.jpeg)
Thoughtful Leadership
Our approach to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is comprehensive, engaging the communities we serve at their homesteads. Working with informal cooperative savings groups, ‘chamas’, we start by listening to their needs and collectively problem-solving how best to meet those needs sustainably.
The connection between healthy ecosystems and healthy, prosperous communities is well documents. PHI believes that PLANET AND PEOPLE first approach results in the PROSPERITY (productivity) sought by the United Nations SDGs. We are called to be stewards of The Commons, the collective birthright of the whole human species, which is to be shared equitably by all. The Commons includes all aspects of the natural environment, our freedoms, and the vast mosaic of our heritage on this planet.
The legacy of greed and resource extraction at any cost has inequitably plagued and crippled the potential of Africa. It continues! The imposition of inappropriate 'dependency' solutions on the communities of Africa perpetuates rather than reduces poverty.
PHI believes:
-
We must restore local biodiversity in the ecosystem.
-
We must break post-colonial and post-enslavement mindsets, replacing their negative narrative with sincere respect for human dignity.
-
We are each "our brother's and sister's keeper" and this love will propel the success of the next generation.
-
We must COVER the most vulnerable, HEAL the broken, STRENGTHEN the weak, and STAND with the voiceless.
OUR BELIEFS
1
Land resources, no matter how crippled or dysfunctional, can be leveraged to sustain a community of proportionate size.
2
Increasing local biodiversity is essential to lifting up an impoverished community. Evaluating the relationship between local socio-economics and biodiversity loss is the starting point to restorative solutions.
3
Breaking the chains of poverty requires first releasing the chains of historic and systemic disenfranchisement. Hope starts by having the resources to overcome the present circumstances.
4
Rural education strategies must be aligned with the needs of the community and be designed for both immediate and long-term benefit. The strategies must be comprehensive.
5
Rural to urban migrations result in the loss of young individuals (who form the backbone of the workforce on farms) seeking better city life. Unless there are deliberate policy measures by Africa’s policymakers to sustain agricultural production in the face of rapid urbanization, the process of urbanization may produce negative consequences in the agricultural sector, leading to food shortages with its attendant consequences: availability, price increases, hunger, etcetera. ...
Charles I Oyewole
6
Encouraging the poor to save and invest in themselves is a sustainable pathway out of systemic poverty. "Poor people can save and want to save, and when they do not save it is because of lack of opportunity rather than lack of capacity. People's savings behavior is a direct result of the way they perceive goals in their life, and how they manage income and expenses through a variety of lumping/buffering mechanisms." ... Alok Pattanayak
7
Investing in education improves the whole community. For example, adult education and job training changed negative behaviors, and hope.
8
Development initiatives must engage the locals and they must be locally owned.
TENETS OF APPROPRIATE DEVELOPMENT
-
Planet Earth is sufficient to support all life
-
Protect the Commons and maintain its rich diversity; don’t control or disrupt its balance
-
Lift up the least and the marginalized
-
Ensure choice and economic freedom for all
-
Understand natural living systems as key to the sustainable and resilient design
-
Respect the voice of the affected
-
Think sustainably: consider the past, in the present, for the future
-
We are one race of equals, the human race
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
HOW WE MEET THEM
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
GOAL 1
End poverty in all its forms everywhere
By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.
PHI helps to reduce poverty and increase the quality of life of marginalized communities by empowering them. Through our “We Invest” program, the seed funds needed are provided to bring sustainable income-generating projects into reality. This strengthens their resilience and reduces their vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.
GOAL 2
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.
PHI is a supporter of the Songhai Centre in Benin. The Songhai Training Center provides hands on training of their successful sustainable agricultural model to potential entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs return to their communities with impacts that spill over into the entire local economy. Songhai believes in synergies that develop from several relations; livestock, crop production, energy production and aquaculture energize each other. By linking together marketing, innovation and research, green rural communities emerge to provide employment opportunity. This offsets, the trend for rural to urban migration, creates food self-sufficiency, and contributes to overall community well-being.
Through the PPP investment Fund, PHI places priority in empowering small-holder farmers to achieve triple bottom line performance (People, Profit, Planet). This builds up local food security through sustainable agriculture practices and improved community health.
GOAL 3
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
PHI believes in responding to the challenges of rural education in a holistic way. The starting point is a partnership with a rural community. Once there is an assessment of community and school needs, the infrastructure needs of the primary school take precedence. Priorities may include access to clean water, meals for students, a community garden, a health clinic, electricity, or access to the internet. Our vision is for an educational environment that is safe, inclusive, and effective for all. Teachers are provided with needed instructional resources. The relationship is termed “Adopt-a-School” to affirm the long-term investment required for sustainable results.
With the support of Running Water International, PHI-Kenya has been active for over a decade bringing clean water solutions to schools in Meru County and Nakuru County. In the region of Gilgil, Nakuru County, PHI-Kenya is already in the formative stage of a partnership for Adopt-A-School.
GOAL 4
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.
With the support of Running Water International and Rotary International, Isaac Soita of PHI-Kenya has been active for over a decade bringing clean water and sanitation solutions to schools and homes in Meru County and Nakuru County. Isaac is a trained professional in clean water and sanitation and an attendee at several WASH Conferences.
GOAL 5
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services; Proportion of population with primary reliance on clean fuels and technology.
In rural and marginalized communities, access to clean sources of energy are lacking. There is no connection to a public grid. PHI supports a variety of green energy alternatives including solar, wind, and biogas. For small-holder farmers, biogas and solar are practical solutions. The availability of agricultural waste is readily converted into energy through simple biological processes. Any appropriate solution for energy would eliminate the over-reliance on cutting live trees for fuel which compromises environmental health.
In 2019, PHI began discussions with the University of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico and local community leaders to expand on their work in several mountain communities of the hurricane-crippled island. The university team set up emergency solar stations in the town square after Hurricane Maria left many without power for over 9 months. The effort is now to provide roof-top solar to homes in these communities and to community water pumps previously disconnected from the grid.
GOAL 6
Decent Work and Economic Growth
The SDGs promote sustained economic growth, higher levels of productivity and technological innovation. Encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation are key to this, as are effective measures to eradicate forced labour, slavery and human trafficking. With these targets in mind, the goal is to achieve full and productive employment, and decent work, for all women and men by 2030.
PHI’s “We Invest” program addresses economic growth for all by encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation with a triple bottom line criteria (sustained profitability based on a sound business plan; pay it forward through mentoring, alliances, and partnerships; affirmative and restorative actions for a healthy environment such as reusing and repurposing what remains a cradle-to-cradle economy). By investing in chamas (groups of 10-12 of a particular community) who hold one another into account, our “Grameen-based” micro-finance solutions result in improved well-being and fruitful lives for those we invest in and for their children.