WUNRN
GHANA - SMALL WOMEN'S SAVINGS GROUPS HAVE BIG IMPACT
DENUGU, Ghana, Feb 28 2014 (IPS) - Dunwaa Soayare, 45, a smallholder farmer, widow and
mother of five had the sort of economic profile that meant she was denied
access to credit from Ghana’s mainstream banking institutions.
She had no collateral, no bank account and found it
impossible to provide three meals a day for her children, let alone ensure that
they stayed in school.
But after joining the Asong-taaba Women’s Group, a
cooperative in Denugu, Upper East Region, northern Ghana, her life has changed
dramatically. Not only has she been able to provide for her family by moving
them from their mud hut into the brick house she built, she’s also been able to
provide tertiary education for children and has seen two of them qualify as
teachers.
“This is a small
project with a big impact…even though we are poor we can save." -- Solomon
Atinga, programme manager of the Presbyterian Agricultural Station at Garu
Tempane
“Aside from taking care of my children’s education I
have expanded my farming from half a hectare to two hectares. I now cultivate
one hectare of maize, half a hectare of millet as well as half a hectare of
groundnut,” she told IPS.
Soayare explained that from one hectare of land she
harvests 15 bags of 84 kilograms each, which she sells for 70,000
Ghana Cedis (380 dollars) – a huge sum.
The group, which started in 2008, raised 5,000 dollars
at the end of 2013 from the weekly contribution of its 25 members – almost all
smallholder farmers and the breadwinners in their families.
Every Monday, the women meet under a shea tree and pay
their contributions of between 50 cents to five dollars. They are allowed to
apply for a loan, which many use to fund alternative businesses if their crops
fail.
For Soayare it’s meant that she and her family are no
longer vulnerable during the lean season. In Upper East Region the rainy season
usually starts in May and ends in October. However, changes in the weather
pattern now mean that the rains fall much later.
So when the rains don’t come, instead of suffering
through a crop failure, Soayare borrows money from the group and makes soap and
buys vegetables for resale.
“I don’t know what I would have done without this
savings initiative,” Soayare said.
But Asong-taaba is one of 500 groups in the district
that involve almost 12,000 people, mostly women, scattered across the Garu
Tempane district in Upper East Region. These cooperatives were started under a Care
International project called Enhanced Savings and Credit
Association for Poverty Eradication.
Soayare and these thousands of women are living better
lives thanks to the savings cooperatives.
A Ghana Statistics Services 2011 survey shows that 31
percent of households in Ghana are headed by women. Regional director of the
National Population Council, Zangbalum-Bomahe Amadu, said that due to
polygamous practices in northern Ghana some men refuse to take care of their
children, often leaving the burden to the women.
“The situation becomes bad if the man dies…most women,
who are mostly illiterate in the rural areas strive to take care of almost all
the needs of their children,” he told IPS.
Musah Abubakari, deputy coordinating director of Garu
Tempane district, told IPS that the cooperatives have helped reduce poverty
among many families in the area.
“Most of them are engaged in different forms of
economic activities. Many of them are concerned about the education of their
children, so school enrolment has also increased in the last three years,” he
said.
Collins Kyei Boafoh, an outreach specialist at the Agricultural
Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative
Assistance (ACDI/VOCA), told IPS that the village savings and
loans concept played a critical role in the livelihoods of women and was also a
climate change adaptation measure.
“It is an open secret that for the past five years the
savannah belt of Ghana, consisting of
Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions, continue to experience low rains
and long drought periods. This is not supportive of farming, which employs
about 80 percent of people in the region,” he explained.
Boafoh said the women’s cooperatives are now using
their funds to venture into other activities like petty trading to supplement
their incomes.
“After the short farming periods, the women gather
their monies in the form of community savings and offer themselves petty loans
for trading, aggregation and processing. This gives them a sustained income and
job security,” he said.
Boafoh suggested that the initiative must be adopted,
modernised and expanded by the government as a poverty-reduction initiative in
the four poorest regions in the country namely Northern, Upper East, Upper West
and Central Regions.
Solomon Atinga is programme manager of the
Presbyterian Agricultural Station at Garu Tempane – another Care International
cooperative.
He said the initiative, which extends to about 100
communities in the district, has had a positive impact on the lives of women
here. They are able to take care of their children and support their extended
family members.
“In fact the living standard of the women and their
families has improved tremendously,” he added.
“This is a small project with a big impact…even though
we are poor, we can save. The least amount a group usually raises at the end of
the year is 2,000 dollars,” he said.