Track V: Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid
January 29, 2006 by admin · Comments Off
| Panel I: Fair Trade: Turning the Pyramid Upside Down |
| PANELISTS |
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Base of the Pyramid fanfare focuses on the business opportunity for multinationals to sell goods and services to the poor in developing countries. Fair Trade turns the pyramid on its head by connecting the poor directly to international buyers – and, in turn, to millions of US consumers – and empowering them to become international businesspeople. In six years, sales of Fair Trade Certified products in the US have channeled more than $67 million in additional, above-market revenue to farmers and farm workers throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia. Fair Trade income funds sustainable local development projects – health systems, scholarships, women’s leadership initiatives, and microfinance programs – in over 50 countries around the developing world, and provides over 1 million farmers with resources to invest in their businesses and their products.
Fair Trade is increasingly recognized as the gold standard of social and environmental certification. It has expanded from its emergence in the specialty coffee market to a growing number of commodities: cocoa, tea, rice, sugar, bananas, mangoes, pineapples, and grapes. Consumers can now choose Fair Trade Certified products in Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonalds, supermarket chains, and college cafeterias. Panelists will draw upon their experiences at various stages in the Fair Trade supply chain to examine the following issues: Read more |
Opening Keynote Speaker
January 28, 2006 by admin · Comments Off
ZACKIE ACHMAT
HIV/AIDS Activist in South Africa
Born in Johannesburg, Zackie Achmat was raised in a Muslim community in Cape Town. He started his political life at 14, as one of the leaders of the 1976 anti-apartheid school boycotts. Between 1976 and 1980 he was arrested and detained by the security policy, and tried and imprisoned at some point in each of those years – which prevented him from completing high school.
After his release in 1980 he turned to underground work, revealing a flair for strategizing and tactical application as well as political education. He built a series of NGOs providing educational support to disadvantaged youth, skills training for school leavers and in the health sector. He was active in promoting the ANC at a mass level – from organizing the first open mass ANC funeral in the Western Cape, to publicizing the Freedom Charter in massive meters high murals spray painted onto walls all over Cape Town.
At the same time, Zackie remained critical of the leadership of the ANC, and never compromised his principles for the sake of political position or favor. This characteristic earned him intense loyalty from some, respect from others, often enmity from those in power. Zackie’s political philosophy was based on Marxism. As the events of the early 1990s unfolded he revised his ideas on Marxism and embraced the achievements of the new South African constitution. He realized that the struggle for social justice was going to be much more protracted than the perspective of 1980s suggested. He understood that the “human rights culture” required by the new South African constitution was not something automatic and would have to be fought for.