A path shared for 27 years - IFAD

STRENGTH IN UNITY
In the old days, people wouldn’t have survived
if they hadn’t found ways to work together
and help each other. Women and unmarried
men, in particular, have always formed groups
for specific purposes:savings clubs of various
kinds, drama groups, sports groups,laboring
teams to work for wages of food. The habit
of working together for a common goal is
traditional and is something that development
projects can build upon by introducing new
types of groups like credit groups, farmers’
groups or women’s organizations.
People themselves can manage projects and
facilities, whether it be a school, a health centre,
a storage shed or a well. “Capacity building”
means taking the skills and traditions that are
already there and improving the villagers’ ability
to manage funding, maintenance and oversight.
Then the skills can be transferred to the next
project that the people want to undertake to
build their community. Collective decision
making through village committees means that
people and communities can take responsibility
for their own development, set their own
priorities, and come to consensus about the
most urgent needs, such as helping those who
are most vulnerable or disadvantaged. Another
benefit is that decision-making groups that used
to be dominated by men are now more and
more open to women.
“People have always formed groups called ‘mahber’ to pursue common
goals. Some groups are formed exclusively by men while others may
have men and their wives as members. The leaders are always men and
women have little or no say in what the groups will do.”
Eva-Maria Bruchhaus, retired consultant and free-lance journalist
on group formations in Eritrea
“In addition to taking out loans from KWFT, our solidarity group runs
a traditional rotating savings club (‘money-go-round’) for other needs.
Members who use their pot to meet loan repayments don’t have to
pay interest. Those who ask for the pot out of turn pay interest to the
member whose turn it was.”
Women’s group, KWFT, Kenya
“We visited two adjacent villages in Angola to investigate local
appreciation of project assistance. Both village committees declared
themselves to be happy with the support received (funds for brickmaking
and roofing sheets for a primary school), but both added that the
schools were too small to accommodate all the children. In one village,
the villagers had built two more classrooms. Our question as to why they
hadn’t started building the extra classrooms as the other village had done
sparked off a discussion that was still going on when we left.”
Ruud Ludemann, Consultant, Netherlands
“Only men used to form groups. Nowadays, women have
their own groups and they are even allowed to attend
meetings with men.”
Yacoub Hassan, District Health Manager, North Guéra, Chad
Women’s group at a meeting in
(north-western) Somalia.
©The Joint Programme
WE ARE BOSS!
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