Business Commons^™

Fair Trade Or Fake Trade? Specialty Coffee Certifications And Development In Uganda, Eliza Cummings

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project examined the relationship between specialty coffee certifications and development. The focus was exploring the local and national implications Fairtrade coffee certifications have in Uganda. Coffee is a critical commodity, accounting for 15 percent of Uganda’s foreign exchange and engaging over one million households in production. Currently, specialty certified coffees including Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, and 4C make up only four percent of total production. However, under Uganda’s 2013 National Coffee Policy, there is a target to expand specialty production to 24 percent. It is therefore imperative to understand how these specialty certifications affect primary producers participating as well as …

The Politics Of Social Entrepreneurship In Cameroon, Aaron Danowski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Social entrepreneurship, a practice that combines nonprofit missions and business principles in pursuit of social impact, is a growing phenomenon that has the potential to empower millions of people around the world through a decentralized approach to social problem solving. In this paper, I examine the state of social entrepreneurship in Cameroon, exploring how social entrepreneurship is defined in the Cameroonian context by local actors, and the ways in which Cameroonian social entrepreneurs interact with macro, meso, and micro level politics and partners to create sustainable social impact. From November 7 through December 7, 2015, I conducted in-person interviews with …

Giving A Voice To The Powerless: Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation As A Tool For Inclusive Development Through Microfinance, Evan T. Burke

Capstone Collection

The greatest experts on the situation of the marginalized peoples of the world are the marginalized communities themselves. This paper explores how participatory monitoring & evaluation can be a powerful tool for giving voices to marginalized communities, ensuring that the voices of beneficiaries and local stakeholders are heard and inform sustainable project design. It analyzes a participatory monitoring and evaluation methodology implemented for women’s credit cooperatives in Gujarat, India by the Human Development & Research Centre, and examines lessons to be learned to design evaluations facilitating inclusive development.

Strategies for the monitoring and evaluation of microfinance have evolved along with …

Extractivist Agribusiness Model: Analysis Of Social Resistances Emerging In Response To The Extractivist Agribusiness Model: A Case Study Of The Industrial Belt Of Gran Rosario, Alexa González

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In regards to human rights and environmental rights, there is a paradox that exists between the rhetoric and actions of the government regarding agribusiness. While the Argentine government increasingly connects their rhetoric to the promotion of these rights, they have allowed transnational corporations to modify the agricultural model in a way that exploits the land for the production of commodities. People living in fields where biotechnology is operated and urban-industrial zones where the commodities are exported report health problems and deaths in light of the corporations’ presence. Confronted with the degradation of their fundamental rights, those whose lives are being …