Keeping families afloat

Photo: Queueing for the bank. IRIN

I wrote in an earlier post, Savings for Migrant Workers, about the importance to developing countries of migrant workers sending back funds to their families. In that case it was about France setting up special savings accounts, and websites to enable people to compare exchange rates.

About 3 million people have left Zimbabwe (roughly a quarter of the population) and many have come to Britain, finding it relatively easy to come by work in the IT, medical and teaching sectors. The semi-skilled migrants have tended to move to countries closer to home.

Many if not most, send back money to their families. A study conducted in 2006 found that over half the households in Harare and Bulawayo received help from outside the country. The help is not necessarily only money. There are various methods of sending fuel or groceries, even medical insurance.

Mukuru.com is one such remittance company. Someone in this country can choose to buy or top-up a mobile; pay for TV channels; groceries such as rice, oil, salt, candles; settle an invoice for an internet connection.

More detail on IRIN

Tropical Legumes Project

Legumes are the third largest family of plants, and many species among them are very nutritious and/or improve the quality of soil. However they haven’t so far received a great deal of attention to increase yields and help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Soybeans

ICRISTAT, the International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics are conducting a research and development project to improve the productivity of legumes. This will be funded for three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will act in partnership with the Program for African Seed Systems to ensure the availability of the seeds to African farmers.

Peanuts

Legumes are rich in protein and minerals and sometimes referred to as "poor man’s meat". They hold great promise for fighting hunger, increasing income and improving soil fertility.

Black eyed beans

The research is being carried out in 14 different countries in Africa, as well as in Asia.

Malawi's maize

I mentioned a while ago that the maize harvest in Malawi was going to be a record this year, on top of a record last year.

While this was good news, I did read elsewhere the question being asked of why they were still receiving aid from the US. It might seem that it’s a good idea – the money could be given to people living in such poverty they cannot afford to buy maize, even at the presumably low prices a record harvest would produce.

Regrettably, according to an article in The Observer, the aid money has to be spent buying American grain which is to be shipped to Malawi. So Malawi farmers cannot sell their produce and the price has dropped drastically, and no doubt the shipping of the grain from the States is adding to global warming. The farmers in the meantime have been struggling themselves and have been put off buying seed from the following year, and they don’t have the money for it anyway.

Then the ban on selling grain outside Malawi was lifted so that farmers could sell the excess to Zimbabwe. Again, a good idea that would support the price of maize and help Zimbabwe’s urgent need. According to The Daily Times in Malawi though, there has been little policing of the amount of maize exported which is necessary to ensure sufficient stocks are left in Malawi for the country’s own needs.

What is required, according to Mary Khozombah who works for Oxfam in Malawi, is empowerment of local farmers.

People who want to help Malawi need to support agriculture by educating farmers, improving irrigation, helping people find other forms of income. We need empowerment so our farmers can export. Ask us! We might come up with good ideas.

Food aid should be the last resort, in an emergency - and even then it should be bought locally if possible.

Making ends meet in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has the dubious honour of the highest rate of inflation in the world, making it very hard for its citizens to earn a living. A new report from IRIN gives three examples.

One is an ex-hotel manager who has moved to South Africa in order to buy essential goods and sell them in Zimbabwe. He left his job in a hotel in Harare because he was asked to take a pay cut when the tourist trade slumped. He now owns a house in South Africa and drives a Japanese car.

Within Zimbabwe three young journalists employed someone to help do their laundry and general house cleaning. They found her remarkably intelligent and a wonderful source of news stories. The mystery was solved one day at a road block when they spotted their helper in a police uniform. She has now left the police force and carries out domestic duties full time, earning seven times her previous salary.

More than 5,000 teachers failed to turn up at schools at the beginning of the last term. Amongst these is Mavis, who has turned from teaching to sex work in order to make ends meet. Although tourism is all but non-existent, there are still enough men able to afford her services. As a teacher her wages were about $7.50 a month, while the estimated minimum cost to support a family in Zimbabwe is $50 per month. She is now able to charge up to $12 a night.

I think the saddest sentence in the report came from Mavis: “I am an educated person and I know the hazards”. Education in Africa is so hard won, it really should not be wasted in this way.