Benita Singh

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2004

Benita Singh

Mercado Global

http://www.mercadoglobal.org

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Community Improvement & Economic Development

The Bold Idea:

The need for comprehensive development in Guatemala is urgent: The estimated average rural household income is less than $450/year; fewer than two out of ten rural girls reach the 6th grade; and 67 percent of indigenous children suffer from chronic malnourishment. In addition, international aid to Guatemala has decreased over the years. Many communities responded to the limited opportunities for development by creating cooperatives, but the fluctuating tourist market, wavering political climate and the oversupply of crafts flooding the small market kept the prices very low.

Mercado Global is built on the belief that the key to Guatemala’s progress and social stability lies in providing communities with the monetary and structural resources to fund their own development. Based in New Haven, Conneticut and conceived of by two graduating Yale University students, Mercado Global partners with local NGOs to provide technical assistance to community-based cooperatives to produce traditional products that meet US market demands (which are sold at four times the local rate). Through college chapters throughout the United States, Mercado Global mobilizes students to market the local products and therefore, engage in development and activism that will build a stronger economic and social infrastructure. The additional sales income is pooled to establish locally-controlled funds (e.g., scholarships, microcredit, health). Piloted in 2003, Mercado Global funded over 20 full scholarships from their fall sales.

Biography:

Benita Singh became the President and Co-Founder of Mercado (“market”) Global in 2004 while a college senior, and is currently a marketing and branding consultant for fair-trade organizations and companies.  She was most recently the Vice President of Marketing for the League of Artisans program, an initiative of the American India Foundation. She has received numerous awards, including the YouthActionNet award (2005) from the International Youth Foundation, the “Leadership in Innovative Ideas” from the Social Enterprise Alliance (2005), and was profiled on the cover of Newsweek in 2006 as one of the 15 people “who make America great.  Benita is on the board of the International Youth Foundation.