Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

04 December 2024

Post No. 381

The Week’s Contents

• 2024 Festive Guide and Income Generation Month

• Festive Donations Without Shopping

• Activity/Task No. 12 of the Transitions (“t”) Year and Project: Support Income Poor to Transition in Income Generation

… And much more!

Key Messages

• 2024 Festive Guide and Income Generation Month

We have seamlessly crafted exciting and engaging initiatives to form our 2024 Festive Guide and Income Generation Month as well as deliver unparalleled experiences for both our supporters and project beneficiaries.

• • Festive Guide

2024 Festive Guide as a resource will help supporters engage with CENFACS during the Festive season and maximise their impact on CENFACS‘ poverty reduction work and mission. This 2024 Festive Guide contains three items, which are:

a) The Season’s Relief

b) Festive Services

c) Gifts of Peace.

The above-mentioned three items will help all our supporters to get involved, whether by donating or volunteering or participating in any festive preparation activities, while celebrating the season.

• • Income Generation Month

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. It is a month during which CENFACS‘ members will be focusing on generating additional income, through their own projects, fundraising efforts and seasonal activities.

During this month, we would be working with them and income poor to find way of generating some income to meet additional costs brought to their life by the high costs of living and spending pressure from festive demand.

This is why we published our Festive Income Boost on 13 November 2024 so that this festive income resource could be used as early as possible. It contains income generation tools and strategies that streamline the process of meeting these costs. This will quintessentially orchestrate poverty relief outcomes for project beneficiaries since 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 2024 Festive Guide and our programme of work for the Income Generation Month.

• Festive Donations Without Shopping

Last week, we provided – under CENFACS’ Festive-Shopping-and-Donations Project or Festive-Donations-With-Shopping Project – a number of no-direct cash donations that those who would like to support CENFACS through their festive shopping can give.

This week, we are expanding on no-direct donations by focussing on those without shopping under CENFACS’ Festive-Donations-Without-Shopping Project. 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 shopping at CENFACS e-shop and other stores or shops?

• • Festive No-direct Cash Donations Without Shopping

There are 12-themed ways/tools of donating without shopping during this Festive Season and month. They include:

1) Signing up for a Gift Aid Declaration from which CENFACS can earn an extra 25p for every £1 you give

Your Gift Aid Declaration can help amplify our poverty reduction impact.

2) Nomination of CENFACS for a donation at festive charity fundraising and donation events

These events could include Festive fairs and markets, runs and walks, concerts and performances, online fundraising campaigns, etc.

3) Selection of CENFACS as your preferred charity for donation from advertising revenue

For instance, if you are a company with corporate social responsibility programmes, we can partner with you to sponsor our events, projects and campaigns. We can align our work with yours; just as if you run a matching gift programme, we can work with you.

4) Planned gifting or legacy giving if you decide to contribute a major gift to CENFACS beyond your lifetime

For example, you can help with outright gifts, deferred gifts, gifts that provide income; gifts that protect assets.

5) Livestreaming campaigns

If you are fundraising livestream donor, you can agree with CENFACS to choose a platform (e.g., Twitch), set up a stream for CENFACS, create a festive fundraising page, use a platform (like Tiltify), promote the event, engage viewers to donate and share the stream with their friends and collaborate.

6) Gaming assets

You can also support CENFACS via Gaming assets when you as a gaming fundraiser can take the initiative to raise money for CENFACS via video games or livestreamed video game events whereby viewers can tune into. You can use, for instance, video play at gaming-centric platforms by leveraging the gaming community, and raise funds.

7) AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools to generate income or automate income generation

In fact, one can help us boost our fundraising capability, more effectively engage donors, and streamline our processes and operations via AI tools like Appeal AI, Fundraising Intelligence, chatbots and virtual assistants (e.g., ChatGPT) and CRM Integration tools.

8) Virtual real estate donations

Another festive creative and innovative way of supporting CENFACS is with donation from the profits of virtual real estate (land and property) sold.

9) Digital tickets

For example, event tickets can be auctioned off or raffled to raise funds. Virtual event tickets (e.g., for webinars, online workshops) can be donated as well.

10) Digital art

You can donate digital art or create NFTs of the art to be sold with the proceeds benefiting to CENFACS.

11) Giving cryptocurrency donations (or non-cash asset giving)

If you are a crypto-minded supporter or enthusiast or donor, you can give crypto donations as assets by choosing a cryptocurrency (e.g., Bitcoin), checking with CENFACS if we can accept your cryptocurrency donations, using a digital wallet, transferring the donation to CENFACS and getting a receipt. You can aid CENFACS raise money for its noble causes as well as develop a crypto philanthropy programme.

12) Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

You can create and auction NFTs with proceeds going to CENFACS, donate existing NFTs by selling or auctioned them with proceeds going to CENFACS, set up a digital wallet with NFTs to accept cryptocurrency donations for CENFACS.

So, one could donate digital assets like cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and digital gift cards.

There could be more ways of donating without shopping, 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 and beautiful 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. They could make no-direct cash donations without shopping a souvenir for CENFACS’ noble and beautiful causes.

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.

Thank you for considering our ask for no-direct cash donations without festive shopping activities.

For any queries and/or enquiries about CENFACS’ Festive-Donations-Without-Shopping Project, please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS.

• Activity/Task No. 12 of the Transitions (“t”) Year and Project: Support Income Poor to Transition in Income Generation

Our Transitions (‘t’) Year and Project have finally got to Activity/Task 12, which is ‘Support Income Poor to Transition in Income Generation’.

Indeed, it is possible to study the relationships between transitions and income generation, how transitions in income generating activities can help reduce vulnerabilities to poverty. It is even feasible to work with income poor so that they can transition in the way they generate income. This can be done by using a number of means such as support, resources and guidance to improve their financial and economic status.

This number of means can be provided at any time of the year. However, at this particular time of festive preparations it will be very useful to help them to make the move they may need to an improved income generation. Help can include education and training, skills to make money during the festive period, access to resources and equipment, etc.

Some of the areas of help (like skills to generate income during this festive season) can quickly produce results. On the contrary, others can take medium to long term period to show outcomes. For as long as the transition respond to the need of generating income, one can argue that Activity/Task 12 has been or is in the process of being carried out.

Those who would like to proceed with this activity/task by themselves can go ahead.

Those who would to be part of a working group helping in the realisation of this activity/task can let CENFACS know.

For those who need some help themselves before embarking on this activity/task, they can speak to CENFACS. To speak to CENFACS, they are required to plan in advance or prepare themselves regarding the issues they would like to raise.

For any other queries and enquiries about the ‘t‘ project and this year’s dedication, please contact CENFACS as well.

Extra Messages

• Matching Organisation-Investor via African Art Investment – Activity/Stage 3 (from 04/12/2024 to 10/12/2024): Matching Organisation’s Project Roles and Teams (PRT) with Investor’s View on PRT

• E-discussion on Volunteering to Find Climate Finance and a New Development Model (05/12/2024 to 05/01/2025)

• Festive Structured Finance Activities/Micro-projects under Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme/Scheme

• Matching Organisation-Investor via African Art Investment – Activity/Stage 3 (from 04/12/2024 to 10/12/2024): Matching Organisation’s Project Roles and Teams (PRT) with Investor’s View on PRT

Both Africa-based Sister Art Charitable Organisation (ASACO ) and Not-for-profit (n-f-p) Investor earned more points in their individual second stage of this programme.

At this level of challenge, one needs to think like in The Apprentice (the British TV Series) or Dragons’ Den (another British entertainment show) whereby one can try to secure funding for its project from multimillionaire investors. One can think like this, although in our scenario it is about ASACO trying to secure a deal from n-f-p investor.

As the negotiation continues, they have decided to move to the third round of talks, which is Activity 3 of the Matching Organisation-Investor Programme.

This third level of talks consists of agreeing on project roles and teams. To approach this third level, we are going to deal with ASACO’s Project Roles and Teams, and Not-for-profit Art Investor’s Demand for Clarification about ASACO’s Roles and Teams. Before that, it is better to highlight some key performance metrics making this art investment project.

As a result, we have organised our notes around the following headings:

σ Key Performance Indicators

σ ASACO’s Project Roles and Teams

σ Not-for-profit Art Investor’s Demand for Clarification about Project Roles and Teams

σ The Match or Fit Test.

Let us look at each of these headings.

• • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Let us define them.

• • • What are KPIs?

According to ‘kpi.org’ (1),

“KPIs are the critical (key) quantifiable indicators of progress toward an intended result”.

They are quantifiable metrics that can be used to measure the progress towards the art investment project. Essentially, we are going to highlight three types KPIs: those relating to portfolio, those attached to the art industry and those linked to team performance since this stage of matching talks is about project roles and teams.

• • • Diversification Performance Metrics

At this point, ASACO can start to use investor/project growth or diversification metrics to check that it is acquiring new investors or retaining existing investors or re-engaging lapsed investors. Diversification performance metrics are quantitative measures used to evaluate the effectiveness of portfolio diversification strategies. These measures help to optimise investment strategies and achieve high risk-adjusted returns.

An example of these metrics is diversification ratio which ASACO can use. ASACO can calculate the Diversification Ratio by using the formula below.

Formula for Portfolio Diversification Score:

the sum of (the asset weights multiplied by their respective standard deviations)

• • • KPIs Relating to the Art Investment Project

ASACO can as well use a suite of metrics stemming from its business plan like Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) proposed by ‘simplekpi.com’ (2) to back its art investment project.

Amongst these KPIs, we can mention the ones listed below.

a) Artwork Sales Volume (ASV)

ASV tracks the number of artworks sold.

b) Revenue from Art Sales (RAS)

RAS measures the total revenue generated from selling artworks.

c) Average Artwork Sale Price (AASP)

AASP calculates the average price at which artworks are sold.

d) Customer Satisfaction Score (CSS)

CSS evaluates the satisfaction level of visitors through surveys or feedback forms.

e) Marketing Return On Investment (ROI)

Marketing ROI measures the return on investment for marketing campaigns.

f) Donations Received (DR)

DR measures the total amount of donations received.

etc.

The above-mentioned quantifiable metrics will help to measure progress towards specific art investment project and goals.

• • • KPIs to Measure and Track Team Performance

Because we are dealing with project roles and teams, ASACO needs to show that it has metrics to measure team performance. In other words, it is required to demonstrate that its has the KPIs to measure the optimal functioning, development, and success of its teams.

Amongst these KPIs are the ones provided by Forecast App (3), which are Track Project Progress, Resource Performance Metrics, Process Performance Metrics, etc.

This third category of KPIs will help ASACO to measure and track the performance of its teams once the art investment project becomes operational. Having these metrics in mind, it makes easy for ASACO when explaining its project roles and teams.

• • ASACO’s Project Roles and Teams

Generally speaking, most projects involve people with roles and teams working together to make the projects work. Projects require communications between project members about different aspects of a project as well. Therefore, ASACO needs to explain its project roles and teams.

Amongst the 5 major project roles (that is, project sponsor, project manager, business analyst, resource manager and project team member), we would like to focus on two of them: Project Manager and Project Sponsor.

Let us look at them

• • • Art Investment Project Manager

ASACO’s Art Investment Project Manager will be responsible for overall project planning, execution and completion. Like any project managers, ASACO’s Art Investment Project Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the project. The Manager will manage the project timelines, budget, resources, as well as ensure effective communication amongst all project team members and stakeholders.

As part of clarification of roles and responsibilities, ASACO will provide to n-f-p art investor role descriptions, which will detail and describe each role, including responsibilities of reporting lines and authority levels. ASACO needs as well to indicate project team members, who are individuals with specific art project skills and expertise to contribute to project task and deliverables.

• • • Art Investment Project Sponsor

Art Investment Project Sponsor will provide support, resources and funding that ASACO is looking for. He/she has the responsibility that the project aligns with art project goals. He/she will be responsible for approving projects and determining scope and budget. It could be a person who has promised a sum of money or support (e.g., advertising) to ASACO to make up what the art investment requires. In practical terms, it will be a guarantor or promoter or benefactor or donor or funder or financier or investor or patron.

• • Not-for-profit Art Investor’s Demand for Clarification about Project Roles and Teams

At this stage of negotiation, a sensible n-f-p investor, who is a donor or funder, would like to know who will make ASACO’s project teams and what roles each team members will play and who is responsible for what. It means project team members have the competencies and experience to complete their assigned tasks.

In order to provide the funding that ASACO is asking for, he/she would like clarification on project sponsorship. If the project is or will be sponsored, he/she needs to be informed about the level and type of sponsorship to be received. This information will help to know if the art investment project will undergo through fundraising mix.

This is because n-f-p art investor is also a potential project sponsor or donor or funder. As a donor or funder, he/she would like to know who else is sponsoring the art investment project and how much money ASACO is putting in this project. This information will help to determine the financial gap that needs to be filled and the funding structure or capital structure of the art investment project.

Besides the project sponsorship, n-f-p art investor requires further explanations about project roles and responsibilities on matters such as who is responsible for completing assigned tasks on time and within scope, and who are subject matter experts and other stakeholders. He/she also wants to be reassured that ASACO will promote a collaborative and efficient working environment.

In addition, n-f-p art investor is enquiring if ASACO has communication matrix (that is a document detailing communication methods, frequency and stakeholders involved).

ASACO needs to respond to n-f-p art investor’s queries and enquiries by well defining tasks and deliverables, setting expectations, establishing deadlines and milestone, communicating plan, allocating resource, managing risk, establishing criteria for measuring progress and success and defining key performance indicators and tracking them, getting feedback and conducting reviews, while encouraging open communication and continuous improvement.

Failure to provide these answers may not help the matching talks to go to the next stage or to progress. In other words, there should be an agreement between ASACO’s PRT and N-f-p Art Investor’s Approach to ASACO’s PRT. If there is a disagreement, then the talks/negotiations could be subject to match or fit test.

• • The Match or Fit Test

As part of the match or fit test, n-f-p Art Investor’s view on ASACO’s PRT Stage must be matched with the information coming out of ASACO’s PRT process.

The match can be perfect or close in order to reach an agreement. If there is a huge or glaring difference between the two (i.e., between what the investor wants and what ASACO is saying about its PRT process, between what the investor would like the PRT phase to indicate and what ASACO’s PRT process is really saying), the probability or chance of having an agreement at this third round of negotiations could be null or uncertain.

However, if this happens there is still a chance as CENFACS can advice ASACO and guide n-f-p investor on their approaches to African art investment.

• • • Impact Advice to ASACO and Guidance to n-f-p Art Investor

CENFACS can impact advise ASACOs to improve the presentation of the PRT process they are bringing forward. CENFACS can as well guide n-f-p art investors with impact to work out their expectations in terms of the PRT process to a format that can be agreeable by potential ASACOs. CENFACS’ impact advice for ASACOs and guidance on impact investing for n-f-p art investor, which are impartial, will help each of them (i.e., investee and investor) to make informed decisions and to reduce or avoid the likelihood of any significant losses or misunderstandings or mismatches.

However, to reduce or avoid this likelihood both parties need to follow the rule of the matching game.

• • • The Rule of the Matching Game

The rule of the game is the more art investors are attracted by ASACOs’ PRT process the better for ASACOs. It means that ASACO’s PRT process must pass the attractiveness test. Likewise, the more ASACOs can successfully respond to art investors’ level of enquiries and queries about the PRT process the better for investors. In this respect, the matching game needs to be a win-win one to benefit both players (i.e., investee and investor).

The above is the third stage or activity of the Matching Organisation-Investor via African Art Investment.

Those potential organisations seeking investment to set up an art project in Africa and n-f-p art investors looking for organisations that are interested in their giving, they can contact CENFACS to arrange the match or fit test for them. They can have their fit test carried out by CENFACS’ Hub for Testing Hypotheses.

• • • CENFACS’ Hub for Testing Hypotheses

The Hub can help to use analysis tools to test assumptions and determine how likely something is within a given standard of accuracy. The Hub can assist to

√ clean, merge and prepare micro-data sources for testing, modelling and analysis

√ conduct data management and administration

√ carry out regression analysis, estimate and test hypotheses

√ interpret and analyse patterns or trends in data or results.

For any queries and/or enquiries about this third stage/activity of Matching Organisation-Investor via African Art Investment, please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS.

• E-discussion on Volunteering to Find Climate Finance and a New Development Model (05/12/2024 to 05/01/2025)

As the year wraps up, our e-discussion, which is on Volunteering to Find Climate Finance and a New Development Model , has already started. The e-discussion is about volunteering to explore where money will come to fund climate change programmes and projects. It is also about volunteering to find new models of development that respond to changing climate since humans may have to change or improve habits and behaviour to deal with changing climate.

Volunteering to Find Climate Finance and a New Development Model echo what was decided at COP29 in Baku (3) where developed nations pledged to channel $300 billion a year into developing countries by 2035 to support their efforts to deal with climate change. This pledged money is not yet available.

Charities and voluntary organisations whether they operate in developed or developing countries have still to find funding for their climate projects and programmes. Also, climate change is not only about money. It is as well about the new development model or new way of living that one may need to create and embrace in order to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change.

Our e-discussion, which takes stock of COP29, will explore ways of finding the financial resources we need to continue our work on climate change. It will also be about searching a new model of development that will pave and strengthen our way to net zero greenhouse gases emission.

To e-discuss Volunteering to Find Climate Finance and a New Development Model, we have organised a plan of work.

We shall look at the following points during our e-discussion:

√ Volunteering to increase financial support for projects and programmes of emission reduction

√ Volunteering to mobilise climate funds and engage climate finance stakeholders and investors

√ Volunteering to find a new development model

√ Volunteering for climate finance transparency and accountability.

As we are nearing 2025, volunteering to find climate finance and a new development will provide us with some ideas where the money to tackle greenhouse gases emission will come from and prepare our mindset to change or improve our behaviour in terms of our relationships with nature and the planet. It will as well contribute to reduce poverty induced by the lack of climate finance and the lack of alternative model of development than just continuing to do the things that harm the planet.

To e-discuss about Volunteering to Find Climate Finance and a New Development Model, please contact CENFACS.

• Festive Structured Finance Activities/Micro-projects under Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme/Scheme

As part of Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme and Scheme Periods (02 to 07/12/2024 and 09 to 14/12/2024), we are available to work in hybrid mode with users via a Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme (FCCBP) or Scheme (FCCBS) so that they can start stronger in the New Year.

Both FCCBP and FCCBS will help beneficiaries to reduce risks linked to financial incapacity and incapability while improving their intergenerational income and transfers.

These are exclusive festive activities to maximise programme and scheme beneficiaries’ financial management and decision-making for a successful year-end. To practise FCCBP and FCCBS , we are carrying out structured festive finance activities for the two periods as indicated below.

• • Structured Festive Finance Activities as Part of Financial Capacity and Capability Building Programme (02 to 07/12/2024)

FCCBP is a set of structured planned actions or events designed to help users to better manage financial aspects of festive celebrations, to develop financial knowledge and skills, to make life-saving financial decisions and to invest in financial capacity and capability goals

As a result, we will be working on how people and families can be involved a series of the following structured festive activities or small projects:

Activity 1: Investing in realistic goals about financial capacity and capability

Activity 2: Managing financial aspects of festive events

Activity 3: Making financial knowledge and skills positively impact on their financial behaviour

Activity 4: Taking sensible life-saving financial decisions

Activity 5: How to generate little extra income in order to reduce poverty.

These activities are run in the forms of advice, advocacy, e-discussion, workshop, focus group, survey, direct questions/answers, etc. More details about them can be obtained from CENFACS.

• • • • Structured Festive Finance Activities as Part of Financial Capacity and Capability Building Scheme (09 to 14/12/2024)

FCCBS is a plan or system for achieving the goals of financial capacity and capability. It helps to work with users so that they can elaborate a systematic plan of future action about their financial capacity and capability for a week or month or year (2025). Through this exercise, we shall use some financial capacity and capability tools to work with users to design basic financial plans, policies, systems, strategies, etc. to deal with their problems. Under this scheme, we can organise together the following festive activities.

Activity 1: Financial Capacity and Capability to make ends meet (e.g., coping and survival strategies)

Activity 2: Financial Capacity and Capability to plan head (plan and save for the future)

Activity 3: Financial Capacity and Capability to organise money management (e.g., money management plan)

Activity 4: Financial Capacity and Capability to make financial decisions and act through budgeting

Activity 5: Financial Capacity and Capability to control spending through cash flow statements.

Briefly, we will be working on how people and families having the issues of financial capacity and capability can work out systematic plans for future action to improve their financial capacity and capability, 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 the financially incapacitated or incapable people and families can develop their own individual working FCCBP and FCCBS plans or policies to establish financial capacity and capability as well as 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.

Need festive advice or support to deal with the problems of financial capacity and capability you are experiencing, please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS.

If you have financial planning problems, you can contact CENFACS so that we can work together on your financial planning needs and help you to start the New Year stronger and confident with a financial plan or a system or a policy.

Message in English-French (Message en Anglais-Français)

• CENFACS be.Africa Forum E-discusses the Impact of Economic Warfare on Poor People

Any wars of any kinds may not be a good prospect for humans. Similarly, economic wars can be counter-productive for the well-being the world’s poorest people. These people are already suffering from poverty. Yet, there suffering could deepen if the prospects of economic war become a reality in 2025 as geo-economic rivalries and rifts continue between different powers (like the USA and China), not mentioning some counter-productive policy announcements any incoming administrations of these countries may make for 2025.

Although geo-economic confrontation has the biggest fall in ranking as it is being classified 14th in short term (2 years horizon) and 16th in long term (10 years horizon) as global risks ranked by severity by the World Economic Forum (5), it can resurface in 2025. This resurgence can increase the costs of food and energy as well as of other commodities.

If the world in 2025 faces the prospects of economic war or its increase, there will be an impact on Africa, particularly on Africans who are already living in poverty. It is this possible economic condition of the economic world of 2025, which none within CENFACS wishes to happen, that CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum is trying to e-discuss the probable impact of such economic warfare on those living in poverty in Africa.

Perhaps, to better e-discuss this topic one may need to explain economic warfare. According to ‘britannica.com’ (6),

“Economic warfare is the use of, or the threat to use, economic means against a country in order to weaken its economy and thereby, reduce its political and military power. Economic warfare also includes the use of economic means to compel an adversary to change its policies or behaviour or to undermine its ability to conduct normal relations with other countries. Some common means of economic warfare are trade embargoes, boycotts, sanctions, tariff discrimination, the freezing of capital assets, the suspension of aid, the prohibition of investment and other capital flows, and expropriation”.

Knowing what economic warfare is, one can debate what could be its impact on Africa, especially on those living in poverty in Africa.

Those who may be interested in this discussion can join our poverty reduction pundits and/or contribute by contacting CENFACS be.Africa Forum, which is a forum for discussion on poverty reduction and sustainable development issues in Africa and which acts on behalf of its members by making proposals or ideas for actions for a better Africa.

To contact CENFACS about this discussion, please use our usual contact information on this website.

• Le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS e-discute de l’Impact de la Guerre Économique sur les Pauvres

Toute guerre, quelle qu’elle soit, n’est peut-être pas une bonne perspective pour les humains. De même, les guerres économiques peuvent être anti-productives pour le bien-être des personnes les plus pauvres du monde. Ces personnes souffrent déjà de la pauvreté. Pourtant, les souffrances pourraient s’aggraver si les perspectives de guerre économique deviennent réalité en 2025, alors que les rivalités géoéconomiques et les divisions se poursuivent entre différentes puissances (comme les États-Unis et la Chine), sans parler de certaines annonces politiques qui peuvent alimenter une guerre économique que les nouvelles administrations de ces pays pourraient faire pour 2025.

Bien que la confrontation géoéconomique ait connu la plus forte chute dans le classement puisqu’elle est classée 14e à court terme (horizon de 2 ans) et 16e à long terme (horizon de 10 ans) en tant que risques mondiaux classés par gravité par le Forum Économique Mondial (5), elle peut refaire surface en 2025. Cette résurgence peut augmenter les coûts des denrées alimentaires et de l’énergie ainsi que d’autres produits de base.

Si le monde en 2025 est confronté à la perspective d’une guerre économique ou de son augmentation, il y aura un impact sur l’Afrique, en particulier sur les Africains qui vivent déjà dans la pauvreté. C’est cette condition économique possible du monde économique de 2025, que personne au sein du CENFACS ne souhaite, que le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS tente de discuter en ligne. La discussion porte sur l’impact probable d’une telle guerre économique sur ceux ou celles qui vivent dans la pauvreté en Afrique.

Peut-être, pour mieux discuter de ce sujet, pourrait-il être nécessaire d’expliquer la guerre économique. Selon le site Web ‘britannica.com’ (6),

“La guerre économique est l’utilisation ou la menace d’utiliser des moyens économiques contre un pays afin d’affaiblir son économie et, par conséquent, de réduire sa puissance politique et militaire. La guerre économique comprend également l’utilisation de moyens économiques pour contraindre un adversaire à modifier ses politiques ou son comportement ou pour saper sa capacité d’entretenir des relations normales avec d’autres pays. Certains moyens courants de guerre économique sont les embargos commerciaux, les boycottes, les sanctions, la discrimination tarifaire, le gel des avoirs en capital, la suspension de l’aide, l’interdiction des investissements et autres flux de capitaux, et l’expropriation”.

Sachant ce qu’est la guerre économique, on peut discuter de son impact sur l’Afrique, en particulier sur ceux ou celles qui vivent dans la pauvreté en Afrique.

Ceux ou celles qui pourraient être intéressé(e)s par cette discussion peuvent se joindre à nos experts en réduction de la pauvreté et/ou contribuer en contactant le ‘me.Afrique’ du CENFACS (ou le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS), qui est un forum de discussion sur les questions de réduction de la pauvreté et de développement durable en Afrique et qui agit au nom de ses membres en faisant des propositions ou des idées d’actions pour une Afrique meilleure.

Pour contacter le CENFACS au sujet de cette discussion, veuillez utiliser nos coordonnées habituelles sur ce site Web.

Main Development

• 2024 Festive Guide and Income Generation Month

We have two major items making the 2024 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 Sustainable Peace. The Festive Season, which is part of the worldwide celebration, kicks off in December for CENFACS and ends by the 31^st 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 the third week of March in the New Year 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. We will be looking at how to fund energy transition for the energy poor who are still dependent on fossil fuels.

• • • • Season’s Relief Initiatives

The following are the selected December 2024 initiatives or Season’s Initiatives for Relief:

∗ Festive Income Builder, Booster & Calculator, In Focus for 2024: Income Boost Goal for the Festive Season

∗ Community Value Chains: CENFACS as a Community that Supports Its Members Transition out Poverty

∗ Volunteering in 2025: Volunteering to Find Climate Finance and a New Development Model

∗ Thanking 2024 Year Makers & Enablers

∗ Gifts of Peace (Edition 2024/2025)

∗ Run, Vote & Play for Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development (Action-Results 2024).

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.

• • • • Regular or on-going projects

They are continuous including during the festive period. The project known as All-year Round Projects (Triple Value Initiatives) is one of them.

• • • • Projects for the festive occasion only

They are 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 2024 programme and planned to be delivered during the month of December 2024.

• • • 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 looking for ways to produce economic growth that will be sufficient to further reduce poverty, there are many 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. Many factors have impacted people’s donation behaviours. The same or similar factors have increased demand of support for those in need.

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 2024.

In meantime, those who would like to have for more information about this seasonal 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 and right.

However, this December 2024 of Income Generation will be mostly about Income Boost Goal for the Festive Season as we highlighted in this year Edition of Festive Income Boost. This is to help C, YP & Fs to set and apply a clear goal that can help them find enough income to better manage financial aspects of festive events, develop financial knowledge and skills, make life-saving financial decisions and invest in financial capacity and capability goals.

We will be working with them during the festive season to find ways of setting clear income boost goals while building and developing their financial capacity and capability. So, supporting multi-dimensional poor C, YP & Fs in this way 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 and capability to reduce and end income poverty.

They are poor not only because of lack of income but also due to their lack of support to build and develop financial capacity and capability as well as to generate enough income to cover their needs and nurture these capacity and capability.

As part of festive support, our Edition 2024 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, hints and strategies they need to early start exploring ways of better managing their financial affairs and making life-saving financial decisions while finding ways of boosting their income and generational economy.

Besides this resource, we planned two periods of work on financial capacity and capability programmes and schemes starting from the second of this month as follows.

• • • 02 to 07/12/2024: Financial Capacity and Capability Programmes (FCCP)

FCCP is a set of structured activities designed to help users to better manage financial aspects of festive events, to develop financial knowledge and skills, to make life-saving financial decisions and to invest in financial capacity and capability goals

As a result, we will be working on how people and families can be involved a series of structured activities or small projects to

σ invest in realistic goals about financial capacity and capability

σ manage financial aspects of festive events

σ make financial knowledge and skills positively impact on their financial behaviour

σ take sensible life-saving financial decisions

σ where possible generate little extra income in order to reduce poverty.

Through these activities, we hope beneficiaries will become

√ better empowered in their financial behaviour

√ good financial decision makers

√ better financial managers

√ extra income earners

√ financially confident

etc.

• • • 09 to 14/12/2024: Financial Capacity and Capability Schemes (FCCS)

FCCS helps to work with users so that they can elaborate a systematic plan of future action about their financial capacity and capability for a week or month or year (2025). Through this exercise, we shall use some financial capacity and capability tools to work with users (e.g., Debt to income ratio formula).

In the end, we hope that the financially incapacitated or incapable people and families can develop their own individual working FCCP and FCCS plans or policies to establish financial capacity and capability 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 2024

√ Vote Your African Poverty Relief and Development Manager of the Year 2024

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 2024 (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 2024.

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 lingering effects of the enduring 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 enduring effects of high 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 2024/2025 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 that Supports Its Members to Transition out of Poverty. It will be about the capacity we have to support others to transition out of poverty and improve the quality of their life.

• • • Sustainable Volunteering: 05/12/2024 to 05/01/2025

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 2024 to 05 January 2025. The discussion theme for this year is on Volunteering to Find Climate Finance and a New Development Model.

• • • CENFACS into 2025

To take the other two domains (International and Fund) of CENFACS into 2025 and engage with stakeholders, we shall develop projects relating to land restoration and boosting drought resilience in Africa as well as poverty reduction projects linked to other aspects of desertification and drought.

For any enquiries or to support CENFACS in the month of December 2024 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, we shall revise our initial festive plan and activate our contingency plan.

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• References

(1) https://www.kpi.org/kpi-basics (accessed in December 2024)

(2) https://www.simplekpi.com/blog/12-essential-art-gallery-kpis-to-track (accessed in December 2024)

(3) https://www.forecast.app/blog/how-to-track-and-calculate-metrics-to-improve-your-team-performance (accessed in December 2024)

(4) https://www.carbonbrief.org/cop29-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-climate-talks-in-baku/ (accessed in December 2024)

(5) https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WE_The_Global_Risks_Report_2024.pdf (accessed in December 2024)

(6) https://www.britannica.com/topic/economic-warfare (accessed in December 2024)

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• 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 AND BEAUTIFUL 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 throughout 2024 and beyond.

With many thanks.

2024 Festive Guide and Income Generation Month