Women cereal dealers find fulfillment in advocacy activities

 

Using skills acquired in advocacy workshops held by USAID ATP and E-ATP, the women appealed to government officials for a storage facility for their products. They then approached the Initiatives intégréés pour la croissance économique du Mali (IICEM) project in Mali, which funded the acquisition of the land.

 

In 2009, USAID E-ATP established collaboration with two national cereal processor organizations—Association pour la promotion de la sécurité et souveraineté alimentaire (APROSSA) in Burkina Faso and Association malienne pour la sécurité et la souveraineté alimentaire (AMASSA) in Mali — to improve food security in their respective countries. The project has since been helping these organizations members develop leadership and managerial skills through self-assessment.

 

The advocacy success was brought to light during a partner institutional viability assessment (PIVA) workshop organized by USAID E-ATP in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, in early October 2011, at which the two organizations’ progress in institutional capacity was measured, and common objectives were proposed to maximize the impact of their activities.  

Topics discussed during the workshop included good governance and leadership, developing human resources, improving financial management, external relations and advocacy, gender, and identifying priority areas of intervention. 

 

According to Madam Léonce Atindégla, coordinator of women cereal processors in Burkina Faso, the cereal processing groups consider the USAID project a partner which understands their problems. She said with the collaboration of the project and through advocacy activities, women organizations are now better organized in terms of administrative and management structures.

 

Madam Mariame Damba, a cereal processor in Mali, offered her impressions of collaboration with USAID. 

 

“In whatever you do, you must evaluate yourself so that you minimize mistakes that you may make and be able to achieve the objectives that you may have set for yourself,” she said. “This is the role that ATP plays in our organizations and we really welcome their support.”