Friday 27 November 2015

Sharpening an Old Tool

Did you hear what the lumberjack said about his beloved axe?  He’d had it for 20 years.  He replaced the head once a year, and the handle whenever it cracked, but that same old axe was still going strong.

This reminds me of The C4L Reporter.  Back in the days when we used mostly print media, we tried to get it out at least once a year.  It was nice to write about C4L and its themes for general readers, as opposed to donor-specific reports.

Then came the swing to digital media and for a few years C4L’s e-mail bulletins contained its news, not editorial comment.  Sightings of The C4L Reporter became rare.

Then with a programming shift into advocacy and lobbying, C4L’s e-mail bulletins shifted to editorial content.  Earlier this year, some of these were clustered into three “silos” on the themes of Youth, Leadership and Philanthropy.

This month – for the purposes of C4L’s new Green Livelihoods project – The C4L Reporter has been brought out of moth balls.  It will be re-released this week, at the AGM of the Energy and Water SETA.  Here are its headlines:
  • The long-awaited Green Livelihoods project gets underway
  • DEDT and NYDA are strategic partners
  • Training providers sign Memorandum of Agreement
  • From coal to solar
  • Recruitment drive heats up
  • Editorial – Not a Moment Too Soon
The editorial is shared in this media, which C4L now uses mainly for awareness raising…

Not A Moment Too Soon


When you think of Mpumalanga Province you think of green fields, blue mountains, and forested valleys.  But there are also coal mines and generating stations belching smoke into the atmosphere leaving a dirty carbon footprint.

The danger that threatens the Rhino is symbolic.  While that very issue is rife in Mpumalanga, there are broader concerns as well – the water emergency, the energy crisis, global warming.  Yes, environmental degradation is even causing climate change.

At the personal level we each need to own this threat to our children and grandchildren.  For example, we need to stop littering.  We need to sort our garbage, and re-cycle what we can.  We need to re-use our water twice, for example using our grey water from bathing to water our gardens.  We need to turn the lights off when we leave the room.  We need to unplug our chargers when they are not plugged into our cell phones.  We need to conserve resources.  We need to reduce waste.  We even need to see waste as a resource.  That means a new understanding of our Environment, and our role in it.  Possibly even of attitudinal change.

The Green Livelihoods project is above all about activism and even awareness raising.

In the past two year, 14 new “green occupations” like Recycling Sorter and Solar Water Heater Installer have been added to the OFO (Organizing Framework for Occupations).  This reflects a recognition of business opportunities in the emerging Green Economy.

The levels of youth unemployment in Mpumalanga are high, far too high.  Yet the formal sector of the economy is struggling to generate jobs fast enough to keep up with population growth.  So for many youth, the best opportunities are in self-employment.  That is the focus of this project.  That is the answer when people raise the question of its Sustainability.  Entrepreneurship training and coaching is embedded into the project logic.

The Green Livelihoods project links the two paragraphs above – opportunities in the new “green occupations” with needs for jobs.

At a second level, the project also promotes Cooperatives… Green Coops… youth coops.  Not everyone believes that Coops are sound in economic terms.  Some people prefer other entities like sole proprietorships or companies.  But in global terms, cooperatives have worked at times and in certain places – and we are “thinking globally while acting locally”.

Coops have worked best when populated by people with a higher cause.  One example that comes to mind is the kibbutzim in Israel.  “Kibbutzniks” will tell you that they participated because of a higher motive – much as they liked the look and feel of cooperating.  It is in this spirit that the noble cause of “Go Green” has been linked to enterprise and technical training, organized in solidarity groups called Green Coops.  These are not NPOs (nonprofits).  Coops are business entities.  Thus they are relevant to the triple conundrum of Poverty, Inequality and Unemployment.  Yes they do provide a community service.  But they do so in a way that generates wealth.

No one will be affected more by Global Warming than the youngest among us.  So it is appropriate that they should be warned of the impending threat and enabled to do something about it.

Our planet is dying.  Let us rise up and revive the streamflows.  Let us organize to save the Rhino.  Let us build gutters and cisterns that conserve rainwater in communities where there is no water reticulation.  Let us reduce the leaks that drain away as much as 40% of captured water before it can be used.  Let us heat that water with renewable energy in our homes.  (Each solar water heater reduces about 1.6 MT of carbon every year.)  Let us reduce our carbon footprint.

Viva the Energy and Water SETA! Viva DEDT!  Viva NYDA!  Viva C4L!  Viva Ehlanzeni FET College!  Viva VPK Business Venture!

Long live the Green Livelihoods projects, long live!

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