Maximum
and equal opportunities for individuals
to be the creators and owners of common
wealth.
Vision
We envision a global economic system that is highly
integrated and makes effective use of ICT. The
emphasis is on the development of local empowerment
programs which encourage the development of a
strong local self-identity combined with a global
consciousness in relation to human as well as
ecological considerations.
Current Reality and Challenges
Free Markets can be shown, under certain assumptions,
to be the most efficient and fair method of setting
uniform prices, making the best use of resources
and encouraging economic growth. One of those
assumptions is that every participant in the market
has perfect information about everybody else in
the market, and about everything offered for sale.
Without that assumption, as economist Joseph Stiglitz
points
out, none of the advantages follow.
The Human
Development Report 2003 shows women, the rural
poor and ethnic minorities do not get their fair
share of resources and progress in health care
and development has much greater in cities than
in rural regions. The economies of these countries
are notoriously inefficient, and often corrupt.
Resources are allocated extremely poorly, and
most are greatly underused, while natural resources
that can be extracted and sold by international
corporations are greatly overused. The local population
often not only fails to receive money for the
resources in their lands, but often has negative
economic results from resource extraction, including
environmental degradation, disruption of their
society and traditional economy, and other problems.
Wealth Inequality a Threat to Global
Peace - The HDI reports that15% of the
world's most affluent people consume 85% of the
world's resources and that inequality is growing.
Whether income inequality under globalization
is increasing or decreasing is debated.
Regardless it is clear that significant challenges
remain in getting low income regions to the point
where they sustain their people's basic needs.
Digital Divide - Those not in
the information economy do not get world prices
for their labor, agricultural produce, or other
goods and services. As the impact of technology
has become more obvious to many the issue of a
Digital Divide between between haves and havenots
became seen as a larger issue. The ICT for development
has grown with people lead Allen Hammond of WRI
and CK Prahalad leading the way. In countries
like telecommunications has take off with the
number of cells going from under a million to
almost five million in five years. However the
SANGONeT report on the Status
of the Internet in Africa notes that "the
differences between the development levels of
Africa and the rest of the world are much wider
in this area than they are using more traditional
measures of development."
According to the
Digital Dividend:
Manhattan has more
phones than sub-Saharan Africa;
More internet accounts
in London than all of Africa;
80%
of the world's population has never made
a phone call;
Developed
world one radio station per 30 thousand
as compared to one per every 2 million
in the developing world;
The net
connects 100 million computers, but represents
less than 2% of the world's population.
Approach
Those regions of the world that have been most
successful have relied on a self-help approach.
Other common attributes have been a strong sense
of community and collective self-identity that
allow people to discipline themselves to promote
sacrifice and frugality so that savings rates
remained high and investments were effectively
allocated towards meaning investments that actually
stimulated rapid economic development rather than
conspicuous consumption of frivolous goods.
We feel it is necessary to involve all segments
of society in the policymaking process and debate
is essential. In order to ensure global stability
a more equitable distribution of the benefits
of growth in the global economy is necessary.
Therefore to adequately address the income and
the corresponding digital divide we find it is
vital to buttress the WB’s objectives. We
propose a framework more realistically to changes
and challenges of the 21st century that:
Develops
a package of consulting services for integration
economy;
Offers
Policy analysis advice to expand fair
trade and sustainable human interactions
through globalization;
Creates
fair trading systems that ensure accountability
and evaluation models that promote sustainable
and encourage tax shifting strategies
the minimize environmental and social
risks to globalization.
Through the oneVillage Initiative,
we link grassroots oriented programs together
developing an global approach that effectively
promotes best practices. The integrated approach
links education, with training consulting, networking
and financial assistance together so that OVF
and its family of partners and affiliated organizations
can provide one-stop shopping towards ecoliving
solutions for bottom up economies.
The potential for growth is immense as disruptive
technologies like open source SW, alternative
energy, wireless and agricultural systems that
integrate waste recovery and collection with energy
and agricultural production.
Basic empowerment of the village economy creates
wealth and credit that allows the village to purchase
a variety of tools and equipment to leverage further
growth, including more computers, and perhaps
more bandwidth from the Internet into the village.
The village school can be fully equipped, and
used as a community center in the evenings.
With the right approach, the village
economy could be a driver in moving more affluent
regions towards sustainability. Careful consideration
of the most effective strategy for integrating
the below mentioned appropriate technologies
and best practices is vital:
Workstations
for synchronous telecooperation;
Electronic
meeting and virtual participation rooms;
Modular
building materials for lightweight building;
Toolmachines
to realize open designs in all kind of
materials;
Solar,
biomass, hydroponic technologies.
Human and economic capital will
focus not just on sustainability but also on
developing export services to peripheral regions
that add to the core values. These services
will be a significant form of foreign exchange
for sustainable communities. However, they will
be secondary in priority to the core economy,
which revolve around valued added goods produced
from natural resources managed at the local
level. The economic pump will involve the production
of necessities like food, water and building
materials as well as from consulting, education
and tourism.
Goals:
Generate
global interest in transferring technology;
Develop
and deploy products, services, training
methods and communications systems that
facilitate sustainable development on
a global scale;
Increase
technology access to the emerging markets;
Promote
triple bottom line sustainability that
empowers grassroots economic development
through an integrated whole systems approach.
Orgs
in our
"Economy Pillar Network"
Adapted
Consulting - Focusing on ICT telecenter
& network sustainability as well as
cutting edge technology deployment
Good
Cap Fund - Specializing in the funding
of social enterprises
Natural
Capitalism Institute - Founded by Green
Biz leader Paul Hawken, the Natural Capitalism
Institute, develops accountability tools
to monitor socially conscious investing
and web integration tools like WiserEarth.
Xigi.net
- A networking tool for linking different
social enterprise oriented groups.
Other Economy Social Enterprise
Links
The
Social Edge - An website organized by
Skoll Foundation thats promotes innovation
in the social enterprise sector.
Natural
Capitalism - explanation of a process
to transition capitalism so that its linked
to natural measures of value and sustainability.
Disruptive
Technology - A technology
so revolutionary it disrupts the existing
order of business within particular sector.
Natural
Step Process - process for reforming
business to make it more sustainable.
Restorative
Economy - Term coined by Paul Hawken
referring to the process of rebuilding and
rejuvenating degraded ecosystem.
Value-added
Production - Value
that comes from converting a commodity to
a higher priced finished product and often
used in relation to promote local economic
empowerment.
OVF
Ecology Pillar Projects
Jukwa
Srowie Mixed Farmer's Coop - In Jukwa, Ghana, we have funded
a process enabling the local farmers cooperative
to secure a palm oil processing plant (still
under construction). The focus for the next
year is to develop integrated farming practices
along with a small bio-diesel facility to
utilize a portion of the palm oil produced
for local energy needs. Future plans are
to develop this facility into a center for
sustainable agriculture.
Other
Compelling Economy Pillar Stories
P2P
Microfinance; the Kiva.org and Prosper.com
Stories - In 2005 Kiva.org (means agreement
in Swahili) was established. About the same
time Prosper.com, began helping individuals
loan each other small amounts. Both businesses
are pioneers in microlending, a field born
in the 1970s that is gaining prominence.
Muhammad Yunus, of Grameen Bank fame in
1976, started the whole idea. Yunus recently
won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for developing
the idea of making small loans to entrepreneurs
who otherwise might not be able to raise
money.
Visionary
Movers and Shakers
Dr
Christopher Daughterty - Founded Essential
Living Foods and BeOn Holdings and is now
pioneering a sustainable development model
that "goes beyond Fair Trade."
Relevant
Research
UNDP
Annual Human Development Reports - Rich
source of data on income inequality.