Successful Projects
In collaboration with the Ethiopian Government, LYIP designed and managed the Ethiopian Fine Coffee Trademarking and Licensing Initiative. Under the initiative, Ethiopia took a degree of control over the distribution of three of Ethiopia’s finest coffees (Yirgacheffe, Harar and Sidamo), through successful trademarking and licensing a large number of distributors (120 licensees to date). This control over distribution radically changed the Ethiopian fine coffee stakeholders’ negotiating position so they are no longer subject to commodity market fluctuations or domination by foreign buyers. The much stronger negotiating position led to the published $100m additional export income in the year to June 2008 and those gains have persisted to the present date.
At the request of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), LYIP conducted a study to identify and research a variety of other distinctive products throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This study revealed that most producers from developing countries rarely benefit from the high retail prices of their very best, most distinctive products, despite the fact that the product’s distinctiveness originates in their countries. This creates immense potential for developing countries to utilize business tools to increase their export revenue and take ownership of their assets. The products identified in the report “Distinctive values in African exports” represent only a small sampling of the hundreds of opportunities in Africa and, indeed, throughout the developing world. The report can be downloaded from www.lightyearsip.net.
“Distinctive values in African exports” was launched at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town in June 2008. Since the launch, the G8, the OAS, the African Union, CIDA, WIPO and the US Departments of State and Department of Commerce have all shown decided interest in LYIP’s method and concepts. LYIP has been invited to make presentations to these organizations about the effectiveness of Value Capture as a way of low-income producers moving out of poverty.
Following the publication of “Distinctive values,” LYIP conducted feasibility studies on 11 products from Sub-Saharan African producers, completed in the Spring of 2010. The studies delved more deeply into the potential to improve the situation of producer stakeholder groups in their product sector, validated value chain analysis figures, assessed foreign market opportunities and made recommendations on business strategies to enable developing country stakeholders to gain some degree of control of distribution and earn higher incomes.
Awareness raising and mobilization of interest and resources for African producers to capture value is also important. As a complement to the feasibility studies, LYIP has conducted workshops in Sub-Saharan Africa on Value Capture throughout 2009, 2010, and 2011. The workshop program aims to assist developing country stakeholders to gain the necessary skills to identify, promote and control the value in their products. Many more products are being identified as distinctive, with Value Capture opportunities, in the course of these workshops.
As a result of these workshops and presentations to funding agencies, several opportunites are being pursued in the near term. Working in partnership with the US Patent and Trade Office, DFID, and others, Light Years is actively engaging stakeholders in several sectors throughout Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, and Kenya. These efforts are expected to result in fundable business plans for a number of products.