Shared Interest is a Newcastle-based organisation that works with farmers and artisans in low income countries, not through charity, but through facilitating people like you and me to invest in their companies, by lending to them. Shared Interest, set up in 1990, is based at Pearl Assurance House, on New Bridge Street West in Newcastle upon Tyne. It now coordinates the lending by 11,800 people across the UK, working “hand in hand with people in communities where income opportunities may be limited and businesses are facing increasing challenges”.
Shared Interest work in a cooperative way to provide financial support to fair trade businesses in nearly 50 countries across the world. Their website states that, “The majority of these organisations support smallholder farmers who produce around a third of the world’s food but often struggle to feed their families”.
Shared Interest make loans to organisations of farmers and craftspeople as well as some fair trade buyers, using the investments of their members. Typically the loans fund materials, seeds, crops, plants, crops, finished goods or equipment. The organisation repays Shared Interest the capital plus interest, once the crops or crafts are sold. The funds are then recycled and lent out again.
Individual lenders invest in Shared Interest, with a minimum stake of £100, and can withdraw their money at any time. It is a great way of helping people who wish to work as part of a membership organisation in environmentally, sustainable ways across the world and help to make the world a better and fairer place.
Shared Interest Winter Report 2024
This is one of regular series of reports, as managing director Patricia Alexander points out when she states that, “We bring you stories of resilience from the producer groups we work with. Examples including Ugandan coffee cooperative Bukonzo, which is pioneering gender equality along with reports from Nicaragua where our Central American team has been meeting customers.”
Bukonzo in Uganda
In Uganda, the Bukonzo Organic Farmers Cooperative Union, working in the Rwenzori region has been able to become a transformative force in the coffee industry. In all, 13 cooperatives are united by Bukonzo. This is said to strengthen “the livelihoods of over 4 100 smallholder farmers, 42% of whom are women.”
Bukonzo is pioneering sustainable coffee production in Uganda, with the help of loans from Shared Interest, who were the first international lender to work with Bukonzo, back in 2014. This support has been instrumental in the expansion of the cooperative. Shared Interest notes that, “our financial support enabled Bukonzo to plan purchases based on projected harvests, empowering them to secure more stable contracts”.
Nicaragua
The production of coffee is crucial to the economy of Nicaragua. In all, it employs over 300 000 people and contributes to 20% of the agricultural GDP of the country. However, despite all this and the fact that the coffee producing workforce represents almost half of all the agricultural jobs in Nicaragua, the country remains one of the least developed countries in Central America, with about 30% of the population living below the poverty line and high unemployment prevailing.
In order to help alleviate problems like these, Shared Interest currently provides finance to 12 agricultural providers amounting to over $7 million in total. These cooperatives produce commodities ranging from coffee and sesame seeds to herbs. As Shared Interest points out: “As Nicaragua pursues a reputation for speciality coffee on the global stage, whilst battling widespread poverty, access to finance for these cooperatives remain critical, as a means for them to realise their potential and enable farmers to invest in their farms, support their families and trade their way out of poverty.”
Measuring impact
Shared Interest reports the following:
- . They support 147 producers and 19 buyers, giving a total of 9 044 employees
- . Shared Interest support 416 979 farmers and artisans including 156 051 women
- . There is a collective revenue of £880.3 million
- . A total of £42.1 million disbursed
This is a very impressive set of records and one can only hope that Shared interest can continue to increase the great work they are doing.
How can you help?
At the end of last month came the news that the UK government was cutting Foreign Aid from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3%. It has been well documented that cuts in Foreign Aid from this country cost innocent lives.
There is no way that an organisation like Shared interest can fill the deadly gap in funding that has taken place. Nor should it be expected to do so. The moment that we return to Foreign Aid being 0.7% of our GDP cannot come a moment too soon.
However, investing in Shared interest is a way of giving practical help to people who not only desperately need it, but also undoubtedly deserve it. And here in the North East of England, we should be proud that a Newcastle-based organisation is helping to lead the way to global justice, following a proud internationalist strand in our history, which goes back to at least the anti-slave trade campaigns of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
To learn more about the work of Shared Interest and how you can invest and lend money to producers in countries across the world, please see here.
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