Red Cedar is a small women owned business, located in the mountain village of Wupperthal, Western Cape, South Africa. The area is known for its wildflowers and the production of rooiboos (pronounced “roy-boss”, Afrikaans for “red bush”), a plant used to make an herbal tea which is the primary beverage in South Africa. Initially, the women there saw an entrepreneurial opportunity to cultivate the rooibos plant and use the by-products to make soap. That small beginning has grown to a number of products, developed in part with funding from USAID through the VEGA South Africa APS Grants Administration (SAAGA) program. MK Cope of IESC is the Chief of Party for the VEGA SAAGA program.

VEGA Volunteer Awardees, David and Florence Wagner, have used their retirement to travel the globe as volunteers sharing their knowledge and expertise. They made a significant impact in Southern Sudan as business development consultants and contributed to the advancement of women empowerment associations.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) recently recognized the international service of volunteers who have contributed their professional skills and time to meeting the challenges of economic growth in developing countries on behalf of USAID. The awards were presented by Jim Kunder, USAID Deputy Administrator and Spencer King, Chairman, VEGA Board of Directors in the Rotunda of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, home to USAID’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. Steve

On May 13th at a Daybreak Discovery Presentation and Discussion organized by the Business Growth Initiative (BGI), VEGA presented the Technical Brief, The Effective Use of Volunteers in USAID Economic Growth.

Although the crowd of investors in George Washington University’s Jack Morton Auditorium on a Saturday afternoon was nestled in the heart of Washington, D.C, the center of attention was thousands of miles away–in the Horn of Africa. The auditorium was host to the invitation-only Third Ethiopian Diaspora Business Conference, an event co-sponsored by Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA), the GWU Diaspora Program, and the GWU Center for International Business Education and Research.

VEGA is pleased to announce that Art Warman, the new Executive Director of Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA), started on June 9, 2008. Art comes to VEGA from a long and distinguished career encompassing both the private and public sectors.

February 2008 marked the fourth year of VEGA’s five year Leader with Associate Cooperative Agreement with USAID.