The Eco-Pesa is Kenya’s answer to the Green America Exchange
The Eco-Pesa in Kenya is similar to the Green America Exchange. Both offer alternative forms of payment for businesses and services in these economically hard times. The difference between the two is the environment in which they work.
While the Green America Exchange is working within the cash strapped green technology community here in the US, the Eco-Pesa program is working in three communities (slums) outside Mombasa, Kenya, with populations that are 80 percent unemployed. When talking about creating “green businesses” in these communities, we are talking about such basics as improving sanitation and providing clean water.
The Eco-Pesa is actually a form of vouchers with face values equal to the national currency. The vouchers can be bought at a discounted price and can be sold back for a percentage of face value. The vouchers are security printed (with watermarking, serial numbers and UV ink) just like normal currency but the vouchers only work in the small communities that are participating in the project.
The Eco-Pesa project got started in May of this year. The Eco-Pesa Team went to targeted communities and spoke with the village elders, officials and citizens to discuss the needs of the community and how their program would work.
Through several meetings, a workshop, training
and an outreach with the businessmen and youth groups in the
community, awareness and use of the vouchers has increased and
improved immensely.
They were able to sign up 75 businesses that include:
child care, water sales, waste collection, school tuition, sugar, flour, eggs, baskets, water, transportation on bicycle or motor bike, fruit and vegetables, charcoal, oil, clothes washing and more.
The program is averaging 400 voucher exchanges a day. The vouchers have improved trade in the communities that lacked access to any other type of currency. Vouchers also provide an incentive for youth groups to provide garbage (including feces) collection. Before the vouchers youth would frequently not get paid for trash pickup although it was agreed upon. Now youth are getting paid by twice as many people to collect the trash. Because of the new system youth employment is up and the waste problem is being handled.
As Will Ruddick, Eco-Pesa Program Coordinator stated it in an email he sent me.
We also intend to give loans to youth groups seeking to start environmentally conscious businesses, such as turning car tires into sandals. Beyond this we are also planning community cleaning and beautification days where residents taking part will be paid with Eco-Pesa.
We have seen Eco-Pesa as a powerful and holistic model of community development and believe it is also an appealing alternative for donors. So many donations come into impoverished communities in Kenya but there is very little to show for it. Most donor money leaves the communities it was targeting almost immediately. With Eco-Pesa we have a chance to make sure that funds stay in the community and help build the economy in an environmentally conscious way. So far we have only reached a small fraction of one Kenyan slum area and are looking for interested parties to help us expand. If you are interested in helping out please contact us at eco.pesa.kenya@gmail.com and visit our website http://ecoethics-kenya.com
Sometimes those of us in the US take services like waste removal, sewage and water treatment services for granted – at least until there is a garbage strike. Eco-Pesa providing the communities in which they work not only a means of trade, but a way to improve their living conditions on all levels.
As Will has said, “Eco-Pesa is a powerful and holistic model of community development.
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