Trade & Markets

23 February - 8 March, 2009

Two billion people – a third of humanity – still survive on less than $2 a day. Unfair trade keeps producers in poverty and they face the global challenges of food shortages and climate change too. Fairtrade is a people’s movement for change that aims to tip the balance of trade in favour of poor producers. Fairtrade is needed now more than ever and we all have the power to create positive change.

July 10, 2008

January 18, 2008

Liberia National Agriculture Show

December 06, 2007Liberia and food security In 2006, a consortium of Liberian NGOs comprising DEN-L, IRDO, and SDP (Development Education Network – Liberia, Integrated Rural Development Organisation and Sustainable Development Promoters) began implementation of a joint EC-Trócaire funded food security project. The targeted communities are situated in Bong and Lofa Counties, in the North of Liberia. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes during years of conflict and began returning in numbers to their communities in 2005.

January 21, 2008

Our partners Agri-Service Ethiopia are implementing a food security project with support from Trócaire/CAFOD/SCIAF and funds from the EU in Amaro, a remote but picturesque district in the mountains of southern Ethiopia. During my visit in November they launched a cross border tsetse control initiative. Agri Service get technical input by working with the Institute for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) – represented by Dr. Shifa and Dr. Melaku (guys who know about flies).

November 19, 2007 I arrived to Liberia, West Africa on Wednesday 24th October, a few weeks ago now as the evening shadows were giving way to darkness. I was warmly greeted by some of our Trócaire partners and any pangs of nerves, subsided. The hour-long journey to the capital, Monrovia, unfolds on a single carriage way. On the city outskirts, there is little vehicle traffic but lines of people on the roadside making their way home in the dark. This was my first journey as the new Trócaire Programme Officer for Liberia. This is my home for the next three years.

25th March 2007

Saturday is market day in Amaro. Hundreds of people converge on Kelle to buy and sell their wares. Half the district lies on the other side of the mountain. In my five previous visits to Amaro I have always been fascinated to see what lies beyond. It looks a fearsome climb. But it’s an itch I have to scratch. V