Benin: African Development Fund helps girls in shea trade construct financial and monetary resistance

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“I was in a tough situation, my husband was seriously ill and then he passed away,” says Yacoubou Safa, a resident of Banigri in central Benin. She can also be a member of Antisua, an affiliation of rural girls working within the manufacturing and processing of shea in Benin.

“I’ve been able to survive with my children due to the money I earn from shea, which is my only income-generating activity.”

OROUDAMA Alima

Oroudama Alima, Antisua’s treasurer in Banigri, provides: “Because of this project, we have enough to food on the table, and we can even pay for school supplies for our children.”

For these two girls and different Antisua affiliation members throughout the nation, the initiative they’re referring to has been a lifeline.

Financed by the African Development Fund (ADF), the African Development Bank’s concessional window, the Community Forest Management Support Project – Phase II (PAGEFCOM-II) has been rolled out in 5 of Benin’s départements: Atlantique, Zou, Collines, Borgou and Donga, protecting a complete space of 59,746 km², or 52.06% of the nation’s territory.

The $11.19 million the mission has been backed by a mortgage of $6,65 million and a grant of 841 000 {dollars} from the ADF and has additionally benefitted from a  $2,5 million grant from the Global Environment Facility. It has been rolled out over the five-year interval 2017 to December 2024.

Its purpose is to contribute to sustainable improvement by the sustainable restoration of forest ecosystems and the event of inexperienced economic system worth chains.

The mission’s implementation has a number of optimistic spin-offs, notably by the sustainable promotion of non-timber forest product chains, similar to shea kernels, honey (beekeeping), pods from the African locust bean, saba (saba senegalensis), baobab fruit, detarium fruit, acacia pods, and leaves and bark utilized in conventional pharmacopoeia.

But along with offering earnings for the ladies of Banigri, the mission has additionally helped to scale back the arduous burden of their work, thereby bettering its members’ high quality of life.

“Previously, we had to process a lot of seeds, and we didn’t even have basins to carry the nuts; we had to use our skirts,” says Oroudama Alima, recalling the troublesome working circumstances. “Each woman took care of a certain quantity, and the crushing was done by hand. We suffered terrible pain and swollen hands. We regularly fell ill. Through the support of this project, the machines do that part of the work now instead of us, and we’re less tired.”

Yacoubou Bio Kourô, the Antisua treasurer within the village of Sinahou, explains, “since the start of the project, working conditions have changed considerably”. Previously processing shea nuts used to require lengthy hours for shelling, washing and drying, from early morning till late at evening.

More than 180,000 individuals, 50.86 % of them girls, have benefitted immediately from the mission, that means some 427,000 individuals within the space have benefitted not directly.

The mission can also be serving to to fight the consequences of local weather change and enhance girls’s resilience. Collecting and processing shea nuts brings in round $226 (FCFA 137,000) yearly for every of the ladies concerned.

Acutely conscious of the significance of this mission, which has enabled them to construct their financial and monetary resilience, the ladies from Banigri and Sinahou are calling for it to be strengthened to make sure it lasts. They need assist by way of tools and inputs to enhance its probabilities.

YACOUBOU Safa

“We’re asking the project to help us buy almonds. We have the capacity to collect and process a lot of shea nuts, but it’s hard for us to find almonds,” notes Yacoubou Safa.

The mission can also be supporting the ladies by coaching: they’ve been educated on new abilities, and supplied with machines to make shelling and cleansing the nuts simpler. They have additionally been equipped with protecting tools, gloves and boots for consolation and security.

“We need a pump, an extra pipe to improve the clarity of the oil, better visibility to increase sales, a much larger building and electricity,” concludes Yacoubou Bio Kourô.
Source African Development Bank Group