TRADE, or the Trust for Rural African Development and Enterprise, is a non-profit organization recently launched by Katy and Philip Leakey. The Africa-focused project aims to develop and maintain sustainable, ecological and entrepreneurial industries throughout the rural regions of the continent.
TRADE's development strategy revolves around eight "guided principles" that it brings into its approach to community development, which includes stakeholder ownership, gender mainstreaming, diversification and sustainability. TRADE's projects follow a similarly structured development plan with three phases: community investment, income generation and empowerment and community re-investment.
Other social ventures that the Leakey's are involved with that we have previously covered on SocialBusiness.org include their highly successful Zulugrass jewelry and Marula Oil, a beauty product line they founded with Dr. Ashton Kaidi, both of which are available through their lifestyle company the Leakey Collection.
What's Driving This Trend
- Sustainable Development
- TRADE aims to develop and maintain sustainable and ecological industries throughout rural Africa, creating opportunities to develope sustainable non-polluting alternatives to traditional manufacturing methods in various industry sectors.
- Community Empowerment
- TRADE aims to empower rural African communities through income generation and community investment; this creates opportunities to implement projects that improve local economies and engage local entrepreneurs in collective agreements.
- Gender Mainstreaming
- TRADE implements Gender-Mainstreaming, creating opportunities to establish a new standard of workplace equity that engenders diversity and supports opportunities for women in local and global markets.
Who This Affects Most
- Sustainable Manufacturing
- TRADE's focus on sustainable development offers opportunities for innovation in non-polluting alternatives to traditional manufacturing that sustain local ecosystems for rural African Communities.
- Entrepreneurship
- TRADE's focus on developing entrepreneurial industries offers opportunities to support and promotes local entrepreneurship in rural Africa by developing innovative ways to distribute and market local goods locally and globally.
- Gender Equity
- TRADE's gender-mainstreaming focus offers opportunities for organizations worldwide to adopt and implement workplace equity policies designed to support the marginalized and drive inclusion and diversity.
