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India
has been a major training ground for many developing countries. African
High Commissioner Prof. Mike Obquaye of Ghana, on completion of his first
year in India, unlocks his mindscreen to share where India and Africa
can cooperate to mutual benefit, and in the process assist Africa out
of the strangulation of colonialization and globalisation.
THE TRADITIONAL economic relationship between Africa and the Western nations
has brought us nothing but poverty, misery and disease. From the genesis
of colonization to this period of globalisation, Africa has been condemned
to producers of raw material and buyers of finished products, with the
prices in each case being determined by the colonial masters. This has
been the quintessence of the centre-periphery syndrome, which continues
to plague our economies.
In recent times, Africa has been subjected to IMF programmes and Economic
Recovery programmes, which have been tailored in the West and imposed
upon us. Many nations have ended up spending more that half of their foreign
earnings servicing international debts. Such a patient cannot recover
from her economic cancer but be doomed to death. Under these programmes,
social services are cut to the stagnation of our people; our markets are
over-liberalised leading to the stagnation of local industries; unemployment
has become the order of the day. Whereas farmers are subsidized all over
the Western world including America, in Africa, the IMF forbids this.
There is no programme for a fundamental change of the economy into one
different from mere producers of raw material and the future is bleak
in diverse ways. In short, the social cost of adjustment is colossal and
we are dependent on European systems, methods, techniques, plans, programmes
and applications, which are not conducive to Africa.
After one year's stay in India, I wish to make this presentation very
practical and share with you, areas where I am of the view that certain
practical co-operation can take place between Africa and India to our
mutual benefit and to assist Africa out of the strangulation of colonization
and globalisation.
Training and Assistance
Train and assist women in particular, and people generally to establish
and engage in self-employment in all forms including: farming, food preservation/storage/processing
and marketing, including tomato paste etc.; art and craft; bakery; essential
oil preparation/extraction; handicrafts; fibre products, mats, rugs etc.;
wood works including furniture; clay and ceramic works; light industry
including welding, bolts and nuts manufacture, exercise books preparation,
cotton wool, leather products, paper recycling, seed grinding, egg tray
manufacture, disposable gloves and syringes, simple tools, toilet soap
etc.; waste management generally including human waste; industrial activities
by the application of recycling processes; promotion and practice of manufacturing
processes through the application of simple machines and cottage industry
applications.
Agriculture
Recognizing that agriculture is the base of every development, agricultural
activities will lead to leather products, handicrafts, textile products,
agro - products, food processing/preservation etc.
Micro Finance and Networking
Promote a foundation for micro credit to the highest possible level to
assist small-scale business/industries; facilitate accelerated and orderly
growth of the micro finance sector; operate as wholesaler for micro entrepreneurial
ventures; develop a network of service providers for the enhancement of
small-scale endeavours; advocate appropriate policies, regulations and
platforms for the exchange of ideas to assist in public policy formulation
from the village, town, district to the national level.
Cottage Applications
Stimulate self-employment through cottage industries among Africans and
African womanhood in particular, with the motto: "Small is beautiful".
Help reduce poverty among Africans generally and women in particular and
move them towards reasonable self-generated affluence, knowing that poverty
abounds in a nation where a little over half of the population are women
and where the poverty scale is heavily weighted among women. Concentrate
on the rural community in the full knowledge that the rural-urban disparity
has also a high element of gender construct.
Education and Welfare
Engage in education and welfare activities to boost women and the girl
child. In this connection, the Indo-African programme will assist in the
realization of similar aims on the national and international levels with
the African rural female in focus. These include accessing funds globally,
including the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)
- which has established National/Regional Technology Diffusion and Demonstration
Centres in other parts of the world. Other areas of seeking cooperation
include H.M. Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee Millennium Development
Commonwealth Education Fund (CEF) whereby every child in the Commonwealth
completes a primary education by 2015. Others are Action Aid, Oxfam and
Save the Children who will jointly administer the CEF. Comic Relief International
Fund and DIFID who are operating on similar lines will be sought as partners.
Provide basic formal education and vocational education, which even at
its barest minimum will be inextricably linked with cottage industry training
for short-term self-employment
Environment
Assist rural women to appreciate the environmental issues of our time.
Issues will include environmental protection, alternative sources of energy
to non-renewables such as firewood. Areas of interest include lessons
on modern applications such simple solar cooking schemes, wrath of nature,
water use, the secrets of desertification etc.
Economic Assistance
Generate and source finance and machinery to assist women in various areas
and provide for: project identification, pre-feasibility and feasibility
studies, preparation of project report, selection and supply of seeds/plants
and simple tools/equipment, training and installation of simple equipment
where applicable assistance to women envisages:
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Hire purchase schemes;
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Creation of sound enterpreneural base;
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Equipment learning;
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Finance;
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Improved seeds/fertilizers; and,
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The
ultimate aim include the establishment of a Women's Bank to assist women
in raising loans for economic activities in various spheres.
Procedure for Assistance
The procedures which I have studied in India which will be of relevant
application in Africa involves:
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Submission of Application forms;
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Preliminary Appraisal and unit
inspection at the micro level;
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Approval;
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Signing of Agreements; and,
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Provision of facility.
Raw Material Assistance:
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By the system of regular flow of inputs, small units need not block
their funds in storing raw material in bulk.
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Facilitate the availability
of raw materials on "Off the shelf basis".
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Provide a means of import
of scarce materials.
Marketing
Marketing is one of the biggest problems of small-scale entrepreneurs.
A local organization acts as a facilitator to promote cottage/small scale
industry. It will be a means of assisting small scalers to bear the onslaughts
of the open economy, which includes shoddy foreign products, which find
their way easily to established retail outlets. Our strategies are to:
- Educate government institutions and individuals to buy products of Small
Scale Entrepreneurs (SSEs);
- Assist SSEs to deliver on schedule and meet targets;
- Provide diversified marketing support on the whole to this potentially
vibrant sector of the economy to reach the multidimensional and multi-locational
markets folk in the African nation and abroad;
- Give publicity to SSEs while helping to establish quality products for
the sector; and,
- Give integrated marketing support in which bills pertaining to supplies
made by SSEs to eligible purchases are discounted by a local NGO up to
a specified limit. The scheme is to mitigate the problem of delayed payment
of buyers against supplies made by small-scale units.
Social
On the Social plane India can help us establish community groups at the
local level which will work to help provide basic necessities of life
including food, shelter, water and clothing for women at affordable cost
as a step towards releasing them from the pangs of poverty and preparing/training
them for some simple form of self employment. The Health of women is crucial
and we seek to prevent unwanted pregnancies, AID etc.
Property Rights of Women
Property rights are crucial. India has moved a long way from the problems
it faced in the 1960s. There are valid programmes to assist women to acquire
land and tools for their initiatives. Apart from providing savings and
credit services to poor women, sustainability of female initiatives will
be taken care of through legal assistance, small land ownership and appropriate
contracts in all business undertakings. The safety, peace and rights of
women are prerequisite to their socio-economic development
Information Technology
Information Technology plays a vital role. The world is exploding with
information in areas of micro-level business of which small-scale business
people in Africa are not aware. Nevertheless information technology is
a key element in the field of technology transfer. But access to appropriate
technology at the right time is crucial. Timely availability of relevant
information expedites the process of simple technology acquisition, up-gradation,
diversification or setting up of new ventures.
With Indian assistance we should be addressing the wide information gap
on available technologies that adversely affects the small-scale enterprise
in the developing world by subscribing to Internet and other connections
including the Technology Bureau for Small-Scale Enterprise (TBSE) network
on the internet- www.techsmal.com and other global sources.
This will bridge the information gap and provide information on technology
and options at the doorstep of the small enterprise hitherto unknown in
Africa - with women as the path finders through to network with similar
institutions/organizations home and abroad for the promotion of its aims
and objectives.
Community Training and Information Centres (CTICs) with women as the focal
point will be established to assist in computer literacy and application,
particularly in small towns and villages.
Reaching the Unreached
We aim at reaching the Unreached through local NGOs as in India and provide
for rehabilitation of disabled women and their gainful employment in all
simple possible ways, thus harnessing their potential for national development
while lifting their humanity to acceptable levels.
Moderate Cost Housing
Our local organizations, as in India, should vigorously participate in
the search for moderate-cost housing. In this connection, new building
techniques developed in other parts of the world will be introduced to
improve upon domestic construction in terms of efficiency, productivity
and delivery to meet all needs, especially those of the low-income group.
Remarkably, UNIDO has taken steps to promote such technologies in Africa
under a collaborative project with the Building Material and Technology
Promotion Council (BMTPC) of the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty
Alleviation of the Government of India. CottageAglow aims at establishing
a National Diffusion and Demonstration Centre in Ghana to promote new
small scale and micro enterprise for manufacturing value-added products
by recycling of agro-industrial wastes and local natural raw materials
resources for the building industry.
Micro-Industry
Contribute to the establishment of a micro-industrial base for Africa
in a variety of ways. In this connection, an India supported programme
will engage in the sale and servicing of simple machines in its pursuit
of appropriate technology in industrial development. It will also provide
training schemes for entrepreneurs who are willing to go into such cottage
industry applications and provide technical back up where necessary. Finance
will be arranged in cooperation with the Ministry for Local Government
and Rural Development, the District Assembles, Rural Banks etc. This will
also open its own centres and industrial outlets to practically engage
in these areas of human endeavour to serve as demonstration points and
to generate funds for its activities with particular reference to empowering
the poor towards economic sufficiency. Machines to be employed range from
about three hundred to five thousand dollars only.
The products and areas envisaged will include the following:
- Biscuit manufacturing;
- Chalk manufacturing ;
- Candle manufacturing;
- Soap manufacturing - all varieties including use of cocoa pods etc.;
- Agro-based and food industry including bee hives and honey making, cereals,
spices, fruits and vegetable processing, cashew processing, sugar cane
crushing, palm oil, tomato and mango pulp, ground nuts peeling and paste,
fruit juice making etc.;
- Salt making on micro village level;
- Pure water/mineral water manufacturing;
- Dye making from vegetables and natural processes in a natural, hygienic
and viable manner;
- Paper products manufacturing from recycling processes including waste
paper, rags etc.;
- Edible oil manufacturing;
- Wood works and handicraft;
- Plastics recycling and production from environmentally hazardous used
and waste plastics, manufacture of polythene carry bags;
- Manufacture and paper pins, clips, safety pins etc. manufacture and
use of manure and methane (gobar) gas from cow dung and other waste products
such as flesh of dead animals, night soil etc; and,
- Textile industry, including the manufacture of tie and dye products,
cotton production and manufacture, tailoring, ready made garments from
local material etc.
Public Sanitation and Toilets
We should be committed to leading a revolution in public sanitation by
applications in toilet provisions in cities, towns and villages. We note
that the future of our nation depends largely on sanitation, which is
the most important thing next to population control. The number of morbidity
cases due to gastro-enteric diseases etc is lower wherever safe water
and pour-flush toilets are provided. Typhoid, cholera, diarrhoea, food
poisoning etc plague us through human faeces. They mollify old and young
alike. The plight of humanity in this regard is not peculiar to us. In
France, the cholera epidemic of 1838 killed some 20,000 people including
the Prime Minister Casimir-Perier. But the civilized world has moved to
near perfection since then and many developing nations such as India have
made fantastic strides through simple applications pioneered by NGOs.
Unless we tackle our toiletry headlong, pathogenic viruses in faeces will
continue to ruin our lives, negate efficiency of labour and deepen our
poverty, misery and squalor. I have witnessed what is being done in India.
The Sulabh International, whose facilities I visited in Delhi and elsewhere
is a great model, for toiletries in Africa. The model Eco-Friendly, Affordable
and Hygienic, Twin-Pit Composting System is a toilet policy scheme.
Day Nurseries
These are very vital tools in modern women empowerment and proper care
of children in the early formative ages. We should be committed to establishing
Community Day Care Centres (CDCCs) with the cooperation of church groups,
District Assemblies and other social organizations and groups to shape
the future of Ghana's future adults and release women for other beneficial
activities.
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