Of The Week

Tuesday January18, 2004

Big noise for the voiceless

Isayas Girma graduated from the Alemaya Agricultural University with an Agricultural

Economics degree in 1986. He worked for various international NGOs in 1987 before going to the Philippines for his post  graduate study in Sustainable Development four years later. In 2003, he received his MSC in Public Policy and Management from London University.

For the past six years, he works as the Ethiopia Program Manager for Oxfam Australia.

Our Senior Reporter, Tamiru Geda, had a chance to talk with him on various issues related with his office. Excerpts:  

Capital: What are the main objectives of Oxfam?

Isayas Girma: Oxfam is a global organization with 12 offices in various countries, including Australia, America, Canada, Spain and UK. I am representing Oxfam Australia and the objective of this NGO is to get poor people to enjoy their rights; basically, Oxfam is based on human rights approach and fostering development through letting people exercise their rights. There are also other objectives like provision of basic services such as clean water and infrastructure as well as teach people to exercise their right to citizenship: the right to expression and the right to education.

Capital: You mentioned human rights as your main objective. What then can you say about fair trade in the international coffee market of which you have a campaign called “Big Noise”?

Isayas Girma: Well, fair trade has quite a lot of elements, which depend on huge wages in a specific country. In Ethiopia, the wages on coffee production as in other developing countries are based on the rural area, which is often really poor, and to sell the products in the developed countries, there are quality restrictions. The second thing is that there is a high level of subsidies in the developed countries and this has created a huge gap between the developed and the less developed countries. As an extension of this coffee campaign, we organized the ‘big noise’. This campaign is to help the poor express their feelings so that the rich countries will understand the unfairness they are exercising. We also organize trips to the farms to see what is going on there.

Capital: Hw successful has this campaign been?

Isayas Girma: Success depends on how you define it, but we can say that we are successful. The campaign has very bad connotation, especially in the last 30 years. The first success in Ethiopia was on the land issue, but after that we were hindered because of its political system. We can also say that we have been successful in raising awareness of the coffee consumers, big companies and the outside world. I, for one, was not aware that Ethiopia was the first country where coffee was first discovered. Also, because of our campaign, the price of coffee is getting better and all Ethiopian coffee is certified as organic. Secondly, the coffee farmers became aware of this program and signed an agreement to export large amount of coffee. The campaign also helps us cooperate with many groups including the private business community, government and the civil society at large. So, it is not only Oxfam.

Capital: Do you believe that your voice has been heard?

Isayas Girma: I think so, because two years ago the Ethiopian coffee farmers went to Australia, the Netherlands, UK, Canada, and the US. I think they have started listening.

The first thing these countries did was to start buying organic coffee. The other thing is, the many companies registered as organic coffee suppliers also started direct relationship with the producers. So these points can be mentioned as indicators of their response to our voices. I cannot say they are 100% convinced by Oxfam because they have their own way of handling things. But being optimist I think they also have the same feeling, since they are humans. They now understand how the farmers are leading their lives. Like for example, excluding the coffee dealers, processor and exporters, there are 15 million people whose lives are affected by the coffee production.

Capital: What can you say about the replacement of coffee trees with Chat in coffee growing regions?

Isayas Girma: Well, there is a trend. In some parts of Harar and Sidamo, they are growing chat instead of coffee only because they want to get a fair price. But when you see the long-term impact of chat in the society, it does not have a positive outcome compared to coffee. The replacement is not that much intensified, though, and the government is also working on that to create awareness.

Capital: What other measures do you think the government should take on this?

Isayas Girma: The government has to take an aggressive measure especially on the tax system. Partly, to discourage the consumers of chat. The second basic importance is that because of the revenue, there are quite a lot of public services that can be expanded.  The third part is that chat has a large negative and damaging impact on the society that in some countries such as the UK and US, it has been banned likened with illicit drugs. Since the government cannot ban chat in the country because it is a source of revenue, and to follow the same trend without affecting the farmers, the first step would be to put huge tax on it. Currently, consumers of the stimulant are paying less than what we are eating, for instance, a bread. So you cannot compare and contrast with the developed countries, as we still have to encourage farmers to keep the coffee production alive.

Capital: How far have you gone in your campaign in terms of collecting petitions against unfair coffee trade?

Isayas Girma: So far we have collected two million petitions from Ethiopia alone, but globally, we have collected more than 5.2 million, which we hope would increase in the near future. In Ethiopia, many foreigners have also signed the petition, but some diplomats and UN staff members couldn’t sign because of their mandate; they cannot support one group against the other, especially the UN. And some countries cannot be against the companies of their home country. Other than this, there are quite a lot of people who are willing to support, but it doesn’t mean that they may have the same feeling as others do, because as you know the NGO sector is the middle class. Even if they claim that they are representing the poor, it is not 100% working on the poor class. What we are trying to do is that we collect the voice of the poor to be heard by the big companies.

Capital: Could you explain briefly about the coffee ceremony that was supposed to be held recently where British Prime Minister Tony Blair was invited?

Isayas Girma: I have to admit that we made a mistake. First, the information was leaked out in some way. There was a plan to organize some sort of coffee ceremony so as to see what is going on. Unfortunately, that information was leaked out and was published by one of the local press. It was then cancelled for security reason, but the whole idea was to support the issue of fair trade because Tony Blair is going to be the future leader of the G8 countries. As you know also there are quite a lot of efforts to support Oxfam and the farmers. Blair created the Commission for Africa and Ethiopia is one of the targets, but the aid flow has to bring positive changes and we are working on this objective also not only on trade, particularly fair trade.

Capital: Do you think it would have been successful if he had participated in that coffee ceremony?

Isayas Girma: Well, I can say yes and no. If the British embassy and other government officials of the UK were involved, it might be one step ahead, although I cannot say it was a success or failure. We did have a chance, quite a small room, to talk to him in the presence of the coffee farmers. We appreciate, as a person, but as a leader of one of the G8 nations, we expected quite a lot of positive changes. So, yes, it would have been quite successful.

Capital: There is the perception that many NGOs, especially the Western ones, are not real NGOs who accept their mistakes or blames?

Isayas Girma: That is why I tried to say yes because this is the perception of many ordinary people. But coming back to Ethiopia, people have the culture of charity donation to individuals even if it is not well organized, but in the UK and other Western countries the donation is well organized which means there are organizations structured to address the poor. By the way, this is the public management. Actually, it is the government through the NGOs. That is charity by taxing the business organization. The NGOs are beginning to fill the gap in the poor countries’ basic services and also raising the awareness of Western countries to donate more money. The second part of the NGO is also controlling their individual government. If there is any thing going on affecting the poor it is the NGO that gives concern in their home country. Some NGOs, concerned for the poor, are also lobbying on their parliaments.

Capital: What can you say about subsidy?

Isayas Girma: Subsidy is quite damaging to poor countries. For example, a Western country makes a $2 per day subsidy for a cow whereas the poor countries can spend only $1 for a human being. So this is quite unfair and Oxfam’s fair trade campaign is advocating on the fairness of trade, but it does not mean that all subsidies have to be stopped. It should be solved depending on the country’s level of development.

Capital: What other factors do you see as barriers for exporters from least-developed countries?

Isayas Girma: When you say fair trade, there are quite a lot of stakeholders involved, starting from the producer up to the final consumer. If there is a subsidy in the Western countries for the same product it will have an impact, blocking the market because of the huge quality difference. It is not only the supplier that is really causing the problem, but also the consumers.

Capital: Is there any reaction from Western companies in access to processing?

Isayas Girma: I think they started but it is not totally accepted. When I mentioned coffee it is not a single commodity, it is an industry. For producers it is really an art to them especially when they plant and harvest before it goes to the quality center and finally packed and sent to the consumer. So there are quite a lot of people involved in the industry before the product reaches the consumer. If you see also the world consumption of coffee, for example Australia, the consumption some 30 years ago was 30% of the population but presently it has reached 70%. Coffee, as you know, is consumed daily and for the farmer it is also the same. So there are quite a lot of common elements for those who are living in Western countries and the poor countries.

Capital: Earlier you said something about the leveling of coffee.

Isayas Girma: Oh yes, what we know here is coffee, but in the Western countries there are different ways coffee is seen. When I was in Australia 10 years ago, I asked for coffee and what they replied was “what type of coffee?” So there are different types of leveling of coffee, for example, in Australia, there is ‘Baby-Chino’, which is small amount of coffee with lots of milk. In some countries they don’t have the ‘Baby-Chino’ but have some leveling like ‘cafe-latte’. However, it is not the type of coffee that counts but how you use it and drink it.