Making Connections: Country and Product Research Project

Making Connections: Country and Product Research Project

Making Connections is a unit project that incorporates 3 stages of research and reporting. It encourages students to seek multiple perspectives on a developing country to understand the specific human rights challenges faced by its people. Students will be encouraged to make close connections with the world around them—through the products we consume in our daily lives.

Independent student research will be guided by teacher modeling. The Fair Trade School education resources provide a case study for the teacher to present to students in class to familiarize students with the format for the project, as well as to introduce key terms and strategies for learning.

Students will be provided with a selection of 4-6 country and product profiles to be used in their own research. Each profile will include suggested links for researching specific information on fair trade. For an adapted version of the project, students may use the example profile presented by the teacher. Advanced students may incorporate a review of the Introduction to the UN's 2015 Human Development Report to synthesize and evaluate their research.

Project components

Culminating assignment #1: Media studies presentation
Culminating assignment #2: Data collection, research reports, identifying social issues
Final assignment: Fair Trade Co-operative Profile and Assessment

Mini-assignment #1: Media studies presentation

Mini-assignment #2: Data collection, research reports, identifying social issues

Final assignment: Fair Trade Co-operative Profile and Assessment

Case Study Resources (RECOMMENDED)

CEPIBO and BOS: Bananas, Peru

Montillo and MANDUVIRA Cooperative: Sugar, Paraguay

Kuapa Kokoo: Cocoa, Ghana

Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union (OCFCU): Coffee, Ethiopia

SOPPEXCCA: Coffee, Nicaragua

Other Available Case Studies

The women of the Tighanimine Cooperative (Argan oil)

Chetna Organic: cotton farming, India

Oro Verde: coffee/cocoa, Peru

Kagera Co-operative Union (KCU): Coffee, Tanzania

WINFA: banana, st lucia

Coopérative Agricole N’Zrama de N’Douci: Cocoa, Cote de Ivore

COAGROSOL: Oranges, Brazil

Mchinji Area Small Farmers Association: Ground Nuts, Malawi

Sukambizi Association Trust (SAT): Tea, Malawi

Additional resources

Culminating assignment #1: Media studies presentation

Students select a country and research 5-10 news stories on the country. Students will collect URL links and paste them into a document that answers the following questions:

Based on the 5-10 news stories they find, have them answer the following questions:

How recent are the articles? Does it seem like this country gets much coverage?
Do the articles tell positive or negative stories?
Are there common themes/issues discussed in each article? What are they? (Make a list of key terms associated with these issues.)
Are countries portrayed as actively finding solutions to problems?
Is there any mention of fair trade? How often?

Teachers may want to recommend and/or assess students' abilities to identify proper international news sources such as:

Globe and Mail
CBC.ca
BBC
Al Jazeera
New York Times

Students to put together a 5-minute presentation based on their findings.

Culminating assignment #2: Data collection, research reports, identifying social issues

Based on the country and product selected for their unit project, students will report on data found through institutional research tools.

Using the CIA World Factbook, students will find and fill out the following information (include actual data and world rank where applicable):

People and Society

Population
Urban and rural population
Infant mortality
Life expectancy
Health expenditure
Drinking water source
Sanitation facility access
Major infectious disease (degree of risk)
Children under the age of 5 underweight
Education expenditure
Literacy
Child labour

Economy

GDP per capita
Agricultural - products
Labour force
Labour force - by occupation
Approximately, how many agricultural workers?
Unemployment rate
Population below poverty line

Additionally, using one other source, students will identify social issues faced by agricultural populations. Sources to use include:

Human Rights Watch
United Nations (and affiliate organizations)
Amnesty International

Answer the following:

What social issues do people face?
How do these social issues make people vulnerable?
How might these vulnerabilities affect the supply of products to Canada?

Final assignment: Fair Trade Co-operative Profile and Assessment

Students will research information on specific fair trade co-operatives related to their selected country and product. Students will also synthesize previous research to evaluate the effectiveness of fair trade in increasing the resiliency of individual communities.

Research report

Summarize previous research to identify social issues faced by communities in your selected country.

Co-operative profile

Include the following:

Co-operative name
Region
Number of members
Products produced
Fairtrade certified?
Description of production methods

Fair Trade Evaluation

Based on your research and the information provided in class, is fair trade an effective solution to addressing the social issues faced by struggling communities?

Case Study Resources(RECOMMENDED)

The following lists contain links to resources that provide information on co-operatives and the products and regions they represent. Each list is intended to supplement teacher instruction and independent student research.

CEPIBO and BOS: Bananas, Peru

[SPANISH - REQUIRES GOOGLE TRANSLATE]

[SPANISH — REQUIRES GOOGLE TRANSLATE]

Montillo and MANDUVIRA Cooperative: Sugar, Paraguay

[SPANISH - REQUIRES GOOGLE TRANSLATE]

KuapaKokoo: Cocoa, Ghana

Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union (OCFCU): Coffee, Ethiopia

SOPPEXCCA: Coffee, Nicaragua

Sukambizi Association Trust (SAT): Tea, Malawi

Other Available Case Studies

The women of the Tighanimine Cooperative (Argan oil)

Chetna Organic: cotton farming, India

[ORGANIC FOCUS--Fairtrade at 5:05]

[VIDEO AT:

Oro Verde: coffee/cocoa, Peru

[SPANISH - REQUIRES GOOGLE TRANSLATE]

Kagera Co-operative Union (KCU): Coffee, Tanzania

[10:00]

WINFA: banana,stlucia

CoopérativeAgricoleN’Zrama de N’Douci: Cocoa, Cote de Ivore

[INCLUDES LINK TO REPORT]

[CANN CASE STUDY PP 12-3]

[EMPHASIS COCOA SOURCING PROGRAM]

COAGROSOL: Oranges, Brazil

[FRENCH]

MchinjiArea Small Farmers Association: Ground Nuts, Malawi

Additional resources

Fairtrade Foundation: Farmers and Workers page

Smallholder farmers produce 70% of world’s food, but are still starving

BLACK COFFEE [DOCUMENTARY - 57:41]

Fairtrade Foundation

Swap your choc

Cocoa farmers in Ghana talk about the benefits of Fairtrade

Fairtrade bananas in the Dominican Republic

producer community/interviews, production of bananas

Equal Exchange

Meet Ana Rodriguez

See cocoa trees, harvesting, composting

Water Project in the Dominican Republic

See impacts of fair trade projects -- water

Esmeralda Martinez of Tierra Fertil Co-op, Nicaragua

covers women's issues, see lives of farmers

Equal Exchange in Peru: Part 2

understanding co-operatives, coffee production

Farm to Kitchen: The path of an Equal Exchange Banana

see the full banana journey -- USA focus (New York destination, old FT Mark)

DIVINE CHOCOLATE

Divine Chocolate: Divine Inspiration [HQ] 18:00

Comprehensive look at chocolate production, co-operative roles, Ghana

BANANA SPLIT (yet to be reviewed)

[45 min]

ORDER A DVD: shebafilms.com/Order_films.html#bananasplit

Banana Split is a winner!

Banana Split is the 2005 award winner for the "Best Feature Length Documentary" at the Latin America Environmental Media Festival in New Orleans, and it is also the 2004 winner of the Canadian International Development Agency's Deborah Fletcher Award of Excellence in Filmmaking on International Development. In addition, Banana Split was honoured by being included in the 2003 Ökomedia – International Environmental Film Festival travelling tour of Germany and by being selected for the Travelling World Community Film Festival. Banana Split is also a core element in the Global Education Network's teaching module on bananas. Teachers can follow the links below to find a Global Education curriculum developed for the Ontario grade 12 Canadian and World Issues course. For the English version of this module see "Bananas Unpeeled" and for the French version see Les BananesToutesCrues. These modules and Banana Stories/Histoires de Bananes can also be used by anyone interested in using the banana as point of discussion for globalization and related topics.

Pa Pa Paa Live (yet to be reviewed)

Video series demonstrating life in a cocoa-growing community. Requires registration

LANDGRAB

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Buy a Cocoa pod