggle during the war years
SCIDECO’s initial struggle began with an attempt to organize finca workers operating in the Colomba area. In early 1982, La Organisacion Campesino por Tierra (the Peasant Association for Land), as they were called then, was created to unionize campesinos and obtain better treatment and wages on plantations. During this time period, the normal daily wage for plantation workers was about 25 Quetzales for men and 12Q for women. Finca owners often didn’t pay as promised; exploitation and sexual abuse of female workers were not uncommon.
In 1982, Guatemala was 22 years into its brutal 36-year civil war. It was a dangerous time to form a union, as any attempt by laborers to organize could be interpreted as guerrilla activity, which was often punishable by swift a execution.
Over the next several years and as the union grew in size and strength, the membership decided that they wanted to own a finca of their own and attempted to purchase the nearby La Esmeralda. Despite the help and support of the local Catholic church, these early plans failed. The union lacked the necessary capital and wasn’t officially registered with the Guatemalan government. In addition, the primary government program designed to help campesinos obtain land, INTA (Instituto Nacional de Transformación Agraria - National Institute for Agrarian Transformation), was underfunded. In 1990, SCIDECO was officially born and restarted the long process of trying to buy land.
Here is where things started to get really difficult for SCIDECO’s members. Some were indeed accused by finqueros (finca owners) of being guerrillas fighters or communists; others where fired from their jobs on other plantations and blacklisted. Many members fled, going to Xela, Palmera, Mercedes, San Juan, Pensamiento, etc. etc. But still they planned.
In 1996, the Peace Accords were signed and the war was over. The UN-backed accords called for many reforms, including agrarian land reform and resettlement of displaced persons. With help from USAID, the Guatemalan government budgeted $9,000,000 for the Land Fund (Fondo de Tierra), which was to replace INTA. Around this time, international coffee prices tanked hitting records lows. Many finqueros had to abandon their farms. Some cut wages. Some of the more unscrupulous types stopped paying their laborers altogether.
The war is over, but a new fight looms
In 2000, Rafael Monson, the owner of La Florida, was having financial problems. He couldn’t pay his mortgage. Bancafe put a lien on the property and later reclaimed it. October 11, 2002, the 50 families in SCIDECO decided to peacefully occupy the abandoned plantation. After over a decade of negotiations with the government, they felt this was the only way.
According to the farm’s records, there had been 200 plus families living on the farm; only 34 remained after bankruptcy proceedings. SCIDECO asked some of these families if they wanted to join in the occupation. Most refused. They were afraid. There had never been any successful attempts in the area before. Police and hired guns were given license to crack heads and in some communities campesinos had been killed. For more than two years SCIDECO members lived in ramshackle houses on La Florida and in constant fear.
Seven months into the occupation another group, El Esfuerzo [the Effort], laid claim to sections of la Florida. The plantation, itself, was 47 acres, with more than enough land to accommodate both groups. In fact with only 50 families, it would have been very difficult for SCIDECO to farm/operate the entire property. So they formed a commission and asked El Esfuerzo if they wanted to join forces with them. No dice. So it was decided that they should fight separately and whoever got a loan from the government first, could keep the property. SCIDECO tried to negotiate with Bancafe and MAGA, but with two groups vying for the same land, the bank and government were having none of it. Their response was essentially ‘work it out amongst yourselves; you both need to peacefully withdraw’. Feeling that they would never get the land, both sides left.
5 months later, however, in April 2005, La Florida was successfully purchased by SCIDECO through a government loan of 6.5 million Quetzales (USD $850,000). They have 8 years to pay off the debt and 0% interest. Huzzah!
Shortly after receiving title (the paperwork delivered in a grand fashion by the President Oscar Berger), another community group from San Marcos (Acaflor - Asociación Comunitaria Agraria Florida ) asked if they could get some of the land. Much of it wasn’t being used at the time because there weren’t enough families to work it. SCIDECO said sure, but (and there’s always a but) Acaflor members had to participate in the collective activities of the group. Depending on time of year and proximity to the harvest, the families at La Florida would work from 6 AM to 1 PM for the collective and after that they could work their own piece of land. This is not what Acaflor had it mind. They didn’t share SCIDECO’s vision of a community cooperative; they instead wanted to divide the property and own individual plots. For SCIDECO who had been struggling and striving together for 2 decades, this was non-negotiable. And in 2006, so began a longstanding, sometimes armed, conflict between the two community groups. Death and lynching threats sprouted.
Through negotiations mediated by the local Catholic church, the conflict has recently been resolved. This past March, SCIDECO agreed to sign away land to Acaflor if the government agreed to forgive their debt. It has been. They don’t owe a penny.
AIDG, XelaTeco and La Florida
AIDG and XelaTeco will be helping La Florida’s community meet their energy needs. SCIDECO has registered for a UNDP Grant that would allow them to upgrade their inefficient electrical distribution system and extend it to their homes. This is the same program that awarded Nueva Alianza funds for their hydro-electricity project.
At night, the families eat by candlelight. Here, Wilma feeds her parrot Tomas.
We have installed a biodigester as an outreach project for the community that will provide gas for the communal kitchen. The system will not only generate fuel, but also offers a sanitation remediation solution. Lacking other options previously, they had had to dispose of animal waste in the nearby river.
Several SCIDECO families are also interested in obtaining rocket box stoves as they find the smoke from traditional cookstoves and wood fires to be irritating to their eyes and lungs. They are currently talking with XelaTeco about financing options.
Rosalinda and Josefina testing the rocket box stove in the community kitchen.
Josefina’s son Sergio David with TecoTour volunteer Jose.
6 Haitians died and dozens were injured during the course of the riots. [Reuters]
Haiti’s prime minister, Jacques-Edouard Alexis, was sacked on April 12th.
A Nigerian United Nations peacekeeper was killed execution style in the capital. 3 Sri Lankan peacekeepers were shot in a separate incident, though their wounds were not life-threatening. [United Nations News Service]
President René Préval announced new food subsidies on imported rice, but the price of other staples, such are beans, have not been reduced. The cost of a 110 lb bag of rice has dropped from US$51 to US$43. [Alterpresse, Reuters]
International aid agencies have pledged more food and financial assistance.
The World Bank has approved a US$10m emergency grant to help ease the effect of increased food prices [World Bank].
US lawmakers have urged action on Haiti. Some, including NY Democrat Gregory Meeks, called for forgiveness of Haiti’s international debt. FYI: An estimate 47% of Haiti’s current international debt burden was incurred under the brutal Duvalier regimes. [Voice of America]
Pan American Development Foundation, an affiliate of the Organisation of American States, will make available 400 tons of fortified rice, worth more than US$1.5m [Economist].
A story I read last week (sorry I don’t remember which) remarked that many Haitian citizens were frustrated that the MINUSTAH forces weren’t engaged in more development and humanitarian initiatives while they were in the country. Such activities are currently outside their mandate, unfortunately. However on April 11, members of the Brazilian contingent distributed food aid to residents of Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince. ‘ “It’s very nice of them. I didn’t know where else I was going to get food today,” said Willy Desamore, 28. But he said the package would last just a day for himself, his mother and six siblings, all unemployed.’[Time Magazine]
Last week, Pete, Steve C, Candido, Pedro and myself drove to Comunidad Nueva Alianza, our strongest community partner in Guatemala. We’ve been working with them since 2005 on biogas, solar hot water and micro-hydro as the community has been very interested in both renewable energy and mechanisms for developing sustainably. I hadn’t been back in 2.5 years and it was amazing to see all the changes that had taken place over that time, particularly the work that XelaTeco had done (What can I say? I’m biased).
Background on the Community
Comunidad Nueva Alianza, located in El Palmar, Quetzaltenango, is a coffee and macadamia plantation owned and operated by a cooperative of forty families (roughly 200-250 people). The plantation is fair trade and organic, though not currently officially certified. They have, however, begun the long and costly certification process through the help of Cafe Conciencia.
Democracia Social Participativa
Profits raised by the community’s main 3 enterprises, agriculture, ecotourism, and the bottling of spring water, are divided amongst the residents and used to improve the health, education and living conditions within the cooperative.
Sorting macadamia nuts
CNA’s Eco-hostel.
Alianza Agua Pura
The families at Alianza, many of whom had been working that plantation land for 3 generations, came to own it after a long hard slog with the previous owner. In the 1990’s, coffee prices on the international market plummeted to their lowest real levels in the 20th century due to overproduction by coffee-producing nations. Throughout Guatemala, plantation owners were forced to leave the business and/or sell their farms. The owner of Alianza tried to soldier on by slashing costs and tightening belts, more specifically by not paying his laborers. From 1998 and continuing on for 18 months, the workers did not receive wages. Many hoped that back pay would be granted when the market picked up. Some stayed on and subsisted by gathering wild plants while the farm went into default. Others left to find work elsewhere.
When it was clear that the owner had no intention of compensating them, they sued for the back wages. To avoid his debts, the owner transfered his assets to his wife and declared bankruptcy. The bank repossessed the land and through some dodgy shenanigans, the owner’s brother was granted control of the property. Through advice received from several union organizations, the workers of Alianza occupied the land to force negotiations with the bank and the Guatemalan government. The following bargain was struck: if the workers would agree that the bank/financial group was not liable for back wages, they could buy the land. Through the Land Trust (Fondo de Tierras), a Guatemalan governmental organization to promote agrarian reform, they obtained a low-interest rate loan (0% for the first 4 yrs, 4% for the next 8) to purchase the property. December 18, 2004, they received title to the land.
The work by Fondo de Tierras can in no way be called an unqualified success. Many of the communities that have received similar loans are struggling to pay their debt despite the satisfactory loan conditions. Alianza has been particularly lucky to have exceptional leadership, community resolve, enterprising spirit, access to committed volunteers (gringo and chapin), technology transfer, and grants/financing from the UNDP, World Bank, etc.
Three of CNA’s residents (including the community’s leader Javier Jimenez) plus some of the many people who have passed through to lend a helping hand.
CNA and Renewable Energy
As I mentioned early, the members of Alianza have been very open to using renewable energy on the plantation and testing out new technologies. We first met Javier Jimenez, the community’s leader, in 2005 when they was looking for a contractor to build a micro-hydroelectric system on site as well as install an electrical distribution system to the residents’ homes. With the help of Erick Gonzalez Sr, the father of two of XelaTeco’s staff, Alianza had won a grant from the UNDP for the project.
Electricity Poles
Hydro system Manifold
The hydro system, completed in 2006, is operating very well. This time of year is the dry season which means less water for hydropower. So currently the community is running it primarily at night. A problem that they are having right now is that as they have become more prosperous, the capacity of the system is fast becoming too small for them. The max output for the system is 16KW which for 40 families gives you only about 400 Watts per household. Great for small appliances like cell phones and radios or for lighting, but rubbish is you want to use anything with a motor, like a blender for tasty licuados. Luckily and through great forward planning on their part, the distribution system installed by XelaTeco can be plugged into the national grid once a grid extension to those parts occurs. The community is still deciding how to use the hydropower once they make that transition. One idea is to use it exclusively for the eco-hostel. It is a bit of a bummer (okay a big bummer) to think of them going from clean to dirty energy, but they need more power than their existing renewable resources can provide. [As an aside, they previously tried photovoltaics. From what I hear, but they found them lacking. Too cloudy during the rainy season presumably.]
Biogas
Biodiesel production during Hurricane Stan. Photo Courtesy of Matthew Rudolf
The Biodiesel Building
In addition to biogas, the Community has had a decent amount of biodiesel production. One of their first batches of biodiesel helped them weather Hurricane Stan and continue running their water purification business. In the past, they were contemplating making biodiesel from castor beans or jatropha grown on the plantation. For now, that project is still on hold.
From experience, Comunidad Nueva Alianza is one of the best examples of a worker-owned cooperative/community successfully loosening the chains of poverty through the embrace of sustainability.
Description:
The Millennium Campus Network (MCN) is an organization of university student groups in the Boston area committed to supporting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate extreme poverty. The Network brings together student organizations at leading universities to make the anti-poverty movement - in the spirit of the MDGs - a fully cross-disciplinary, collaborative and integrated effort.
The MCN’s Millennium Campus Conference will be hosted by different member universities each year, with the MCN hosting a series of seminars, workshops, and projects in between each conference. The inaugural conference, hosted by the MIT GPI, will open MCN’s resources and mentorship opportunities to the hundreds of students interested in starting or continuing work in poverty alleviation in the coming year.
Schedule:
Day 1 - Friday 4/18
9-11am
Registration
11am-12pm
Opening keynote
1-2pm
Technology keynote:Amy Smith
2:15-3:30pm
Track Session 1
Economics: Globalization: The Panacea for Poverty?
Education: The Bottom Up Approach
Health: AIDS in Zambia: A Personal Account
Public Policy: Leading the Charge Against Global Poverty
Technology: The Technological Chasm in ICT
3:30-5:30pm
PANEL: Stories from the Field: Student Work in Poverty Alleviation
Movie Screening: Salud
6:00-10pm
Evening Activities
Day 2 - Saturday 4/19
8-9:30am
Registration
9:30-10:30am
Health keynote: Paul Farmer
10:45am-12pm
Track Session 2
Economics: Banking for the Poor
Education: Bridging the Technology Gap for Educational Growth
Health: Health Challenges of Today: New Versions of Old Diseases
Public Policy: Power, Responsibility, and Extreme Poverty
Technology: “Small is Beautiful”: Appropriate Technology
12-1pm
Education keynote: John Wood
1-2:30pm
Networking Luncheon (limited to 100 attendees)
1-3:30pm
Student Expo for Social Change
3:45-5pm
Track Session 3
Economics: Institutional Aid: Harmful or Essential?
Education: Cost-Effective Education
Health: : Obstacles to Healthcare Delivery
Public Policy: Faith and Famine
Technology: The Green Revolution and the Fight Against World Hunger
5-6pm
Action Workshop - Starting Projects for Global Change
Action Workshop - Leadership and Organizations: Leading Your Peers to Change the World
Blog 
Sorting macadamia nuts
CNA’s Eco-hostel.
Biogas
