• Fair Trade Wages ~ Paying fair trade wages to each artisan for her products that enable her to support her family's daily needs, including 50% paid in advance.
• Eliminating Middlemen ~ Positioning Indego Africa as the only intermediary between the women of our partner cooperatives and individual buyers or retailers in the U.S.
• Donation of Profits ~ Re-investing 100% of profits in programs and capacity-building at our partner cooperatives.  
  
• Training Next-Generation Entrepreneurs ~ Deploying culturally-tailored training programs at our partner cooperatives – with the objective of creating independent entrepreneurs.
• Harnassing Local Talent ~ Committing to the employment and training of talented local staff to fill positions often done by expatriates.
• Ground-Breaking Partnerships ~ Working together with sister organizations to address needs beyond our immediate expertise, such as ORI, Gardens of Health, ToughStuff International and International Justice Mission.
  
• Verifiable Social Impact ~ Measuring and reporting the social impact of programs using quantitative (survey, third party review) and qualitative (interview) assessment tools.
• Robust E-Commerce Platform ~ Using a fully out-sourced, web-based system for inventory, order fulfillment, and on-line ordering.
• Progressive Use of Open Source Technology ~ Streamlining administrative operations and minimizing permanent staffing needs through the development of a technology infrastructure that is web-based, open-source, and real-time – allowing teams and stakeholder groups to collaborate across borders. 
• Creative Social Media ~ Cutting-edge multimedia and social media (Facebook, Blog, Twitter, Youtube, Flicker) content that connects the our partner cooperatives with the global community and promotes the potential of Rwanda.

• Long-Term Development ~ a commitment to the long-term development of its artisans through (1) partnership with their cooperatives on a mutually-respectful basis and (2) training in skills that improve management and generate income in the local economy.
• Entrepreneurship & Market Mechanisms ~ a commitment to respecting and utilizing market mechanisms, while recognizing their limitations, and promoting the entrepreneurial ideals of self-reliance and creative risk-taking, both within and beyond Indego Africa. 
• Fair Trade ~ a commitment to paying a fair wage, making production advances (or micro-grants), transferring market and customer information, encouraging sustainable raw material usage, and promoting fair trade, as certified by the Fair Trade Federation.
• Quality Products ~ a commitment to providing customers with attractive, practical, artistic and culturally-significant handicrafts of the highest possible quality.
• Financial Stewardship ~ a commitment to the responsible and efficient management of its financial resources, in recognition of its obligations both to donors and the artisans who rely upon Indego Africa for their livelihood.
  
• Transparency & Ethics ~ a commitment to the highest standards of transparency and ethics in all its operations and its interactions with the public, government and partners.
• Competency through Partnership ~ a commitment to recognizing the limits of its institutional capacity and competency, and to seeking partnerships with other organizations that can bridge these gaps.
• Raising Awareness ~ a commitment to telling the story of the people and nations where Indego Africa works, with an emphasis on achievements and potential, and bringing such stories to the widest possible audience.
• Innovation ~ a commitment to considering innovative theories and practices, in areas like payment systems and information technology, that might improve organizational efficiency or services, while weighing the benefits of innovation against the costs of implementation.

Typical Street Scene, Rwanda

(i) the local economy does not adequately reward the women’s artistic skills;

(ii) no free training programs exist that also offer child care; and

(iii) few community development organizations have the leadership and expertise necessary to offer sustainable earning strategies.

Current research indicates that, when income is available to them, women manage it very effectively on behalf of their family’s interests.  The problem is not work ethic or ambition; it is a simple issue of opportunity.

Indego Africa offers the possibility of a revolutionary life change by tackling the root causes of poverty.  Connected with untapped markets for their products, Indego Africa partners can earn between $1.20 and $4.50 per day, many multiples of the typical Rwandan wage.  This additional income alone provides each woman with the finances necessary for the basic sustenance upon which further development is predicated.  Training offered in the Hand Up program achieves longer-term impact by improving the management skills of cooperatives – ensuring that they become community institutions and business models for entrepreneurial women – as well as by increasing the job skills of individuals.  Through the benefits of economic cooperation, ethnic groups become more aware that their mutual success lies in moving beyond historical tensions.  Finally, because Hand Up is funded by handicraft profits, the women are less dependent on Indego Africa and experience improved self-confidence.

In May 2008, Indego Africa was not only honored as an Echoing Green Semifinalist, but it also won the  coveted Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurship's Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Competition at Washington University in Saint Louis, which is awarded to the organization best utilizing “entrepreneurial skills to craft innovative processes, approaches, and solutions to help resolve social issues."

Indego Africa is also currently the subject of a Harvard Business School case study, which should come out in 2010.

Even James Kimonyo, the Rwandan Ambassador to the United States, couldn’t help but voice his enthusiasm for Indego Africa’s innovative business model: “The approach of [Indego Africa] is to say, how do we create sustainability, create knowledge, and skills for these women to do other things, to diversify what they are doing so they can be productive and lead to income. As a former governor, as an ambassador, as a director of housing in the ministry, this approach is incredible . . . and I want to make sure that everyone knows that this approach is going to make a very very strong impact in terms of poverty reduction.” – James Kimonyo, Rwandan Ambassador to the U.S., delivered remarks, "Ibirori! A Celebration of Rwanda Progress," Washington, D.C. (Dec. 4, 2008).

For instance, while registered as non-profit in the United States, Indego Africa utilizes a combination of commercial (for-profit) and social (non-profit) approaches.  Thus, our partners not only realize immediate income by accessing the export market, but they also are better positioned for long-term income generation by building their portfolio of employable skills, accomplished at their direction and with their funds.  More specifically:

• Income and Training: For-profit companies realize the commercial value of African handicrafts – and their purchases generate critical income – but such intermediaries rarely leave behind the technical and organizational expertise to ensure lasting development. Indego Africa operates like a for-profit, but closes the knowledge transfer gap.
• Long-Term Earning: Export markets for handicrafts may shift unexpectedly, making it difficult for a strictly for-profit company to continue supporting a community and thus devastating that community’s income predictability.  As a non-profit, Indego Africa makes a long-term commitment to conferring income-generating skills.
  
• Commercial Opportunities: Job training serves the participants’ long-term interests but, in the absence of commercial opportunities, cannot assure that the skills learned translate into sustainable income.  Because Indego Africa also markets and sells its partners' products, it delivers more than a traditional non-profit.

To learn more about social enterprise, follow Indego Africa's ground-breaking blog Social Enterprising and its Twitter feed!

The following presentations were made by members of the Indego Africa team to various groups.  In the interest of raising awareness about social entrepreneurship and Rwanda, they're being made available for educational purposes.  You're free to use them as you see fit, but please let us know that you found them helpful!

Harnessing Global Trade to Promote Human Security: Social Entrepreneurship and the Indego Africa Model (PowerPoint version and PDF version), presented by Matt Mitro to the Coalition Advocating Human Security at the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs, University of California-Irvine (February 24, 2009)

A Social Entrepreneurship Model for African Development (PowerPoint version and PDF version), presented by Matt Mitro and Tom Mitro at the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition 2008, the Skandalaris Center at Washington University in St. Louis (April 3, 2008)

• No Support for Government or Political Party.
• No Propaganda or Political Intervention.
• No Corrupt Payments.
• No Discrimination.
• Operate Exclusively For Charitable Purpose.

For full policy, CLICK HERE.