SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS IMPACT REPORT 2021 / 2022
Community
The Arthur Cox Zambia Project
The Arthur Cox Zambia project was established 14 years ago to develop sustainable health, education and agricultural infrastructure aimed at raising the standards of living for a number of isolated rural communities in Zambia.
The project is championed by our Trainees and follows in the footsteps of the firm’s founder, Arthur Cox himself, a philanthropist, who upon finishing his career in law in the 1960s, moved to Zambia to work on the missions. The project is supported by the fundraising activities of the Trainees, with the firm matching funds raised. Throughout the pandemic our Trainees have continued to fundraise, enabling work to continue on the various aspects of the project in Zambia. We are pleased to report that this year’s fundraising activities raised a total of €27,660.
To ensure sustainability and avoid dependence, the project's initiatives are designed to become self-funding. Initiatives are conducted hand in hand with the community within defined timescales with carefully managed handover to community leaders on exit, together with ongoing monitoring of progress. Community decision-making, planning, ownership and handover are core pillars aimed at ensuring its success and sustainability.
ARTHUR COX ZAMBIA PROJECT FY 2021/22
Food Security
The Arthur Cox Zambia Project founded the Loanja Rice Growers Company (LRG) in 2019 to bring rice growing and other crop diversification to the Loanja plains region of South Western Zambia, in an effort to address food insecurity in the region. The LRG operates akin to a cooperative between participating farmers in the region under the guidance of an agronomist and project facilitator and the local offices of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the LRG has met its core production target, increasing rice production from 54 tonnes in 2020/2021 to 178 tonnes in 2021/2022, representing a 14 fold increase in production from 2020/2021 (13 tonnes).
The LRG successfully conducted a number of pilot diversification programmes this year focused on the high value crops cassava and bananas, which are to be included in its product mix in the 2022/2023 season.
Access to Clean Water
Under the supervision of the Mwandi Council Water Development Department, in 2022, the LRG rehabilitated five abandoned boreholes, and installed two new boreholes within the farming region, to assist farmers in irrigation and provide water security to local communities.
Update on Safe Water Project
In 2021 we reported how we offset 100% of the firm’s 2018, 2019 and 2020 carbon footprint by investing in the Zambia Safe Water Project via the carbon offsetting company, CO2balance UK. In June 2022 we invested in a further 2,040.8 credits to neutralise our carbon footprint for 2021. The Zambia Safe Water Project is located in the Lundazi District of Zambia where, to consume safe water, communities must purify water collected from unclean sources by boiling it over fires fuelled by firewood, resulting in the release of carbon emissions. CO2balance, works with its local partner, Reformed Open Community Schools, to rehabilitate broken boreholes to deliver safe water to rural communities, thereby reducing carbon emissions. To date 3,000 boreholes have been repaired. CO2balance develops projects under Gold Standard certification.
“The Zambia Borehole Project continues to progress well. We have recently been carrying out WASH training – Water, Sanitation & Hygiene – we run these training activities every year in the communities in order to raise awareness of best practices in looking after the borehole, the water containers as well as wider hygiene practices. The project is in its final stages of its second Verification with The Gold Standard. This is the independent carbon standards organisation with whom we validate and verify the project.
"We have rehabilitated and maintain 50 boreholes within this project area in the Eastern Province of Zambia. We are in the process of expanding the project to identify, fix and maintain a further 56 broken boreholes. At the moment we are carrying out “technical assessments” on these boreholes to work out what the problem is and what is needed to fix them. We hope to begin the process of rehabilitating them over the next few months. It is predicted that this will result in a further 12,500 people having access to safe water thanks to the project”.
PAUL CHIPLAN, CO2 BALANCE
Education
Since 2014, the Arthur Cox Zambia Project has partnered with the Chikuni Jesuit mission to expand and support a community schools programme providing primary education to those who do not have adequate access to state facilities across 18 different communities in the region. The project has constructed six bespoke schools to date. The development of the schools programme was significantly impacted by Covid-19 restrictions, which stalled plans to expand a school in Hakalinda. The plan was to accommodate additional enrolment by building a further classroom block and to provide teacher housing to secure commitments to staff the school with a full-time teacher supplied by the Ministry of Education. Expansion plans will now be implemented in 2022/2023.
Health
This part of the Arthur Cox Zambia Project began in 2008 with the renovation of a rural medical clinic in the village of Masese which provides services to a population of 5,700 people, installing bore hole water supply and running water, as well as building a seven-bed maternity ward across a five-year project plan.
The Masese clinic was officially handed over to the Department of Health in 2014, although our Arthur Cox Zambia Project team reviews the clinic annually and provides support for repairs and provision of medicines, with specific funds allocated for works and medicines this year. The project has also supported Mwandi hospital this year with funding for supplies of personal protective equipment to deal with the impact of COVID and has provided funding for an oxygen manifold as part of renovations required to supply piped oxygen to the hospital in dealing with COVID patients.