Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
16 October 2024
Post No. 374
The Week’s Contents
• Autumn 2024 Humanitarian Relief Appeal
• “A la une” (Autumn Leaves of Action for the Upkeep of the Nature in Existence) Campaign and Themed Activities – In Focus for Week Beginning 14/10/2024: Conserving Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis)
• Autumn Matching Organisation-Investor via Farming Charitable Loan – Match Period 16 to 22/10/2024: Matching Organisation-Investor via Loan Application Processing (Stage 2)
… And much more!
Key Messages
• Autumn 2024 Humanitarian Relief Appeal
Needy People, Flora, Fauna, Funga, Communities and Organisations in Africa are Asking for Your Support!
This appeal is about supporting needy people, flora, fauna, funga, communities and organisations in Africa. It includes the following five selected projects:
1) Informal Cross-border Poor Traders’ Skills
2) Symmetry Poverty Reduction Projects
3) More Poverty Reduction for Women and Youth in Africa
4) Rescuing Children’s Education
5) Save Flora, Fauna and Funga Projects.
A brief summary of these projects can be found under the Main Development section of this post. The full project proposals of each project making this appeal are available should any of the potential donors or funders make a request.
Donors and funders can seize the opportunity provided by these projects and the giving season to directly and respectively donate or fund these projects.
A message about this appeal can also be passed on to a person who is in a position and willing to support. Many thanks to those who will be passing this message!
We understand that the world is still trying to find ways of coming out of multiple crises (food, energy, climate change, geo-economic crises, etc.). This struggle affects the ability of people to support good and deserving causes.
However, the effects of these crises are even stronger in places where there is a high level of poverty like in Africa. This is why we have launched this seasonal appeal to help not only to reduce poverty but also to save lives from these crises.
Therefore, we are inviting those who can, to donate £4 to create 3 benefits (1 benefit for humans, 1 benefit for other natural livings and 1 shared benefit between humans and nature) or any amount starting from £4 or more as you wish or can.
You can gift aid your donation as well as support these projects in a way that is the most suitable and related to your situation, status, circumstance, budget, capacity and willingness.
To donate, gift aid and support otherwise; please contact CENFACS.
• “A la une” (Autumn Leaves of Action for the Upkeep of the Nature in Existence) Campaign and Themed Activities – In Focus for Week Beginning 14/10/2024: Conserving Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis)
To compose the note relating to Conserving Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis), let us briefly explain the following:
σ What is Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis)?
σ The conservation status of Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis)
σ What can be done to Conserve Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis).
In addition, we shall provide the themed activity we have planned for this week. This themed activity is about the role of fish in the food chain.
• • What Is Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis)?
On the website ‘inaturalist.org’ (1), it is stated that
“Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis) or simply Treur barb is a species of cyprinid fish. It is endemic to northern Mpumalanga, South Africa”.
There is more that can be said about the definition of Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis). Because we are only giving the key message, we would like to limit ourselves to the above brief explanation of Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis).
• • What Is the Conservation Status of Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis)?
According to the assessment made in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species (2), Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis) is critically endangered under criteria B1 as (iii). In other words, Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis) is a fish species that is in danger of extinction if existing pressures on it continue and is likely to disappear if it is not offered adequate protection. Its situation relates to a crisis. Because of that, it needs conservation. What do we mean by conservation?
There are many ways of explaining conservation, let us refer to the explanation of Chris Park (3), which is:
“Conservation is the planned protection, maintenance, management, sustainable use, and restoration of natural resources and the environment, in order to secure their long-term survival” (p. 95)
There are two types of conservation: ex situ and in situ. This note is about in situ conservation, that is the conservation of Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis) in its natural habitat.
• • What One Can Do to Conserve Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis)
To conserve the Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis), there are actions to be taken. Amongst these actions are the following:
σ Protect and restore their habitat to help maintain their population
σ Control invasive species
σ Monitor and regulate fishing in the Blyde and Treur Rivers to prevent overfishing
σ Reduce existing pressures on Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis) like over-harvesting and habitat change.
The above actions are the few ones. There is more that can be done to Conserve Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis). To stay within the scope of this note, we can limit ourselves to the above-mentioned actions or steps to Conserve Treur River Barb (Enteromius treurensis).
• • Add-on Activity of This Week’s Campaign: A Focus Group on the Role of Fish in the Food Chain
The fish themed activity of this week is on working in a small group on the role of fish in the food chain. The group will contribute to an open discussion about the role that fishes play in the food chain.
Perhaps, the best way to introduce this discussion is to understand the expression food chain.
• • • What is food chain?
According to ‘bio.libretexts.org’ (4),
“In ecology, a food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass: primary producers, primary consumers, and higher-level consumers are used to describe ecosystem structure and dynamics”.
Knowing what food chain is, it is possible to find out the role that fishes play in the food chain. The results from literature about this role indicate that fish plays the following roles:
σ Primary consumers: some fishes feed on plants (phytoplankton and algae)
σ Secondary consumers: larger fishes prey on smaller fish and crustaceans
σ Tertiary consumers: top ocean predators, such as large sharks and whales, feed on other fish and marine organisms.
Those who may be interested in taking part in this focus group are invited to contact CENFACS.
Briefly speaking, the above is our second note of the “A la une” Campaign for this year.
To find out more about this second note and/or the entire “A la une” Campaign, please contact CENFACS.
• Autumn Matching Organisation-Investor via Farming Charitable Loan – Match Period 16 to 22/10/2024: Matching Organisation-Investor via Loan Application Processing (Stage 2)
Both African Poverty Relief Charity (APRC) and not-for-profit (n-f-p) farming investor (FI) have decided to move with the matching talks as they scored points each of them during Stage 1. They agreed to move to Stage 2 while finalising the little bits remaining from Stage 1 of the matching negotiations since these negotiations are a backward and forward process.
The second stage of this 4-week Autumn Matching Organisation-Investor via Farming Charitable Loan is about Matching African Poverty Relief Charity’s Loan Application Processing File with n-f-p Farming Investor’s Expectations from Application Processing. In this episode, we are going to delve into the potential agreement or disagreement on APRC’s plan to process loan applications/data and n-f-p FI’s view on application/data processing.
To summarise what is going to happen during this Stage 2, we have organised our notes around the following headings:
σ What Is a Loan Application Processing?
σ APRC’s Loan Application Processing File
σ N-f-p FI’s Approach to APRC’s Loan Application Processing File
σ The match or fit test.
Let us look at each of these headings.
• • What Is a Loan Application Processing?
It is a set activities that consists of verifying the documents submitted by potential borrowers via a completed application form furnished by a lender/creditor or their representative. It is a series of operations of treating raw data provided by prospective borrowers/debtors. The documents submitted include income statements, bank statements, tax returns, identification proofs, etc. These activities are about checking the authenticity and accuracy of these documents as well as conducting credit evaluation.
In the context of Stage 2 of our Autumn Matching Organisation-Investor via Farming Charitable Loan, loan application processing includes documentation verification and credit evaluation. The information about documentation verification and credit evaluation will make up APRC’s Loan Application Processing File.
• • APRC’s Loan Application Processing File
APRC’s Loan Application Processing File is a folder or box in which APRC keeps all the information provided by potential borrowers/debtors. If APRC uses computer or digital or cloud technology, loan application processing file will be an organised collection of data that is stored in the memory of a computer or online or in the cloud. The file can also contain loan application processing policies and procedures.
In this file, APRC needs to explain how it intends to process loan applications. Within this process, it has to specify how it is going to proceed with credit evaluation. The evaluation is about finding out the borrower’s creditworthiness. Credit evaluation is a process for APRC to determine whether or not to grant a loan to its members or applicants considering the level of risk involved. In this respect, APRC needs to indicate in its file if it intends to carry out Minimum Risk Assessment Criteria (MRAC) process. In other words, it may clarify if it has or will have MRAC tools and Loan Origination Software (LOS) as loan application processing tools.
• • N-f-p FI’s Approach to APRC’s Loan Application Processing File
N-f-p FI’s Approach to APRC’s Loan Application Processing File will be mostly about whether or not this file contains convincing elements to process a loan application. He/she will be keen to know how APRC will process applicants’ requests considering the contents of this file. He/she needs to be assured that APRC will put its attention to detail. There are many points or questions that he/she may raise and that need answer.
For example, he/she wants clarification on the matters below:
σ Will APRC use local credit bureaus to check or assess the creditworthiness of borrowers or will APRC use its own algorithm and scoring system?
σ N-f-p FI will check if APRC has credit department or unit to streamline the lending application process
σ Will APRC undertake loan application manually or automatically with automating routine?
σ If a borrower has missing information, what APRC will do.
σ N-f-p FI will want to know if APRC has or will have a loan information processing team to verify borrowers’ information
σ APRC’s lending criteria and standards and how potential borrowers will meet them
σ N-f-p FI would like to to find out if APRC has a system to eliminate high risk cases in the very beginning
σ N-f-p FI may want to be sure that APRC will use credit score factors such as credit repayment history, credit utilisation history, current loan portfolio, time period of credit lines, credit inquiries made
σ N-f-p FI will be keen in finding out if APRC will check other factors like negative cash flow, bounced cheques, loan defaults and negative customer feedback, etc.
To express their mutual interest in this Stage 2 of the matching talks, APRC and N-f-p FI can meet in person and negotiations will be facilitated with the support statements from both parties. Where in person meeting is difficult, online meeting can be arranged. At the end of their discussions, the final terms of Loan Application Processing Terms and Conditions are determined and mutually agreed upon.
There should be an agreement between APRC’s Loan Application Processing File and N-f-p FI’s Approach to APRC’s Loan Application Processing File. 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 farming investor’s enquiries and queries must be matched with APRCs’ lending application processing file. In other words, the information to be contained in APRCs’ lending application processing file must successfully respond to the enquiries and queries that n-f-p farming investor may raise about the micro-loan initiative and model of working with local poor people and communities in Africa, particularly the way data from these people and communities will be processed.
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 the questions from the investor/n-f-p FI and the answers from the investee/APRCs), the probability or chance of having an agreement at this second round of negotiations could be null or uncertain.
However, CENFACS can impact advise APRCs to improve the contents of its lending application or data processing file. CENFACS can as well guide n-f-p farming investors with impact to work out their expectations (or enquiries and queries) to a format that can be acceptable by potential APRCs. CENFACS’ impact advice for APRCs and guidance on impact investing for n-f-p farming investor, which are impartial, will help each of them (i.e., investee and investor) to make informed decisions and to reduce the likelihood of any significant losses or misunderstandings or mismatches.
The rule of the game is the more n-f-p farming investors are attracted by APRCs’ lending application or data processing file the better for APRCs. Likewise, the more APRCs can successfully respond to n-f-p farming investors’ level of enquiries and queries the better for investors. In this respect, the matching game needs to be a win-win one to benefit both players (i.e., organisation and investor).
The above is the second stage of the Autumn Matching Organisation-Investor via Farming Charitable Loan.
Those potential organisations seeking investment to set up a farming charitable loan project to lift their members out of poverty via giving micro-loans to them and n-f-p farming investors looking for organisations that are interested in their investments, 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.
For any queries and/or enquiries about this second stage of Matching Organisation-Investor via Farming Charitable Loan and/or the programme itself, please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• Online Micro-volunteering Activities with CENFACS
• Triple Value Initiatives for Santa: Raising Funds while Playing, Running and Voting for Poverty Reduction over the Long Festive Period
• CENFACS’ be.africa Forum e-discusses Ways of Improving Community-based Financial Systems to Further Reduce Poverty in Africa
• Online Micro-volunteering Activities with CENFACS
As well as supporting CENFACS and its noble and beautiful causes with donations made without directly giving cash, people can add or think of alternative ways of involving with CENFACS. For example, they can micro-volunteer with us either online or offline or both.
To enable our readers and those who may be interested in micro-volunteering with us to understand what we are talking, let us explain the following jargons: micro-volunteering, smart tasks, smart communications tools and smart poverty relief.
• • What Is Micro-volunteering with CENFACS?
It is about undertaking or completing small tasks, that can be online or offline or both, to make up one of our main projects. While we recognise the importance of both online and offline tasks in our volunteering scheme (All in Development Volunteers), our focus on micro-volunteering in the context of this post will be on the online part of it.
• • Online Micro-volunteering Doing Small Smart Tasks
Small tasks are micro-actions. From what Anna Patton said (5), these tasks need to be easy, no-commitment, cost-free, to take less than 30 minutes to complete, little or no formal agreement needed before a volunteer can get started, and no expectation that the volunteer will return, no long-term commitment for the volunteer.
These tasks could be smart, that is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely; as well as capable of generating and increasing support towards CENFACS’ good and deserving causes, especially at the time of the enduring cost-of-living crisis. These tasks can contribute to smart poverty relief.
The above table (table no.1) briefly provides a summary of these tasks. For those who would like to dive into online micro-volunteering doing small smart tasks, they can contact CENFACS’ All in Development Volunteers Scheme.
• • Online Micro-volunteering Done via Smart Communication Tools
It is the use of internet connected devices or tools (such as smart phones, tablets, video calling devices, notebooks, laptops, cameras, drones, Artificial Intelligence enabled tools, etc.) to re-engage with CENFACS audience and supporters as well as to recruit new supporters.
Smart communication tools include as well other devices designed to run or complete actions carried out by smart phones, tablets, notebooks, etc. These extra tools could be wireless printers, broad bands, messenger apps and so on.
Additionally, online micro-volunteering by using distance working and online technologies in our campaigns can help us to reach out to our supporters and Africa-based Organisations.
We understand that not every volunteer can afford to have them. This is why we often ask support with smart communication tools so that our volunteers (All in Development Volunteers) could be able to micro-volunteer smarter and deliver smart poverty relief with impact.
• • Online Micro-volunteering to Achieve Smart Poverty Relief
This additional way of working and engaging with our audience and supporters via online micro-volunteering action has brought some opportunities and benefits. Amongst these opportunities or openings is that of creating smart relief, of reducing poverty symptoms for temporary relief which could lead to permanent relief.
In this respect, smart poverty relief is about prioritising resources and making sure that CENFACS’ poverty reduction system is helping to meet the needs of those in need as we undertake online micro-volunteering activities.
In other words, when volunteers carry out micro-actions, they are not doing them for the sake of entertaining themselves or just passing their time with and for CENFACS.
Through their small online tasks, they are bringing their contribution, however little it can be, to the larger project or programme or picture of CENFACS. By adding up their small pieces of work/relief, one can get the sum of poverty relief, a big poverty relief. Online micro-volunteering could be smart when it contributes to the big picture of poverty reduction.
To enable us to continue our voluntary work, we are asking to those who can, both individuals and organisations, to support us with smart communication tools to enhance our online micro-volunteering action.
To support CENFACS with Smart Communication Tools to micro-volunteer doing Smart Tasks to deliver Smart Poverty Relief, please contact CENFACS.
• Triple Value Initiatives for Santa: Raising Funds while Playing, Running and Voting for Poverty Reduction over the Long Festive Period
You can help CENFACS raise life-saving funds it needs for its noble and beautiful causes by making participants or interested parties to Triple Value Initiatives (or All-year Round Projects) to dress like Santa.
Participants and vested parties can then donate or sponsor your Triple Value Initiatives of Playing, Running and Voting for poverty reduction.
The income to be raised on these occasions can be donated to CENFACS. It will help to support those in most need so that they can navigate their way out of poverty and hardships.
However, to raise funds via Triple Value Initiatives for Santa, one needs to first discuss the matter, their plan/idea with CENFACS. Together with them, we can better plan their/our fundraising drive and help deliver it in a smooth and hassle-free way while following the rules of the game.
To raise funds for Triple Value Initiatives for Santa to help CENFACS and its noble and beautiful causes of poverty reduction and sustainable development, please contact CENFACS.
Just remember, do not forget to record and report your scores, results and fixtures about your Triple Value Initiatives (or All year-round Projects). You can share them with us to feature the 2024 State of Play, Run and Vote.
At the end of the process of All year-round Projects and by the end of the year, one should be ready to announce the 2024 Action-Results for either of the project: Run or Play or Vote.
The final Action-Results will consist of finding out and revealing the following for this year:
√ The Best African Countries of 2024 which would have best reduced poverty
√ The Best African Global Games Runners of 2024
√ The Best African Development and Poverty Relief Managers of 2024.
If you have not yet thought about this finding or revelation, please start thinking right now and have your say about it by the 23rd of December 2024!
• CENFACS’ be.africa Forum e-discusses Ways of Improving Community-based Financial Systems to Further Reduce Poverty in Africa
In Africa, many people would prefer to use the services of community-based financial systems instead of formal banking systems. Often, these services are provided by community-based financial organisations.
Community-based financial systems or trust-based transactions or even community-based savings groups play a vital role in mobilising financial resources between members of the same group or system. These community-based infrastructures, which rely on social bonds and mutual trust, exist for hundred years. It is possible to improve their results so that they can increase their contribution to poverty reduction. To improve their contributions, it is better to understand them. Their understanding could be done through organisations that run them.
• • What Is a Community-based financial organisation (CBFO)?
According to the International Fund for Agriculture Development (6),
“The term CBFO covers a wide variety of entities that provide a range of financial products and services. CBFOs typically operate in remote areas that lack access to the formal financial services, and often without government regulation and oversight”.
The International Fund for Agriculture Development also provides three types of CBFO, which are:
Ο small community-based, time-bound savings groups
Ο small community-based accumulating savings groups
Ο large community-based cooperative groups.
The World Economic Forum (7) explains that these community-based savings groups rely on social bonds and mutual trust rather than formal contracts. They also rely on informal economies where trust-based transactions are more common than formal banking as they align with local realities and specifically cater for local needs and cultural practices.
Examples of these community-based financial structures include Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) like ‘esusu’ in Nigeria or ‘stokvels’ in South Africa or ‘clama’ in Kenya.
They can be improved to increase their results in poverty reduction in Africa. Our e-discussion is about ways of improving these community-based financial infrastructures so that they can pull more people out of poverty in Africa.
Given their popularity amongst local people compared to formal banking, how can one help improve community-based financial systems so that they can lift more people out of poverty in Africa?
The above question is what we are trying to answer to this week’s discussion. CENFACS would like to know your answer. If you have answer or argument to make about this question, please do not hesitate to let CENFACS know.
Those who may be interested in this discussion can join in and or contribute by contacting CENFACS’ be.Africa, which is a forum for discussion on matters of poverty reduction and sustainable development in Africa and which acts on behalf of its members in making proposals or ideas for actions for a better Africa.
To communicate with CENFACS regarding this discussion, please use our usual contact details on this website.
Message in French (Message en français)
• Le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS discute en ligne sur les moyens d’améliorer les systèmes financiers communautaires pour réduire davantage la pauvreté en Afrique
En Afrique, beaucoup de gens préféreraient utiliser les services des systèmes financiers communautaires plutôt que des systèmes bancaires formels. Souvent, ces services sont fournis par des organisations financières communautaires.
Les systèmes financiers communautaires ou les transactions basées sur la fiducie ou même les groupes d’épargne communautaires jouent un rôle essentiel dans la mobilisation des ressources financières entre les membres d’un même groupe ou système. Ces infrastructures communautaires, qui reposent sur le lien social et la confiance mutuelle, existent depuis cent ans. Il est possible d’améliorer leurs résultats afin qu’elles puissent accroître leur contribution à la réduction de la pauvreté. Pour améliorer leurs contributions, il est préférable de les comprendre. Leur compréhension pourrait se faire par le biais d’organisations qui les gèrent.
• • Qu’est-ce qu’une organisation financière communautaire (OFC)?
Selon le Fonds International de Développement Agricole (6),
«Le terme OFC couvre une grande variété d’entités qui fournissent une gamme de produits et de services financiers. Les OFC opèrent généralement dans des zones reculées qui n’ont pas accès aux services financiers formels, et souvent sans réglementation ni surveillance gouvernementales».
Le Fonds International de Développement Agricole offre également trois types de OFC, à savoir:
σ petits groupes d’épargne communautaires assortis d’un budget limité dans le temps
σ petits groupes communautaires d’épargne accumulatrice
σ grands groupes coopératifs communautaires.
Le Forum Économique Mondial (7) explique que ces groupes d’épargne communautaires s’appuient sur les liens sociaux et la confiance mutuelle plutôt que sur des contrats formels. Ils s’appuient également sur des économies informelles où les transactions basées sur la confiance sont plus courantes que les banques formelles, car elles s’alignent sur les réalités locales et répondent spécifiquement aux besoins locaux et aux pratiques culturelles.
Parmi ces structures financières communautaires, citons les associations tournantes d’épargne et de crédit (connues par l’appelation ROSCA) comme «esusu» au Nigeria ou «stokvels» en Afrique du Sud ou «clama» au Kenya.
Ces systèmes financiers peuvent être améliorés pour accroître leurs résultats de réduction de la pauvreté en Afrique. Notre discussion en ligne porte sur les moyens d’améliorer ces infrastructures financières communautaires afin qu’elles puissent sortir davantage de personnes de la pauvreté en Afrique.
Compte tenu de leur popularité parmi les populations locales par rapport aux banques formelles, comment peut-on aider à améliorer les systèmes financiers communautaires afin qu’ils puissent sortir davantage de personnes de la pauvreté en Afrique?
La question ci-dessus est ce à quoi nous essayons de répondre à la discussion de cette semaine. Le CENFACS aimerait connaître votre réponse. Si vous avez une réponse ou un argument à faire valoir à cette question, n’hésitez pas à le faire savoir au CENFACS.
Ceux ou celles qui pourraient être intéressé(e)s par cette discussion peuvent se joindre à cette discussion et/ou y contribuer en contactant le me.Afrique duCENFACS (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 communiquer avec le CENFACS au sujet de cette discussion, veuillez utiliser nos coordonnées habituelles sur ce site Web.
Main Development
• Autumn 2024 Humanitarian Relief Appeal
Needy People, Flora, Fauna, Funga, Communities and Organisations in Africa are Asking for your Support!
The following items summarise their appeal:
∝ The data that justify the need to help
∝ The projects
∝ The request
∝ The beneficiaries
∝ The asks
∝ What your donation can achieve
∝ How to send your support.
Let us unpack each of these items.
• • The data that justify the need to help
The data (or information in words and numbers) that tell us there is a humanitarian need to support are given in the following examples – data from individuals and multilateral agencies working on poverty matter.
Example 1
In the the report “Cross-border is our livelihood. It is our job”, ‘amnesty.org’ (8) notes that
“Informal cross border trade (ICBT), valued at USD 17.6 billion in 2018 and constituting 30-40% of total trade in Southern Africa, is predominantly led by women”.
According to the ‘amnesty.org’, the report sheds light on human rights violations against women in ICBT in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Example 2
Writing on inequality, the United Nations Development Programme (9) in its Human Development Report 2023-2024 provides the following information:
a) Population living below monetary poverty line (at PPP $2.15 a day) between 2011-2021 was 37.4% in Sub-Saharan Africa (p. 299)
b) Inequality in income was 39.4% in 2022 in Sub-Saharan Africa (p. 286)
c) Gender inequality index in terms of labour force participation rate (% ages 15 and older) was 63.9 for female and 76.4 for male in 2022 in Sub-Saharan Africa (p. 296).
Example 3
Studying the situation of young people in Africa, ‘blogs.lse.ac.uk’ (10) explains that
“Over 80 million young Africans live in extreme poverty, this is more than three-quarters of the global youth population who live in such conditions… Many also experience a critical shortage of urban housing, forcing large numbers to live in informal settlements without access to basic services such as clean water and sanitation”.
Example 4
Reporting on the disproportionate impacts of the escalating conflict for Sudanese women and girls, ‘unwomen.org’ (11) notices that
“The number of people in need of gender-based violence related services has increased by 100 percent since the beginning of the crisis, up to 6.7 million by December 2023, and this figure is estimated to be even higher today”.
Example 5
Reporting on educational situation in Africa, ‘reliefweb.int’ (12) writes on the highlight made by the Norwegian Refugee Council on the International Day to Protect Education from Attack that
“In West and Central Africa, more than 14,000 schools have been forced to close due to violence and insecurity as of June 2024, impacting learning of hundreds of thousands of children across the region”.
The ‘reliefweb.int’ adds that
“Across the Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso and Mali as well as Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, school closures affected millions of children in 2023 and continue to do so this year”.
Example 6
Analysing the kinds of threats and dangers that species face in Africa, ‘the International Fund for Agriculture Development’ (13) listed in February 2024 twenty of the most endangered animals and wildlife in Africa, which are
Black Rhinos, Gorillas, Elephants, Atlantic humpback dolphin, Geometric tortoise, Addax, African wild donkey, Golden bamboo lemur, Seychelles sheath-tailed bat, Riverine rabbit, São Tomé grosbeak, White-winged flufftail, Madagascar pochard, Newton’s fiscal, Bizarre-nosed chameleon, Krokosna squeaking frog, Liben lark, Table Mountain ghost frog, Long-billed forest warbler, and Bale Mountains tree frog.
Likewise, in its State of the World’s Plants and Fungi report, ‘kew.org’ (14) provides five key extinction risks facing the world’s plants and fungi, which are as follows:
extinction of three in four unknown plant species; the detrimental impacts of climate change on fungi; plants are extinct 500 times faster than before humans existed; known fungi species have the risk of extinction for less than 1%; and nearly half of flowering plant species are under threat.
In addition, the State of the World’s Migratory Species jointly produced by UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (15) in February 2024 explained the deteriorating status of migratory species that are categorised as critically endangered and endangered. It raised the need to prevent this extinction to happen.
What do the above-mentioned examples, pieces of information and facts tell us? They indicate and help draw the conclusion below.
Whether it is about informal cross border trade or inequality between the two sexes or the impacts of violence on women and girls or youth conditions or attack on education, the above data just highlight the underlying problem of extreme poverty in Africa.
One part of the above-mentioned figures and facts also points out the continuing threats to wildlife and the lack of skills in some situations to transition out of poverty and hardships.
Furthermore, as the global cost-of-living crisis continues the figures about poverty and threats to the wildlife could be different; meaning that poor people, children, women, flora, fauna and funga could be in a worse scenario case or situation in which humanitarian relief could be part of the response. Data-based solutions to poverty induced by the cost-of-living crisis can only help this situation, especially in the long term.
These above data from multilateral agencies as well as those from individual researchers finally highlight CENFACS‘ findings and the reality on the ground in Africa in the area of operation of CENFACS. There is need out there that deservingly requires support that the locals are requesting to address existing humanitarian needs, especially at this time of the difficult global economic situation exacerbated by the effects of geo-economic and insecurity crises.
• • The projects
Five projects to help reduce poverty and meet the needs of the local people, animals, plants, fungi and organisations this Autumn and beyond
1) Informal Cross-border Poor Traders’ Skills Project (Learning and Skills Development Project)
This is a project that helps to reduce poverty linked to poor or incomplete skills, knowledge, information and capacities amongst those running income-generating activities through cross-borders in Africa. The project is designed to support growth and decent way of generating income for those poor people trading between borders of African countries in order to reduce poverty.
The project is not only about specialising in a particular way of generating income. It is also or even more about carrying out structural transformation in the way poor traders and small producers are trying to respectively trade and produce. The project will help in the development of skills for cross-border trade and trade diversification. The skills are the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to better trade and diversify.
2) Save Flora, Fauna and Funga Projects (Environmental Projects)
These are wildlife preservation, conservation and protection initiatives which help to advance justice and equity for flora, fauna and funga, and which include three areas of action:
a) Life-saving actions against new forms of exploitation and trafficking of animal, bird and plant species
b) Life-saving action against the cost-of-living crisis on flora and fauna
c) Life-saving actions to reduce the impacts of climate change on fungi.
The first action is an action to protect animal and bird species in Africa from new forms of wildlife exploitation and trafficking, including kidnapping of animals from their natural sanctuary.
For example, in North-Kivu (the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Cong0), there are armed groups that set up their bases in the vicinity of parks like the park Virunga, which is sanctuary of very rare mountain gorillas. These groups threatened protected ecosystems by exploiting natural resources (such as woods and animals) via poaching, illegal fishing, smuggling, kidnappings of animals, etc. Specimen and trophies from elephant ivory, charcoal and illicit fishing are traded by these groups to finance their supply of arms and to engage in armed conflicts.
According to the Director of Parks, Estates and Reserves of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (16),
“The park Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo has lost 50% of its animal population due to the rebellion in North-Kivu province”.
The second action is about making sure that, plant and animal species regain, restore, rebuild and thrive their lives while humans are trying to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. In other words, the action is about to ensure that the cost-of-living crisis does not lead to flora and fauna crises since we depend on them in order to come out of the cost-of-living crisis.
The third action is about lowering the risk of extinction facing fungi.
3) Symmetry Poverty Reduction Projects (Equality Projects)
Symmetry Poverty Reduction Projects can be of various kinds within CENFACS. The first wave or generation of symmetry projects was to address the unfair distributional effects of the coronavirus. This first wave or generation of Symmetry Poverty Reduction Projects was implemented during the period of the coronavirus (from Autumn 2019 to Autumn 2021).
The second wave or generation of Symmetry Poverty Reduction Projects was about projects of working with local poor people in parts of Africa where there has been uneven impact of the cost-of-living crisis and poverty reduction in order to establish equal right and address the historical roots and causes of this type of asymmetry or inequality in a sustainable way.
This Autumn’s Symmetry Projects, which are the continuation of the previous Autumn’s Symmetry Projects, are sustainable development initiatives aiming at reducing the difference in the distributional effects of conflict and violence that have been asymmetrical or uneven. The disproportional impacts of conflict for women and girls in the cases of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as somewhere else in Africa are part of Symmetry Projects. In those cases, women and girls continue to be disproportionately impacted by the lack of safe, easily accessible, and affordable water, sanitation, and hygiene as noted by the ‘unwomen.org’ (op. cit.)
4) More Poverty Reduction for Women and Youth in Africa (Empowerment Project)
Many studies found that the number of women and youth in poverty in Africa is high. Yet, youth makes more than 60% of the population in Africa and Africa’s development depends on the development of women in Africa. The International Labour Organisation (17) notes that youth unemployment rate was 8.9% (p. 86) while women unemployment rate was 9.7% (p. 86) in 2023 in Sub-Saharan Africa. Also, women and youth make up the large percentage in the informal economy in Africa.
More Poverty Reduction for Women and Youth in Africa tries to address the poverty of the historically excluded (here women and youths) from the formal economy for various reasons (be it income or gender or customs or age or level of financial literacy and numeracy or tribe, etc.). The project will try to more reduce poverty and discrimination linked to exclusion towards the contribution that women and young people, particularly young girls, are making or can make in their own development as well as the development process in Africa.
5) Rescuing Children’s Education (Educational Hardship Reduction Project)
There are two aspects in this project which are maintaining school momentum in places where there is no crisis and rescuing education in crises-stricken places.
a) Maintaining school momentum
One thing is for a child to go back to school; another thing is for the same child to stay in the school/educational system. Rescuing Children’s Education Project is an educational support to poor children facing poverty barriers to go back to schools, to stay in the school system and cope with the pressure of the educational requirements.
To maintain school momentum, the project will help these children to keep school engagement process, to meet their educational goal setting, to be motivated toward learning, to improve their schooling habits, to get organisational tools they need for their schooling and maintain excitement during the school year.
b) Educational rescue or Protection of children’s education from attack
This second aspect is about rescuing the education of children whose curriculum has been disrupted because of the consequences of conflicts and natural disasters.
To rescue education for children victims of conflicts and natural disasters, support can be given to help them learn and engage with school by distance if their school is closed because of the consequences of wars and / or natural disasters. For those children where schools have been reopen after conflicts and natural disasters, they need support too.
In total, 5 projects to donate £4 to create 3 benefits as you wish per project
Note: Further details about the above projects are available on request from CENFACS.
• • The request
The beneficiaries of the above projects are local poor people (children), flora, fauna and funga under threat as well as Africa-based Organisations that CENFACS works with to help reduce the following types of poverty and hardships:
• Poor or lack of basic infrastructures (such as safe drinking water collection points, medical and health centres, toilets and washing essentials, places to get training and basic education, online necessary equipment, lack of personal protective equipment to stop the spread of diseases, etc.) to secure safe drinking water, to educate children, to sanitise health and access primary health care, etc.
• Lack of animal protection and care, threats to extinction or killings, trafficking and poaching of endangered animals (like the elephants, gorillas, rhinoceros, etc.), plant species (such as maize, potato, bean, squash, chilli pepper, vanilla, avocado, husk tomato and cotton crops), bird species (e.g., African Grey Parrots, Congo Peafowl, African Green Broadhill, etc.), fish species (like African Wedge Fish, Treur River Barb, Bagrus Meridionalis, Sandfish, etc.) and fungi species (e.g., mushrooms, moulds, mildews, and yeasts)
• Wildlife crime through illegal harvest of and trade in wildlife and forest products as well as derived products
• Lack of skills for trade and for income diversification, income poverty and dehumanising treatment afflicted to poor particularly women, young girls and children
• Asymmetrical economic effects of the cost-of-living crisis whereby those who are poor do not have the same sort of support than others to cope with the mounting or crippling effects of the cost-of-living crisis as well as the disproportionate impacts of conflicts on women and girls
• lack of means for women and youths to transition out of poverty; yet women and youths are great asset for Africa’s sustainable development
• Absence of support for informal cross border traders and workers (women and youth are amongst them)
• Shortage of income and or enough earnings by poor families to send their children back to school and/or for these children to keep school momentum
• No supply of support in places where school infrastructures and educational premises have been destroyed by wars and natural events.
• • The beneficiaries
This Autumn 2024 humanitarian relief appeal will help…
√ The real and direct beneficiaries and end users who are poor people (amongst them the youth, young girls and children)
√ The endangered animal, bird, plant and fungus species
√ The indirect beneficiaries made of African organisations based in Africa and working on the issues/causes of these poor people and species.
• • The asks
The above needy people, flora, fauna, funga, communities and organisations need your support.
CENFACS is appealing to you to donate £4 to create 3 benefits (1 benefit for humans; 1 benefit for animals, birds and plants; and 1 shared benefit for both humans and nature) as you wish to achieve penultimate relief. Donating for shared benefit will help improve human-nature relationships while avoiding human-wildlife conflicts.
• • What your donation can achieve
If you donate £4 to create 3 benefits, we can anticipate the following use and relief impacts that these amounts can help
⇒ To implement Skills for Informal Cross-border Poor Traders by…
√ identifying gaps in trade capability and enhancing beneficiaries’ knowledge and application skills to better trade as well as strengthening advocacy and bargaining power for supportive environment for these poor traders
√ creating a shift toward a more varied structure of beneficiaries’ income generation drive and production to make ends meet.
For example, £4 can help provide a tablet or phone to help beneficiaries run their income-generating activities, acquire high street digital trade skills, learn cross-border legislation and increase their voices in poverty reduction issues.
⇒ To deliver Save Flora, Fauna and Funga projects by…
√ running wildlife protection awareness campaign to address illicit trafficking in wildlife and to keep advocacy on wild animals’, birds’, fishes’, plants’ and fungi’s rights and welfare
√ buying or developing software or apps on protection and care of animal, bird, fish, plant and fungus species in Africa.
For example, £4 can help rescue animals from their kidnappers and rehabilitate rescued animals (e.g., African Grey Parrots) at a rescued animal rehabilitation centre.
⇒ To execute Symmetry Poverty Reduction Projects by…
√ running online and virtual equality workshops on the reduction of asymmetrical adverse effects of the cost-of-living crisis between people and ethnic groups
√ training people to tackle inequalities of poverty reduction or treatment induced by the cost-of-living crisis within their communities.
For example, £4 can help a poor family to access clean energy to prepare a meal while reducing the uneven distributional consequences of the cost-of-living crisis.
⇒ To further reduce poverty amongst women and youth in Africa by…
√ helping the unbanked women and youths to access the documentation required to open a financial account and build their financial health
√ supporting African voluntary organisations to advocate for further support for women and youths as well as help deploy empowerment services and products towards them.
For example, £4 can help pay for childcare and other care services so that young girls can study and engage in the financial sector in Africa in a gender-aware and inclusive way.
⇒ To realise back-to-school support, maintain school momentum and rescue needy children’s education by…
√ supporting the recovery of learning losses, teacher training and extra health service for the children traumatised by the effects of conflicts and natural disasters on their education and well-being
√ purchasing school e-books and e-materials through African voluntary organisations to help educationally needy children to add distance learning opportunities to their education in order to mitigate the adverse effects of the cost-of-living crisis on children’s learning and abilities.
For example, £4 can enable poor families to buy organisational tools and to access motivational programmes for children to stay engaged with the schooling process and educational system.
To realise a total of 5 lasting benefits, it may require a donation of £10 to £20 or even more.
To smooth the process of supporting the above-mentioned beneficiaries, CENFACS is ready to post to you and or to any other potential supporters the project proposals or an information pack about them for consideration to support. Likewise, CENFACS is ready to talk to you or to potential funders about them if they want us to do so.
To donate, gift aid and or support differently, please contact CENFACS.
• • How to send you support
You can donate
* over phone
* via email
* through text
* by filling the contact form on this website.
On receipt of your intent to donate or donation, CENFACS will contact you. However, should you wish your support to remain anonymous; we will respect your wish.
We look forward to your support with helpful difference for the Poor People, Organisations and Wildlife Species in Africa.
Thank you in anticipation for your willingness to give and help change the lives of these poor people, organisations and wild species.
_________
• References
(1) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/549746-Enteromius-treurensis (accessed in October 2024)
(2) https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/2572/100159826 (accessed in October 2024)
(3) Park, C., (2011), Oxford Dictionary of Environment and Conservation, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York
(4) https://bio.libretexts.org/courses/Lumen_Learning/Fundamentals_of_Biology_/_(Lumen)/18%3A_Module_15_Ecology_and_the_Environment/18.20%3A_Food_Chains_and_Food_Webs (accessed in October 2024)
(5) Patton, A., 2021, Micro-volunteering, Making a Difference in Minutes, (Originally published Dec. 2017) at https://www.missionbox.com/article/183/micro-volunteering-making-a-difference-in-minutes (accessed October 2023)
(6) https://www.ifad.org/documents/d/new-ifad.org/community-based-financial-organisations.pdf (accessed in October 2024)
(7) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/10/financial-inclusion-african-financing-models/ (accessed in October 2024)
(8) https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr03/7792/2024/en/ (accessed in October 2024)
(9) https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/document/global-report-document/hdr2023-2024reporten.pdf (accessed in October 2024)
(10) https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2024/10/03/youth-and-women-are-shaping-africa-future/ (accessed in October 2024)
(11) https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2024/09/sudan-humanitarian-crisis-has-catastrophic-impact-for-women-and-girls-with-two-fold-increase-of-gender-based-violence (accessed in October 2024)
(12) https://www.reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/west-and-central-africa-alarming-rise-school-closures (accessed in October 2024)
(13) https://www.ifaw.org/international/journal/20-most-endangered-animals-wildlife-africa (accessed in October 2024)
(14) https://www.kew.org/science/state-of-the-world’s-plants-and-fungi (accessed in October 2023)
(15) UNEP-WCMC (2024), State of the World’s Migratory Species. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, United Kingdom
(16) https://actualite.cd/2024/10/15/rdc-le-parc-des-virunga-perdu-plus-de-50-de-la-population-animale-suite-aux-activities-du (accessed in October 2024)
(17) International Labour Organisation (2024), Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024: Decent Work, Brighter Futures, Geneva: International Labour Office, 2024@ILO
_________
• 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.
