The United Kingdom has a very complex economy with a great variety of industries involving trade all around the world. Uganda and many other countries in the developing world are not as fortunate in having a great variety of products to trade and are very dependent on one or two commodities to sell to markets round the world.

Agriculture is the backbone of Uganda's economy. It accounts for 80% of its foreign exchange earnings. Coffee is the leading foreign exchange earner but other crops such as tea, tobacco and sugar-cane are also grown for export.

Uganda is one of many countries caught in the debt trap. The government borrowed money from the World Bank (before interest rates soared) to invest in industry and in the people. Coffee was an important crop but interest rates rose, as did the amount of coffee in the world market, reducing the price and therefore reducing the income. The amount of money Uganda owed to the World Bank increased. Many countries are still trying hard to increase their income and repay their debts by growing products that the developed world wants. The amount of money Uganda spends on their education service and health facilities is imited and little money is available to develop a full range of industries.

Download a chart which shows for example that 24% of the population of the world own 78% of the wealth, 80% of the food and consume between 83% and 92% of the world's resources.

A Story - The little red hen

This story is the tale of the little red hen it is an example of how people and countries get caught and tied up in knots with others.

Each Six could be one of the characters and act out the story. Why do they act in this way and how they could change to help the little red hen.

The Tale of the Little Red Hen

Once upon a time there was a little red hen. She lived on a pleasant farm and ate the food she grew there. One day the little red hen found a grain of wheat. She thought she would plant it to grow more grain for herself.

'Who will help me plant this grain of

wheat?'asked the little red hen.

'Not l,' said the duck, 'but I'll sell you some coffee bushes. You'll make lots of money if you grow coffee instead of wheat.'

'Not l,' said the pig, 'but I'll buy the coffee from you when you've grown it'.

'Not I,' said the rat, 'but I'll lend you the money you need to start with.'

So the little red hen planted the farm with coffee instead of wheat.

'Who will help me grow this coffee?' asked the little red hen.

'Not I,' said the duck, 'but I'll sell you some fertiliser to help it grow.'

'Not l,' said the pig, 'but I'll sell you some pesticides to keep it free from disease'.

'Not l,' said the rat, 'but I'll lend you the money to buy the fertiliser and the pesticides you need.'

So the little red hen worked long and hard. She spread the fertilisers, and sprayed the insecticide on her coffee bushes. Even though it was costing her so much more than it had done to grow her wheat, she kept thinking of the money she would get for it. Then came harvest time.

'Who will help me to sell my coffee?' asked the little red hen.

'Not I,' said the duck, 'but you'll need my factory to roast and pack it.'

'Not l,' said the pig, 'everyone's growing coffee now and the price has hit rock bottom.'

'Not I,' said the rat, 'but you have to repay all your debts now.'

So the little red hen realised that she had made a mistake growing coffee instead of wheat, because she was deep in debt and had nothing to eat.

'Who will help me find me something to eat?' asked the little red hen.

'Not I,' said the duck, 'you haven't got any money to pay for it.'

'Not l,' said the pig, 'there's not enough to go round since everyone started to grow coffee.'

'Not l,' said the rat, 'but I'll take your land instead of the money you owe me and perhaps I'll let you stay and work for me.'

Activity - Bartering

Many societies use bartering for buying and selling goods rather than selling for a fixed price. This involves talking about the price each wants to pay and receive or using other goods in exchange.

One Cub from each Six becomes the trader and is given a set amount of yams, groundnuts, bananas and coffee. These could be cut out of cardboard and have various values for example yams 1, groundnuts 2, bananas 3, coffee 4.

Each Six is then given the same amount of money for instance 30 Ugandan shillings and they have to try to buy as many items as possible and get the most points possible. The Cub Scouts can barter with all of the traders.

After a period of time the Six with the most points and the trader with the most money wins.

Ask the Cub Scouts to go back into their Sixes.

• Would they like to barter with their pocket money?
• Ask them to think of the advantages and disadvantages.
• What skills do they think they need to barter successfully?

Activity Slicing the Banana

 

The aim of this activity is to look at one commodity and to see the relative division between the grower and picker to that of the retailer.

• The grower and picker - grows the bananas, picks them and transports them to the nearest port.
• The Shipping Company takes them by ship from Africa to Europe.
• The packer removes the bananas from the ship's container and packs them.
• The importing company is responsible for bringing them into the European country.
• The wholesaler buys large amounts from the importer and sells them to smaller buyers (retailers).The retailer, sells the bananas to you and me.

1. Divide the Troop into small groups of equal numbers and name each group:
   • growers/ pickers
   • retailers
   • wholesalers
   • importing company
   • shipping company
   • packaging company
2. Give out paper and pencils and a diagram of a banana.
3. Tell everybody that a banana costs 20p.
4. Put the blank banana up on the wall, marked 20p, and ask each group to decide how much it deserves of the final banana price (dependent upon the amount of labour and other costs the group feels it must meet).
5. After five minutes get each group to present its case. Write the amounts upon the blank banana.
6. If the total comes to over 20p, get them to negotiate between themselves until it comes back to 20p.
7. Click here to reveal the true situation.
   • How do the two sets of divisions compare?
8. Give the pickers knives and allow each group to actually take its share from the pickers' bananas.
   • How do the pickers feel?
   • Which group gets the fairest deal?
   • Can the group think of any ways to give the growers and pickers a better cut?

The United Kingdom has a very complex economy with a great variety of industries involving trade all around the world. Uganda and many other developing countries in the world are not as fortunate in having a great variety of products to trade and are very dependent on one or two commodities to sell to markets round the world.

Agriculture is the backbone of Uganda's economy.

It accounts for 80% of its foreign exchange earnings. Coffee is the leading foreign exchange earner but other crops such as tea, tobacco and sugar-cane are also grown for export.

Uganda is one of many countries caught in the debt trap. The government borrowed money from the World Bank (before interest rates soared) to invest in industry and in the people.

Coffee was an important crop but interest rates rose, as did the amount of coffee in the world market, reducing the price and therefore reducing the income. The amount of money they owed to the World Bank increased. Many countries are still trying hard to increase their income and repay their debts by growing products that the developed world wants. The amount of money Uganda spends on their education service and health facilities is limited and little money is available to develop a range of industries.

Programme Ideas

1. Word Search
   Ask the Scouts to find the words relating to the economy which are hidden in the word-search
2. Money, Money, Money
   Invite a local business person, bank or building society manager to come and talk to the Scouts about development, borrowing money, interest rates and inflation.
3. Double your Money
   If the Scouts had their pocket money or earnings reduced by half how would they manage? Could they generate some income? Give each Patrol a small amount of money and ask them to work together to double the amount.

Note: Since the UNITE Books were written there have been great efforts to reduce or cancel "third wold debt". The Denmark and the UK have been at the forefront of this campaign along with much of the European Union. In exchange for investment in education and health Britain has cancelled most of its debt due from Uganda. This has brought some improvements and this is particularly evident in Education where UPE (Universal Primary Education) is meant to provide free education for all primary age children. However, this does not take account of other pressures on familes such as the need for children to work to maitain the family and in many cases care for the family as prime earner where mother and father have died. It has also lead to large class sizes which are difficult for us in the UK to contemplate. Many class sizes are around 100 but can be as high as 400 particularly in rural areas.

Classes so large are a sobering contemplation for any UK teacher more used to classes of 30 children. Little wonder then that teachers rely on corporal punishment to keep good order and encourage learning.