About Us

Core Mission

Vital Edge is a humanitarian micro-aid organization, which specializes in strategic advocacy to achieve concrete goals for specific communities.
Vital Edge proposes to expand its  Core Mission in two ways. First, with the introduction of an improved  “holistic”  Micro-Cluster Approach to the implementation and financing of its micro-programs and second, by focusing on a series of programs for Indigenous Artisan Communities.

The “Micro-Cluster” Approach

The “Micro-cluster” approach reflects the need for a more holistic value-chain view of development in general. It is the difference between putting in a well. And putting in a well with the requisite maintenance capacity (trained personnel), water distribution (treadle pumps and irrigation ditches), agricultural support (soil nutrition, raw material banks), social consciousness (gender issues, belief systems, lineage systems) marketing opportunity (linkage and transportation to markets and exports), education (literacy and health) and finance options (micro-finance, loans, grants).

Vital Edge seeks to combine these two perspectives. First the need to stay small, focused, involved and results orientated at the grass-roots level, and second, the ability to address a variety of complimentary component issues that all combine to contribute to the outcome. A “holistic” value- chain micro-cluster approach.

What are the benefits of a the cluster-approach at micro-aid level?

This approach addresses two major problems encountered in humanitarian aid.

Often many of the intended benefits are diluted or non-existent by the time the aid reaches the most needy. Among many commonly cited problems are excessive beaurocracy, corruption, favoritism and inefficiency. Aid intended for rural or remote regions is often non-existent by the time it has been through the filters of power and distribution. Micro aid eliminates that problem. The micro-aid is introduced at the grass roots level. There are no intermediaries beyond the local NGO, who are often drawn from the ethnic and geographic background of the indigenous recipients.

The second major stumbling block facing international humanitarian aid is the common application of single-issue remedies. Digging wells, malaria nets, aids medication, solar lamps, providing tools etc. While it can be argued that a single item remedy is better than none, it cannot be argued that it is better than a multifaceted mutually beneficial cluster of remedies. Individual wells fail through lack of maintenance. Malaria nets get stolen by jealous neighbors, aids victims get medication but no social support, and solar lamps become a tradable commodity instead of an educational tool. With the cluster methodology, the well is supported by maintenance and distribution technology, the malaria nets are distributed according to socially accepted norms and in accordance with existing social patterns within the community, the aids patients are also educated in gender discrimination and domestic violence, and solar lamps dovetail with literacy and microfinance programs. It is the cluster approach to problem solving that enhances the benefit of each component so that the benefits of the total cluster far exceed the sum of the individual solutions. A logical extension of this approach is to link a series of aid initiatives into a “value-chain” income producing solution. The proposed program for organic cotton in Senegal takes this approach to its logical extreme, providing environmentally and socially acceptable remedies towards market orientated outputs.