Transcriber: Lily Xu Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
It’s the holiday season,
and in the spirit of giving, you decide to enter your closet
and find the old clothes you no longer wear
and donate them to one of the hundreds of wonderful charities.
These charities in turn
provide impoverished families living in developing countries with your clothes.
Now, for the rest of the day
you have a warm feeling in your heart knowing that you helped someone,
moving them one step closer to financial security.
Or did you?
What you didn't know is that in developing countries,
there are also people trying to make and sell clothes manufactured locally.
Now, because of your donation,
these local merchants have to compete with your act of kindness,
and unfortunately, this brings them one step closer to bankruptcy.
Hello students, parents, teachers, and guests.
My name is Alyssa Chow.
And today I will be addressing the detrimental effects of our good will
and its impact on the economy in developing countries.
Although we all mean well,
it is a common misconception of the western world
that developing countries are reliant on our generosity to survive,
when an actual fact, if we stopped donating
but started supporting and nourishing the development of industries,
these countries would become prosperous and be financially independent.
Currently, due to our actions,
the impoverished citizens of developing nations
are reliant on the foreign aid
that non-governmental organizations, otherwise known as NGOs, send them.
No longer can they be self-sustainable.
This leads to an abundance of problems and a generation of people that suffer
from a sense of dependence and powerlessness.
Today, I'll be explaining the harmful effects
foreign aid has on the textile, clothing, and food industries,
and how developing countries
are losing jobs to multinational corporations and other countries.
Then I'll outline my three-part solution to this crisis.
With thousand of NGOs donating resources to the impoverished,
it's believed that the country and people
have had some sustainable improvement to their quality of life.
However, despite the hard work and kind hearts of many individuals,
these donations have actually led to more harm than good,
and this must be changed.
According to [Inaudible] from a clothing company called Not Just a Label,
approximately 45 percent of used clothing donated to charitable organizations
is exported by for-profit recyclers to developing countries.
There the clothing is sold inexpensively or simply given away,
which causes people to stop buying from the local clothing retailers.
This causes the local retailers, manufactures,
and entire textile industry to crumble,
reducing the number of jobs and skyrocketing unemployment rates.
Dr. Andrew Brooks outlines this devastating issue
in his book "Clothing Poverty,"
where he argues [audio cuts out] affects the economy and people within it.
Dr. Brooks explains how the clothing practice has changed Uganda.
In the country, the used clothing market
now accounts for 81 percent of all clothing purchases.
He also discusses Ghana's unfortunate situation,
where the textile and clothing industry has plummeted
with the reduction of jobs by 80 percent between 1975 and 2000.
Furthermore, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the constant flood of used clothing
has become their regular way of life that it has even invaded their language.
Dr. Brooks explains the translation between the colloquial Ghanaian phrase
"obroni wawu"
to "clothes of the dead white man."
Cotton is essential to the textile industry.
According to Deutsche Welle, a German international broadcaster,
close to 10 percent of the world's cotton comes from Africa.
However, very little of it actually stays in Africa.
[Inaudible], one of Africa's distraught farmers, grows cotton in Burkina Faso.
Tar said, "Through the cotton that we reproduce,
we actually create work for people in other countries,
and these people then sell the manufactured goods back to us.
That is why Africa is being destroyed."
The African countries are being forced to buy back goods
from international countries
that were made from the cotton they harvested.
The African countries are being taken advantage of
and are giving away jobs that their people deserve.
This is morally [reprehensible].
The textile clothing industries
have not been the only industries affected by foreign aid.
Farmers from the food industry have been negatively affected as well,
resulting in the bankruptcy of many local food and agriculture businesses.
A similar pattern can be seen in the rice industry.
Africa has grown to be a major consumer of rice,
and although African countries produce large quantities of rice,
importing rice
costs them approximately 3.5 billion U.S. dollars per year.
You have to ask yourself, "Who is benefiting?"
When Africa is spending this type of money
on a commodity that they're growing within their own borders.
Another issue lies in the governmental philosophy
and rules of the developing country.
For any country to succeed and be financially and economically stable,
it must have a government wanting to support its people
and the development of industries within it.
The issue is, is governments in developing countries are often corrupt
and unfortunately, benefit when their people cannot succeed.
To overcome poverty,
one must have the basic necessities known as the "ladder to prosperity."
This ladder includes legal protection from theft and violence,
justice in the courts, legal titles to one's land,
freedom to start and register a business,
and links to a wider circle of exchange.
The issue is, is that governments in developing countries
are denying their citizens the right to the ladder to prosperity.
One of the main reasons
is governments receive external funding from large, multinational corporations
to fund a specific sector of their government.
In the fine print of these contracts,
it is stated that the governments are obligated to buy those goods
for that sector from the very same corporation that funded them.
Therefore, the company increases sales
while the government receives partial funding to buy goods.
The only people who do not benefit are the ones who are suffering the most.
Entrepreneurs and local business owners
are experiencing an extreme decrease in demand,
and without any financial security,
they are unable to climb out of the pit of poverty.
Clearly, these examples explain the reasons
thousands of people worldwide are living in strife.
It seems almost impossible to reverse the daunting problems
the textile, clothing, and food industries have faced.
However, the issue can be improved.
The solution is to solve the clothing and food crisis,
and convince governments to allow businesses in their country
to succeed and become prosperous.
This will ultimately build a stable economy
and improve the quality of life
for thousands of people in developing countries.
The first step is to minimize the number of used clothing items
being donated to developing countries.
Instead,
apparel companies should be obligated to run a different used clothing model,
whereby they take back customers' clothing and try to recycle the materials.
Therefore, the amount of waste is being reduced
and no longer are NGOs taking away the market from local clothing retailers.
H&M has already adopted this positive policy.
They encourage their customers to bring back old clothing
in return for discounts.
The second step is to allow the countries
to live sustainably off the food they produce
and rely less on imports from other countries.
With Africa's abundance of arable land,
they should keep the rice and cotton they're producing within their own borders
and only export the surplus.
It is not financially responsible
for African countries to export the cotton they're producing to other countries
for it to be turned into threads and gain value.
The African manufactures must claim and capitalize on this industry
because it will empower their people and provide hundreds of jobs.
Makhtar Diop, the World Bank Vice President for the Africa region,
touches upon the possibility for the African food industry
to help developing countries within it.
Diop says, "The time has come for making African agriculture and agribusiness
a catalyst for ending poverty."
Lastly, we must redirect the goals of NGOs.
They should nourish the development of entrepreneurs,
small and medium businesses, so they are able to thrive.
They can accomplish this by providing connections and resources
to ensure the success of a business.
NGOs should be focused on fostering people's innovations
to start a business and fill a gap in their local market.
They can provide the technology and the training
to allow businesses to connect with other businesses worldwide.
However, before that, governments in developing countries
must stop making unethical deals with large corporations
and start supporting their local entrepreneurs.
Governments can impose tariffs onto international competing goods
to give local businesses an advantage.
As these businesses succeed,
they'll create hundreds of jobs and other supporting markets,
which will lead to further prosperity.
Although the textile, clothing, and food industries
have undergone extreme losses,
we can reverse our actions and bring developing countries
one step closer to their self-sustainable future.
This holiday season,
when you're in the giving spirit, think of those suffering.
Instead of donating your old clothes,
donate to an organization that shares knowledge
and teaches others to become entrepreneurs.
Some of our best intentions are causing terrible harm.
But it is not too late to change.