Mustapha Adam Kolo
The remote northeastern Borno State of Nigeria is one of the poorest regions in the country. Borno State is a predominantly Muslim area which is plagued by soaring fertility rates, a high illiteracy level, very little western education, and some of the worst maternal mortality indices in Africa. Women’s economic dependence makes it difficult for them to participate in many decisions, including family planning. This is the context in which Mustapha and his predominantly male organization is fighting poverty through empowering women.
I was chosen as a Leadership Fellow in 2005 and attended the ‘Islam and Reproductive Health’ training in Alexandria, Egypt. The continued development of my leadership skills led to the establishment of an NGO called Sukul Community Development Association (SCODA) that is based in Maiduguri, Borno State. Sustained interest in SCODA, coupled with participation in various LDM activities, enabled me to access a grant to work on women’s economic empowerment by supporting women’s cooperative associations in 2007. The project included two components; the economic empowerment of Women’s Associations and the integration of family planning with HIV/AIDS information and services. My hope was that this project would address the problem of poverty as it affects women of reproductive age in relatively low-income neighborhoods.
My goal was to empower women with the knowledge and confidence to make reproductive health and economic decisions on their own. In order to accomplish this, SCODA partnered with two other local organizations that had strong connections to the local community. Working with recognized and respected organizations improved our standing in the community and was critical to ensuring the success of the project.
The first step was to recruit fifteen women of reproductive age to form a cooperative. Once the women were selected, a partner organization held a trainingworkshop to guide the women on skills necessary to establish a cooperative for economic empowerment. A complimentary training on family planning and HIV/AIDS information and services was then facilitated by the other local partner.
Abandoning our own ideas and allowing the women to choose which products to produce was a very big leadership challenge for me. In the end, the decision on what the cooperative should create was left entirely to the women involved. The women decided that they wanted to focus on producing and marketing milled cassava, wheat, rice and curry powder. Additional products, as a result of business expansion, include hats and fragrances. We subsequently focused on teaching the women how to get their business established, provided guidance on how to run a business and gave advice on how to reinvest their profits.
The women were organized, met regularly and shared responsibilities. As a group they decided that half of their profits would be shared among them, while the other half would be deposited in the bank to increase their working capital. Their business flourished.
Additional income is valuable to everyone, but it is especially important to women who are raising children alone. Five out of the fifteen cooperative members are single mothers, and all of them have children of school attending age. Most of them depend on the cooperative and other petty trading for their sustenance. The income generated from the project supplements other income to provide food for their families and pay for their children’s school fees and other needs, thus making education possible for their children.
Cooperative members were taught skills which they were able to apply to both the project and their everyday lives. The participating women built their marketing and project management skills and acquired tools for self management. These skills, and the sense of confidence the women gained from using these skills to take care of their families, are something they can continue to use in all aspects of their lives and that cannot be taken from them.
Through the course of the project, the women have gained an awareness of, and access to, family planning options and health services. For example, some members of the cooperative now attend a faith-based clinic in their community for their ante-natal services. Income from the cooperative is used in financing the education of the female children in particular, which means reproductive health issues are solved in an indirect way. The group leader is a great illustration of this, as she is able to pay for the education of her daughters at primary school, secondary school, and at the university level.
While encouraging the cooperative to flourish, I encountered several leadership challenges that allowed me to grow. I wrestled with the project design and ways of integrating the two different components of project on health and economics. I also struggled to manage SCODA’s partnership with the two partnering organizations.
Throughout the project, I also mentored and worked closely with two members of the cooperative, the group leader and the Patron. This allowed me to recognize that nurturing the talents and skills of other rising leaders is a key element of sustainable change.
Empowering Others
SCODA is currently collaborating on a project with the Federal Ministry of Environment (FME) and Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The project’s goal is integrated ecosystem management for poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. SCODA’s role in the partnership is to help organize cooperatives in the two pilot sites. A loan of sewing machines and hat making materials were provided by SCODA’s original cooperative to another women’s cooperative group based in Daura. Volunteers from SCODA have also been teaching sewing and knitting skills to the women in the village of Daura. It is hoped that income generated from such crafts will earn the rural women enough income to help finance the education of their children who are idling under the trees.
Sustainability Plans
SCODA was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Federal ministry of Science and Technology, Technology Incubation Centre, in Borno State. The technology Incubation Centre helps perfect products of entrepreneurs in various ways, such as adding value to products and linking organizations. We partnered with a willing individual entrepreneur, Al-Muneer Nigeria Limited, because we needed a capital base to expand and produce at a more profitable level.
This partnership has been beneficial to both parties. Through our business partnership with Al-Muneer Limited, we linked the group with the regulatory agency, the National Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) to assure that their products are registered and can be marketed nationwide. AL-Muneer Limited also finances the cost of the NAFDAC registration and nutritional analysis of the products. There is also a greater quantity of goods being produced and the products are now marketed through a sales depot in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. The women still produce and sell their products and they earn more income as a result of employment provided by Al-Muneer Limited, and above all, they are happier and more empowered.
Mustapha and SCODA
Although the initial phase of project has ended, I continue to work closely with the women’s cooperative and mentor my junior colleagues. It has not always been easy and we have experienced some bumps along the way, but even during tough times, I continue to lead by guiding people in the right direction. I plan to continue leveraging the knowledge and skills that I have gained through the support of LDM to ensure that the cooperative is sustainable. This project has taught us that good leadership can make a lot of difference in people’s lives.