Overview
The WFG mill initiative of the Mbousnakh Community Development Project (see projects) should be considered something other than a micro credit initiative. It doesn’t fit into the Grameen Bank scheme of a small loan with repayment intervals and interest, and it is not an entrepreneur’s small business. Nor does it fit in with other credit lending models. Half of the mill is a gift, women to women. Most of the business activities we know weren’t started with bank loans but money borrowed from friends, family or personal savings. Our visits to Mbousnakh during the past three years have created a relationship of trust, mutual respect and a growing friendship, which makes us happy about this joint project. The other half of the cost will be repaid, without interest or the pressure of a rigid repayment scheme, into a fund established by the community group. This fund will be used to improve the health centre, school and to promote other community-based initiatives. The village, including its chief, believes that acquiring this mill could be the first phase in a longer process of creating economic opportunity. The women, whose extra time would be saved by the mill, would join others in the community and spend more time working collectively to develop sustainable agriculture and plant more crops for market sales. Economic growth and poverty reduction will come about in Mbousnakh when there are jobs for working age people.
Repayment scheme and Use of Funds
Each month, until half the cost of the mill is paid, part of the money made from grinding grain and roots will be put into the community fund which will be used for the health center and the school. In the two years that we have been planning this project together, not one person has mentioned anything about developing an individual small business. At this time, traditional micro credit and any small business would be bound to fail in this rural village; on less than a dollar a day the villagers wouldn’t be in a position to purchase the goods or services. Instead, in Mbousnakh, the solidarity is transformed into collective responsibility and the prime goal of this community group is to create jobs to prevent rural exodus and to get the people who did leave to come back.
If the group agrees, this fund can be used eventually to start a savings program with various microcredit initiatives for individuals or small groups.
Educational Component
Education is essential to this project. How can this village community, whose members have had no formal education and can’t write their names, possibly manage this project? Without proper training this would likely become another failed albeit well-intentioned development attempt, with a perfectly good grain mill rusting in the village compound, another testimony to a project carried out in the wrong way. Women for Girls has organized a three year in-depth community empowerment training for this group in literacy, numeracy and project management skills. This comprehensive training even contains sections on human rights, including exploring gender attitudes also for men, democracy, problem solving, hygiene and health. The training began in October 2008, and is being carried out by Tostan, a Senegalese-based organization, with over 15 years of community-based development and training. Women for Girls, through this comprehensive training, is investing in the human resources of the village creating a solid structure necessary for future community projects. For more information about Tostan, please go to their web site at www.tostan.org
What is important for Women for Girls is what works. For us, the essential aspect is that the change is coming from within, and there is no outside agency trying to impose change with standards that don’t belong to the village. WFG would be interested in comments, ideas or suggestions; our minds are open and our addresses can be found under Contacts.
In the meantime
Women for Girls met with government officials responsible for water resources and distribution to learn about the water related problems of the Sahel region. The local government and the Mbousnakh Community Group asked for governmental assistance to find water and to obtain information about a well project. At one of our first meetings a couple years ago, the village women said that they could grow many more crops but the problem is water. As the mill activity and the accompanying Tostan training progress, Women for Girls will seek funding and partnership for the construction of a well to provide irrigation.
The National Center for Agricultural Research (CNRA) has agreed to train a group of farmers from Mbousnakh in organic sustainable agriculture and in successful ways of growing more crops.
Three years ago, we met a savvy entrepreneur in Dakar who started an organic juice and jelly business. Her clients include some restaurants, a few stores and a few individuals. Of course she would love to increase her market targets. When we met her, she no longer had a constant source of organic bissap (hibiscus) and had to buy it in the market from various growers at higher prices. She wanted a constant stable supply, not only of hibiscus, but also of the other fruit and grain that she eventually wanted to market. WFG would work with Mbousnakh growers making sure they get the necessary training to provide a constant supply of bissap and the other fruit to make these juices. To increase the market and help economic growth for Mbousnakh, WFG talked about the project with a fair trade importer in Italy. The founder of the organization joined WFG on the following trip, met the entrepreneur, visited the village and was very impressed with the project. They analyzed the juices and jelly, both of which passed the strict European standards, but the project stopped there. Women for Girls will recommence the project with another fair trade importer after there is more progress with the Tostan Community Empowerment Training.
Works Cited
Datar, Srikant, M. Datar, Epstein, Marc, J., Yuthas Kristi, “In Microfinance, Clients Must Come First” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2008, www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/in_microfinance_clients_must-come_first
Global Development Research Center The Virtual Library Microcredit and Microfinance, Accessed October 2008 < www.gdrc.org/icm/index/html>
The Grameen Bank, Accessed October 2008 <www.grameen-info.org >
The Grameen Foundation, Accessed October 2008 <www.grameenfoundation.org>
Karnini, Aneel, “Microfinance Misses Its Mark”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2007, Accessed October 2008. <www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/microfinance_misses_its_mark/>
Sabharwal, Gita, “From Margin to Mainstream, Microfinance Programs and Women’s Empowerment: the Bangladesh Experience” Center for Development Studies, University of Wales Swansea (2000), <www.gdrc.org/icm/wind/geeta.pdf>
Profile: “World banker to the Poor”, Friday October 13, 2006 BBC News, <news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6047234.stm>
Rural Poverty in Bangladesh, Rural Poverty Portal, March 2007,
<www.ruralpovertyportal.org/english/regions/asia/bgd/index.htm>
Santi, Rozario, Dec. 15, 2007, “The Dark Side of Microcredit” Development Industry, <www.opendemocracy.net/article/5050/16_days/dowry_microcredit>
Srivastava, Paritosh, “Reducing Poverty and Empowering Communities, UN Chronical Online Edition, <www.un.org.Pubs/chronicle/2005/issue3/0305p45.html>
Tucker, Jeffrey A. “Microcredit or Macrowelfare: The Myth of Grameen” 11/8/2006 Ludwig von Mises Institute. <mises.org/story/2375>