Economic Development

Making soap As illustrated in our chart on poverty, together with our Congolese partners we have examined the dynamics that sustain the deep poverty of the area. Most people in the Ubangi region are engaged in subsistence-level agriculture. They raise very little for sale because there is no one locally to buy their surplus. Consequently, they have little cash for school fees, medical expenses, extra clothes, and other needs.

A major new project that will begin to address that lack of opportunity for people to earn cash incomes, the Farmers to Markets program, has been made possible by a significant grant to the Paul Carlson Partnership from USAID, and assistance from three additional partner organizations. Farmers to Markets will assist farmers to grow enough crops to sell, then will piece together a "value chain" from the Ubangi region all the way to Kinshasa, where the most lucrative markets are.

Our overall strategy for catalyzing change in the lives of people in Congo consists of a three-pronged attack on poverty, carried out in a variety of other projects in addition to Farmers to Markets:

Improve farming: Through agricultural microenterprise we are enabling and encouraging more productive farming. We have already funded loans for cow, pig, fish, manioc, corn, palm oil, and bean projects; and we have formed a partnership with Opportunity International that will, in time, make some banking services available to people living in out the villages.

Improve trade: Through small-business microenterprise we are developing wholesalers who buy local agricultural products and export them to major markets. We have begun making start-up loans to wholesalers, and have lent funds for construction of a boat to carry such products to market by river.

Improve infrastructure: At the same time, we continue working on ways to stabilize the power and water supply to the CEUM hospitals. We are also addressing critical bottlenecks in the infrastructure, particularly in transportation, using local labor. The PCP has been active for several years working with our partners to rebuild bridges and sections of roads, and this becomes increasingly important asa we mobilize the Farmers to Markets program.

Currently our efforts are focused on the Karawa-Businga Bridges Project, in which we are rebuilding three bridges along the important road between Karawa and Businga, with the help of a generous donor.

To accomplish all these goals, we are also are working with our local partner, the CEUM (Congolese Covenant Church), to strengthen the local managerial systems for handling medical, educational, agricultural, business, and infrastructure programs.


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