The Glue in Our Interconnected World - Reflections from my visit to Farm Africa's work in Ethiopia
22 July 2015
Farm Africa Trustee and lead for KPMG’s Global Development Initiative, Serena Brown, travels to the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia and then on to the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa.
I was somewhat disconcerted to be unable to make a phone call or access the internet for the duration of my three day visit to see Farm Africa’s work in the Bale Mountains. In stark contrast, everything else I learnt during my visit brought home to me the interconnectedness of our world and the vital importance of collaboration, one of the key themes of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which I am also in Ethiopia to attend.
Bringing together the poorest nations with the wealthiest, big NGOs as well as small, and businesses from every Continent, attendees had gathered to negotiate and agree on a document that will guide international efforts on sustainable development for the next fifteen years. This document, known as the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, states that a revitalised global partnership harnessing public, private, domestic and international financial and technical resources is the key to realising inclusive, sustainable development.
Called a “a critical step forward” by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda paves the way for a new global sustainable development agenda that world leaders are expected to approve this September. It’s this focus on partnership and sustainably driving prosperity which resonate so well with Farm Africa’s approach, especially here in Ethiopia’s Bale National Park.
The journey from Addis Ababa (Ethiopia’s capital city) to the Bale Mountains is long (around 7 hours) but incredibly smooth, in part thanks to a 6 lane toll highway, built recently with Chinese help. The improvement in infrastructure since my last visit six years ago is really encouraging. I see several wind turbines on the hills near Addis, pylons taking hydro-electric power to remote communities and solar panels powering radio base stations.
As we continue along the long road south, the number of cattle, goats, donkeys and horses on the road grows. A troupe of baboons, a herd of nyala, several warthogs and a serval cat alert me to the fact we are nearing the Bale Eco Region National park. First we meet Neville who is leading the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s efforts to conserve the park. I come to understand that Farm Africa’s work is a key enabler of his conservation efforts. By helping communities around the perimeter of the park to better manage the grazing of their cattle and increase their farming productivity, Farm Africa is reducing the communities’ demand on the park’s resources.
After travelling up to Tulu Dimtu, Ethiopia’s second highest point at 4,377m, then down through beautiful alpine forests, we descend further into the lush Harena rainforest. We pull up seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but a boy appears from the trees with a pot of honey he has just harvested, followed soon after by some of the Farm Africa team and community.
As we walk through the forest we see the abundant wild coffee all around us. We sit and meet with several of the community elders who explain to us the transformation which Farm Africa is catalysing. They tell me they used to just think the forest belonged to the government but now they recognise it as their resource.
Following Farm Africa’s Participatory Forest Management approach, together the local government and community have developed a Forest Management Plan which is helping regenerate, and with it the growth of wild forest coffee. Farm Africa is helping the community to increase the value it gets from the coffee through better harvesting techniques and better access to markets.
I look at the Rainforest Alliance (‘RFA’) certificate that had just been secured and I am amazed to hear just how valuable it is. The community says that a few years ago they were averaging about 20 Birr per kilogram of coffee beans, whereas now the RFA certified coffee exported to Italy is worth 150 Birr per kilogram. Farm Africa has also linked these remote communities to the global carbon financing market. This means that through a scheme known as REDD+ (‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation’) they will soon receive additional income in recognition of the global environmental value of their forest conservation.
We then descend further through the Acacia forest and out into open farmland. We met the labourers harvesting improved crop varieties which Farm Africa has introduced. These include drought resistant maize, a traditional crop which the community had given up on but which is now flourishing thanks to the hybrid seed.
We drive on, past some camels, to a town which was abuzz with the excitement of market day – an animal market established by Farm Africa to improve trade. We return to our overnight accommodation, stopping briefly to buy divine smelling eucalyptus oil, Adey Abeba cream and Frankincense from a shop supplied by a factory Farm Africa established some years ago!
So as I return to Addis Ababa for the United Nations World Conference, I reflect on Farm Africa’s work - acting as the glue which binds different communities, charities, government departments, academics and funders together to lift farmers out of poverty and simultaneously conserve our planet – a vivid illustration of the ‘global partnership’ which will underpin world leaders’ plan for making our world more prosperous, inclusive and sustainable.
