Benefit Report 2013
MESSAGE FROM AAA’S EXECUTIVES GREG STONE, CEO I had the honor this year of being in Rwanda in January for our annual stakeholders meeting and celebration. Over 1500 of our producers and leaders were present. It was a time of celebration where the participants shared testimonies of overcoming hunger and poverty. There was dancing and poetry reading. Dressed in beautiful traditional clothing the group leaders of the cooperatives gifted me with a shield and spear for me to symbolically use in our fight to protect against their hunger. It was a day to be recognized as more hundreds of women came to celebrate their achievements in 2013 and the success of the year. I too am looking forward to another great year ahead!
“We’re working to create opportunities for the world to join and be active participants in creating peace, hope and stability across the continent of Africa.” ALICIA WALLACE Alicia wallace, coo The first 10 months of All Across Africa have been big and exciting! We found great new products and producers groups, hired new staff, entered new markets and our partner non-profit, Opportunities Across Africa started training programs in Burundi. Our impact is seen in the communities in which work and on our staff’s faces. My joyful moments are spent at our production facilities, alongside our staff working to accomplish our partnership and bigger mission of providing income for families. It’s been a joy and I am looking for to a great year ahead.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PUBLIC BENEFIT PURPOSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2013 SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 BENEFIT TARGETS AND ACHIEVEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2013 ECONOMIC AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENTS . . . . 9 BENEFIT REPORT THIRD PARTY STANDARD . . . . . . . . . . 13 CONTACT INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
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PUBLIC BENEFIT PURPOSE ALL ACROSS AFRICA
(AAA)
is a Benefit Corporation that brings the best of business practices through market development, training, and teaching to producers in Africa. Most importantly of all, AAA connects these producers to our developed external markets. Our business model reaches deep into remote villages in the developing world and provides jobs for rural and marginalized people across Africa that restore dignity and promote self sufficiency. We see it as the way forward for sustainable development in Africa. It’s the best of business and the best of the non-profit world -- it’s social business.
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Our focus is on the under-served areas of
rural Africa.
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PUBLIC BENEFIT PURPOSE
(cont.)
Most of the world’s poor POPULATIONS live in rural areas, and our focus is on the under-served regions of rural Africa. ily cost or time efficient in the short-term, but in
ROLE
It’s not always necessar-
Farmers
of All Across Africa’s producers are women. Women in rural Africa face a number of obstacles in providing for their
CHALLENGES
95%
POTENTIAL
impact is substantial.
REALITY
the long-term, the social
families.
Livestock Carers
Food & Water
Care-givers
60% of chronically hungry people are women and girls
43% of
agricultural labour force in developing countries are women
$ Land Rights
Healthcare
Education
Credit
women reinvest
women could increase farm yields in their families 20% to 30% if they have the same access to resources
90%
of their income
W e are pioneering a new way of helping rural families achieve their full potential. Instead of giving free handouts, we invest in the artisans to generate a permanent gain in their family income. By providing artisans with a “market bundle” that includes education, finance, materials, training and market access, we present a poverty-reducing solution that is sustainable and helps restore dignity. While financial aid has many benefits, we believe that business creates jobs that people are proud of, and creates a true partnership between market and producer.
We listen to our partners, the people we work to serve -that’s our development philosophy. Doing so allows us to offer long-term opportunities instead of short term band-aids. It allows us to offer training to create the highest quality product so that there is a market for their outstanding workmanship.
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2013 summary
We focused on rural and vulnerable populations to create jobs in local communities: training in product design, providing guidance and connecting the final products to foreign markets. AAA’s reach included 3,200 African artisans who individually impacted 5.7 people on average, totaling a reach of 18,200 people across East Africa.
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benefit targets & achievements All Across Africa’s specific Public Benefit states the corporation will be working to “create economic development and employment opportunities for rural impoverished and marginalized people throughout the continent of Africa.”
AAA Targets:
CREATE JOBS
that pay a fair wage and improve livelihood
OUR PRODUCERS are paid on average 4x what the local
market would pay for their handmade products.
6 in 10 artisans purchased land or livestock 5.7 individuals on average are supported from 1 income
INCREASE ACCESS to financial services
85% of our ruRal artisans have bank accounts 45% of our producers have savings accounts as a direct
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result of AAA training
benefit targets & achievements FOOD ARTISANS ATE
FOOD ARTISANS ATE
AFTER WORKING WITH AAA:
BEFORE WORKING WITH AAA: potatoes sweet potatoes
(cont.)
rice corn vegetables
cassava bananas
beans vegetables bananas tomatoes
cassava potatoes sweet potatoes
IMPROVE NUTRITION
for the artisans and their families
100% of our artisans have an overall improvement in
their nutrition and ability to buy food
average number of meals for artisans: 2 per day
INCREASE EDUCATION for artisans and their children
100% of our producers’ children are in school
10 in 10 artisans have had a training course to improve
their knowledge of savings techniques, bookkeeping
and leadership methods
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2013 economic and employment DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
WEAVING JOBS Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi
Our current income-generating action takes many forms. Our largest program, basket weaving in Rwanda and Uganda, employs 3,000 men and women between the two countries. Orders for these baskets are placed and purchased weekly and keep the weavers working to supply product year-round. With their success, the producers have built bigger homes, sent kids to university and paid their children’s annual school fees. To our weavers across East Africa, baskets are change agents.
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SEWING JOBS Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi
Through our partnerships with sewing cooperatives in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, All Across Africa has created sewing jobs for many men and women. Their sewn handbags, table linens, aprons and apparel is purchased and supplied to our international markets. We’ve also trained groups of rural village youth to become tailors, and have worked with established cooperatives looking for market opportunities. Many of our sewers make more money than college-educated schoolteachers in their village, and at times have been the highest wage earners in their area.
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JEWELRY MAKING JOBS Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi
All Across Africa is a partner with many different jewelry cooperatives across Africa. These include paper bead, clay bead, woven, and brass and aluminum jewelry cooperatives in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. The astonishingly wide variety of materials available across the African landscape helps create vast employment opportunities for many people.
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CARVING JOBS Kenya
The art of woodcarving dates back 450 years, and is a perfected skill passed down from one generation to the next. A young apprentice works among seasoned master carvers to learn the techniques of the craft, from splitting timber to carving and hand-polishing the finished forms. Many artisans specialize in sculpting a series of African forms, including the range of exotic and wild animals found in East Africa. No two pieces are ever exactly the same. Craftsmen model each form using simple tools made from animal hide, local wood and spring steel fashioned into adzes and knives. Amazingly, no machinery is used to transform a tree into hundreds of items both decorative and functional.
HORN AND BONE JOBS Uganda, Burundi
Horn and bone have long been used by cultures worldwide to create objects of utility (tools) and decorative art objects. In Uganda horn and bone are regarded as waste, and the art of recycling them into marketable objects is a master stroke of ingenuity. By collecting the raw material from local butcheries, artisans create beauty from garbage, powering a thriving industry that supports orphan heads of households and young men otherwise unable to find work.
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LEATHER WORKING JOBS Burundi
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Artisans use rustic and natural, free-range, Burundian beef leather to make beautiful handbags, sandals and wallets. These products are also embellished with East African beadwork in traditional and contemporary patterns and colors. Every piece is hand-stitched, and handbags are lined with traditional Burundian cotton gitenge (local fabric). All of the raw materials originate in Burundi. Great attention is paid to the finishing so that these traditional hand-made African products meet the standard demanded by international markets.
benefit REPORT THIRD PARTY STANDARD ALL ACROSS AFRICA
used B-Corps third party standard. B-Corp was picked as the third party standard because of its outstanding reputation in the benefit corporation community as a reputable, unbiased and trustworthy third party standard. All Across Africa used B Corp’s third party standard and was rated an 89.3 out of 200 possible points. A standard business rates 50 out of 200 and a sustainable business rates 80 out of 200 when graded on a third party standard of achieving their social mission, respecting the environment and taking care of employees and workers. All Across Africa was rated at 89.3 its first year as a benefit corporation.
ALL ACROSS AFRICA’s SHAREHOLDERS Greg Stone Alicia Wallace
BOARD OF DIRECTORS STATEMENT
The board of directors reinforces the public benefit that All Across Africa created in 2013. All Across Africa met its targets of economic and employment opportunities for rural and marginalized in Africa.
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