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Addressing Systemic Poverty through Permaculture Practice

 

Presented By: Dr. Kimberly Daniels

Event: West Africa Anglophone Forum 2015 (26-03-2015)

This presentation focuses on the practice of sustainable agriculture combined with sustainable living through a design philosophy known as "permaculture" for addressing systemic poverty issues in poor areas. Permaculture is a contraction of the words "permanent" and "culture", and is guided by three ethics:

  1. take care of the earth,
  2. take care of people, and
  3. take care of the future or reinvest the surplus for creating sustainable living environments.

Permaculture is practiced according to principles for building beneficial relationships between elements in a system, while integrating water catchment systems, improved soils, thriving plants, non-GMO seeds, edible landscapes, animals, microorganisms, structures, natural energy systems, cycles and patterns as well as human labor to create natural ecologies that are abundantly productive and economically viable. When done well, permaculture systems provide for their own needs, do not exploit natural resources or pollute the environment and are sustainable long-term---building blocks for addressing poverty issues in poor areas.

Kimberly is the Project Director of PeaceBridge International, Burkina Faso, a community development organization. She has professional experience in business administration, management, leadership development and sustainable community transformation. She also has received training in permaculture (a design philosophy for creating sustainable living environments) and water conservation for dryland/arid areas. Presently, she is using her business background and community development experience to work alongside of small farmers in Burkina Faso in finding solutions to systemic poverty through sustainable agricultural and living practices.

Dr. Daniels graduated in 2012 with a doctoral degree in Strategic Leadership, an emphasis in Strategic Foresight, from an accredited Christian institution in the US. She has an MBA in Business and Entrepreneurship, and a BBA in Accounting and Taxation.