JUNE 2003

Investing in People’s Productivity

Ending hunger starts with people’s own productivity.

A dangerous and patronizing cliché we often hear is, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day - teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.”

People living with chronic hunger have generations of wisdom about “fishing” - the problem is the barbed wire around the lake.

The Hunger Project cuts through the barbed wire - addressing the underlying social conditions that systematically deny hungry people the opportunity they need to end their own hunger.

When we invest in The Hunger Project, we are investing in people’s productivity and giving them a chance to translate their hard work into improved well-being. We are ensuring that people get the opportunities that are rightfully theirs.

In this newsletter, we look at five ways The Hunger Project empowers people to increase their own productivity, with examples of their actions’ impact.

 

Community Action

Woman leading her group's fishing project in Bangladesh.

Too often, hungry people are isolated, marginalized and exploited. Mobilizing communities and building local organizations are critically important, both to sustain the work we do, and to get more out of our precious resources and efforts. When people come together to work, social capital is created that can compensate for rural areas’ lack of financial capital.

In Africa, a unique feature of The Hunger Project’s work is organizing villages to work cooperatively on community land to produce food for food banks. This work fosters collective responsibility for a better future for all.

In Bangladesh, Hunger Project volunteer animators have catalyzed the creation of more than 1,100 local organizations throughout the country - with nearly 50 percent run by women. These local groups create savings programs and invest in individual and collective income-generating enterprises, including sewing, tailoring and weaving projects; bakeries and small businesses; fish and poultry farming; bee-keeping; and plant nurseries.

The impact of these enterprises is enormous. As women have become economically empowered, their decision-making roles have increased. Family incomes have often tripled, and parents are sending more children - both girls and boys - to school.

 

Access to Markets

Without access to markets, people do not have the ability to translate their hard work into increased income. The Hunger Project links rural communities to local markets by mobilizing populations and convincing local governments to improve access to roads and transportation.

In Uganda, through The Hunger Project’s mobilization, the Mpigi local government council built a main road linking the community to the national transportation network. Recently, the local government loaned a tractor to communities organized by The Hunger Project to transport maize to the local market for sale. Once enough maize is stored in food banks to ensure the community’s food security, the additional maize is taken to the local market to sell. Without the loaned tractor, the community would have to hire expensive transport or carry smaller quantities of maize on bicycles.

In addition to supplying local markets, Hunger Project farmers also export produce. Access to credit in Uganda has enabled women farmers to engage in large-scale organic production for European markets, including okra, red peppers, vanilla and tropical fruits. The Hunger Project is partnering with two local organizations that specialize in linking farmers with export markets.

Local government-owned tractor at Mpigi epicenter in Uganda.

 

Appropriate Technology and Training

To maximize production, hungry people need tools that are accessible, affordable and efficient. They also need access to appropriate training in agriculture and income-generating activities.

The Hunger Project provides tools and training that range from traditional to innovative. In Burkina Faso, some epicenter groups have initiated a cloth dyeing center, where they produce beautiful, vibrantly colored fabrics to sell at local and regional markets. Farmers in Senegal now use drip irrigation - a new system in the Sahel region - to improve their crop production. A group of women in Malawi, with a loan from The Hunger Project, improved their baking business by building a new oven that is more efficient and productive.

In northern Mexico, a group of five Hunger Project-trained women created a local baking business to generate income for their families. A bakery in a neighboring village donated its old oven and trained the women to use it to make bread. The women now make 80 loaves of bread a day, generating 1,800 pesos (US$180) a month per woman. The women use the profits to improve the well-being of their families and invest in larger business ventures.

Women baking bread for sale in Coahuila, Mexico.

 

Credit and Savings

Women grinding maize.

The Hunger Project empowers women and men economically by providing access to credit, savings and training. In seven countries in Africa, women farmers have obtained more than 35,000 loans totaling over US$1.4 million. Women use these loans to improve their agricultural production and invest in the tools and technology that simplify their jobs. Their new wealth enables them to improve the health, education and nutrition of their families.

The creativity and teamwork of village women is the key to success. In Benin, four women’s credit groups decided to pool their loans, and to purchase a grinding machine to turn cassava into gari, a staple food. Not only has the investment in appropriate technology reduced the women’s drudgery, it has increased their productivity. The grinding mill also serves as a source of income-generation - the women now rent out the machine to other women farmers, and the whole community benefits.

In Karnataka, India, The Hunger Project in the past eight years has mobilized women’s self-help groups to pool their money to create revolving credit funds. The Hunger Project encourages the women to use the loans to improve their family’s well-being - investing in children’s school fees, income-generating activities and home improvements - rather than spend them on lavish weddings, dowries or other practices that reinforce social conditions that keep hunger in place.

 

Access to Information

Increasing people’s productivity and income requires accurate information. The majority of hungry people live in rural communities that are at a serious economic disadvantage because they are without news of markets, prices, climatic conditions and competition. The Hunger Project develops strategies to overcome this isolation by ensuring that people in remote areas have timely access to information to make knowledgeable decisions and improve their livelihoods.

In Bolivia, our partner organization’s radio broadcasts provide information in Quechua, the local indigenous language. Every Saturday, the radio station announces prices of agricultural products, giving farmers in communities far from the capital the information they need to protect themselves against abuses by purchasers who buy products at unfairly low prices. The station denounces unfair activity and encourages farmers to organize into federations.

In India, the government has employment and drought-relief schemes to provide income for the poor. The poorest of the poor often are not covered by the schemes, or do not know that they exist. Elected local women leaders trained by The Hunger Project ensure that in their area every family living in poverty is covered by the schemes and is able to take advantage of them.

Grassroots radio reporter in Bolivia.	Indian government's drought-relief employment scheme.