What Am I Doing in Zambia?

What Am I Doing in Zambia?

I am here volunteering wiht the Zambian local NGO PROFIT (Production, Finanace and Technology) which is funded by USAID. PROFIT is a highly innovative organization which is inevitably trying to assure a vital increase in the reduction of poverty and minimize the vulnerabilities at the household level through increasing industry growth. PROFIT strives to achieve these goals by strategically chosing industries which show a competitive edge, high growth potential and which include Micro and Small Scale Entreprises (MSEs) and in PROFIT's case, mainly farmers. So, as of now PROFIT is mainly working with industries which deal with cotton, cattle, paprika, chilis, and honey. In short, PROFIT works to facilitate a trusting relationship between such industry people as Veternarians to offer Herd Health Plans, sellers of inputs (fertilizers, herbicides, etc.), buyers of outputs (cotton, maize, etc.) and the farmers to help facilitate the exchange of knowledge and create a business atmosphere which is beneficial to both parties.

So,when PROFIT's 5 year contract runs out in 3 years time, they hope to have helped facilitate a viable enough market for these products and a strong, trusting relationship to allow the business transactions to continue after their departure.

I consider PROFIT to be highly innovative because instead of giving out handouts (which have been proving to be very unsustainable), they facilitate the building and strengthening of industry linkages to allow for the people within them ( i.e. farmers, buyers, sellers, etc) to take advantage and produce a sustainable method of doing business while staying true to their social and cultural values of such things as Trust which is very important in this culture.

My Job

Well, my job here is within the Monitoring and Evaluations department. This means that myself and Joseph ( my counterpart) go and assess the projects which are happening in the field in the different regions of Zambia. Our big project in my time here is to write a report of our findings to USAID, inevitably to allow for us to continue to receive funds.

So far we have made up survey and focus group questions to be applied to 2 different cities (Mkushi and Choma). I will be departing for Mkushi today to start on the interviews of the farmers. I am looking forward to this very much because I will get a chance to live with the farmers and experience their everyday tasks and get a better understanding of how PROFIT projects are affceting the farmers and be able to make recommendations for alterarations.

I will post my findings in the future Blog!