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More Information About this Project
Project Needs and Beneficiaries
The main causes of poverty are imbalances in land holdings and indebtedness; natural resource degradation, natural disasters; and the lack of education, health facilities resulting from weak implementation of public programs. The persistence of unequal resource distribution forces the most vulnerable groups – women and children¬– to remain outside mainstream development. The project will address the needs of 500 women and provide them opportunity to access and gain control over resources.
Activities
Institutional development - training women in effective cooperative management
Training incense producers and in embroidery, food processing
Create revolving credit fund to meet credit needs
Training on sustainable agriculture
Funding Information
Total Funding Received to Date: $3,418
Remaining Goal to be Funded: $4,582
Total Funding Goal: $8,000
Additional Documentation
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Excel file (projdoc.xls).
Resources
Why this Project is Important
Potential Long Term Impact
Improve food security and livelihoods through economic development opportunities while also improving the natural environment. Advance women’s leadership development and create institutions that they control.
Project Message
We are looking out for opportunities. Some of us got training in preparing incense sticks, a few others in embroidery. The cooperative has given me the strength and resources to stand on my feet.
- Pravitra, Cooperative shareholder
When this Project was Updated
Last Updated
This project was last updated on March 06, 2008.
Date Added to GlobalGiving
This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on November 15, 2004.
Latest Update from the Field
March 2008 Update
By Katherine Zavala - Program Coordinator, IDEX, March 06, 2008 05:55 PM
In January 2008 Yael Falicov, IDEX’s Director of Programs, visited three savings and credit cooperatives affiliated with WACN in rural Nepal.
To date, WACN has helped developed 35 cooperatives with over $2.5 million dollars of capital in circulation. WACN works with each cooperative for five years. In the first two years, WACN staff helps women start their own savings and credit groups in each village, brings them together and gets them legally registered as a cooperative. For the next three years, WACN staff provides follow-up support as needed, and typically by the sixth year the cooperative is functioning completely independently, without any need for outside funds.
Each cooperative has approximately 200 members and includes groups in 9 communities. The local women administer the cooperative themselves, and provide training to the members on financial literacy and income-generating skills. Each member has a savings account that accumulates with 10% interest, and can be withdrawn after a certain number of years. They also qualify to receive one-year loans that are used for agriculture, livestock, opening small stores, building fishponds and other income-generating activities.
A typical example is Sabitri Timilsina, a middle-aged woman who doesn't have enough land to grow food. She eventually built up enough loan capital to buy 4 buffalo, and now sells 80 pints of buffalo milk per day. She makes even more money selling the manure, and has enough left over to run her own mini-biogas plant. This innovation, built with training and technical support from WACN, converts the methane from the manure into fuel, which is piped into her home to power a gas burner.
The structure of the cooperative empowers women financially, but also allows them to come together around many other issues. One cooperative in Kavre grew so powerful that the leaders took over the local 'forest users group' - the committee of locals who work with the government to manage the forest. When a group of wealthy landowners appropriated the forest for their own use, the women rose up in protest. The leaders of the cooperative were arrested, but they convinced the police of their cause and were immediately released, at which point they marched to the local government office to protest. They filed two lawsuits and eventually prevailed, saving the forest from destruction.
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Develop Women Savings & Credit Cooperative, Nepal
42.7% funded ($3,418)
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Nepal
Economic Development