It is not sufficient to teach a poor person to fish.

For him or her to exit poverty they also need a market which shall pay them an income. Few Irish companies realise the contribution which their firms could make to poverty reduction in Africa.

We research how value-added trade contributes to poverty reduction and identify opportunities for producers to engage in value-added trade. We make this information publicly available in Africa and Ireland.

Value Added in Africa (VAA) researches and makes publicly available information on production processes in Africa which contribute to sustainable livelihoods for poor people.

• the number of people employed

• who those people are - are they vulnerable to poverty, e.g. women or ethnic minorities

• the salaries of the producers

• that the working conditions do not endanger the health or welfare of the producers or their capacity to continue to earn their own livelihood

• does the production process use inputs from other poor people in the locality - e.g. fruit juice making buys pineapples from many poor farmers.

• Preference is given to producers whose work is poverty proofed by certification bodies such as Fair Trade or Social Auditing

• Preference is given to groups whose organisational structure ensures broad distribution of the gains - e.g. cooperatives.

VAA assists poor African people to attain the skills needed to add further value to the produce of their work and to find markets. It does this through capacity building seminars and by training African people in the skills of value-addition.

VAA educates African businesses in the need for them to act with corporate social responsibility in relation to their staff and communities.

VAA runs education programmes among the Irish public to make them aware of the importance of value-added trade in reducing poverty in Africa and in achieving fair trade.

VAA raises the awareness of Irish business people of their corporate social responsibilities. VAA publishes research and holds seminars to encourage them to act responsibly and illustrates opportunities for them to do so by sourcing their inputs from producers whom VAA's research has identified as having a poverty reducing impact in Africa.