Indego Africa Project
Indego Africa Project
Idea Description
Indego Africa Project ("IAP") is built upon the belief that Africans can overcome poverty by taking full advantage of market opportunities and upgrading their job skills to improve their long-term earning prospects. IAP acts as a catalyst by connecting talented African artisans with export markets for their handicrafts and then helping to direct 100% of profits from sales towards training them in skills that are highly valued in the local economy. In addition to paying a fair wage (50% paid in advance), IAP emphasizes full disclosure of its pricing and costing structure so that its partners are well-prepared to deal with commercial entities or to start their own enterprises in the future.
What will you do if you win $10,000 for this idea?
Indego Africa Project ("IAP") would spend $10,000 on broadening the scope of its Hand Up development program in Rwanda (its first country of operations) and diversifying the IAP product line to ensure consistent sales volume. Through Hand Up, IAP ensures the long-term success of its partners by helping them achieve economic self-sufficiency and enhance their earning capacity. Education and skills-building are the core components of Hand Up, which helps IAP partner cooperatives to (a) stabilize commercial opportunities for members, (b) conduct regular skills training programs, (c) improve organizational management, and (d) focus on sustainability through securing a capital equipment base.
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How can you integrate this with something like kiva? Could Indego be a field partner in african countries?
I'm not crazy about this idea. It seems to be a reinvention of the Fair Trade model, which is already established. There is also no shortage of NGOs focused on assisting craftspeople -- Aid to Artisans, and a host of Scandanavian NGOs. The timing is bad -- with the US dollar very low most African export traders are struggling to retain customers, so your focus should perhaps be on Europe and Japan which enjoy stronger currencies. Also you might look into focusing on those African countries facing high inflation as the value of hard currency purchase orders increases over the course of the contract. Last you have outlined a rigid structure of prepayments from the potential buyer of half the anticipated fair wages (you left unsaid the normal amount experienced buyers prepay for non…more-labor working capital) and a plan to isolate potential profits not back into the enterprise for various needs as it grows but into separate programs for locally needed skills training -- presumably not the skill involved in making the crafts. I just don't like it. Sorry.