ACTIVITY REPORT 2007
THE FLEMISH DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION
2 | Activiteitenverslag 2006
Introduction
CONTENT
PREFACE...................................................................................................................................................4 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................5 The partner countries of the Flemish Development cooperation..............................................................7 WORKING WITH THE SOUTH.................................................................................................................8 Making great strides forward....................................................................................................................9 KwaZulu-Natal: the accent on food security............................................................................................20 Free State: SMMEs and AIDS.................................................................................................................24 Malawi: provide an integrated approach..................................................................................................26 Mozambique: Priority to health care and the struggle against HIV/AIDS................................................30 Corporate social responsibility.................................................................................................................37 Humanitarian aid......................................................................................................................................41 ROUSING THE NORTH’S INTEREST....................................................................................................44 The fourth pillar........................................................................................................................................45 Sustainable consumption........................................................................................................................47 Raising awareness through the media....................................................................................................49 Development education..........................................................................................................................51 Municipal development co-operation......................................................................................................54 Resources................................................................................................................................................58 ANNEXES...............................................................................................................................................62 South Africa.............................................................................................................................................63 Mozambique............................................................................................................................................66 Malawi.....................................................................................................................................................67 Morocco..................................................................................................................................................67
Activity Report 2007 | 3
Introduction
PREFACE
You are reading the third activity report of the Flemish development co-operation. Form and style are very similar to the previous editions. It did not, however, turn out to be a traditional activity report. Continuous evaluation of the functioning and of the traditions is just one of the main characteristics of the Flemish International Co-operation Agency (FICA). Accordingly, it should not come as a surprise to notice that another approach has been chosen to make this activity report even more attractive and more concrete. Guy Poppe, former VRT journalist with a passion for Africa was just the man to complete this task in a creative way. In his own, fluent style, he describes the realizations of the Flemish Government on development cooperation in 2007. He also raised a corner of the veil about future plans. And there are quite a few of those plans. The concrete results in southern Africa prove that geographical and thematic concentration has been the right choice. In Mozambique, a second phase in the HIV/AIDS programme has started. The 2006 evaluation resulted in new accents and an adjusted budget. In Malawi, the preparation phase is finished and the projects are about to embark. Moreover, while you are reading this, these projects are already running at full speed. In both countries, new programmes are being prepared. FICA also literally sent Guy Poppe out into the field. He went to the South African province of Limpopo to examine the “Limpopo Agribusiness Development Academy programme�.This programme covers the agribusiness project and the agritourism project in the Hamakuya district. Loyal to his name and fame, Poppe returned with an intriguing and extremely fascinating report. Enjoy your reading experience.
Freddy Colson Administrator-general Flemish International Cooperation Agency
4 | Activity Report 2007
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
It may be unusual to start the activity report of the Flemish development cooperation with in-house news. Yet, we would like to commit this sin of navel-gazing just once. 2007 was the first full working year of the Flemish International Co-operation Agency. And this FICA, the abbreviation of our organization, did not hesitate to play a major role. We would like to emphasize this in the first pages of this activity report. Cooperation with South Africa made a great leap forward in 2007. Simplified administrative and financial procedures brought about a decisive partnership of FICA with the three participating provincial governments. Our target group in South Africa consists of new commercial farmers, environmental tourists, small businesses, AIDS victims and layers of the population whose existence is threatened by food insecurity. In Mozambique, FICA increases co-operation in health care. The years before, this form of co-operation was given high appreciation. The actions remain focused on the struggle against HIV/AIDS in the province of Tete, yet with more style and new accents. Patient treatment is now more decentralized and, as a result, patients can get help in their own district. On top of that, the entire health care system is strengthened thanks to the integration of the struggle against AIDS in the general policy. In Malawi, the third partner country in the South, a partnership that did not start before the end of 2006, FICA also took off quick as a lightning. As it works together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) it was able to deal, right from the start, with micro-projects to promote greater food security. It is time to start up new initiatives in the farming sector, such as training courses in agriculture schools and the increase of milk production. This illustrates that FICA was off to a good start. It enabled the agency to deal with a budget of 22,065,794.79 â‚Ź in 2007, 4.5 million â‚Ź more than in 2006. It goes without saying that this flying start of FICA could not have been possible without the skilful cooperation of our partners in the field. Development cooperation is teamwork. In South Africa, the provincial governments have made clear policy choices that FICA finds easy to support. We will return to the joint investment in commercial agriculture (agribusiness) and rural ecotourism (agritourism) in the province of Limpopo later in this activity report. To obtain information, FICA went to the new farmers, on their way to the commercial circuit, to the agriculture colleges where FICA funds training courses and to the holiday camp, specifically built for familiarization stays. This detailed report, hot off the press, takes up a substantial part of this report. In KwaZulu-Natal, the provincial government asked FICA to proceed on the same path. In this province, the accent remains on food security, yet with a wider approach than just an increase in production. The programme in KwaZulu-Natal is the first programme with an approved multi-annual budget. The other provinces will follow. Free State has chosen to support SMEs and an AIDS project. In this way, a potential fragmentation of the available resources in Free State has been put to a stop. In Mozambique, the government was willing to check its health care results against the agreed criteria. Immediately, it became clear how FICA can help to obtain better results, as part of a more intense co-operation. Activity Report 2007 | 5
Introduction
During my visit to that country, I could see with my own eyes which negative effects a disaster, such as cyclone Favio, may have on development. When I was back in Belgium, FICA approved two aid applications. As a result, Mozambique takes up almost 15 % of all humanitarian aid FICA granted in 2007. In 2007, the total budget for emergency aid nearly to almost 2 million €, about 7 % of the entire budget for Development co-operation. About half of it was granted to Africa, mainly to assist victims of natural disasters. Similar to Mozambique and South Africa, FICA works together with the highest authorities in Malawi. More specifically, it finances the appointment of a policy advisor, to coordinate all food-related initiatives, who works directly with the president. The governance quality in the partner countries is, and will remain, an important key to success. With relatively few costs, an increasingly large percentage of the increasing budget goes to the South, 85 % in 2007. FICA spends 15 % of its budget here, to support rousing the north’s interest. Not only do we spend this money carefully, we also do this with a clear vision. In the course of 2008, a brand-new website will be launched for the fourth pillar of the Flemish development co-operation. This site can become a platform for the numerous volunteers, pleading for the South in their workplace, their youth club or school, their union, mutual health insurer or among their friends. It was heart-warming to see a room full of interested people at the presentation of the third North-South press prize and to see a marked increase in the number of entries. The media have to make the public aware of this matter, as the South may not be neglected. It is just as satisfying to notice that the communities are also willing to do their part for development cooperation. In 2007, 23 new applications were submitted to enter into a covenant with the government. The Flemish Government has become a pioneer in purchasing fair trade products. It is no longer enough to think that serving Max Havelaar coffee will do the job. In October, during the annual Fair Trade Week, the Boudewijn building was transformed into a market place where all sorts of products were sold, from chocolate to jewellery. It also pleases me to see that, concerning our efforts to set up a social and ethical code of conduct, the testing phase is over. The 4C model, which takes into account economic, social and ecological considerations, opens great perspectives for a sustainable ‘mainstream’ coffee trade, in co-operation with the affiliated producers in the South. To conclude, we should not forget that we earmark part of our budget to development education, in order to rouse Flanders’ interest in this matter. This year, six projects have been selected again. Together, they have been supported for 640,997.67 €. We hope to be able to continue on this road in 2008.
Geert Bourgeois Flemish Minister for Development Cooperation 6 | Activity Report 2007
Introduction
PARTNERCOUNTRIES OF THE FLEMISH DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIONS
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Activity Report 2007 | 7
WORKING WITH THE SOUTH
Working with the South
SOUTH AFRICA
MAKING GREAT STRIDES FORWARD In 2007, Flanders can look back on a 13-year old co-operation with South Africa. There has been a substantial evolution in this co-operation. Since 2001, the Flemish Government is focussing on three provinces: KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Free State. Since 2005, it is financing a limited number of big programmes in those provinces, led by the provincial departments. Over the last year, FICA has brought about an even smoother cooperation, by means of simplified administrative and financial procedures. For the first time, a multi-annual budget has been fixed for KwaZulu-Natal, one of the three provinces where FICA is active. This implies that FICA has definitively allocated the remaining resources, 4.5 million €, that it wishes to invest until 2009 in the food security programme in KwaZulu-Natal. It dropped the system of budgeting smaller sums on an annual basis. This has never been the case before. For 2008, a similar operation is planned for Limpopo province, which has opted for investments in commercial agriculture (agribusiness) and in rural tourism (agritourism). In 2009, the third province, Free State, will follow. In that province, FICA is investing in two programmes: support for an AIDS-project and support for small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs). Once this operation has finished, the 7.5 million € provided for each of the three provinces, will be definitively allocated. From then on, the yearly administrative red tape will be much lower. The focus can shift towards content-based guidance and to the monitoring of the programmes in the field. More changes have been introduced. Previously, it took about six months for the money to be transfered to an account in South Africa when an application for a new sum arrived in Brussels. The delay of these money transfers has been reduced to six to eight weeks. On top of that, the multitude of small transfers is brought to a halt. This was accompanied by the drawing up of progress reports and financial planning reports, succeeding each other at a quick pace, which in the past, at times even
threatened to become virtual. Nowadays, much higher instalments, 1.5 million € each time, are being transferred. When three quarters has been spent, an application for a new sum can be submitted. “The days are gone where everybody was continuously working on a new application or was waiting for money. It was as if a surgeon walked out of an operation every other minute because there was no more money”, said the FICA representative in Pretoria. Besides the imminent allocation of the complete budget for the entire five-year period and a more flexible and faster transfer of funds, the construction of a buffer fund Flanders – South Africa at the National Treasury opens new perspectives. The money in the buffer fund can be used to give the provinces extra assistance, to send experts to the scene or to support additional activities. “This intervention, a substantial raise of the budget over the last few years - before 2005 we put half a million to a million € per year at the province’s disposal - now, the programme stands for 7.5 million - and the simplified administrative approach allowed us to grow into an important player.” said the representative. “Now, we can negotiate with the provincial governments about the execution of the programmes in a more mature way than in the past. We can also contribute to their realization. In creating financial space, we created openness. We can now work like a midwife, as it were, helping to give birth to budgets and programmes. The managers we appoint in the three provinces concerned, for example, are going to investigate why some things are going Activity Report 2007 | 9
Working with the South
SOUTH AFRICA
difficult in the course of the programmes. In that way, you can raise your partner’s efficiency in all areas and you turn development co-operation in a country like South Africa into a kind of laboratory.” The simplification and acceleration of the procedures appeared to be necessary, due to a quite complicated administrative system in South Africa. This sometimes conflicted with Flemish rules – South Africa uses, for example, other fiscal years, which led to delays. To prevent this, innovations were brought about. They fit perfectly within the South African legal framework. This new method should not create the impression that things are given a free hand. The FICA office in Pretoria carries out permanent financial controls and each programme will be subjected to an annual external financial audit. LIMPOPO
10 | Activity Report 2007
Has FICA been able to verify in the field whether everything goes according to plan, how the budget is spent and whether the results are relevant ? Especially for this activity report, FICA went to Limpopo. In HaMakuya, the camp build to receive urban tourists to get a taste of rural life, is about to take off. Two training centres for emerging farmers, farmers starting to work on a commercial basis on a newly-acquired piece of land, are running at full speed.
Working with the South
SOUTH AFRICA
REPORTING
HaMakuya, township kids in search of their roots in Limpopo “You’ve got the Big Five we’re always talking about; HaMakuya adds a 6th one, the biggest baobab tree in the world”.That is how the Agriculture Minister of Limpopo, Dikeledi Magadzi, expresses her enthusiasm for the holiday camp. In the eyes of the MEC, a standard abbreviation for provincial Ministers in South Africa, the impressive baobab dominating the camp is the main attraction of HaMakuya. To her, this tree has the same value as the Big Five, the buffalos, lions, leopards, rhinos and elephants. These are the attractions of the nearby Kruger Park, the biggest animal reserve of South Africa, welcoming millions of tourists each year. HaMakuya is quite remote located, in the north-
erty line. People only get by if they work in the almost depleted coal mine of Tshikondeni, if they have a child or a relative in the city who supports them or if they try to survive as a farmer. The consequences of having been neglected during all those years of apartheid are still tangible. When we return to Polokwane, the capital of Limpopo, to stop at a brand-new shopping centre in Elim to grab a bite to eat, we see that the employees of Kentucky Fried Chicken are technically unemployed, since electricity had gone down. It is not very likely that such an electricity breakdown occurs in one of the luxurious malls in the immensely rich Sandton area, between Johannesburg and Pretoria. To get to HaMakuya, you have to drive quite a while on a gravel road, which is, however, wellmaintained. Then, you turn onto a path with some nasty, sandy slopes, which make it quite difficult to drive if you are driving a regular car. You have to look out for the elegantly fleeing springboks, crossing the road right in front of the car. The camp - Tshatai Wilderness Camp - consists of several large tents, to lodge the visitors, and a central area, used as both kitchen and dining area. Wherever you are, you have a magnificent view on the river down below. Early in the morning, the baboons gather here to drink and if you want to take a dip into the water, you may have the honour of meeting a crocodile. At least, this is what we were told.
eastern edge of Limpopo, close to Mozambique and Zimbabwe. There is, for example, no mobile phone network, and that is saying something in South Africa. During apartheid, this region was part of Venda, a homeland - one of the homelands, next to e.g. Bophuthatswana, Ciskei and Transkei – on which South Africa imposed a formal independence, which no country in the world ever recognized. Venda was an underdeveloped area of South Africa, which saw its young workers leave for economically growing areas, leading to nothing but poverty. Even today, more than half of the Venda population lives under the povActivity Report 2007 | 11
Working with the South
SOUTH AFRICA
The camp has an excellent location, but on what points does it differ from other, similar initiatives? Is HaMakuya one of the many lodges in Limpopo, offering less comfort than the others and a smaller chance of spectacular encounters with wild animals, aiming at more adventurous tourists, willing to try something new? No, it is not. Hamakuya was conceived, among others by the local government. The provincial government of Limpopo has explicitly chosen for investments in agriculture. The MEC explains to us what the economical importance is of agriculture in the province and how initiatives in that sector should not be set up in isolation. Limpopo also has a major potential for tourists, says Magadzi, and these two should be linked: “That’s in essence the key focus we’re looking into, plus … doing things in an unusual way”. Doing unusual things – we’ll get back to that – and integrating the agricultural and tourist policy, those are the building blocks. HaMakuya has to serve its guests locally grown fruits and vegetables, allowing emerging farmers to sell their products there. Tourism as a stimulus for commercial agriculture. If that works, they have almost come full circle. How was the idea of a camp in HaMakuya introduced to FICA? A few years ago, FICA sat down with the provincial authorities and expressed its preference for investing the new higher budgets into one, at the most, two major projects. FICA
The vegetablegroves cooperation.
12 | Activity Report 2007
wanted to put an end to the budget fragmentation over 30 smaller projects. This position arises from the Strategy Paper, agreed on by the Flemish Government and South Africa in 2004. This consultation round resulted in Limpopo making a clear choice for agriculture. Several reasons can be pointed out. Fact is that the Premier of the province put the conversion from survival to commercial agriculture high on the political agenda. If you add the remarks of the MEC, it goes without saying that the backing HaMakuya got from her and from the Premier was a huge asset to start up the camp. They were both present at the launch in August 2007, together with 150 to 200 guests, representatives of farmer’s organisations, educational institutions and inputsuppliers. “This proves the political importance that the Premier and the MEC attribute to agribusiness”, states Katrien de Pauw, country manager, who took the floor for FICA at the official ceremony. Not only does the HaMakuya Agritourism Initiative, HaMakuya’s official name, get political backing from the Premier of Limpopo and the Agriculture Department, it also has a strong scientific foundation. A team of researchers at the Witwatersrand University of Johannesburg has linked theory to practice to shape the concept. Ethnic music specialist Lara Allan argued strongly in favour of educational tourism. Maybe the term ‘familiarization stay’ comes close to what she means. HaMakuya aims at urban students and secondary school pupils to give those children a taste of the way of living in rural South Africa. She wants to show the beautiful and peaceful areas close to nature and wildlife. These young persons have to realise that their parents, grandparents or ancestors have not always lived in a township like Soweto. Ideally, Lara would like to see this rural life immersion introduced into the curriculum of the secondary schools. These negotiations are yet to begin. Anyway, specific publicity for the camp will only be targeted on
Working with the South
SOUTH AFRICA
universities and schools. There will be no publicity for the general public. With the exception of a few details, HaMakuya is ready to welcome its first real guests. Environmental and cultural guides have been recruited. The guinea pigs, students from Wits and from Chicago, with which Wits has a co-operation agreement, and a delegation from FICA have passed the test. The biggest challenge for 2008 is to get access to the specific market niches HaMakuya is targeting. The kind of tourism this project has in mind is not to be taken for granted in South Africa, says Katrien de Pauw: “I can imagine that the average black South African, whose ancestors have been farmers for 20 generations, would react to a proposal for rural tourism: “my foot, I want to have a Miami feeling in Durban when I go on holiday”. Thus, she wants to involve the provincial Tourism Department more actively in the initiative. She also wants to strengthen the co-operation with the Education Department.
taken aback, it rekindled the baby in me, I just loved it, I think people should come, relax and switch off themselves. And even if you don’t switch off, it will switch itself off and you‘ll get time to relax, feel the grass under your feet and be a little child again”. It appears that HaMakuya is working. Cuena Komapi returned to her office in Polokwane, dressed in a skirt with Venda motives, made especially for her. The sewing cooperative, also involved in the interior decoration of HaMakuya, managed to show the efficiency of the women working there. Lara Allen also put us in touch with Odeb, a local singer songwriter. With pride, he shows us his first cd, the master tape, his only copy. During a car ride, we get a chance to listen to it. Modern music with a touch of Venda, and we like it. There is talent here, that much is clear, but it needs access to opportunities. Walking into a recording studio requires external support as well.
In a later phase, other initiatives in the tourist sector may follow. The idea to organize an agrotourist route in Limpopo has been brought up. This would be a farm-to-farm tour, similar to the wine routes in the Cape. It is worth the effort of looking into it by mid 2009. By that time, the program will be halfway, and an interim evaluation will be held. For now, only the familiarization stays will be organized in HaMakuya. We took the test together with the General Manager of the Agribusiness Department, Cuena Komapi. She was a part of our delegation, and spent her childhood in a rural village. She was sceptical during the drive there because, as a little girl, she had already experienced what we would encounter in HaMakuya and she had managed to tear herself away from that poor environment. But when we asked her, right before the ride back, whether everything went as she hoped, she was delighted: “I was
A new dress for Cuana Komapi. The Wits researchers not only developed a vision, they also added elements to the policy choices the Agriculture Department has made, such as employing local people and stimulating the local economy. The camp was built with loActivity Report 2007 | 13
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cally produced materials, with the exception of the tents and some kinds of wood that cannot be found in the area, and by local craftsmen. That was not easy. It is not simple to find construction workers, plumbers, woodworkers or metalworkers in the HaMakuya area. That is why experts have been hired, they give a three-month training to potential craftsmen. After this training, they have to stand on their own feet. The Tshulu Trust Fund, running the camp, then signs a contract with them. In that way, HaMakuya helps the first self-employed persons to start up in that region. They can use their newly acquired skills elsewhere in their community as well. Lara Allen was informed that some workers did some odd jobs over the weekend while the camp was being built. She has no problems with that, quite the contrary: “The construction of the camp triggered economic effects, absolutely; HaMakuya is the example of a small success story”. She concludes with a smile: “I even saw $-signs in one of the worker’s eyes”. The eyes of one craftsman also sparkled when he covered a cesspit he dug with a concrete ring, upon which the toilet will be installed. He was thinking of all the holes in the kraals, where villagers put their maize and cover them with a wooden or a corrugated plate. If that plate decomposes, or breaks down and water seeps through, they can throw away the corn. This concrete ring was his very own eureka. The Tshulu Trust Fund coordinates all the activities in HaMakuya. The board represents both the local community and the university. Together, they decide how the money and the profit will be spent. “This is all new”, says Christel Op de Beeck, “HaMakuya is a test case for the local authorities. For the university too, for that matter. In the past, it would have done these projects by itself.” Talking to the president of the Trust, Rendani Lalumbe, about the future perspectives of the camp, one idea keeps popping up. “Job creation is our number one priority”, he assures us. Cre14 | Activity Report 2007
ating jobs to beat the sky-high unemployment in Venda. HaMakuya has already made its first contribution. The Chief, sitting next to Lalumbe, is head of the nearby Office of Tribal Affairs and does not master the English language very well, but he nods in approval. Only the Chief can decide to release community grounds, and so he did to enable the construction of this camp. Lalumbe, coming from the elected civics, works together very closely with the Chief. That is an important asset for HaMakuya. The project, which originated in the minds of some scientists, has the support of both the highest political authorities in the province and of the traditional representatives of the local community. Moreover, during our stay in Limpopo, we also saw on various occasions how former community grounds were given a final, commercial destination. The traditional chiefs of the Venda follow the pace of their people’s development. Finding market niches, setting up unusual things. We have heard this mentioned several times during our visit to HaMakuya. Not only the educational agrotourism originated from these endeavours. People also looked for other opportunities in the market, keeping in mind that the added value for the farmers on their fruits and vegetable harvest should be as large as possible. Producing fruit juice is one possibility, jam another. But so far, these ideas remain ideas, maybe they can be mature in 2008. This will happen by trial and error, Lara Allen admits, as our attempt to bring banana and baobab fruits jam on the market petered out, for it was uneatable. Organic farming is another market niche Lara wants to see filled. Just look around, and you can see that there is, just like in Europe, a market for organic products in South Africa, a potential growth market. In Dotha, a young woman – she breast-feeds her baby while we are talking to her – came up with the idea to cultivate the wetlands, next to the river, together with other women. It is a fertile piece of land of about 100 meters wide that is regularly flooded. There is
Working with the South
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enough cow manure in the kraal to do without artificial fertilizer. Dotha’s women co-operation can become the first pilot to supply HaMakuya, and, who knows, also ecologically conscious South Africans further away, with tasty organic tomatoes and onions from the Venda lands.
their daily work, the way in which the children offer the men spoons of marula beer at night, the big breakfast with pap – similar to Italian polenta, also using mealie, maize – and, for those who want to, chicken stomachs and mopane, boiled caterpillars. It is all part of daily life in Dotha.
But Mother nature is not always willing to cooperate. Just like in big parts of Southern and East-Africa over the last decades, this region too had to cope with drought. People in Dotha are complaining about the lack of rain. It has not rained for one and a half month, even though it is rainy season! When approaching the mountains where HaMakuya is situated, everything seems to be much greener, certainly in comparison to the bush savannah around Polokwane. But appearances are deceptive.
But people do not cut themselves off from modern life. The lady preparing the marula beer in an earthenware pot has a cell phone right next to her, and ,believe it or not, there is network coverage. The day before, farmer Jameson received a telephone call during his explanation in the middle of a field full of red hot chilli peppers, and he wrote down the number he had to call with a twig down in the sand. Modernity is a flexible concept in Venda. The head of the kraal in Dotha proudly shows us a light bulb on every hut. A solar panel provides power. When he was young, he worked in the construction business, in Johannesburg, for ten years, so he knows what progress is. Soon, there will be organic cultivation on the wetlands. Things are certainly moving in Venda.
We spend the night in Dotha, which is a few miles away from the camp. A home-stay, one or more nights in the house of a Venda family, it is all part of the educational agrotourism of HaMakuya. A cultural guide accompanies the visitor, because the language differences are a handicap, even though some short phrases of Afrikaans are enough to establish contact. Traditions are still very much alive among the Venda. The respectful, obedient way of greeting the head of the family and in particular the chief, which is different for men and women, the traditional clothing some women wear while doing
Activity Report 2007 | 15
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HOMESTAY HaMakuya aims at students and pupils. They can stay in the Tshatia Wilderness Camp, but the programme has home-stays as well, which offer young people a stay with the local population.
Traditional clothing.
Breakfast with mopane worms.
Preparation of “pap” made from mealie.
‘Kraal’ keeping the goats.
16 | Activity Report 2007
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R E P O R TA G E Emerging farmers are calling on the market
About a thousand emerging farmers attend the Tompi Seleka College every year. It is situated near the Arabie dam on the Olifants River, in the south of Limpopo province. The majority of the people enrolling in these training courses are women, as the adage ‘an African farmer often is a woman farmer’ also applies to this region. These training courses are short, lasting just one week and the curriculum includes commercial skills and management techniques. FICA backs these brand-new training courses. Tompi Seleka’s mission, as is Madzivhandela’s, the second college in the north of the province, is to prepare the emerging farmers for the commercial circuit. The province decided to convert two former agriculture institutes intotraining centres, and to organize all training courses there, instead of working with consultants. During our week’s visit to Tompi Seleka, the first financial management course is taught. On the blackboard in the classroom, next to point four, we can read: management accountability and reporting. At the end of this week, this group, mainly young women, should be able to explane, with figures, how their business has been doing over the last period. Computer lessons are taught in Tompi Seleka as well. These groups are small, about 18 women. The first week, they follow an elementary course. If necessary, they come back for an additional training on, for example, Excel. The background of the trainees is very diverse, which is solved by putting groups of two or three women together to work on the same screen. One of the young women is hearing impaired, but the teacher confides us that she is able to keep up, regardless. There is a lot of solidarity. Back at their farm, the women farmers can, in case of an emergency or
Students having computerclass at Tompi Seleka College. a computer breakdown, call on to someone from the College to help them out, with the College acting like a sort of a helpdesk. Tompi Seleka focuses on three groups of farmers: those who started a business on community grounds, tenants leasing land and farmers that bought themselves into a commercial farm. The government buys farms, and fixes a mandatory contribution. If you can afford it, and you sign up, you become part of a cooperation, together with fellow applicants, and the group is awarded the commercial operation of the farm. These emerging farmers are our primary target group, Dinah Modiba explains. She gives us a tour of the research station, part of Tompi Seleka. We walk across the sunflower and sorghum fields, fallow grounds – crop rotation is used – and grapevines under glass. There is not a single grape hanging from the young shoots, which do not look to be in a good condition. Some fields have irrigation systems, similar to the ones the government installs on the commercial farms it sells. Learning how to operate these is one of the technical training courses the College offers. Down below, in the distance, the Arabie dam is glistening. Dinah complains about the large quantities of water they need to irrigate this barren soil. This makes us face the facts again: under the apartheid regime, this region was part of the homeland of Lebowa, and these Activity Report 2007 | 17
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homelands were where the least fertile soil could be found. History is continuing to plague the new farmers. Tompi Seleka also has a unit that tries to come up with methods to process the agricultural products in an industrial way. That way, the farmer’s products bring in more, they create added value and the farmers earn more money. They bring parts of their harvest to the College, where they get training. Tshepiso shows us what she is doing: packing of up peanut butter, dried tomatoes and cabbage in plastic, and bottling red beets. They can also manufacture jam or biltong (slices of dried meat, served in South Africa as a snack). This will need to be developed further in the future. After a machine broke down following a powercut, the processing unit did not restart properly until April 2008.”Good luck in your further life”, Tshepiso says when we say goodbye. We realize that it should have been us saying that. Just beyond Tswaing on the Olifants River in Strydkraal, we stop near a road-side sheltered resting area, where some eight women are having lunch. That morning, they picked and packed butternuts,
Lunchbreak at the Ikageng vegetablegrowers cooperation. 18 | Activity Report 2007
long, orange-grey pumpkins and there are also boxes with red beets. One of the women is the mother of the deaf girl from the computer class in Tompi Seleka. Just like the other members of the Ikagen vegetable co-operation, she is low-educated and her English is insufficient to take part in the courses. But some women have, just like her, sent their daughters, so they can help drive the business afterwards. Some three years ago, they started on 10 hectares of community ground the chief had given them. The registration of the ground in their own names is imminent. Next to beets and pumpkins, they also grow cabbages, spinach, tomatoes and onions. Some time ago, they put into use an extra three hectares, for the cultivation of organic products. The women of Ikageng are very eager to make money out of this market niche. They sell their goods to a local Spar. The transport is done with a bakkie, Afrikaans for pick-up. They have a one year contract with the store chain. It is renewable, if the co-operation reaches the quality standards of Spar. At the end of the month, Ikageng gives each of the 15 members a salary of 850 Rand, about 80 €. If you add the income the women get from extra jobs, such as ironing, it is clear that they would not manage without the government’s welfare benefits, such as child benefits. “welfare benefits – child benefits or a pension - are the main income for most families. People survive on that money”, explains Katrien de Pauw, country manager. “In that way, there is enough money to buy food, but not to invest, or, for example, to renovate the house, to drill a water well, or to send the children to a better school, or to higher education. Taking into account the high unemployment rate, it should not come as a surprise that Rendani Lalumbe gives the highest priority to job creation in HaMakuya. But external help is needed to do this. The Agriculture Department has to offer people opportunities, otherwise nothing will change and people will plant
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maize and herd cattle, as they always have done. People need to get a little push in the right direction to do something else, to diversify, to develop other products”. The Ikageng vegetable co-operation gets assistance from, among other people, economists and geologists, examining their land. Via the municipalities, the Agriculture Department offers its full support. It is a major, even essential, push to give these initiatives the best chances of success. This is completely in line with the unconditional choice the provincial authorities of Limpopo made in favour of agriculture. The co-operation with FICA
has been shaped in LADA, the Limpopo Agribusiness Development Academy, which groups the joint efforts in training and tourism. Specifically in 2007, a forum was organized in two places, to which the farmsuppliers were invited they deliver fertilizer, water, electric power, seeds, and so much more. The idea of these meetings is to better gear their services towards the needs of the farmers.
THE BROADER FRAMEWORK: LAND REFORM “To us, this is war”, says MEC Magadzi, as she begins her story on the land reform. This is, in particular in the agrarian region of Limpopo, the final stage of the agriculture policy in South Africa. Since the first democratic elections in 1994, 19 % of the arable land in that province has been redistributed, which means that these grounds came in the hands of previously disadvantaged people, as they are called in South Africa, referring mainly to the black South Africans. This percentage is higher than the national average, 14 %, but the MEC wants it to go up steeply over the next few years. In six years, by 2014, Limpopo wants to see 30 % of the fertile land in other hands. “We are scratching the surface, haven’t done enough”, she says. A lot of work remains to be done. Dikeledi Magadzi Her complaint refers to all forms of redistribution. The MEC has her eye both on getting land back into the hands of the former owners - chased away during the apartheid regime - through the restitution mechanism, and on farmlands the government bought and put at the disposal of emerging farmers. The Department of Agriculture has to stand by to give advice and financial assistance, just like they did for the co-operations on community grounds, like Ikageng. Commercial agriculture must become a success, that is the motto. That means: creating jobs, guaranteeing food security and attaining the millennium goal to reduce poverty by half. In the mind of the MEC, this is all connected. The broad based black economic empowerment policy, BBBEE, which the South African Government has been pursuing since 1994, appears to be a firm lever to drastically upturn the ownership relations in all economical sectors, including agriculture, and to assure a more active economic participation for the black South Africans. BBBEE both has sanctions and incentives to stimulate companies to enter into a partnership with the newly emerging farmers. Tax deductions act as a driver. A company that does not score too well on the BBBEE checklist may see its contract terminated. “It makes sense for lodges to liaise with cooperatives”, Lara Allen puts forward by way of conclusion, “because they can tick off politically: Yes, we buy products from local farmers; if there wouldn’t be pressure from the government, it would be quite hard to convince the lodges and then our business model would have to be rethought”. The model Lara suggests for HaMakuya would be unfeasible if it were not for the pressure of the government with its BBBEE approach, is her position. Indeed, MEC Magadzi has declared war. Activity Report 2007 | 19
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KWAZULU-NATAL, the focus on food security KwaZulu-Natal, the first province in South Africa where FICA has applied the principle of multiannual budgets, did not choose agriculture, as was the case in Limpopo, but food security. FICA is active in four districts, each consisting of two municipalities. That makes eight municipalities on a total of 51 in KwaZulu-Natal. Both the introduction of the new administrative approach and the choice of which field to invest in went quite smoothly. “We were able to start off quickly in KwaZulu-Natal, since we were able to build on existing contacts and previous projects in that province. That is, by the way, one of the characteristics of the Flemish co-operation development in South Afri-
ca”, explains Christel Op de Beeck. “For example, in the Wetlands, we had a tourist project running with a partner who achieved remarkable results. We have talked to them again, and we decided to take up their work area as one of the four districts in the new food security programme. You negotiate with the same people; you know how they comply with agreements, it works well that way. Other actors in the food security story, led by the Agriculture Department, are the departments of Education, Local and Traditional Government and Housing. These have all been our partners in the past. We set up educational centres and training courses on good governance, information technology and health care or took the initiative to build an orphanage for HIV/AIDS-infected children, or we set up housing programmes with these partners”. The work method of the provincial government and FICA makes KwaZulu-Natal a test case. In time, it should become clear whether it is possible to extend the applied approach to all municipalities in the province. FICA leaves this possibility open. The approach is much broader than before, and it is no longer exclusively aimed at an increase in food production. This broadening occurs in accordance with the policy that the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, is pushing forward. For example, in KwaZulu-Natal, much more attention is paid to the health of the people of the target municipalities, to drinking water and to basic hygiene. A child that cannot keep its food down due to continuous diarrhoea is lost. “Then, you are only feeding the worms”, Katrien de Pauw states. You have to be present in the health centres, where the sick and the women with newborn babies are.
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Also, the improvement of transport and the storage methods are considered in the new approach. What is the use of more crops if they cannot get to the customer or if they decay in no time? Even the set up of a cooperation and the acquisition of commercial skills may be a possibility, as these initiatives contribute to a more diversified production and better market access. How do you start up a project in such a municipality? A committee is set up of elected leaders, traditional chiefs and local NGOs as members. Usually, the ideas on what a municipality can do to boost food security come very easily. After this first phase, the needs of a municipality are mapped and it is decided which projects will be realized. Two managers manage this programme, one for the North regions and one for the South regions. They both have two districts and four municipalities under their wings. The programme also appointed 24 local facilitators. Usually, these are well-educated young people, living in the municipality. The local facilitators have to make contact with the people visiting the health centres, with farmers and so on, because they, literally and figuratively, speak the same language. They also give training courses. This concept has been adopted from previous projects in KwaZulu-Natal and works better than a system with consultants, because these young people are integrated in the community and feel better what a community needs. The final result may be that, in one place, you work together with a health care centre to obtain better food security, while in another place, you invest in nursery schools. One of the first approved projects is a housing programme to build seven to eight hundred houses. The municipal authority has the intention to make more community grounds available for the future residents to grow their own food. “You speak with the authorities, and this has an immediate effect on about 800 households,” ex-
Collection of rainwater near a school. plains Christel Op de Beeck. “The next day, you sit around the table with the Water Affairs Department, which has to make sure that water reaches the land awarded. I repeat: thanks to the size of your projects, the authorities consider you to be a serious partner of the authorities and they are prepared to attribute a part of their budget”. Next to the 7.5 million € earmarked for the food security programme in KwaZulu-Natal, which amounts to about 70 million Rand, the Agriculture Department itself puts aside 33 million Rand for the next five years. The Agriculture MEC has announced this in his budget speech of 2007. In KwaZulu-Natal, 3.5 million South Africans go to bed hungry, he said. “In order to achieve food security, food must be available, accessible, safe and nutritious and most importantly, it must be affordable”. An important political statement. Where are we at the end of 2007? In all of the eight municipalities, plans have been submitted, in close co-operation with the Agriculture Department, the local authorities, the health centres and the schools. All these plans have been checked on technical feasibility, are financially screened and fine-tuned. The collaboration with the municipalities thus has started and the selection of the first sixty projects has been done. The plans that have been prepared include fencing of grasslands to keep the cattle in, small-scale irriga-
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The Greater St Lucia Wetland Park. tion and simple systems to collect rainwater in a barrel via roof gutters and drainpipes. Let us, to conclude, throw light on an interesting project in the Umhlabuyalingala district, more specifically in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park. It is a natural park, a unique ecological area, protected by UNESCO as World Heritage. No economic activity is allowed, including agriculture. The only income source left is tourism. But the soil in the park is very fertile and the soil right outside of the park is not. Nothing grows there. The inhabitants of that barren region often go into the Wetlands to remove part of the vegetation and build vegetable gardens. Ecology clashes with economy and with the survival strategies of the original inhabitants of the park. To tackle these actions, an alternative activity that guarantees an income for people is needed. The choice was made to weave baskets with the leafs of the Ilala, a palm tree that is only found in the Wetlands. Companies are set up to cultivate 22 | Activity Report 2007
Ilala in a commercial way. As a result, they can provide the entire basket industry of South Africa. With these revenues, families in the region around the Wetlands can purchase varied food. This is also an important concept in the food security programme. This is again a continuation of a previously existing project concerning tourism and employment and ending in 2008. In that programme, training
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courses were organized to become a hotel guide or to work in the sector, as a cook, for example. After this training, local people can get a job in the Park in the tourist sector. The reasoning remains the same: providing an income to prevent agricultural activities destroying the natural habitat of the Park. This approach is also considered as a strategy towards food security. At the end of 2007, we still had to wait for proposals of service providers to implement these plans, but 2008 has to become the year of practical realizations. FICA also wants to follow up the ownership. The idea is to put this into a contract, which makes control by FICA possible. It goes without saying that it is not easy to measure whether all the efforts will improve food security in KwaZulu-Natal. “At the start of the programme, we carried out a baseline study, i.e. we measured the situation as it was at that time, and included a survey on the production, the purchase and the consumption of food. At the end of the programme, this can be done again�, explains Katrien De Pauw.
ered to be weeds. Gradually, the habit of serving these traditional meals died out. Many families eat maize porridge twice a day. This has led to chronic malnutrition and a lack of vitamins. These people are not skin and bones, but they are not healthy either, due to a lack of essential vitamins and minerals.
There are other, indirect ways to follow up on the effect of activities. You can, for example, observe how schools use the money of the Education Department to contribute to food security. In elementary school, children have a right to one meal at noon. Otherwise, they would not eat at all in many cases. It is common to give them a plate of rice or maize with some kind of tinned of processed food, such as tuna. But if a school has a garden, it can put more variation into the meals and break through the one-sided food pattern. The pupils do not only eat food of a better quality, but the gardens can be used as educational material as well, to demonstrate how to grow nutritious food. The food surplus can be stored or can be sold on the market. Another method to improve food security is to include crops that can be found in the wild into the diet again. Traditional food was varied and contained many leaf vegetables, today considActivity Report 2007 | 23
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FREE STATE, smme’s and aids opment agency makes recommendations to lead people towards an appropriate profession, such as child care worker, nursery school teacher, welder or plumber. It assists small companies in, for example, drafting their business plans and is responsible for their training. In practice, SEDA searches for a service provider to take care of the training courses and to supply them with the right material. This can be a professional training, but it can also be a skills training, such as accountancy or microcredits. In Free State, there are spin offs of previous initiatives as well. For example, a project in a nursery school is able to be extended, thanks to the SMME programme. Special attention is paid to women and to people on the margin of society.
The SMME programme runs in four different districts, each with its own economic background. The first district is a township, the second a rural area, the third, in the old mining area of Welkom, needs reconversion and in the fourth, the large degree of replacement incomes makes people increasingly dependent on the social economy. This gets extra attention, since it is the first time this kind of model is used in South Africa.
2007 was a year of preparation. A baseline study was carried out for each of the four districts. These studies give an overview of the situation at the start of the programme, what their priorities are and what market niches an SMME can fill. In other words: where exactly can you start working? Staff has also been hired for the business centres in the districts. Employees and employers get in touch with each other there. This will need the necessary follow-up in 2008. In a next phase, training material will be provided and counselling on the work floor after the training courses will be organized. FICA wants to play a role in this counselling by building up a mentorship system for practical trainings. This SMME programme should reach its cruising speed in 2008.
In this field, FICA will work together with SEDA, Small Enterprises Development Agency, supported by the South African Government. This devel-
The second programme in Free State is on the struggle against HIV/AIDS. In South Africa, AIDS is the number one cause of death, particularly
In the third province where FICA is active, Free State, the collaboration is still in its infancy. FICA supports two programmes, one on HIV/AIDS and another, the SMME programme, designed for the small, micro and medium enterprises.
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among young adults, even though UNAIDS lowered the number of South Africans who were infected with the virus or who have been found to have the disease in its last activity report. UNAIDS estimates that 320,000 were killed by AIDS in South Africa in 2005. A South African study estimates this figure to be higher in 2006, putting the figure at 345,460. This study estimates that, in the age bracket of 15 to 49, 71% of the deaths is caused by AIDS.
A multi-annual budget for the province of Free State is scheduled for 2009, both for the struggle against HIV/AIDS in Xhariep and for the SMME programme.
The Health Department estimates that in that same year 2006, over 5.4 million South Africans were infected with the HIV virus, which is nearly 11 % of the entire population. With 12.6 %, Free State has the third highest figure of all nine provinces. In some population groups, the figures are even more alarming. Nationally, 29.1 % of the pregnant women living in rural areas, have HIV. With 31.1 %, Free State has, once again, the third highest figures of all nine provinces. Older projects can be good examples It will therefore not come as a surprise that the provincial government of Free State has chosen to invest in the fight against AIDS. It is focused on Xhariep, a poor district in the south of the province. The unemployment rate is soaring and young people usually have nothing to do. FICA is going to support the Youth Community Welfare Programme. It wants to give these youngsters a stronger start in life. Now, resignation is reigning among them as they do not see how they can improve their fate. By teaching them life skills and by putting them to work, they get more selfrespect and they are stimulated to take more initiative. The AIDS programme also wants to involve both teachers and members of their community. Special attention is paid to education, to get rid of some myths regarding AIDS. 2007 was the starting year. It was not before December that the agreement was signed. Yet, a first step has already been taken as the staff has been hired. The true development is on the agenda for 2008.
Next to the four major programmes of the Strategy Paper Flanders – South Africa 2005-2009, 25 smaller projects were up and running in 2007 that had been started up previously. These projects are situated in different sectors, such as agriculture, housing, HIV/AIDS prevention, drinking water supply, wellbeing and juvenile delinquency. In these projects, which have long passed the start-up phase, FICA mainly focuses on the sustainability of the results, on top of the regular monitoring. Together with the partner organizations and various provincial departments, there is a continuous search for strategies to extend the results and experiences gained and to anchor them in the provincial policy. FICA also tries to be a platform for disseminating “good practices�, as the new projects can learn something from the old ones. Successful pilot projects from KwaZulu-Natal can be copied in Limpopo or in Free State. And other Flemish actors, working in South Africa, can learn from the Flemish development co-operation. The annex, at the end of this activity report, gives an overview of all projects and programmes of the Flemish development co-operation.
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MALAWI
PROVIDE AN INTEGRATED APPROACH The visit of the Minister for Development Cooperation, Geert Bourgeois and Flemish Prime Minister Leterme in March 2007 to Malawi was a milestone in the emerging collaboration between Flanders and Malawi. At the end of November 2006, Minister Bourgeois and his colleague, Joyce Banda, sealed the partnership between Malawi and Flanders by signing a Memorandum of Understanding. The field visit was, in fact, the definitive starting signal.
The choice for food security From the beginning, FICA has subscribed the programme of the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This happened in accordance with the Malawian Government, which gives top priority to food security and agriculture. In August 2006, the Ministry of Agriculture published the guidelines of its policy, within the context of pursuing a sustainable economical growth, which is one of the five pillars in Malawi’s Growth and Development Strategy. It wants to fight poverty and attain the millennium goals by 2015.
history in 2005. As a result, Malawians had to live on one meal a day or even less. Five million people – 40 % of the population – needed food aid in order to survive. This crisis hit the country only three years after the last drought period of 2002 and at a time when Malawi had slowly started recovering. This drought, and the bad management of the maize reserves, led to the worst famine in 50 years. Research has shown, however, that most rural households do not manage to produce sufficient basic food even in a normal year. More than enough reasons for the government to make food security a top priority!
How does Flanders promote food security, in cooperation with the Malawian Government and the FAO? It does so with a programme of 4.1 million €, spread out over three years. Given the integrated character of this programme, FICA will become active at different levels. The programme supports the government in helping them to develop a strong policy on food security as well as being active in the field. For FICA, involvement of the small farmers is a key point. Their needs and requirements are the very core of the programme. The objectives for the local communities are to increase and diversify the food production by means of small-scale irrigation, to encourage income-generating activities for the families and to reinforce farmers’ organizations.
Harvest results were better in 2006 and Malawi has been formulating policy documents and plans for years in cooperation with donors. In spite of the above, the food situation in Malawi has not improved. There is still a lack of good initiative coordination. At the government’s request, Flanders finances a top-level policy advisor for three years. For that part of the programme, 600,000 € is earmarked. The expert will work in the Department of Food and HIV/AIDS, directly for President Bingu wa Mutharika and his cabinet. This form of policy support will take off in April 2008.
This concern for food security is inspired by the recent food crises in Malawi. Due to the extreme drought, Malawi faced the worst food crisis in its 26 | Activity Report 2007
The expert has to confer with donors, put them in touch with the government and with civil society organizations, has to make sure the initiatives are streamlined and guarantee that food and food security are the agriculture programme’s first concern. His efforts should lead to a comprehensive plan on how to tackle food insecurity and
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agriculture issues. His expertise will not only be important at national level. It will have an indirect impact on the families’ situation, by developing more efficient and specific actions. Capacity building will be the focus of the programme, also at district level. This makes sense as Malawi initiated a decentralization process a few years ago, giving local authorities more responsibilities. Finally, FICA also wants farmers to take control over their own fate. Microprojects in Kasungu and Mzimba. Flanders will invest the remaining 3.5 million ₏ of the programme in the field in the districts, Kasungu and Mzimba. Once more, the improvement of food security is the main goal. In 2006, the malnutrition and food insecurity rates were extremely high in that region. Initially, Flanders will build district personnel’s capacity in Kasungu and
Mzimba by offering technical assistance. Capacity building has resulted in more concrete actions for the main target group, smallholder families. That is why the projects also provide services to about 29,000 families in Kasungu and Mzimba. A comprehensive analysis should map their needs and requirements. Then, the farmers will be offered tailor-made solutions via micro projects. At least sixty percent of the budget is reserved for these projects. They will be aimed at the following: 1. Strengthening small organizations that are active in the local community. 2. Mainstreaming cross-cutting issues such as gender and HIV/AIDS, with specific attention for the weakest, orphans, women and HIVinfected farmers.
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3. Development of small-scale irrigation schemes to cope with irregular and insufficient rainfall. 4. Protection of natural resources to increase the agricultural potential. 5. Increasing the farmer’s income by offering them commercial perspectives. 6. Improvement of the food quality via health and food education. 7. Construction of wells and sanitary infrastructure. In the first place, micro projects aim at improving food security. The central idea is crop diversification. That is vital. A monoculture of maize has been reigning in Malawi. Most people depend on the yield of their crops, as their basic food is nsima, maize porridge of only little nutritional value. This explains the high rate of malnutrition, particularly among children. On top of that, major crises arise in times of drought or floods. By subsidizing the use of fertilizers, the government can even obtain a surplus. Malawi, receiving food aid in 2005 itself, exported maize to Zimbabwe two years later and helped to give food aid to Lesotho and Swaziland. The fertilizer subsidy will be continued in 2008, but the question remains whether this will turn out to be helpful to the farmers in the long run, when the subsidies come to an end. The objective of the micro projects is to make the farmer less dependent on subsistence agriculture, through the means of diversification and commercial sector involvement. Not only will attention be paid to crop production, but also to the processing, conservation and marketing of the products. Once again, an integrated approach. This is a deliberate choice, because the problems the farmers encounter are, how individual as they may seem, linked in many cases.
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A micro-project example is mushroom cultivation. The farmers are guided in their search for the best business location, work method and market. This project complies with the need to diversify and it provides the farmers with another income source. Two birds killed with one stone. Building a new sort of oven is another example of an income-generating activity. Women learn to manufacture them with the materials available on-site and they can sell them. They can also keep them, and use them, because they are more ecologically friendly than the traditional ones. They consume less wood, which implies that fewer trees have to be felled. This way, these new ovens also help to protect the natural resources.
Components that, at a first glance do not appear to be directly related to agriculture, but may improve the general food situation, are also focused on in the micro projects: access to drinking water, building sanitary infrastructure, food training courses and social care.
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2008, AGRICULTURE REMAINS THE PRINCIPAL PART
As a preparation for the second programme for 2008, two pilot projects were funded at the end of 2007, with a value of 180,300 â‚Ź. FICA remains active in agriculture, and focuses on education and training this time. Two agricultural schools are supported to take up the fight against the lack of vets and other specialists. The number of veterinarians can be counted on the fingers of one hand - four, for the whole of Malawi! - and the number of extension workers has gone down by half over the last 25 years. In one of the colleges, FICA wants to refurbish the laboratories, together with the post mortem rooms, the slaughter room and the animal clinic. There is a lack of material, which makes it almost impossible to organize practical training courses or experiments.
There is a strong correlation between HIV/AIDS and the agricultural problems. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has a direct impact on the agricultural production. The infection rate in Malawi is substantial, 14 %. Due to the high mortality rate, the average life expectancy has dropped to 40 years. For the same reason, a considerable part of the active population between 20 and 40 is lost prematurely. As 90 % of the people work in the agricultural sector, HIV/AIDS has had a very negative effect, particularly in that sector. Care for ill people limits productivity, just as HIV/ AIDS is a major death cause amongst experts in the Ministry of Agriculture. Moreover, an increasing number of families are only composed of women, elderly people and children. Poverty in these families, led by a woman, is in many cases more extensive. The strategic plan of Malawi for 2007-2008 includes HIV/AIDS as an area of focus in the cattle breeding sector. Via training of civil servants and medical staff, it wants to lower the infection rate among cattle farmers and to reduce the negative effects HIV/AIDS has on them.
The fight against AIDS, a permanent point of attention
The additional nutritional value, thanks to an increase in the milk consumption also adds to a improving the health of HIV/AIDS-infected people. Specific dairy programmes have been developed for this matter.
One third of the 3 million â‚Ź agreement signed by FICA and UNAIDS in 2006 is specifically earmarked for Malawi.
Conclusion The pieces of the puzzle are falling in the right place. Government support, micro-projects aiming at improved food security, training courses at agricultural colleges and the struggle against AIDS. The projects of FICA in Malawi, since 2006, are quite cohesive. The integrated approach is yielding great rewards. By the end of 2008, the preparation of the second agricultural programme should be finished. In the course of 2008, FICA will open an office in Lilongwe, where a representative will be working. The cooperation with Malawi is not off to a false start. Activity Report 2007 | 29
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MOZAMBIQUE
PRIORITY TO HEALTH CARE AND THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS In 2007, one single event and also a radical, content-based decision characterized the co-operation between Mozambique and Flanders. The event was the visit of the Flemish Minister for Development Cooperation, Geert Bourgeois, to Mozambique in March. The decision refers to the prolonged and broader co-operation with the provincial health services of Tete province, in the centre of the country. On top of that, the foundations have been laid for substantial infrastructural investments on different health care levels in Mozambique. Special guests For Minister Bourgeois, accompanied by Minister-president Leterme this time, it was the second trip to Mozambique. Not only did he make political contacts in the capital, Maputo, but he also visited an AIDS project in Tete, and he flew over a flooded region in the province. He flew over the centrally located province of Inhambane as well, hit by hurricane Favio.
South Africans and they are unable to take part in the economic development of their region.
Favio caused serious damages to a training centre that was under construction in Vilanculos. This project had received financial support from Flanders a few years ago. In that centre, the local population was taught some basic skills to work in the tourist sector. Vilanculos is a tourist region, mainly attracting visitors from South Africa. But due to their low level of training, the Mozambicans have to leave the important jobs to the
30 | Activity Report 2007
The training centre was planned to be finished in March 2007, but Favio hit in February, so the expected completion date was no longer attainable. That is why FICA granted a grant of 219,471 € to the Fundaçaõ do Desenvolvimento da Comunidade, the local development foundation, to repair the damages done. The opening of the centre in Vilanculos is planned for the spring of 2008, with a one year delay. Shortly after the visit of Minister Bourgeois, FICA approved two emergency aid applications. 150,000 € was given to the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. This money is meant to get the small food producers going again in the disaster areas. Red
Working with the South
MOZAMBIQUE
Cross Flanders received 150,000 € to help the victims of the cyclone.
A health care screening
In 2005, during his first visit, Minister Bourgeois seized the opportunity to sign a document, a code of conduct, which commits Flanders to supporting the SWAp in health care. The SWAp, short for Sector Wide Approach, implies a broader approach for the health sector. With this code of conduct, the Mozambican Government imposes certain principles on itself, such as: • All public health funding has to be included in the annual operational plan and the budget. • All public tenders should be undertaken in accordance with internationally accepted principles and practices. • The capacity of Mozambican institutions, involved in the health system, has to be reinforced. • A climate of openness, transparency, accountability and honesty should be brought about.
In the spring of 2007, the results of the health sector for 2006 were evaluated. It was examined, among other things, what the effect was of the SWAp on the health sector. It showed that the number of ill people is equal to that of 2005, with two exceptions. The number of cases of measles has gone down and the number of malaria cases and deaths has gone up. Food still remains a problem for public health, particularly when this is linked to the impact of HIV/AIDS. The evaluation report gives an overview of the indicators of the Performance Assessment Framework 2006.
• The fight against corruption has to start. In exchange for this commitment, the donors agreed to gradually shift towards budgetary support. Since 2006, FICA gives two million € per year to Prosaude, the common fund for the health care sector. In the course of 2008, Flanders and Mozambique will sign a new Memorandum of Understanding. This should channel the budget support according to the spirit of the Declaration of Paris towards greater efficiency of aid.
Activity Report 2007 | 31
Working with the South
MOZAMBIQUE
Indicator Percentage of coverage DPT/HB vaccine 3rd dose
Target 2006
2006
Comments
95%
100%
Target reached and exceeded
Beds/1000 inhabitants Rate of unequal access
0.89
Below the recommended standard
3.3
3.6
Target not reached
Percentage of coverage residential deliveries
52%
48.4%
Target not reached
Postnatal consultations
62%
63.8%
Target reached and exceeded
-
190
Progress, but still far away from target
Integrated attention for child diseases
80%
90%
Target reached and exceeded
Training in care for newborns
80%
40%
Target not reached
Consultations per inhabitant
0.94
1
Target reached and exceeded
50
46
Target not reached
-
35,632
Below the recommendations of the World Health Organization
Extension of the prevention on vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS
110 sanitary units
222 sanitary units
Target reached and exceeded
Ill people in antiretroviral therapy
40,000
44,100
Target reached
Pregnant HIV-positive women on prophylaxis
16,000
12,150
Target not reached
Maternal mortality
Implantation of youth-friendly (AIDS) services Detection of TB cases
The best results for 2006 were attained in the areas below: • Extension of the health network, • Increased access to antiretroviral therapy, • Implementation of the strategy of integrated attention to children’s diseases, • Integration of the component “newborn” in the existing courses, • Vaccination of babies in their first year, • Acquisition and distribution of reference equipment, • Financially, mainly the budget execution, • A register in the field of safe motherhood and a plan to fight malaria. The weakest results for 2006 were attained in the areas below: • Education and mobilization of the communities, • Integration of gender component in the programmes, • Indicators on food monitoring keep on falling, • A plan to fight TB, low detection index, • Weak harmonization of the plans between the central and the provincial level, • Implementation of the financial management system on a provincial level, • Human resources, large turnover. The health sector in Mozambique remains strongly dependent on external funded. It remains underfunded, even though the resources available went up in 2007, compared to 2006. 32 | Activity Report 2007
Working with the South
MOZAMBIQUE
The fight against AIDS In July 2007, the Flemish Government gave the green light for the start of the second phase of the integrated network to fight HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Tete province. That is a logical consequence of the favourable evaluation the project received in 2006. The second phase runs over a period of three years, until June 2010. Similar to the first period of three years, 4.5 million â‚Ź has been earmarked. The general target remains the same: helping the provincial health services of Tete to offer a better care and a high-quality treatment of HIV/ AIDS and STDs. But the focus has shifted. The key words in the second phase are integration and decentralization. Integration refers to the introduction of HIV/AIDS care in the ordinary actions of the general health services, i.e. the strengthening of the health care system as such. Specifically aiming the programme at HIV/AIDS could have had a disrupting effect in the long term, which the parties concerned want to avoid at all costs. The decentralization in Tete province began back in December 2006. From then on, the antiretroviral therapy treatment was included in the care package of all districts. Previously, it was focussed on Tete city and the neighbouring Moatize district, which house 250,000 people. Similar to the first phase of the project, the second phase involves four partners: the provincial health services of Tete province and three agencies, i.e. the International Centre for Reproductive Health of the University of Ghent (ICRH/UG), Doctors Without Borders Belgium (DWB) and the Belgian Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM). The Mozambican partner leads the integrated network. ICRH/UG deals with STDs. DWB, with a long track record in the province, took the health centres and the population under its wings. ITM takes up the management of the provincial hospitals and trains health care workers, there and in the districts.
For this training, bricks have been laid that can become the foundation of an attractive building in 2008. ITM works in two fields: in Maputo, the capital, and in Tete province. In Maputo, ITM is organising scientific research, in co-operation with the National Institute of Health and with the Eduardo Mondlane University. The bio-ethical committee of Mozambique approved of a proposal, submitted in October. The executive staff is ready to start work. In Tete, in the field, ITM is testing methods on stimulating the medical staff to move back inland and to keep them there. Concrete incentives are, for example, offering a house and organising a female soccer team. Some activities within the health care project in Tete are specifically aimed at women: a better family planning for HIV-positive women, the prevention of HIV-transmission from mother to child and better care for risk groups, such as prostitutes.
AIDS in Mozambique, the figures It is not easy to give a correct overview of the impact of the AIDS epidemic in Mozambique. In its latest annual report, UNAIDS lowered its figures on the number of HIV infections and AIDS patients. Then again, the observation Mozambique has organized in 2007 on 36 points carries a risk of overestimation. In 2008, a representative national sample survey will be held for the entire population, including all adult men and women, instead of just checking on pregnant women. For a more exact estimate, we have to wait for the results of this survey. The figures found in four districts of Tete province, have to be interpreted with caution. The prevalence rate for Tete city is 19 %, which is above the national average of 16 %. The other three regions are well under the average. It is plausible to conclude that the AIDS epidemic has stabilized in the province of Tete, but that the percentage is very high, unacceptably high even according to specialists, and that it comes close to constituting a hyper-epidemic level. Activity Report 2007 | 33
Working with the South
MOZAMBIQUE
It is certain that a specific approach is needed to stop the increasing feminization of the AIDS epidemic. Some reports have already been written, among others one on gender, sexuality and vaginal practices in the province of Tete and a second study on gender aspects and the impact of HIV/ AIDS on a woman’s right to access land and natural resources. Training courses and workshops have also been organized by youth activists and representatives of NGOs. These are intermediary steps with a view to drawing up a national action plan. It should make women less vulnerable for the AIDS epidemic. Mozambique also works on a national campaign to raise awareness on gender, violence and HIV/AIDS and develops indicators to follow up on these issues. Investing in health care infrastructure FICA cooperates substantially to the extension of the health network on different levels. It finances the building of rural health centres, a new rural hospital and a new paediatric ward in the central hospital in the port city of Beira. The activities in Beira are scheduled to start May 2008. At the end of 2007, the job specification was almost ready. The paediatric ward will have three floors and 225 beds. The rural hospital will be built in Fingoé, in the province of Tete. Fingoé was chosen after intensive research into the most suitable district. Eventually all the people responsible of the whole province took a joint decision. FICA granted a subsidy of 3,403,898 €, which also has to finance the water supply in six existing health centres in the same district. On March 5, 2007, during his visit to Mozambique, Minister Bourgeois and the Mozambican Health Minister signed the agreement. At the end of 2007, the job specifications for the rural hospitals of Fingoé were not ready yet, but the government has already included its construction in its social-economical plan for 2008, together with six others. A new operation room will be built in Manjacaze, in the province of Gaza. This project should be ready by February 2008. 34 | Activity Report 2007
In two locations in the rural part of the province of Inhambane, in Mahangue and in Nhapandine, new health centres will be built. These should be ready by the end of February 2008 as well. They contain two consultation rooms, a regular one and a more extensive one, where vaccination take place, a general treatment room, a delivery room and a maternity clinic with three beds and toilets. Annual consultation On September 6, 2007, the second annual meeting with the Mozambican Government took place. A state of affairs was made regarding the execution of the Strategy Paper 2006-2010. In 2007, 10 projects were carried out. The strategic note 2006-2010 is a five-year programme that establishes the guidelines of the co-operation: • Cooperation should fit in the Mozambican Government’s second programme for the fight against poverty of the Mozambican Government, Plano de acção para a Redução da Pobreza Absoluta, 2006-2009. That plan is related to the Millennium Goals of the United Nations. • Cooperation is focused on two sectors: health and technical education. • Cooperation in the health sector comprises support to the expansion of the basic health services and to the fight against HIV/AIDS and STDs in the province of Tete, next to general support to the development of human resources in the health sector. • Cooperation in the educational sector fits in the PIREP, an integrated programme of the Mozambican government to reform technical and vocational education and vocational training.
Working with the South
MOZAMBIQUE
• The cross-cutting topics of the cooperation are HIV/AIDS and gender. Flanders does not support any specific gender projects, but it integrates the issue in the health care and HIV/ AIDS projects it supports, as indicated in that chapter.
TETE PROVINCE Tete Province is located in central Mozambique. It covers an area of more than 100,000 km² and has 1.5 million inhabitants (14 inhabitants/km²). Owing to the climate, the majority of the population lives in the north and northeastern part of the province. Economy The province is divided into three agricultural areas: north, central and south. The north is quite productive and fertile, while the centre and south are less so and suffer from drought. Agriculture mainly consists of subsistence farming. The province has a strong tradition in cattle farming and depends on the export of its huge coal reserves, which it started to exploit only recently. The province is also home to the Cahora Bassa dam, which produces 2,500 megawatts and supplies energy to Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. That is very convenient for South Africa. The FICA delegation experienced firsthand the power cuts and outages while travelling in the region within the framework of this activity report. The Mozambican Energy Minister recently declared that his country is prepared to supply South Africa with more electricity than it does now, without any new negotiations. Mozambique only uses one eighth of what the Cahora Bassa dam yields. There are plans to build a new dam down the river Zambezi by 2013, which can produce 1,500 megawatt. By the end of 2009, South Africa wants to increase the import of Mozambican natural gas, which they are exploiting together, by 20 %. Lastly, in December 2007, in Gaza province, the construction started of a biofuel factory, on the basis of sugar cane, one of Mozambique’s’ main
export crops. Thus, the country has a major biodiesel potential. Currently, it is still importing most of its fuel, but with time, it will even be able to export oil. By the end of 2008, the policy plan should be ready. President Guebuza did warn, however, that the biofuel industry should not have a negative impact on the food production and that farmers should not lose their lands. In this way, the energy crisis in southern Africa is stimulating investments in the Mozambican energy sector. Poverty and human development The UNDP, the United Nations Development Programme, annually calculates a human poverty index (HPI). To calculate the index for the Least Developed Countries, the HPI-1, they use the indicators listed below: • Probability that life expectancy is lower than 40 years, • illiteracy among adults, • population percentage without sustainable access to a good water source, • underweight among children. The figures for Mozambique and for Tete evolved as follows:
Mozambique Tete
1997 55,9 61,0
2000 50,9 51,3
2003 48,9 50,2
Poverty rates are gradually going down in Mozambique, but they remain high. In Tete, this tendency is even clearer, but the poverty rate remains above the national average. Activity Report 2007 | 35
Working with the South
MOROCCO The activities in Morocco, a partner country of the Flemish development co-operation from 1999 up to 2004, were completed in 2007. By the end of 2008, FICA would like to organize a closing seminar, both as a closing event and an evaluation moment. It wants to learn from the Moroccan projects, look back with the persons concerned, learn what they think of it themselves, and whether their situation has improved. This projects mainly focused on women’s and children’s rights. They had to make society more aware about the rights of unmarried mothers, orphans and children living on the streets. These population groups had to get access to social services, such as health care, they had to be taught how to read and write and their legal position had to improve.
36 | Activity Report 2007
Working with the South
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
These last few years, the element of sustainability has played an increasingly important role in the multilateral, European and domestic forums. The increasing success of voluntary initiatives of NGOs, and from the private sector as well, working for a more sustainable global trade, is linked to this. Corporate social responsibility is also a leitmotiv for the Flemish development cooperation. Some examples. 4C – towards a structured solution for the entire coffee sector Founded at the end of 2006, 4C broke through in 2007. 4C stands for Common Code for the Coffee Community. In essence, it is a code of conduct with economic, social and environmental standards for the coffee production and trade.
No more coffee crises 4C can be seen as the answer of the entire commercial coffee sector to the coffee crisis a few years ago, wanting to deal with the causes of this crisis in a structural way. Supported by the German Minister for Development Co-operation, the 4C dialogue started in 2001. The original target has been attained: developing a widely supported certification, with minimal standards in the social, economic and environmental field that are supposed to lift up the entire coffee sector to a more sustainable level. FICA is a founding member of the 4C Association, set up in 2006.
Activity Report 2007 | 37
Working with the South
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
ply with the 4C code of conduct. If this can be done in Colombia, the same should be possible in more difficult circumstances, particularly in the African coffee-producing countries.
Pilot projects in Colombia This result was obtained partly thanks to the positive experiences gained in two 4C pilot projects in Colombia. The farmers of ten villages in the province of Santander, 360 families altogether, were the guinea pigs. The project zoomed in on the entire process and on their living situation, not only on the way in which they grow coffee. The farmers were able to take training courses to make their cultivation more environmentalfriendly and also learn to work on a pc. Attention was also paid to fitting out of the offices where the computers are located and to improving the housing and sanitary infrastructure. The farmers were also offered training sessions in techniques such as stock management, marketing and sales methods. This test was that successful that FICA and the Federaciรณn Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, one of the biggest federations of coffee farmers in the World, decided to set up a second programme together, at the end of 2007, for which the province of Antiochia was selected. Lessons were learned from the programme in Santander. It appeared that the need for education is substantially higher than expected and that the situation differs per region. It is, in other words, a basic requirement that the farmers concerned and the federation work together to support such an initiative. If the co-operation in Antiochia turns out to be fruitful too, it is likely that, over time, the entire Colombian coffee production will com38 | Activity Report 2007
Basic philosophy yields rich rewards The 4C agreement leads to a more sustainable production. This has positive consequences on the quality of the coffee and pushes back overproduction at dumping prices. Thanks to the training and counselling that comes with the 4C certification, the farmer produces better coffee, and he gets a better price for it. While the bonuses and the fixed pricing agreements of sustainability labels such as Fair Trade, Utz Certified and Rainforest Alliance meet the demands of market niches, 4C should yield a higher income for the numerous producers of mainstream coffee. It was never the intention to make 4C visible as a label in the supermarket shelves, as it is a business to business initiative, so unlike the abovementioned labels, 4C was not intended to be used as a marketing instrument. In May 2008, FICA organizes a conference in Antwerp on the 4C Association and its code of conduct. All people, interested in sustainable and fair trade, are invited. By that time, it should be clear how the market responded to the supply of 4C coffee. One of the objectives of the congress is to investigate how complementary 4C is to labels such as Fair Trade, Utz Certified and Rainforest Alliance. Micro credits In early 2006, FICA created the Micro-Financing Guarantee Fund. The specialized Flemish development funds provide funds to the micro credit institutions in the South, which they can lend to small-scale entrepreneurs. Without foreign development funds, micro-financing institutions in the South cannot function, because they cannot secure enough money in their own country at normal rates. The Flemish development funds had therefore been asking for support to cope
Working with the South
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
with the risk management associated with these transactions. For that purpose, the Guarantee Fund was created. In 2007, the fund grew by 248,000 € to 496,000 €. Two Flemish funds, Alterfin en Incofin, were certified, so they are now able to file applications with FICA. The first application of Alterfin to set up a microcredit institution has been approved. Ex-Change Entrepreneurs have to be quite knowledgeable if their company continues to grow. They need additional knowledge on production methods, marketing, regulations on import and export, subsidies, etc. Flemish experts have what is needed to help them, because they previously managed SMEs themselves, for example, and are now willing to share their knowledge and experience with colleagues in the South. These experts joined forces to form the non-profit organization Ex-Change, a secondment platform for business leaders and other experts who allow themselves to be seconded to the South on a voluntary, temporary basis. FICA has signed a result-oriented management agreement with Ex-Change.
State. There are also complementarities with the actions in Limpopo on agriculture and in KwaZuluNatal on food security, which have a great deal of room for emerging companies. FICA takes into account the achievement indicators when awarding subsidies. Flanders contributes, with direct knowledge transfers, to the development of enterprise and employment in the South. Helpdesk Import Flanders With the Helpdesk Import Flanders, the Government of Flanders wants to help businesses from southern Africa – the partner countries Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa in particular – in their efforts to export goods to the EU and, more specifically, Flanders. The focus is mainly on SMEs. The creation of this helpdesk was entrusted to Unizo (Unie voor Zelfstandige Ondernemers – Organization of Independent Entrepreneurs) and is titled “Go North”.
There is an agreement that 30 % of the ExChange activities take place in one of the three target countries of the Flemish development co-operation, Malawi, Mozambique or South Africa. Ex-Change supports initiatives there that are directly or indirectly connected to the programmes of FICA. This is working quite well in South Africa. The co-operation with SEDA (Small Enterprise Development Agency) to help local SMEs perfectly fits the projects of FICA in Free
Activity Report 2007 | 39
Working with the South
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Unizo wants to set up a contact network in the three countries, where small-scale entrepreneurs can find the answers to all of their questions. For each country, and in South Africa even for each province, a team of specialists will be set up. They will help the SMEs with their export activities to Europe. In 2007, the national coordinator was appointed in Flanders. The same thing happened in the three partner countries. In these countries, a network of 13 facilitators was set up as well, who are tasked with facilitating the export of products to the EU. The three national coordinators were trained in Flanders, and received an extra training, together with the 13 facilitators in Pretoria. A manual and documents on import in the EU and on participation to trade fairs have been drawn up and translated. To conclude, a website was developed, in English and Portuguese, for the benefit of SMEs in Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa: www.helpdeskgonorth.eu. The Flemish Government has decided to extend the project by one year (2008). During this assignment, the development of the long-term vision will continue. After the second work year, an external evaluation of the GO North project will be carried out. This will, for a large part, decide on the project’s future. Similar to 2007, a subsidy of 300,000 ₏ will be earmarked for 2008.
40 | Activity Report 2007
Working with the South
HUMANITARIAN AID
HUMANITARIAN AID In 2007, FICA provided more than 1,859,000 € in humanitarian aid. The lion’s share, a little over half of this sum, went to Africa. Almost all emergency aid on that continent was used to cope with the consequences of natural disasters. Africa As indicated in the chapter on Mozambique, the particular needs of that country caused by hurricane Favio and subsequent floods have been met. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) received a grant to help the small food producers in the disaster area to get on their feet again. The Red Cross received almost the same sum to help the victims of Favio. Madagascar was hit by another devastating cyclone, Indlala. There, food and sowing seeds have been distributed. In Burundi and Togo, food aid was distributed after floods destroyed the harvest. In all these cases of flood, the population groups in need of help were carefully selected, in co-operation with the government. Priority was given to families who had little or no food available for themselves or for the market, without cattle or families with a small shop who had little or no in-
come and could not count on the support of relatives living abroad. Thanks to the food distribution, they can tide over the period until the next harvest, and it prevents a rise in prices caused by speculation. This working method also protects other families from a situation in which they cannot get enough affordable food. Purchases are done locally within the region as much as possible, to stimulate production and to keep the money in. Humanitarian aid also went to Chad. This has everything to do with Darfur. The war in that province in the neighbouring country, Sudan, resulted in a major stream of refugees. These people ended up, among locations, in the camp Ouré Cassoni. The aid tackles both the food and the security problem. It pays attention to the conflict about firewood that broke out between the refugees and the local semi-nomadic population, three times outnumbered by the refugees. To reduce the use of firewood, paraffin wax cookers were distributed and a reforestation and a tree nursery started up. The contribution of FICA is to purchase paraffin wax, fruit trees, sowing seeds and equipment for the nursery and for the construction of orchards. The improvement of the food situation goes hand in hand with measures to reduce tensions between the locals and the refugees. Latin America Floods in Mexico, where the storm Noël and subsequent floods left a trail of destruction in the south-eastern state of Tabasco. Aid packs were distributed by the Red Cross to people who were forced to leave their houses. Middle East and Asia Contrary to Africa, interventions in the Middle East and in Asia were mainly the result of longlasting conflicts. A grant was awarded to UNActivity Report 2007 | 41
Working with the South
HUMANITARIAN AID
RWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees. With the money, a psychosocial programme for young people was supported. These youngsters grow up in a situation that is so extremely violent and stressful that it also has consequences on their later life. Via UNHCR, the UN High Commissariat for Refugees, aid was given to Jordan, where Iraqi people sought refuge. The Flemish contribution served for tuition, textbooks and school equipment. Jordan wants to take care of the schooling of Iraqi children, who risk growing up there without any kind of education. In Myanmar, the WFP, the UN World Food Programme, received financial support. With this support, it imported food aid, to prevent the weakest population groups from becoming the first victims of the actions of the government against the democratic resistance. UNICEF received a subsidy to build sanitary infrastructure in the southwest of Bangladesh. In that country, cyclone Sidr left behind a trail of destruction in November 2007. Music for Life Lastly, FICA gave humanitarian aid to the victims of anti-personnel mines. It contributed 100,000 € to the first Music for Life fundraiser organised by Studio Brussel, a Flemish radio station, aimed at helping these victims. Red Cross Flanders, which helped set up the fundraiser, assisted in the rehabilitation programmes that the International Red Cross (ICRC) has established for victims of conflictual situations and violence.
42 | Activity Report 2007
Summary One third of the budget for humanitarian aid was spent on interventions in southern Africa, in Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique and Swaziland. 14 initiatives were financed in 2007, organized by six UN organizations and three NGOs. 63 % of the emergency aid was deployed via UN bodies, twice the figure of 2006. Working with the UN offers an advantage. Sometimes, these bodies have a history in an afflicted region, or sometimes, the national government has put them in charge of coordinating the international emergency aid. An average intervention cost 133,000 € in 2007. In 2006, it was just 115,000 €.
Working with the South
HUMANITARIAN AID
Organization
Country
Targets
ICRC
Various
Aid to anti-personnel mine victims
100,000.00
WFP
Burundi
Improvement of a difficult food situation, caused by heavy weather, floods and the return of refugees from Tanzania
100,000.00
FAO
Mozambique
Improvement of precarious food situation, caused by floods
150,000.00
Red Cross Flanders
Mozambique
Improvement of the sanitary infrastructure and housing of victims of cyclone Favio
149,968.00
UNRWA
Palestinian regions
Contribution to a psychosocial programme to support Palestinian refugees
250,000.00
Caritas International Madagascar vzw
Distribution of food and sowing seeds as a result of shortage, caused by cyclone Indlala
50,000.00
UNHCR
Improvement of the food situation of the refugees and prevention of conflicts with the local population
100,000.00
Caritas International Lesotho vzw
Dealing with critical food deficiency as a result of major drought
100,000.00
Caritas International Swaziland vzw
Distribution of food packages because of food scarcity caused by major drought
150,000.00
UNHCR
Jordan
Educational assistance for children of Iraqi refugees
150,000.00
WFP
Union of Myanmar
Distribution of rice to the economically vulnerable groups
150,000.00
WFP
Togo
Distribution of food due to floods
150,000.00
UNICEF
Bangladesh
Support to sanitary infrastructure and distribution of hygiene packages after cyclone Sidr
125,224.00
Red Cross Flanders
Mexico
Distribution of aid packs to displaced persons, after tropical storm NoĂŤl
133,711.20
Chad
Subsidy
Activity Report 2007 | 43
Rousing the North’s interest
ROUSING THE NORTH’S INTEREST
44 | Activity Report 2007
Rousing the North’s interest
THE FOURTH PILLAR
THE FOURTH PILLAR
A dialogue with the fourth pillar The Fourth Pillar helpdesk is under construction. The idea of a helpdesk springs from the Fourth Pillar seminar FICA organised in May 2007, based on a study of the Higher Institute of Labour Studies. Over the last few years, Flanders has experienced a proliferation of initiatives of young people’s associations, businesses, schools, foundations, trade unions, groups of friends and mutual health insurers, all of them organisations for which development co-operation is no core task, but nonetheless, they want to enter into a partnership with the South. Alongside the bilateral and international co-operation framework, respectively known as the first and the second pillar, and the NGOs as a third pillar, those initiatives of social organizations have started to lead their own lives. We describe this phenomenon as the fourth pillar.
In total, about 1,100 associations can be classified under this category, accommodating some 25,000 to 60,000 volunteers. More than 350 associations collect tax-deductible donations for the benefit of the South, at least half of which belong to the fourth pillar. On an annual basis, they collect between 47 and 68 million €, money aimed for specific projects, such as water pumps, or actions linked to the efforts of somebody in their network. Various themes were covered in this seminar, such as fundraising, intercultural cooperation, offering Flemish expertise, working in problem areas with a difficult target group and partner choice. This meeting was a major success, with some 200 visitors attending the workshops and an outreach moment. What are the conclusions of this Activity Report 2007 | 45
Rousing the North’s interest
THE FOURTH PILLAR
seminar? The main concern of these fourth pillar movements is know-how, not the funding of their development activities. They do raise funds, if not by receiving donations, then by collecting money through sponsored dinners or other, creative income sources. Nevertheless, there is a lack of information, in the first place from the government. They do not always find an adequate answer to questions, such as: how to set up a non-profit organization? How to organize transport by container? How to improve our own efficiency and the effects of projects in the field? In other words, they are looking for legal and logistical assistance. One of the most recurring questions related to training courses. They appreciated highly the fact that the seminar acted as a meeting place, call it a fair if you will, where all those organizations, sometimes active for many years, but unaware of one another, finally had a chance to meet.
In that way, the government kills two birds with one stone. In the first place, by making information about the fourth pillar and its activities available to the general public, great appreciation is shown for the tens of thousands of people committing themselves in a tangible way, but not via the well-trodden paths. With this website, the government can fulfil its directing function, in answering the people’s questions or in directing them to the correct institution. This improves their professionalism. In the second place, this site can also become a discussion forum or a chat room, a place where everybody active in the fourth pillar can exchange ideas and experiences. A working group, composed of collaborators to the fourth pillar, gives suggestions, hints and concrete information to build the website. In short, www.4depijler.be is a realization by and for the fourth pillar of the Flemish development cooperation. FICA is not planning to meet the dire need for training courses itself. It does, however, want to map the needs and investigate which existing courses can meet them. Once again, FICA wants to be a facilitator.
A fourth pillar helpdesk Based on the above-mentioned conclusions lack of information, training needs and need for mutual contact - the Minister for Development Co-operation, Geert Bourgeois, launched the idea to set up a helpdesk, to give content-based support to the fourth pillar. The first phase of its construction has been a digital initiative: a website, hosted by FICA. At the end of 2007, FICA entered into an agreement with a company to build this website. If everything goes according to schedule, www.4depijler.be should be online in the course of 2008.
46 | Activity Report 2007
By informing the general public on the fourth pillar, FICA wants to extend grass-root support for development co-operation, which is part of its assignment. This website is not a terminus. FICA stimulated the municipalities to pay special attention to the fourth pillar initiatives when proposing or prolonging covenants. This accent was also expressed in 2007 in the call for projects working in development education.
Rousing the North’s interest
SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION
SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION FAIR TRADE WEEK It is becoming a tradition that the Flemish Government participates in the Fair Trade Week, which took place from 3 to 13 October in 2007. In this ten-day period, the Flemish Government seized the opportunity to offer its civil servants fair trade mails in more places than usual and to inform them in a more comprehensive way about the range of fair trade products available. On October 9, all the restaurants in Antwerp and Brussels where the Flemish Government caters served a meal to nearly all 36,000 civil servants, composed of sustainable fair trade products. They feasted on quinoa pumpkins, herbs and crispy bacon, chicken Colombo from the Caribbean, coconut cream and purple rice. About 1500 € was spent on products for these fair trade
meals. VDAB (The Flemish Public Employment Service) and Kind & Gezin (The Flemish Public service on children’s well-being) participated for the first time in 2007. One lunch was not the end of the matter. In the main buildings, an information and degustation stand with fair trade products was installed. Not only could you taste these products, you could also find out where they can be bought. FICA wanted to show people that you do not have to go to a specialist shop, such as Oxfam-Wereldwinkel, to purchase these products. You can find them in the local supermarket or in the shop around the corner, that was the message that had to take root.
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Rousing the North’s interest
SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION
wine of the fair trade circuit. The Flemish Government made a conscious choice to serve, next to Max Havelaar coffee, other fair trade products as from 2001. It wants to raise awareness on this kind of development co-operation and it wants to set a consistent example.
For the first time, FICA also opened the doors of its home base for the public, the Baudouin building in Brussels to organize a real fair trade fair, under the slogan “Fair trade past in ons kraam” (Fair trade fits us). A successful initiative, demanding a sequel, since it caught on well with the people. About 600 people visited the fair, mainly civil servants, all of whom were personally invited. But people living nearby and passers-by also came in to taste, smell, feel and buy these fair products. Coffee merchants had a stand, wine was offered, and besides jewellery, textile and utensils, you could also buy food products, such as chocolate, fruit juice, ice cream, biscuits and waffles, sometimes of unknown brands. This range of sustainable products should be extended next time. All 16 participants are distributors of products with the Max Havelaar quality label or that have been certified by the federal Fair Trade Centre. The embassies of South Africa and Mozambique were there as well, to put their countries in the spotlight. The success was so overwhelming that it will definitely not remain a one-off event. In the next edition, it might be a good idea to rouse the interest of the general public, a public that has not found the way to the market yet. Awareness is the keyword! FAIR TRADE PURCHASES DURING THE YEAR For years, the Flemish civil servants and their visitors have been known to be thirsty people, quenching their thirst with fruit juice, coffee and
48 | Activity Report 2007
In 2007, the civil servants and their guests used 35 tons of coffee, 19,830 one litre bottles of fruit juice and 16,824 20 centilitre bottles of fruit juice. They also cracked 2866 bottles of wine. Compared to 2006, the consumption of coffee increased by a quarter, the consumption of big bottles of fruit juice by 15 % and the consumption of small bottles by 60 %.
Rousing the North’s interest
RAISING AWARENESS THROUGH THE MEDIA
RAISING AWARENESS THROUGH THE MEDIA THE FLEMISH NORTH-SOUTH PRESS PRIZE “From the ward on the right, an old woman is stumbling over a blood-stained carpet covered in glass towards the bathroom. Her toes are bleeding, she is leaving behind red marks that other people walk across. She is in uchungu sana” (‘terrible pain’). The medical certificate says she suffers from brain malaria. She too has the putere, but she would rather share her bed with an untested woman than with an AIDS patient. Nurse Aichi shrugs her shoulders: “You have to be a fatalist to keep up in here. There are two nurses for 80 patients, ten of whom do not have a bed. We have to put them on the floor. In the morning, we find them on the other side of the room. Because they do not want to lie under a dead body, or because they have been rained wet by their upper neighbour. We lack mattresses, sheets, painkillers, everything. Patients unwilling to stay in bed, are tied to legs of their beds with the belt of a deceased person, or with strips of cloth.” An extract from African Euthanasia, an article for which Anne De Graaf was awarded the North-South press prize, a prize of 5000 €. The article appeared in ‘De Morgen’, a Flemish newspaper, on December 1st, 2006. To write her report, Anne De Graaf worked in a hospital in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania for ten days as a nurse for AIDS patients. She makes the readers feel in a very clear way that AIDS remains a huge taboo in Africa. In the hospital, everybody dies of pneumonia, malaria or TB, nobody dies of AIDS, for that is the family’s wish. The jury praised Anne De Graaf for her “strong journalistic work that addresses a broad public through its participative journalism, original ap-
proach of the topic of AIDS and health care and the excellent style”. Anne De Graaf follows in the footsteps of David van Reybrouck and Han Zinzen on the list of honour of the North-South press prize. In 2007, 23 applications were submitted. The Africa series, published in Vacature from 17 to 31 March 2007, received an honourable mention. These three reports shed a quite refreshing light on Africa. You experience, as it were, an economic safari, which takes you, for example, to Kenya, a country exActivity Report 2007 | 49
Rousing the North’s interest
RAISING AWARENESS THROUGH THE MEDIA
made an analysis of how Africa is often left out of the picture and of what goes wrong and why when the media do report on that continent. A living illustration of the value of the North-South press prize. At the end, an appeal was made to pay extra attention to the media of countries like Malawi and Mozambique, where Flanders feels like home, keeping in mind the positive evolution in other African countries, such as Burundi. Laureaat Anne de Graaf.
porting millions of roses a year to the Belgian supermarkets. The jury of this prize consists of president Flip Voets, secretary-general and ombudsman of the Council for Journalism, Lode Berlage, professor emeritus, Gie Goris, editor in chief of MO*, Jan Ouvry, foreign countries coordinator of the VRT news and Corine van Kelecom, communications coordinator of 11.11.11. In awarding this North-South press prize, the Flemish Government wants to encourage the writing press to give more attention to development cooperation and to the North-South issues. Thus, it wants to broaden the interest for those themes in large sections of the population. FICA wants to make journalists more aware of their role in international solidarity by awarding this prize. The awards ceremony took place at October 1 2007. Country responsible, Zohra El Aissaoui expressed in words and pictures what occurred in the latest addition to Flemish development cooperation, Malawi. She underlined how Flanders strives to respect the Malawian policy choices and to complement with actions of other donors when it starts up joint initiatives. This illustrates that FICA respects the principles of the Declaration of Paris, particularly ownership of the country concerned and donor coordination and harmonization. The chapter on Malawi in this activity report amply explains this approach. After that, former VRT journalist Guy Poppe expanded on the theme ‘Africa in the media’. He 50 | Activity Report 2007
IPS and MO* News agency IPS and monthly magazine MO* write about global themes in their reports. The support for news agency IPS en MO* was increased in 2007 to 300,000 €. 60,000 € of this sum goes to the common website of IPS and MO*, www.MO.be, online since 2007 and continuously bringing global news. It joins the efforts of MO* and IPS to reach the widest possible audience from all over the world, to give them more extensive and better information about globalization. IPS appeals to its international network. The MO* editorial team selects the most topical reports from the magazine and provides global news from our own country. www.MO.be also gives a platform to experts, domestic and foreign politicians and other opinion leaders to proclaim their opinion and it gives thorough analyses.
Rousing the North’s interest
DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION
DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION Every year again, the Flemish Government supports a series of projects working on development education. In this way, it wants to contribute to rouse consumers’ and citizens’ interest in global solidarity. In 2007, FICA ratified the projects mentioned below:
Kwasa Kwasa vzw
Diversity training with a view to employment in a poly-ethnic society, 80.102,67 €
Mundiaal vzw
Mano Mundo festival: Culture as the driver of economical development, 60.000,00 €
Kinderrechtenhuis vzw
Youths against unacceptable child labour, 182.495,00 €
Wegwijzer vzw
Context southern Africa: Tourism as a lever for development in South Africa and Mozambique, 122.500,00 €
Don Bosco Onderwijscentrum Zwijnaarde
Lubumbosco, 25.900,00 €
Phos vzw
Accessible development education for people with sensorial handicap, 170.000,00 €
The development education projects that received a subsidy in 2007 mainly spread their activities over three years.
EXAMPLE OF A DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION PROJECT RATIFIED IN 2007 STEUN KINDERKRACHT, STOP KINDERARBEID (SUPPORT THE POWER OF CHILDREN, STOP CHILD LABOUR) This project wants to involve thousands of Flemish youngsters in the fight against unacceptable child labour, starting from the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Its main goal is the application of Convention I82 of the International Labour Organization. It aims at youngsters between 15 and 25, and in particular, people in risk situations. A travelling exhibition, called the infomobile, offers a varied and gender-sensitive information and educational kit. The ties with the South are made concrete via testimonies of child labour victims. The project also brings in young Flemish people who have been working in the South for a longer period and are willing to pass on their experiences and their views on child labour. ‘Steun Kinderkracht, Stop Kinderarbeid’ wants to influence the policy, in co-operation with trade unions and the work field, by giving the child labour victims a voice and a face.
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Rousing the North’s interest
DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION
The initiatives subsidized in 2006 are at cruising speed in 2007. In total, 715,462 € was earmarked for the six projects mentioned below:
Netwerk Bewust Verbruiken vzw
Happy Flowers, 124.960 €
de Pianofabriek
Alcantara, 115.000 €
Plan België
“Give us a minute”, 128.200 €
Wereldcentrum Steunpunt Mondiale Vorming
“Behind the mirror image”, 104.352 €
Alfa
“2015 I am coming too”, 182.500 €
Globelink
FAQtor4, 60.450 €
Give us a minute For this initiative of Plan Belgium, 18 young people from 14 to 18 years old were chosen to collect testimonies on development co-operation, children’s rights and the Millennium Goals. They asked young people of the North and of the South, politicians and Flemish and other celebrities for a minute of their time to give their opinion. These 18 people make up the Plan Youth Board.
Their mission is to raise awareness among people of their own age, i.a., by updating the website www.plan-belgie.org/plan_youth_board. In co-operation with the Flemish publishing house Uitgeverij Averbode, Plan Belgium also published a book: “Give us a minute, Jongeren voor jongeren over Kinderrechten in het Zuiden” (“Give us a minute, Youngsters for youngsters on Children’s rights in the South”). The book comes with a CD-Rom teachers can use in their classes. In the magazine Reflector, aiming at secondary schools, the students of the Plan Youth Board wrote reports on their experiences in Benin and in El Salvador. Achter de spiegelbeelden (Behind the mirror image) With this title, the Wereldcentrum Steunpunt Mondiale Vorming (World Centre Global Education Information Centre) brings an educational exhibition on women in the South. The exhibition wants to show the public how this association has a positive influence on their society, thanks to education and the fight against illiteracy, micro credits and empowerment. Portraits of women in Ecuador, El Salvador, the Philippines, India, Morocco, Rwanda, Turkey and Vietnam and their creative projects, for example in their textile work-
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Rousing the North’s interest
DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION
shop or as jewellery designer are the starting point of the stories. “Behind the mirror images” is an interactive exhibition, and is accompanied by workshops. Background information can be found on the website www.achterdespiegelbeelden.be. FAQtor4 Globelink offers an interactive website (www.faqtor4.be) on solidarity. The site contains, for example, four clips answering four FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) on that theme. These are questions like: Who do we help, how do you receive strangers, what value are you to the world and what do you give to whom? Young people from Flanders and from the rest of the world respond to these questions. These answers again provoke reactions. This leads to a virtual relay race.
2015 I am coming too (2015 Ik loop mee) With this initiative, Alfa takes part in the 11.11.11 campaign focusing on the Millennium Development Goals. Alfa develops two new multimedia workshops focusing on the campaign theme for two years: food security and fair trade in 2007 and decent labour for everybody in 2008. “2015 I am coming too” focuses on children in the last year of primary education. Alfa wants to reach 15,000 children. The educational and interactive website www.ikloopmee.be supports the initiative. A presenter of the public TV network children’s channel, Ketnet, acts as godmother or godfather and is the face of two action moments, developed by the children themselves.
Activity Report 2007 | 53
Rousing the North’s interest
MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION Covenants are co-operation agreements in which the municipality receives support and subsidies from the Government of Flanders in exchange for developing a strategic three-year plan. The most important aim of a covenant is the reinforcement the local North-South policy. Early 2005 a decree was passed governing the covenants policy, which should encourage an active local policy on development co-operation. In 2007, 37 local authorities had signed a municipal development co-operation covenant with the Flemish Government. Covenants with municipal authorities are linked to subsidies, budgeted at 2,000,000 € per year in 2005 and 2006. In 2006, no applications for
Ostend: Citylink with Banjul. 54 | Activity Report 2007
a covenant could be submitted since the decree stipulates that during the six-month period before a new administrative team takes office, no new covenants may be concluded. Local authorities that want to sign a covenant with the Flemish Government have to submit their application before October 1. FICA received 23 application forms for a covenant 2008 – 2010, 17 of which were a request to extend the covenant 2005 – 2007. For 2008, a budget of 2,262,000 € is earmarked for the subsidies linked to the municipal development cooperation covenant. At the end of March 2008, the Minister will decide which municipalities get a covenant for the period 2008 – 2010.
Rousing the North’s interest
MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
OSTEND: CITY LINK WITH BANJUL, THE CAPITAL OF GAMBIA IN WEST AFRICA When city authorities join forces… The main focus of the Ostend and Banjul City Link currently lies on capacity building of the Banjul City Council (BCC). A city council in the South should also be sufficiently equipped to guarantee a smooth provision of public services. The city of Ostend wants to contribute to the strengthening of the governance power in different fields. Over the last few years, the accent was put on the environment (waste and mangroves) and on a modern administration within the BCC. Ostend cooperated with actors outside of the city council in the fields of education and health care. Banjul@internet In the course of December 2006, the city councils of Ostend and Banjul optimized the introduction of IT systems in the Banjul City Council administration. Three Ostend civil servants (an IT coordinator, an electrician and a city alliance coordinator) carried out a three week work visit in Banjul. With the help of eight Gambian electricians, a network of 50 computers was installed, 38 computers of which were installed with the City Council administration. The other 12 computers were used to build an internet space and classroom. To make the network operational, no fewer than 3,000 meters of cables were needed. The computers and the required technical material were a gift of the Ostend city administration. In November 2006, everything was shipped to Banjul via container transport. From February to the end of April 2007, two network administrators were trained (by a Belgian IT consultant), who can manage the network by themselves. These network administrators are responsible for the city staff IT training as well. Every week, the ‘classrooms’ are used to give Word, Excel, Outlook
and ‘internet use’ training courses to the employees. Since its installation, this ‘classroom’ is also used by the students and teachers of the schools of Banjul. A rotation system has been developed to this purpose. A year after the installation, the Banjul City Council evaluated this project to be most positive, particularly in the financial domain. A more adequate tax collection – thanks to the computer network – allowed the city administration to nearly double its revenues. On top of that, the work attitude of the employees is stimulated as they can use this new infrastructure. The Ostend city administration commits itself to continuing the support of the Banjul City council for the further IT implementation within the administration. The Ostend city council also subsidizes 50 % of the labour costs of the network administrators. The internet costs and the administrator’s training were subsidized for 100 %.
BIERBEEK: CITY LINK WITH SAN FELIPE DE OÑA IN ECUADOR This covenant funds awareness-raising campaigns and capacity building in Bierbeek and in Oña. Activities are planned on sustainable development, the environment, strengthening of civil society, network development and capacity building. In 2007, after earlier exchanges, six girls from Bierbeek went to sister village San Felipe de Oña in Ecuador. The group had set clear goals: getting to know the world of the Ecuadorian young people, searching for challenges for a future co-operation, together with young people in Oña, and giving feedback to the general public in Bierbeek. An entire preparation cycle preceded this mission. During the exchange project, the girls discovered that the main
Activity Report 2007 | 55
Rousing the North’s interest
MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
needs are organization, support, information and participation in local politics. On October 31 2007, Oña and Bierbeek signed a new co-operation agreement, during an official visit of Bierbeek. An extract from the report of Bierbeek’s official mission’s to Oña, fall 2007: “Bierbeek an Oña nemen hoogte van elkaar” (“Bierbeek and Oña size each other up”). Since a few months, an organisation process has started among the young people of Oña, originating from the group that travelled to Bierbeek in 2006. Meanwhile, this group has expanded greatly, and, in particular after the visit of the six girls this year, they are motivated to develop a real youth’s association, in which all communities are represented. How they will organize themselves, and on what themes they will work is being sorted out. Cultural activities (music, dance...), social activities (e.g. with children and elderly people) and actions on waste and the environment are certainly of interest to them.
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This brings us to the second point of the meeting: via this fraternization, we can support and reinforce this organization process. On the one hand, there is the group of young people in Bierbeek, who are also getting themselves organized, with whom they can exchange. On the other hand, we can offer support and inspiration from the municipal youth service: how to develop a solid youth association, how to get, not only to moral support but also logistical and financial support from the municipality of Oña, how to participate in the policy-making process as a young person… We explain the actions of the youth council in Bierbeek, and describe the tasks of the youth counsellor. Young people still have has a long way to go, and Bierbeek offers to accompany them for a part in 2008.
Rousing the North’s interest
MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
FairTradeTowns 43 municipalities in Flanders are able to call themselves Fair Trade Towns, and 97 others are on their way to getting the same title. This implies that 104 Flemish municipalities, nearly half of all municipalities, 45 % to be exact, have this title of honour or have taken steps to start working on getting it. “With that result, Flanders is a world leader”, said the Minister for Development Co-operation, Geert Bourgeois. The ambition for November 2008 is to have 65 Flemish municipalities that can use this title. This has been agreed upon by the stakeholders driving the campaign, Max Havelaar, Oxfam-Wereldwinkels, Vredeseilanden and 11.11.11. This title of FairTradeTown indicates that a municipality and its citizens are in favour of fair trade and that they are actively working on it. They have to meet a number of criteria to get this title: the local council adopts a resolution and buys Max Havelaar coffee and at least one other fair trade product to serve in the cafeteria or in the office; the local hospitality industry and shops offer fair trade products, and also the companies, schools and associations participate in this initiative. A group of volunteers coordinates the initiatives. On January 25 and 26 2008, an international conference was held in Brussels. FairTradeTowns from 16 countries and states, among which Flanders, where a similar initiative exists, gathered to exchange practice experiences and to plan future activities. More information on FairTradeTowns can be found on www.fairetradegemeenten.be
Activity Report 2007 | 57
Rousing the North’s interest
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
In 2007, the Flemish development co-operation worked with a budget of 22,065,794.79 €. That is over 4.5 million € more than in 2006. The increase mainly favoured, for 42 %, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa, the three partner countries. The lion’s share of the budget of 2007 was spent on health care and agriculture and on food security, which appears in diagram 1. Other important sectors are emergency aid, support to NGOs and awareness campaigns. Flemish development co-operation in line with the millennium goals At the start of the new millennium, in September 2000, the member states of the United Nations
58 | Activity Report 2007
adopted the Millennium Declaration. This is a set of agreements to unite all countries to tackle the main global problems. Eight concrete and measurable goals have been fixed, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They are intended to end poverty, illness, inequality and environmental problems. If we achieve these eight MDGs, the world will look as follows in 2015: 1. The number of people living in extreme poverty and malnourished people has gone down by half, compared to 1990, 2. All children attend primary schools, 3. Girls and boys get equal opportunities, in primary and secondary education by 2005, on all educational levels by 2015, 4. The mortality rate among children under five has been reduced by two thirds, compared to 1990,
Rousing the North’s interest
RESOURCES
5. The maternal mortality ratio has been reduced by three quarters, compared to 1990, 6. The spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases has stopped, 7. In all countries, sustainable development is integrated into the environmental policy and the irreversible loss of natural resources has stopped. The proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water has been reduced by half, and at least 100 million slum dwellers notice a significant improvement in their lives, 8. Worldwide, countries and institutions are working together on development. Agreements are made on good government, countries engage in fair trade with each other, and a fair financial system has been set up. The debt problems of developing countries have been solved and the new technologies have been made available to them. Young people have decent work. To shape its development policy, Flanders refers to the Millennium Development Goals. In diagram two, we split up the budget, and we assign all posts, with the exception of a small amount, to an MDG. Graphic 2: Distribution of the 2007 budget by MDG
MDG1 appears to be, by far, the most important one. This means that the Flemish development co-operation spends a major part of its budget on pushing back hunger in the world and eradicating extreme poverty. More specifically, MDG1 wants to halve the number of people living on less than a dollar a day in 2015, compared to 1990. Other MGDs getting much attention from the authorities are MDG5, 6 and 8. This can be explained by programmes aimed at, respectively, health interventions pursuing the reduction of the maternal mortality ratio, the struggle against AIDS and the support to NGOs. Rousing the north’s interest, working with the south A substantial part of the Flemish development co-operation budget, 85 %, goes to the South. Relatively speaking, the expenditure for rousing the north’s interest, comprising 15 % of the budget in 2007, is going down. Compared to other donors, this is a good proportion. It is a result of the policy choice to apply the budget increase to interventions in the South. With regard to the working with the south, the programmes in Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa take up the lion’s share of the budget, 89%. FICA, a strong organization in 2007 FICA used 99.82 % of the resources included in the 2007 budget. This is a better percentage than in 2006. Furthermore, 2007 new policy themes were further elaborated, such as sustainable trade and the fourth pillar. FICA manages over half of the resources the Flemish Government earmarks for development co-operation. Together with the other projects, supporting other departments in Flanders and in the South, these make up the Flemish ODA (Official Development Assistance).
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Rousing the North’s interest
RESOURCES
In 2007, FICA had a budget of 1,431,439 € in operational funds. These resources are included in the budget to make the agency function. We can distinguish five main categories: salaries and allowances, working costs, IT costs, purchases and investments and the remaining investment goods.
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The operational funds represent 6 % of FICA’s resources in 2007. Thus, these overhead costs are very low, compared to other donors and actors. For 11.11.11, this is 16 %, for Vredeseilanden 16 % and for BTC 11.5 %.
Rousing the North’s interest
RESOURCES
Conclusions 1. In 2007 the development co-operation budget increases by 4.5 million â‚Ź. 2. When choosing sectors, the budget follows the foreseen policy lines. 3. The Flemish development co-operation puts a strong focus on four of the eight Millennium Goals, which corresponds to the policy choices. 4. More and more resources go to the South, in particular to southern Africa. 5. FICA works with particularly low administrative costs.
Activity Report 2007 | 61
BIJLAGEN
ANNEXES
Introduction
ANNEXES
South Africa Project Title
Partner
Sector
Flemish budget
Status
Kind
Name
Empowerment for food security 2005-2009
Provincial government
Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, Kwazulu Natal
Agriculture – food security
7.500.000,00 €
Being implemented
Agribusiness Development Academy Programme 2005-2009
Provincial government
Department of Agriculture; Limpopo
Agriculture – farm management
7.500.000,00 €
Being implemented
Sustainable Natural Resource Management.
Provincial government
Department of Agricultural and Environmental Affairs Kwazulu Natal
Agriculture – sustainable land use
924.7081 € 1
Being implemented
Capacity building of the farmers on the Makhithini irrigation scheme
Provincial government
Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, KwaZulu-Natal
Agriculture – farm management
205.057 € 1
Winding up
Job creation/ Small-medium and micro enterprises in the Free State 2005-2009
Provincial government
Department of the Premier; Free State
SME sector – Employment/ business centres
3.750.000 €
Being implemented
The Youth and Community Wellness Programme in Xhariep in de Free State.
Provincial government
Department of the Premier, Free State
HIV/AIDS – Youth welfare
3.750.000 €
Start up
Strengthen Voluntary Confidential Counselling and Testing in the Free State Province
Provincial government
Department of Health, Free State
HIV/AIDS – prevention
609.985,00 €
Being implemented
1 Gefinancierd door dept. Leefmilieu, Natuur en Energie.
Activity Report 2007 | 63
Introduction
ANNEXES
The Voluntary Counselling and Testing Project in the Limpopo Province
Provincial government
Department of Health and Welfare of Limpopo
HIV/AIDS – prevention
837.115,39 €
Being implemented
Home and community based care in Limpopo
Provincial government
Limpopo Department of Health and Welfare
HIV/AIDS – home care
835.041,06 €
Being implemented
A Domestic Violence and Rape Victim Empowerment programme targeted at Children and Women in the Free State Province
Provincial government
Department of Public Safety, Security and Liason, Free State”.
Domestic violence against women and children
491.399,53 €
Being implemented
Children at risk: breaking the cycle of violence in Free State.
Provincial government
Department of Social Development Free State
Young people as secondary victims of domestic violence or their transition to become perpetrators.
826.383,00 €
Being implemented
The Manyeleti Youth Academy Project
Provincial government
Department of Safety, Security Limpopo
Juvenile delinquency
680.825,00 €
Being implemented
Youth Development Centre Project”
Provincial government
Department of Public Safety, Security and Liaison; Free State
Juvenile delinquency
601.102,00 €
Reformulation
Implementation of a housing component within a municipal structure and provide housing consumer education at municipalities/deel II
Provincial government
Department of Housing of KwaZulu Natal
Housing
590.179,00 €
Being implemented
Groutville Community Care Homes Project in KwaZulu Natal.
Provincial government
Department of Housing KwaZulu Natal,
Housing – HIV/AIDS orphans
297.188,00 €
Being implemented
64 | Activity Report 2007
Introduction
ANNEXES
SOHCO: Delivery of Social Housing Units of Low Income Earners in the E’Thekwini Metropolitan Council
NGO
The New Housing Company
Housing Social housing
487.400 €
Being implemented
Water and Sanitation Programme for the deep rural areas in the Sekhukhune district
NGO via National government
NGO Tsogang via Department of Water and Forestry
Drinking-water supply
1.475.056,80 €
Completed
KwaZulu Natal Nature-based and Cultural Tourism Skills Development in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park
Parastatale
Greater St Lucia Wetland Park Authority, KwaZulu-Natal
Tourism – employment
449.720 €
Completed
Early Childhood Development
Provincial government
Department of Education Free State
Education – nursery education
407.993,37 €
Being implemented
Local Governance Unit/ Deel II
Provincial government
Department of Local Government and Housing Free State
Local authority management
341.400,00 €
Being implemented
Training and support of the after care centres for adults with a mental retardation in the Northern Province of South-Africa
Provincial government + Flemish non-profit organization
Department of Welfare Limpopo + Fenix Unite vzw
Disabled sector
779.590 € + 371 840 €
Being implemented
OSDP Awareness Raising Campaign
National government
Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP) in the Presidency
Disabled sector
531.800 €
Being implemented
Activity Report 2007 | 65
Introduction
ANNEXES
MOZAMBIQUE Project Title
Partner
Integrated network to fight HIV/AIDS in Tete en Moatize
Building a new ward in the central hospital of Beira
Sector
Flemish budget
Period
Ministry of Health (MISAU), Health care Provincial Health Services of Tete, Doctors Without Borders, Institute for Tropical Medicine, Ghent University (International Centre for Reproductive Health)
9.117.788 €
2004-2010
Ministry of Health (MISAU)
Health care
1.043.082 €
2005-2009
Building of health infraMinistry of Health (MISAU) structure in Inhambane and Gaza provinces
Health care
560.000 €
2005-2008
Strategy to address the increasing feminization of the HIV epidemic in Mozambique
UNAIDS
Health care
815.000 €
2005-2009
Support for PROSAUDE (joint fund for the health sector)
Ministerie van Gezondheid (MISAU
Health care
6.000.000 €
2006-2008
Human Resources for Health
Ministerie van Gezondheid (MISAU), Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Health care
1.063.600 €
2006-2008
Basic health care and capacity building in Tete province
Rode Kruis Vlaanderen en Rode Kruis Mozambique
Health care
740.086 €
2006-2008
Basic health care and capacity building in Tete province
Ministry of Health (MISAU)
Health care
3.404.898 €
2007-2009
Vilanculo training centre
Fundaçao para o Desenvolvimento da Comunidade (FDC)
Education and training
673.471 €
2003-2008
Apopo-project
Apopo
Mine clearance
1.296.162 €
2003-2007
66 | Activity Report 2007
Introduction
ANNEXES
MALAWI Project Title
Sector
Flemish budget
Status
Capacity building to fight the vulnerability HIV-AIDS of women and girls regarding this disease in Malawi
2.000.000 €
Being implemented
FAO: Contribution to an improved food security and food situation in Malawi
Agriculture and food security
4.100.000 €
Start-up
Refurbishing the labs in the Natural Resources College
Agriculture/education
90.189 €
Start-up
Bunda College of Agriculture: Capacity building of veterinaries and extension workers in Malawi
Agriculture/education
90.111
Start-up
HIV prevention programmes and children affected by HIV/AIDS in SADC
MOROCCO Project Title
Sector
Flemish budget
Status
Developing a versatile training programme Eliminating illitand building two classrooms, a laboratory, a eracy/ employsmall day-care centre, an office and toilets ment Coopérative Ajddigue
135.932 €
Completed
Organization of the traditional craftsmen, training and quality improvement VIC en Tizi-Randonnées
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
365.664 €
Project completed – financial settlement
Construction and restart of a day-care centre in the hammam Association Solidarité Féminine
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment/ social
150.000 €
Scholarship fund for children living on the streets / Association Bayti
Eliminating illiteracy/social
149.950 €
Project completed – financial settlement
Professional training for female victims of violence Centre Annajda SOS
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment/social
110.400 €
Completed
Completed
Activity Report 2007 | 67
Introduction
ANNEXES
Eliminating illiteracy, civil rights and women’s rights Association Centre Assaida Al Horra
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
64.800 €
Completed
Eliminating illiteracy and professional training for expectant mothers Centre Al Massira pour la Protection de l’Enfance
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
44.900 €
Completed
Centre for the benefit of literacy and professional education of women Association Ait Kamra pour la Coopération et le Développement
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
39.400 €
Project completed – financial settlement
Counselling and training for women who are about to leave prison Union Féminine Marocaine
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment social
52.230 €
Completed
Development of a workshop to improve the Eliminating illiteracy/ production of El Mendil, and to make it employment more profitable Union Féminine Marocaine
90.210 €
Completed
Centre de Formation Féminine Association Alamal
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
95.900 €
Completed
Support for the women’s department of Forum Belgo-Marocain pour la Coopération, le Développement et la Solidarité
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
103.880 €
Completed
Foundation of production co-operations of Argania almonds in rural areas Association Ibn Al Baytar
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
252.850 €
Completed
Adult and young peoples’ education for equality and citizenship Ligue Démocratique pour les Droits de la Femme
Eliminating illiteracy/social
607.267 €
Completed – financial winding-up
Detection and treatment of children with a handicap Association Marocaine pour une Vie Meilleure
Social/wellbeing
217.600 €
Completed
Improvement of the women’s position in the co-operation of Beni Yaala Zkara of Jerada AMAD
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
9.900 €
Completed
68 | Activity Report 2007
Introduction
ANNEXES
Development opportunities for young women Tazolte Association Al Manar
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
111.617 €
Completed
Fondation pour le développement local et le Microcredit partenariat micro-crédit
82.798 €
Completed
Association de Microfinance Oued Srou
Microcredit
49.925 €
Completed
Institution Marocaine d’ Appui à la microentreprise
Microcredit
65.000 €
Completed
Centre for the benefit of literacy and vocational training for women Association Ait Kamra pour la Coopération et le Développement- herformulering
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
31.872 €
Project completed – financial settlement
Coopérative Ajddigue- Refurbishment project
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
40.500 €
Completed
Ligue Démocratique pour les droits de la femme – Caravan to make people aware of women’s rights
Eliminating illiteracy/ employment
80.421 €
Completed
Activity Report 2007 | 69
Introduction
COLOPHON Responsible editor: Freddy Colson, Boudewijnlaan 30, 1000 Brussel Coordination: Gitti Van den Borre, FICA Editor: Guy Poppe, journalist Lay-out: Ingrid Van Rintel, Government of Flanders – communications department Photos: Guy Poppe and FICA, City of Ostend and community of Bierbeek Printing: Agentschap Facilitair Management, digital printing Depot Number: D/2008/3241/116
MORE INFORMATION? Visit our website: www.vlaanderen.be/ontwikkelingssamenwerking E-mail: ontwikkelingssamenwerking@vlaanderen.be
70 | Activity Report 2007