USAID/Sierra Leone: Women's Co-ops Use Mining to Finance Agriculture and Trade

JANUARY 24, 2005

Women's Co-ops Use Mining to Finance Agriculture and Trade

Economic power in the Tongo Fields mining town is held by those who are involved in the diamond mining trade. Although the concept is far from conventional, women's groups in the area have now implicated themselves in the mining business to be able to promote agriculture and trade, and better community development.

Nancy Gando, Chairlady of Lower Bambara chiefdom and a dynamic women's leader in the diamond-rich area known as Tongo Fields in Sierra Leone, has in recent years breathed new life into the women's cooperative she leads, called "Muloma," or "Let's unite and love each other."

A house that still stands in ruins in Tongo Fields...a reminder of the devastation that the area suffered during the country's eleven-year civil war.

A house in Tongo Fields that still stands in ruins after the war...in addition to being an area devastated by the civil war, Tongo Fields still does not have paved roads, running water or electricity. Diamond revenues are now helping to fund basic community development projects.

The cooperative has existed for many years to support women's small trade. However, when the civil war broke out in Sierra Leone, the group as its members scattered, and fighting forced many women in the Tongo Fields area to flee into the bush, many of whom lost their spouses and other loved ones during the fighting.

Gando's challenge as a community leader was to help the women in her chiefdom reorganize after the war, and learn how to survive economically in the Tongo Fields environment. The area even up until 2002 was still considered the "wild west" of Sierra Leone'a diamond mining community that was chock full of young men from many different fighting factions who were mining diamonds illicitly, working to eke out a living, and providing big money for those farther up on the diamond selling and trading chain. These men were living in a lawless society where no societal laws were enforced since neither the UN nor the Sierra Leone police force had yet to establish a presence.

USAID in Sierra Leone

USAID activities in Sierra Leone seek to improve the livelihood of the war-torn population, and prevent the reoccurrence of war in Sierra Leone. To achieve this goal, USAID programs have been helping to build a more democratic and proactive civil society where those who have been traditionally disenfranchised -- women and youth in particular -- are fully engaged in the political and physical rebuilding of Sierra Leone. USAID projects are reestablishing basic social services; training war-affected people in conflict management, peace building and nation building; and providing job skills and employment opportunities for war-affected youth in areas like Tongo Fields that are some of the most adversely affected by the 11-year civil war.

In May 2002, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah made "Agriculture and Food Security" one of the main goals for his second term. In his address to the House of Parliament, he stated that a major thrust of his government's policy is to ensure that "No Sierra Leonean goes to bed hungry by the year 2007." The food security policy also aims at creating decent and rewarding job opportunities for youth, including young women, in the agricultural sector to grant them a brighter and secure future.

With most people having returned to their communities which are currently peaceful, the country has a new opportunity to galvanize its huge agricultural potential, reversing its agriculture dependency and building food security for the people of Sierra Leone. USAID supports these politicies by creating an enabling environment in which farmers can increase their production, and the unemployed -- youth in particular -- can gain productive employment.

All in all, by the end of 2004, USAID projects in Sierra Leone have enabled over 52,119 beneficiaries to benefit from initiatives in reintegration, nation building, employment and civic works skills training, and to create jobs through small-scale "civic works" initiatives and large-scale or community public infrastructure rehabilitation schemes. In addition, over 4,651 ex-combatants and war-affected youth cooperated in civic works projects, over 302 individuals were trained in nation-building skills, and over 44 public infrastructure sites were rehabilitated throughout the country.

In the diamond sector, 2004 saw citizens demanding openness and transparency in the release of their Diamond Area Community Development Funds (DACDF), funds designed to ensure that revenue from diamond mining goes back to diamond-mining communities to finance community development projects. The first tranche of these funds had been misappropriated by some of the Paramount Chief recipients (the funds were found and returned to the communities). The revenue allocated to the diamond-producing communities from the DACDF grew from an initial $279,948 in 2002 to over $815,592 in 2004. The number of legal artisanal mining licenses issued also rose from 783 in 2002 to 2318 in 2004, illustrating a strengthening of the legal system for the mining sector.

Overall, USAID activities in Sierra Leone have increased trust and unity, decreased fear and stigmatization, built mutual respect between ex-combatants and their larger communities, and have helped to solidify peace and the return to a more normal and productive life for Sierra Leonean citizens.

Although many of the women in the area own land in and around Tongo Fields, they came back after the war to find that it was often being exploited illegally by different factions for diamond mining--the women were not receiving any profits. In addition, the open mining pits in and around the town itself were a community health menace -- they were the cause of many drownings, particularly among children, and bred mosquitoes as well as numerous water borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

In 2002, USAID began working in Tongo Fields to prevent conflict flare-ups in the area. The project was the first to introduce peace-building and community-strengthening activities. USAID partner World Vision was the first non-governmental organization to begin introducing these concepts using what's called the "Education for Peace" program, designed to help ex-combatants and war-affected youth through non-formal education activities in reintegration, livelihood skills development, remedial education, basic literacy and numeracy, and other appropriate life skills. The training includes modules such as, "Who am I?", "Healing Mind, Body and Spirit," "Democracy, Good Goverenance and Conflict Management," as well as modules on basic health and environmental issues.

According to Gando, this intervention made all of the difference. "In Lower Bambara, we women had no rights. This program has informed us of our rights, and has shown us how we can as women organize ourselves." The World Vision program also emphasized good farming practices in Sierra Leone, and the importance of agriculture in general to provide community members with stable incomes and food security. The talks gave Gando the idea of regrouping the members of her cooperative around both mining and agriculture -- profits from mining activities would go toward promoting women's business endeavors, as well as toward inputs and labor to rehabilitate mined-out areas that the women felt were unsafe within the town. The women have already turned large swaths of mined-out lands into productive agricultural fields.

Says Gando, "Now we are earning more, and we are able to give out micro-loans to our members for their business endeavors." From her own earnings, Gando says that at home she can now help her husband pay the school fees for their children, and can buy school supplies such as books and uniforms.

Tongo Fields is still an area in Sierra Leone whose economy revolves around diamond exploitation. Power in the community is for the moment in the hands of those who mine and exploit diamonds. The women knew they needed to get a foothold in the milieu in order to reach their objectives: to use revenue from mining activities to increase their own incomes, and to invest more successfully in their agicultural and trade projects.

Gando also says that although one NGO came to Tongo Fields and promised to fill in the dangerous mining pits, they didn't do anything at all. Gando's cooperative decided at that time that they needed to take the situation into their own hands. "World Vision emphasized the importance of agriculture. They did not finance us, but they gave us tools to use to fill in the dangerous pits and we are now doing agriculture in those areas."

Margaret Momoh, a dynamic women's leader in Tongo Fields

Says Margaret Momoh, "I used to not be able to stand up in front of people and speak like this. Now I have the confidence to do it. The PDA program has educated us, and shown us how to unite to do the work. Now that we are working together we are earning more money."

Another USAID-sponsored project called the Peace Diamond Alliance (PDA), run by NGO Management Systems International has also begun operations in the Tongo Fields area and was instrumental in helping the women with their project. The PDA works to promote legal diamond mining, and to ensure that the sales of legal mining benefit local communities. Gando's group, as well as another women's cooperative in Tongo Fields called the "Sinava" ("Future" in the Mende language) cooperative have benefitted from the PDA staff's advice.

Says Sinava President Margaret Momoh, "The PDA helped us to organize around diamond mining activities, which we've never done before. It has also helped us to stop illicit mining in the chiefdom."

The PDA also assisted Momoh's cooperative in lobbying with community leaders to ensure that local chiefs gave clear title to the mined-out land the cooperative has rehabilitated and on which they are now growing rice. The land was titled to the women by document for five years, but recently the section chief in charge of their area agreed that the land would be allocated indefinately to SINAVA. Land ownership is an important aspect in determining how land is developed, and how much investment those using the land are willing to make to improve it. As owners rather than "renters," the women are now able to make better long-term plans for use of their agricultural fields.

a miner in the diamond mining pits of Tongo Fields, in Sierra Leone

A miner in the Tongo Fields pits poses proudly for a photo...the area is still dominated by "diggers," the young men who mine from sunup to sundown for less than a dollar and two cups of rice per day. USAID is working to open up new economic alternatives for young people, with an emphasis on agriculture and small trade.

Says Momoh, "Through the PDA, we have also learned to negotiate the terms of the mining on our own lands." Additional profits from mining have allowed the women to give out micro-loans from 50,000 to 100,000 Leones ($18-36 USD) to their members to develop their individual businesses -- from sales of condiments, onions or rice in the local market all the way up to regional and cross-border trade.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the rice growing and the diamond mining since one of the biggest expenditures for small mining is the cost of the food given to the miners. For every mining plot that has 25 diggers, the miners' sponsor has to either buy rice, or plant three acres of rice to provide the workers with their staple food -- rice and sauce.

Although there is still competition for the use of lowlands -- rice growing and diamond mining are both done successfully in the low-lying swamplands--rehabilitation of mined-out lands through riziculture is now logical, and productive. In addition, as mined-out areas become rehabilitated, any new mining is now being done outside of town, and is being conducted legally -- a big step forward for the whole community in improving health conditions for residents in the town, improving and enforcing the legal rights of women in the area, and ensuring that mining is being carried out according to the rule of law.

Adds Momoh, "We are making more money, and using the money to develop ourselves as women. The PDA helped women decide not to stay inside anymore" -- one way of saying that women in the area are successfully conducting business more and more within the heart of the community itself.

Momoh, whose husband died during the war, was once a successful businesswoman, but was not at all involved in the finances of her household. "Now I have to do it all," she says "but my children are in school, and I can provide everything they need. I will always miss my husband, but I know now that I can provide for all of us."

Margaret Momoh indicates the length and breath of her women's coop's rice field in Tongo Fields

Margaret Momoh indicates the length and breadth of the "Sinava" women's co-op's rice field. By organizing their co-op around mining activities, the women have raised money to rehabilitate mined-out area and plant rice. Benefits from their activities are allowing them to reinvest in their agricultural activities, and to provide group members with micro-loans to advance their business projects.

Story and photos by Laura Lartigue