Programme description

Title: Promotion of Self-help in the Labé and Mamou Districts
Commissioned by: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
Country: Guinea
Lead executing agency: Ministère de la Coopération
Overall term: January 2000 to December 2005

Context

In the Central Guinea region (formerly Kissidougou), half of the population live below the absolute poverty line. For purposes of comparison, in the capital, Conakry, only seven percent do.

A lack of organisational capacity and ignorance of how to generate value from natural resources, which do exist in sufficient abundance, are the cause of the problems in rural areas. Without marketable economic production, the people have no income of any kind and no access to state and private health and educational services.

Objective

The population and government of Central Guinea show a readiness to take action to help themselves. Their organisational capacity and degree of organisation have improved.

Approach

In terms of method, the project, which functions in Guinea under the name Plate-forme pour l’Autopromotion et le Développement Organisationnel“ (PLADOR), employs concepts for the organisational development of social groups alongside elements of action research.

PLADOR supports and advises the rural population’s organisations on enhancing the strategies they have laid out to improve their living conditions through their own efforts. It is important to the success of these strategies that each organisation find its own identity above and beyond agreement on common norms and values. This creates self-confidence and the latitude for action and new perspectives.

PLADOR has gone to some lengths to accommodate its methods to the special circumstances of the target groups, even conducting its advisory services and instruction in the local language, Pular, rather than in French, which is the official language of the country.

Results achieved so far

Two examples:

• At the invitation of an Italian organisation, members of a group of simple farmers from the mountain highlands of Foutah Dyallon took part in a seminar in Italy in October 2004, at which they successfully presented their eco-products (hot peppers, mangos and potatoes) and farming methods. The immediate and extensive response in the local Guinean media (TV news and radio interview) prompted the participants to found their own organisation with a focus on eco-farming.
• As a consequence of project advising, a grassroots group from the village of Djountou was able to expose an instance of misappropriation of funds by their own board of directors, discussing the matter openly and settling it without any external assistance. Advisory services on the subject of good governance and much discussion about power structures and transparency within organisations have made this possible.