Income-Generating Activities - Action Against Hunger

Field handbook • Scientific and Technical Department
of group IGA in Sierra Leone. However, these groups faced many difficulties that undermined
the economic efficiency of the activities.
The lack of internal cohesion of the group could have been due to divergent interests
and the lack of understanding between members, allowing conflicts to arise
and disagreements to grow when the time came to share earnings and benefits. The
lack of confidence between the members meant that the management of the group’s
money was eventually monopolized in the hands of a few members.
The low income produced by the activities cannot be attributed only to internal
problems, as other contextual factors may have played a role. The zone is geographically
isolated from big cities, access to vehicles is limited, transport costs are
high and the groups depended on inputs arriving from other areas. At the same time,
the population’s knowledge regarding the activities was limited.
The rural agricultural population of the zone is accustomed to working in groups
for activities that require a great quantity of labour. However, there is not a tendency
towards or a tradition of cooperative organisation in the zone.
Example 12: Group work with women in Mali
In the regions of Gao and Kidal, in the north of Mali, within a food security programme,
ACF began to support already existing women’s associations in 2001, with
the aim of improving the role of women in the local economy.
The women in the associations initiated different types of IGA: handicraft activities,
installation of small businesses and small livestock raising activities. This was
all carried out through a common fund managed by the association that helped the
women to acquire the necessary goods and inputs.
The level of intervention and the type of organisation required may be determined
in part by the conditions deemed necessary in order to improve the economic results
of a specific activity. Different types of organisation with diverse characteristics can
exist, from collective ownership of IGA, to schemes in which members only share certain
responsibilities, such as, for example, the coordinated sale of the same product
produced by many beneficiaries.
This section has introduced some tips for the definition of the most suitable level
of intervention. However, the project should be defined through open discussions in
the communities. It is important that during these conversations no team members
show preference for one way of working over another, we cannot forget that in many
cases the population is very accustomed to NGOs and knows the procedures and may
accept certain conditions or show artificial tendencies in order not to risk losing a
source of financing. The “Agricultural Rehabilitation” book presents additional information
about levels of intervention.
INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES: A KEY CONCEPT IN SUSTAINABLE FOOD SECURTIY
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