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JOHANNESBURG--Half
way into our seven-hour hike
towards the Andean village
of Churubamba , Bolivia,
a group of around fifteen
peasant farmers appeared
ahead, lining the narrow
path. They were waiting for
Javier Hurtado, founder and
head of Irupana, a social
enterprise that buys certified
organically grown produce
directly from 1,700 indigenous
farming families across the
country, cutting out the
middleman. The men had picked
up the radio signal that
Javier had sent to Churubamba,
announcing our arrival. They
had been staked out for several
hours, waiting for us to
appear on the horizon. They
had heard about Irupana,
and the possibilities it
offered them to get better
prices for their products.
They wanted to find out from
Javier how they, too, could
take advantage of working
with Irupana.
Farmers
need market access, Hurtado
argues passionately. They need
technical assistance to develop
their products for that market,
credit to buy the threshers
and other appropriate equipment
needed to harvest, dry and
store their produce. They do
not need handouts and isolated
workshops. But the dominant
model in Bolivia, as in other
developing countries, continues
to be one where the government
and NGOs seek handouts from
the international community,
either through the multilateral
development banks or through
international NGOs. Javier
believes that this approach
is at the root of Bolivia's
problem. His ultimate goal
is to establish a new model
of social enterprise in Bolivia,
exemplified by an Irupana owned
by the farmers themselves and
other interested investors.
By integrating indigenous communities
into the national agricultural
value chain without squeezing
them, Irupana fosters an attitudinal
shift, transforming peasants
who were formerly dependent
on NGO handouts, into empowered
micro-entrepreneurs. Such an
approach creates a series of
positive externalities at the
macro and micro levels. Providing
an alternative to coca-growing
and stimulating environmentally-sound
agriculture contributes to
improving social conditions
in general. The self-respect
and better nutritional levels
among indigenous farmers that
come from providing access
to self-earned income improves
the well-being of individuals,
families and communities.
Hurtado and other social entrepreneurs
like him that are featured
in this series of articles
for the Earth Summit, are the
heroes and heroines for the
21st century. The last century
was characterized by the triumph
of capitalism and market economics.
Business entrepreneurs made
millions and shaped the aspirations
of a world wide public who
dreamed of emulating them.
But the wealth generated benefited
primarily educated and skilled
populations. Capitalism was
unable to bring in the poor.
The 21st century may belong
to entrepreneurs who march
to a different drummer. We
call them social entrepreneurs.
Similar to business entrepreneurs,
social entrepreneurs combine
innovation and resourcefulness
to create value. But the value
they seek to generate is social
first and foremost. They use
their well-honed entrepreneurial
skills to ensure that the poor
and marginalized can participate
actively in, and benefit from,
the global economy.
As we all know by now, small
scale farmers are being forced
to abandon their land due to
unfair global agricultural
trade practices that particularly
affect small producers in developing
countries. They cannot compete
with heavily subsidized farmers
in industrialized countries
such as the USA, Canada and
France, or with large-scale
agribusiness in those countries
or their own. The consequences
include increased unemployment,
poverty and food insecurity.
Take the example of Mexico
since NAFTA. Between 1994 and
2001, domestic production of
food has fallen by 29 percent,
and 1.2 million Mexican farmers
have lost their livelihoods.
The irony is that between 1993
and 2001, Mexico's food imports
doubled from 20 to 43 percent.
But rather than see problems,
one of the characteristics
of social entrepreneurs is
to see opportunities. Victor
Suarez has done precisely that.
He has created a national association
of small and medium-sized grain
farmers (ANEC) in Mexico to
mitigate the negative aspects
of globalization and take advantage
of the potential benefits for
small Mexican grain farmers
from expanded global markets.
ANEC functions as a cartel
on behalf of highly dispersed
and dwindling numbers of small
grain farmers, encouraging
the conformation of marketing
enterprises at the local level
connected to regional and national
networks. It provides technical
and administrative support
to farmers, including financial
assessment, seeks better prices
for their produce and negotiates
on their behalf. In addition,
ANEC provides training to its
members in areas such as management
in sustainable agriculture
as well as how to analyze government
agricultural policies with
a view to proposing more favorable
alternatives for small grain
farmers' development, food
security and fair trade.
ANEC began in 1995 with 250
producers across three Mexican
states. It is now present and
active in 20 Mexican states
and has 120,000 affiliated
producers. ANEC's members receive
a price that is 15 to 20 percent
higher than non-members and
are assured that they will
be able to sell 100 percent
of their harvest. ANEC has
made optimal use of the information
age to empower its members.
It publishes regular updates
of pricing and market conditions,
enabling farmers to be in a
more favorable bargaining position
when selling their produce.
Private and public organizations
use ANEC's pricing information
as the standard for trading
grains in Mexico.
Among
those experiences common
to all social entrepreneurs
is the adversity they all encounter
in carrying out their transformational
work. Precisely because they
are pattern-breakers and defy
traditional practice, they
are viewed by others as modern
day "Don Quixotes" at
best. Last year, at our first
Summit for outstanding social
entrepreneurs, their favorite
panel was the one entitled "So,
they said you were crazy".
One
would definitely have to
be crazy to envisage a thriving
farming and manufacturing community
in the town of Valente, Bahia,
in arid Northeastern Brazil.
Droughts are frequent and farming
is very difficult. The main
plant that grows in the region
is sisal, a versatile cactus
plant. The leaves contain a
fiber that can be extracted
and processed into ropes and
rugs. Twenty years ago, the
town was suffering from declining
sisal prices. People were leaving
the region to the slums of
Salvador, Rio and Sao Paulo,
in search of income opportunities.
Ismael Ferreira was the son
of a small sisal grower in
Valente. Along with other farmers,
he co-founded APAEB (Association
of small farmers of Valente).
Originally, it had an objective
similar to many farmersí cooperatives:
joining forces to increase
their bargaining power vis-a-vis
the sisal brokers, who were
making large profits. The members
of APAEB soon became aware
that 90 percent of sisal was
exported. If they wanted to
get the best prices, they would
have to export the sisal directly.
This presented no small challenge
for a group of farmers that
had six years of schooling
and had never moved outside
the region.
Bur
Ferreira has a clear sense
of being able to change his
destiny and that of those around
him. Is that what makes him "crazy"?
He also does not give up. It
took him four years of fighting
with government officials and
business interests to establish
APAEB as an exporter in order
to capture the profits that
had traditionally gone to intermediaries.
APAEB also had to find European
importers on its own, a challenge
made even more difficult by
the language barrier. Banks
would not consider lending
to APAEB, and it had to start
its own credit union to finance
the exports. APAEB has connected
to the global economy wholly
on its own. It has built processing
plants and a factory and now
sells millions of dollars of
quality finished products abroad.
Since the construction of its
multi-million dollar carpet
factory in 1997, APAEB's revenues
have increased 400 percent.
With more than 800 employees
and a revenue of US$7 million,
APAEB has brought a powerful
economic multiplier effect
to an impoverished region where
half a million people are estimated
to derive part of their livelihood
from sisal.
Thank heavens for crazy, visionary
social entrepreneurs like Hurtado,
Suarez and Ferreira. Imagine
what could happen if one could
convene a World Summit for
Sustainable Development where
social entrepreneurs instead
of governments, multilateral
organizations and NGOs, proposed
alternatives?
(Note: Pamela Hartigan is
Managing Director, Schwab Foundation
for Social Entrepreneurship
in Geneva.)
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