Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
07 December 2022
Post No. 277
The Week’s Contents
• Festive Guide and Income Generation
• Festive No-direct Cash Giving without Shopping
• Activity/Task No. 12 of the Knowledge (“K”) Year and Project: Know the Income-generating Activities of the Income Poor
… And much more!
Key Messages
• Festive Guide and Income Generation
We have exciting and engaging initiatives forming our Festive Guide and December 2022.
Our Festive Guide contains three items, which are:
a) The Season’s Relief
b) Festive Services
c) Gifts of Peace.
As to the Month of December 2022 itself, December is Income Generation Month according to CENFACS development calendar/planner. It is an Income Generation Month not only for most charities, but also for CENFACS users. During this month, we would be working with income poor to find way of generating some income to meet additional costs brought to their life by the cost-of-living crisis and spending pressure from festive demand.
This is why published our Festive Income Boost on 09 November 2022 so that this festive income resource could be used as early as possible. This way we can work together so as to make the Season’s celebration come on its own to them and be affordable for all of them.
Under the Main Development section of this post, you will find more information about both the Festive Guide and our programme of work for the Income Generation Month.
• Festive No-direct Cash Giving without Shopping
Last week, we provided a number of no-direct cash donations that those who would like to support CENFACS through their festive shopping can provide. This week, we are expanding on no-direct donations by focussing on those without shopping. In other words, we are highlighting other ways of backing CENFACS without directly giving cash and without shopping at CENFACS e-shop and other stores or shops. What are those ways that one can think of or come across with to support CENFACS without having to directly give cash and without doing any shoppings at CENFACS e-shop and other stores or shops.
• • Festive No-direct Cash Donations without Shopping
They include:
* Signing up for a Gift Aid Declaration from which CENFACS can earn an extra 25p for every £1 you give
* Nomination of CENFACS for a donation at festive charity fundraising and donation events
* Selection of CENFACS as your preferred charity for donation from advertising revenue
* Planned gifting or legacy giving if you decide to contribute a major gift to CENFACS beyond your lifetime
* Gaming assets when you as a gaming fundraiser take the initiative to raise money for CENFACS via video games or livestreamed video game events whereby viewers can tune into
* Streaming activities when you run livestream fundraising campaign for CENFACS
* Digital tickets can assist CENFACS if you can sell tickets on social media platforms via an event site to help CENFACS raise funds; particularly if anyone attending your event can support in raising funds through their purchase of a fundraising ticket
* Digital collectibles can be a means of supporting CENFACS for those who have them in their wallet as they can be bought, swapped and sold in a peer-to-peer marketplace; just as they can be used to fund needy organisations
* Crypto assets can contribute to CENFACS‘ mission if you are a crypto-minded supporter or enthusiast or donor and can aid CENFACS raise money for its noble causes as well as develop a crypto philanthropy programme
* Non-fungible tokens, which can be accepted as donations, are unique and non-interchangeable tokens compared to crypto assets and a medium by which you can use to boost funds for CENFACS
Etc.
There could be more since resource giving to charitable causes is a fast-growing industry. If you know any more of them, please use them to help CENFACS access funds for its noble causes.
So, those who could not give no-direct cash donations through their shopping, they can still donate via the above-named no-direct cash donations without shopping.
By asking for no-direct cash donations with and without shopping, we do not mean that one cannot donate cash. They can and if they choose to directly donate cash, CENFACS will happily accept their direct cash donations.
To support CENFACS without directly giving cash (with or without shopping) and or by directly donating cash, please contact CENFACS.
• Activity/Task No. 12 of the Knowledge (“K”) Year and Project: Know the Income-generating Activities of the Income Poor
People living in poverty may try all sorts of activities in order to create or make income so that they can change their situation. Amongst these activities, we can include income-generating activities. However, to know the income-generating activities undertaken by the income poor, one needs to understand these three concepts: income, income-generating activities and income poverty.
Let us briefly explained each of them.
• • What is an income?
To understand income, we have selected the operational definition of income given in the Canberra Group Handbook (1), which is:
” Household income consists of all receipts whether monetary or in-kind (goods and services) that are received by the household or by individual members of the household at annual or more frequent intervals, but excludes windfall gains and other such irregular and typically one-time receipts”.
This operational definition of income can be used to learn and know the income-generating activities of the income poor. But, what do we mean by income-generating activities?
• • Understanding income-generating activities
Income-generating activities can be viewed from various perspectives or approaches. According to ‘igo-global.com’ (2), an income-generating activity is
“An activity carried out in order to generate revenues used to ensure the financial sustainability of the organisation”.
This definition can apply to households when members of any household is trying to generate or earn income to ensure the financial sustainability of the household. It can as well be used for people living in poverty who are trying to generate income using a variety of means at their disposal.
For example, in the run up to the end of the year’s celebrations, it is possible to see all sorts of coping and surviving activities or strategies (including street begging) that poor people are using to generate some income to make ends meet.
However, is there any level of income from which one can argue about income poverty?
• • Defining income poverty
To relatively and absolutely define income poverty, we are going to refer to the metrics used by the World Bank which is the international poverty line. According to the World Bank (3),
“Since 30 November 2022, the international poverty line was set at $2.15 per person per day using 2017 prices. This means that anyone living on less than $2.15 a day is in extreme poverty”.
This metrics can contribute to the knowledge formation of income-generating activities of the income poor or those living below the threshold of $2.15 a day.
To sum up, the 12th Activity or Task of the ‘K’ Year/Project is about Knowing the Income-generating Activities that Income Poor People Can Undertake to Move out of Poverty.
From what is known about their income-generating activities, it is possible to work with them so that improvement can be made to their activities. One can hope that any improvement made can lead to more and better income for them so that they can navigate their way out of poverty.
The knowledge of their income-generating activities can also be an opportunity to suggest alternative or better way of generating income that can drive them out of the root causes of poverty.
The above is the Activity or Task no. 12 for the ‘K’ Year/Project for those who are interested in carrying it out.
For those who want any clarification of any aspects of this activity or task, they can contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• Volunteering for Nature Goals and Nature-based Solutions to Poverty (05/12/2022 to 05/01/2023)
• Guidance Programme for Not-for-profit Investors in Africa; In Focus for Week Beginning 05/12/2022: Risks and Opportunities Linked to Not-for-profit Organisations in Africa
• Financial Stability Campaign for Households
• Volunteering for Nature Goals and Nature-based Solutions to Poverty (05/12/2022 to 05/01/2023)
Our E-discussion on Volunteering for Nature Goals and Nature-based Solutions to Poverty has started. This e-discussion is part of the Biodiversity Conference (4).
Indeed, between 7 and 19 December 2022 in Montreal (Canada), countries will work to agree on a new set of goals to guide global action through 2030 to halt and reverse nature loss.
In line with the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and with CENFACS “A la une” (Autumn Leaves of Action for the Upkeep of the Nature) Campaign, we are e-discussing ways of volunteering in 2023 to help CENFACS and its Africa-based Sister Organisations contribute to the new nature goals and nature-based solutions to poverty.
The e-discussion is about the following:
√ Thinking the best way of volunteering to help in stopping or reducing nature loss
√ Addressing overexploitation, pollution, fragmentation and unsustainable agricultural practices
√ Safeguarding the rights of indigenous people
√ Recognizing these people’s rights as stewards of nature
√ Finance for biodiversity and nature
Etc.
As we are nearing 2023, volunteering for nature goals and nature-based solutions to poverty will not only help meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the climate goal; but it will also contribute to reduce poverty induced by the mistreatment of nature.
To e-discuss about Volunteering for Nature Goals and Nature-based Solutions to poverty, please contact CENFACS.
• Guidance Programme for Not-for-profit Investors in Africa; In Focus for Week Beginning 05/12/2022: Risks and Opportunities Linked to Not-for-profit Organisations in Africa
This is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis in terms of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats before investing in Not-for-profit Organisations in Africa.
It is well known that any investment is at the same time a risk and an opportunity. The risks linked to investment in Africa include: the possibility of civil wars and conflicts, lack of adequate infrastructures, corruption, political change, etc. Beside these risks, there are opportunities such as untapped resources, young and growing population, etc.
Through SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors) analyses, we can work together with prospective investors to minimise investment risks while maximising opportunities or benefits for their investment to succeed.
It is also worth noting that prospective investors need to be aware that the more they want to invest, the greater could be this risk. However, where there are large economies of scale, this risk can be spread over.
Through CENFACS‘ Guidance and Advice on Investing in Africa, we can help potential investors to maximise risk-adjusted returns for a given level or rate of poverty reduction.
For those who would like to invest in the not-for-profit organisations in Africa and need some guidance, CENFACS can work with them so that they can have better knowledge or measure about risks and opportunities to invest in them.
Interested in Knowing Risks and Opportunities to Invest in Not-for-profit Organisations in Africa as well as in Guidance Programme, please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS.
• Financial Stability Campaign for Households
This campaign is about working with poor households to help them find enough income to cover basic expenses, pay off debts and save for emergencies.
Indeed, it is a campaign about the following:
√ To work with households to generate enough income to cover basic festive expenses while cutting unneeded expenses to cover basic festive costs (e.g., by avoiding impulse festive buying)
√ To enable these households to find ways of paying debts over the festive period (e.g., by carrying out a debt-to-income analysis)
√ To build savings for emergencies or emergency funds to cover unexpected festive costs (e.g., by working out the saving rate as total income less total expenses divided by total income)
√ To invest in the short- and long-term financial stability goals.
To participate and or support this campaign, please contact CENFACS.
Message in French (Message en français)
Guide Festif et Génération de Revenus
Nous avons des initiatives passionnantes et engageantes formant notre Guide Festif et le Mois de Décembre 2022.
Notre Guide Festif contient trois éléments, qui sont:
a) Le soulagement de la saison
b) Services festifs
c) Dons de paix.
En ce qui concerne le mois de décembre 2022 lui-même, décembre est le mois de la génération de revenus selon le calendrier de développement du CENFACS. C’est un mois générateur de revenus non seulement pour les organismes de bienfaisance, mais aussi pour les bénéficiaires du CENFACS.
Au cours de ce mois, nous travaillerions avec des personnes à faible revenu pour trouver un moyen de générer des revenus pour faire face aux coûts supplémentaires causés à leur vie par la crise du coût de la vie et la pression des dépenses due à la demande festive.
C’est pourquoi nous avons publié le 09 novembre dernier l’édition 2022 de l’Augmentation Festive des Revenus avec comme point de mire la Stabilité financière. Nous l’avons publiée d’avance afin que cette ressource de revenus festifs puisse être utilisée le plus tôt possible. De cette façon, nous pouvons travailler ensemble afin que la célébration de la saison puisse venir d’elle-même vers nos bénéficiaires et être abordable pour tous et toutes.
Ceux ou celles qui sont intéressés par le Guide des Fêtes et notre programme de travail pour le Mois de la Génération de Revenus peuvent nous le faire savoir.
Main Development
• Festive Guide and Income Generation
We have two major items making the Festive Guide and Income Generation Month, which are:
∝ Festive Guide
∝ December as an Income Generation Month.
Let us briefly explain each of them.
• • Festive Guide
Inside this guide, there are three main listings: Season’s Relief, Festive Services and Gifts of Peace.
• • • Season’s Relief
At CENFACS, the Season’s Relief comes with a theme and bundle of initiatives.
• • • • Season’s Relief Theme
The theme for Season’s Relief which would carry us throughout the entire festive period is Economic Peace. The Festive Season, which is part of the worldwide celebration, kicks off in December for CENFACS and ends by the 31st of January in the New Year.
During the Festive Season, we normally start the Season of Light. The Season of Light is one of the four seasons of CENFACS Development Calendar. It is the Winter season which goes on until March and is featured by Winter Lights and Light Projects or Light Appeals.
During this Season of Light, we shall carry out work about light (or energy) and poverty reduction since the global climate community has committed itself to phase down coal as source of energy whereas many energy poor people in Africa are coal-dependant.
• • • • Season’s Relief Initiatives
The following are the selected December 2022 initiatives or Season’s Initiatives for Relief:
❇ Festive Income Builder, Booster & Calculator, In Focus for 2022: Financial Stability
❇ Community Value Chains: The CENFACS Community and Knowledge of Poverty Reduction
❇ Volunteering in 2023: Volunteering for Nature Goals and Nature-based Solutions to Poverty
❇ Thanking 2022 Year Makers & Enablers
❇ Gifts of Peace (Edition 2022/2023)
❇ Run, Vote & Play for Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development (Action-Results 2022).
The above-mentioned projects would make the first part of Season’s Relief as being announced above. Some of them intertwine between our monthly and seasonal development calendars. All will depend whether one is reading our development calendar on a monthly or seasonal basis.
To support and or enquire about the Season’s Relief, please contact CENFACS.
• • • Festive Services
These services are made of two types of projects: regular and festive projects.
(a) Regular or on-going projects are continuous including during the festive period. The project known as All-year Round Projects (Triple Value Initiatives) is one of them.
(b) Projects for the festive occasion only; projects which are specially designed for that occasion. The project Community Value Chains is one of them.
Both types of projects are included in our December 2022 programme and planned to be delivered during the month of December 2022.
• • • Gifts of Peace
These are CENFACS Wintry Gift Appeal initiative to support people living in poverty in Africa.
CENFACS’ Winter Gift of Peace to Africa is indeed …
√ A festive life-sustaining support that helps to reduce poverty and bring sustainable peace
√ A festive giving to acknowledge and do something about poverty over the festive period, which is also an occasion to trans-give and think of those who are not as fortunate as others
√ A festive means to support those who don’t have peace because of poverty, particularly in the developing regions of the world like Africa.
Since Africa is still struggling with the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the current cost-of-living crisis, there are many of these people, who are recipient of projects and programmes run by our Africa-based Sister Organisations, who desperately need support.
However, we must acknowledge that this is a challenging time for both those who support and those who receive that support. To respond to the demand of help from those who receive support, we will be launching CENFACS’ Winter Gift of Peace to Africa, a Winter Appeal, by the end of Autumn 2022.
In meantime, those who would like to have for more information about this Wintry appeal, they need to contact CENFACS.
• • December as an Income Generation Month for CENFACS
December is a month of Income Generation, Record Tracking and Winter Lights at CENFACS.
• • • December as Income Generation Month
December is the Income Generation month according to CENFACS monthly development calendar and planner. It is the month during which we advocate and provide tips, hints and other types of advisory support on how to generate additional income to cover shortage in regular income, by using other avenues within the boundaries of the law and order.
This additional income can enable multi-dimensional income poor children, young people and families (C, YP & Fs) to exercise their basic human right to celebrate the end of the year in their own way.
However, this December 2022 will be mostly about Financial Stability as we highlighted in this year Edition of Festive Income Boost, rather than Income Generation. This is to help C, YP & Fs to find enough income to cover basic expenses, pay off debts and save for emergencies. We will be working with them during the festive season to find ways of building and developing the financial stability.
So, supporting multi-dimensional poor C, YP & Fs to explore ways of covering basic expenses, paying off debts and saving for emergencies is the right cause to undertake.
Equally, where possible generating, building and boosting their incomes to exercise their human right to a decent end-of-year celebration is not only a one-off or seasonal business to make ends meet; but can also become an additional way of building and developing the capacity to reduce and end income poverty.
They are poor not only because of lack of income but also due to their failing capacities to maintain financial stability as well as generate enough income to cover their needs and nurture this stability.
As part of festive support, our Edition 2022 Festive Extra Income Builder, Booster and Calculator would be available for those who need it. We launched this resource earlier in Autumn in order to enable those in need of the resource to get the tips and hints they need to early start exploring ways of stabilising their finances while finding ways of boosting their income and generational economy.
Besides this resource, we planned two periods of work on financial stability programmes and schemes starting from the first of this month as follows.
• • • 01 to 07/12/2022: Financial Stability Programmes (FSP)
FSP is a set of structured activities designed to help users cover basic expenses, pay off debts and save for emergencies.
As a result, we will be working on how people and families can set up and or be involved a series of structured activities or small projects to cover basic expenses, pay off debts and save for emergencies and where possible to generate little extra income in order to reduce poverty. Through these activities, we will help them through the following:
√ Eliminate toxic assets
√ Find sources of funding
√ Absorb the effects of the cost-of-living crisis and other potential financial crises
√ Prevent events like the cost-of-living crisis from disrupting household financial health and wellbeing
Etc.
• • • 08 to 14/12/2022: Financial Stability Schemes (FSS)
FSS helps to work with users so that they can elaborate a systematic plan of future action about their financial stability for a week or month or year (2023). Through this exercise, we shall use some financial stability tools to work with users (e.g., Debt to income ratio formula).
Briefly, we will be working on how financially instable people and families can find available systematic plans for future action to improve their financial stability, and where possible generate income in order to reduce continuing poverty and hardships. In particular, we will make sure about what scheme is workable or unworkable for them.
In the end, we hope that financially instable people and families can develop their own individual working FSP and FSS plans or policies to establish financial stability and generate little extra incomes not only for the festive period, but also beyond the festive time. In doing so, they can improve their intergenerational economy and transfer accounts.
• • • December as Record Tracking Month
December is also the time of record tracking on our All-year Round Projects (or Triple Value Initiatives), particularly
√ CENFACS Poverty Relief League (The African Nations Poverty Relief League)
√ Run to Reduce Poverty in Africa in 2022
√ Vote your African Poverty Relief and Development Manager of the Year 2022
We expect those who took part and or organised activities on our behalf about these projects to come forward, report and share with us their actions, results and experiences about the three stars or bests of 2022 (Best Country, Best Runner and Best Manager). We can count on them to tell us their Winner of CENFACS Trophy of the Year.
• • • December as the start of Winter Lights Season
As said above in our Festive Guide, December is finally the month we start CENFACS Winter Lights Season, the first season of our development seasonal calendar. The Season of Light, which kicks off around Mid-December, includes the Gifts of Peace.
Each year, we produce an edition of the Gifts of Peace that makes up our final fundraising campaign and last humanitarian appeal of the year. This year, we are doing the same for our last humanitarian appeal or fundraising campaign of 2022.
Peace is the festive theme we choose at CENFACS to spread the joy of Season’s Relief to those in need, especially at this time of the cost-of-living crisis. We try to help their wishes of relief become true with the Gifts of Peace, by putting a smile on their face with relief notes.
With the soaring costs of living, many of them cannot find the smiles they need for relief. One can hope that the Gifts of Peace will bring back the lost smiles.
To support the Edition 2022/2023 of Gifts of Peace, please contact CENFACS.
• • • CENFACS Community Value Chains Celebration
As part of the Season of Light is the CENFACS Community Value Chains celebration. This celebration generally closes our seasons at the end of the year and concludes our yearly development calendar and planner, while marking the end of civil year at CENFACS.
It is an end-of-year eventful project enabling us to look upon us again as a community of shared vision, values and beliefs which connect us as human chains with a purpose of reducing and ending poverty amongst us, and of enhancing sustainable development as well.
This year we shall again focus on ourselves as a Community of Knowledgeable People. It will be about the knowledge we have about poverty reduction as well as about the needs of those are looking for help that make us a knowledgeable community that helps match responses to those needs.
• • • Sustainable Volunteering: 05/12/2022 to 05/01/2023
To carry the CENFACS Community into the New Year, our discussion on Sustainable Volunteering, which has already started, is scheduled to take place from 05 December 2022 to 05 January 2023. The discussion theme for this year is on Volunteering in 2023 for Nature Goals and Nature-based Solutions to Poverty.
• • • CENFACS into 2023
To take the other two domains (International and Fund) of CENFACS into 2023 and engage with stakeholders, we shall develop nature projects and programmes as well as those with nature-based solutions to poverty.
For any enquiries or to support CENFACS in the month of December 2022 and in the New Year, please contact CENFACS.
Before closing this week’s post, we would like to inform all our audiences and stakeholders that the above planned programmes, projects and activities can be reviewed. If there are any significant changes in terms of the eruption of a major event or crisis or shock like it happened with the coronavirus pandemic, we shall revise our initial festive plan and activate our contingency plan.
_________
• References
(1) https://unstats.un.org/unsd/EconStatKB/KnowledgebaseArticle10347.aspx (Accessed in December 2022)
(2) https://www.igo-global.com/dictionary/operational-challenge-in-hybrid-organisations/59060 (Accessed in December 2022)
(3) https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/measuring-poverty (Accessed in December 2022)
(4) https://www.unep.org/un-biodiversity-conference-cop-15 (Accessed in December 2022)
_________
• Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going this year
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could also consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Additionally, we would like to inform you that planned gifting is always an option for giving at CENFACS. Likewise, CENFACS accepts matching gifts from companies running a gift-matching programme.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ NOBLE CAUSES OF POVERTY REDUCTION.
JUST GO TO: Support Causes – (cenfacs.org.uk)
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support until the end of 2022 and beyond.
With many thanks.
