"Except for religious conflicts and the petty wars of feudal lords, wars are primarily fought over resources and trade. President Woodrow Wilson recognized that this was the cause of World War I: 'Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here that does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?'"
- J.W. Smith, Institute for Economic Democracy

On the world changing blog site recently, the author roundly aired his disdain for the management of the online commodity outlet store overstock.com for the hanky-panky they had pulled on company stock. The blogger was particularly hot over the fact that overstock.com was the parent of the otherwise wonderfully appealing and altruistic worldstock.com:

We locate magnificent items made by craftswomen (and craftsmen) around the world. We emphasize sustainability: choosing items that are environmentally sound, and that don’t burn up the natural or human resources of their producers. We pride ourselves on being honest brokers: we don’t gouge producers with our clout, nor consumers with mark-ups, thereby allowing the artisans to receive an average of 60 - 70 percent of the money you spend in Worldstock. Our goal in Worldstock is not to make money, but to create tens of thousands (and someday millions) of jobs in the poorest regions of the world, while bringing customers unique products of which they can be proud – hand-crafted clothing, jewelry, ceramics, furniture, and much more.

And just as I’m going Wow! What a wonderful specimen of ICT leveraged marvel per public/equal access potential and putting the tech-disadvantaged entrepreneurs of the 3rd world and sub Saharan Africa (SSA) on the global trade map, I noticed in the comments section, a couple of respondents had also thrown in a couple of more similar ventures:

• Novica.com (collaborates with national geographic):

  We want to give artists and artisans around the world a global platform to express their true artistic talents and to spur their creativity. And, we want to provide you with access to unique, hard-to-find items at great values that only the Internet infrastructure can allow.

  At the deepest essence of our philosophy, we want to create a bridge between you and the many talented artisans across the globe. We want you to know about who you're buying from. We want you to feel that attachment to the product and to the hands that created it.

  In the spirit of the Internet, let us bring you together. NOVICA. The World is Your Market.

• Tenthousandvillages.com

  Since 1946 Ten Thousand Villages has supported the work of literally tens of thousands of artisans in over 30 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, making us one the largest fair trade organizations in North America. Working with more than 100 artisan groups, we purchase fine pieces from craftspeople with whom we have longstanding, nurturing relationships…helping to bring dignity to their lives.

  Ten Thousand Villages is a founding member of the International Fair Trade Association, an organization that includes over 200 members in 55 countries, including many artisan groups in developing countries. We are part of a worldwide movement that is striving to improve the livelihood of disadvantaged people in developing countries through the expansion of fair trade.

• Mercado global

  Mercado Global is a non-profit fair trade organization that links the world’s most rural and economically-disadvantaged cooperatives to the U.S. market through a model that provides both fair wages and investments in community’s long-term development.

  Together with our partner NGOs, we work with women’s cooperatives across the world and help them to create beautiful handmade products. Through our online store Wear Your Difference and our Fair Trade Sourcing Program, we then find the markets for their products. All our sales provide women with fair wages and investments in their children’s education.

And I wonder if there would ever be a time online commodity mega players like Ebay would have to make some extra effort to court 3^rd world/African commodities -- maybe join the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) and display the fair trade member moniker on their popular auction site right beside the visa and paypal logos.

The obvious limitations to SSA participation in online commodity mega markets like Ebay include the dearth of connectivity and access to computers/Internet, globally accepted electronic payment services and logistics infrastructure (SSA is a study in frustrating import/export mechanisms.) So theoretically, at the current ICT growth clip in SSA, the aforementioned limitations would eventually go away and SSA entrepreneurs would gain more presence on the online trade scene. What’s not so obvious however and thus trickier to predict, are the minutiae of national trade and intellectual property policies wrapped around the dynamics of international commodities trading or even bartering.

Short of turning this into a full-blown campaign for the IFAT, it certainly remains one of SSA’s best friends as far as opening up SSA commodities markets to ICT leveraged global trade.

In this earlier blog, Forest Baker disagreed with pursuing craft or “village arts” merchandising as a way out for 3rd world nations, saying it wasn’t sustainable per low profit margins -- except if you find your niche and leverage it nicely just like he did with his designer handbag manufacturing operation out of the Philippines. And the figures may seem to support Forest’s view; Tenthousandvillages.com – the oldest and the most networked of the featured organizations above, reported $20 million in 2006 sales revenue, while Mercado, the youngest and least networked reported $75,000 in sales revenue for 2005 and projecting $600k revenue for 2006 – it would be interesting to see their financial breakdown in revenues per country, but it’s pretty obvious they are relatively low volume operations (which also probably explains why they are all not-for-profit organizations) and consequently low impact poverty alleviating tools, but the beauty lies in the fact that the SSA or 3rd world beneficiaries have to work for it – a very welcome departure from the more prevalent “free money” foreign aid approach.

And then also, there may be elements of Forest’s “niche theory” that may still occur; happy accidents such as special market niches driven by fads, and other societal quirks/glitches -- for instance; Vegans/Vegetarians, Atkins and other diet challenged peoples of the USA have kept food processing companies, such as Kashi, pretty busy scouring mostly the 3rd world regions of the planet for the right combination of food appeasements for the sensitivities, palates and innards of billions of special consumers in the US. There is also the Ben & Jerry Ice cream example -- which their strongly pro organic raw materials policy often sees them shopping in 3rd world regions too.

We have dwelt extensively on commodities here, but of course the story doesn’t end with commodities only – there’s also the ICT leveraged global services and skills exchange scenarios such as Odesk.com – a virtual global employment service I already mentioned in this earlier blog. And there’s also the online foreign labor suppliers for US jobs such as Labormex – which has seen a 400% growth over the 4-year period of 2002 through 2006.

There’s also the google global category killer kijiji.com– a global portal for all kinds of virtual collaboration – also a great feedback/study tool for ethnic commercial models and consumer patterns.

From all indications, 3rd world regions including SSA, are largely un-researched markets with great potentials. A lot of ICT tools have been deployed to tap the known resources or to conduct more research or try to harness the unknowns. And SSA would grow as a result, so long as these resources are researched and harvested in a fair and equitable manner.

So the question for Africans in the interim is simply: What other ways can we leverage ICTs to showcase SSA skills, commodities and service potentials?