Empowering Indigenous Women Groups

I. Problem :

Ecosystems of the North-East Agro-pastoral Zone of Guinea include lands in counties which share community forests and hills that constitute biological corridor .The growing need for decent jobs, need for wood, mobility of pastures, impact of climate change are affecting these forests that play key role among the livelihoods of rural populations and exposed them to Malnutrition and food vulnerability due to lack of vegetable oil and cereals.

II. Solution :

1. Improving  income and resilience of  women groups and farmers associations  through capacity building by delivering a green entrepreneurship training and knowledge transfer and providing solar powered equipment’s for dynamic food production and processing to the indigenous women groups and enterprises .

2.  Reforesting degraded lands through revenues generated by selling non timber forests products, for example for  each kg of shea butter produced and sold, we will plant a tree,

IBDDG sets itself the goal of restoring degraded lands in Guinea. 70% of the land is devastated by harmful agricultural practices, gold artisanal exploitation or even the exploitation of timber  for diverse use (construction, household energy needs…)

This directly influences the balance of local ecosystems, degrades biodiversity and directly affects rainy water distribution for agricultural productivity and household resilience to climate change.
The productivity of non-wood forest trees (shea, néré, etc.) and the reproduction of insects and wild animals are particularly reduced following the degradation of land and water in the various Guinean forests.
Indigenous communities whose survival is closely linked to the existence and the good balance of ecosystems are increasingly vulnerable to food insecurity and poverty.
IBDDG hopes to provide a solution that will restore degraded lands and ecosystems, regenerate biodiversity and promote economic development through the implementation of a sustainable program of green entrepreneurship and progressive green economy recovery and ecosystem building.
Thus, a new generation of entrepreneurs in non-timber forest products among indigenous communities who will sustainably manage community forests so that future generations can benefit from them and the trees can play their role of carbon sequestration.

In this program, IBDDG combines a series of training workshops for 5,000 members of indigenous women's groups and youth on the themes of:
Land Resources and Forests Management,
Sustainable exploitation of non-wood forest resources (shea butter, honey, etc.)
Launching businesses in indigenous products and entering in the local and international market for shea butter and honey to improve the incomes of indigenous women and youth by USD 35 per year USD 5,000 per year
A mechanism for technology transfer and provision of solar powered  agro-food production and processing equipment is planned.
A plan to reforest degraded lands is concluded with the communities to reforest 1000 ha in 10 years and plant 10 million trees.

An introduction of digital technology for  indigenous  women market's access.
The specificity of the program is based on the fact that each kg of honey or shea butter sold will allow the planting of one tree.
The explosion in demand for shea butter and honey on the local and international market gives us hope to succeed solve of the challenge and launch shared sustainable rural prosperity.

In Guinea, 12 million people share 245,857 km2.
 80% of this population practice extensive traditional agriculture to survive.
Among the poorest countries in the world with a GDP of $ 6.569 billion (2016), a poverty rate of 55.2%, the stock of external debt is $ 1,784.6 million (2016).
The Human Development Index (2015): 0.414 or 183rd out of 188 countries (Sources: INS of Guinea and World Bank).
The pilot phase of the project is implemented in the prefecture of Dinguiraye, which covers a population of approximately 225,000 inhabitants divided into 8 communities.
IBDDG targets groups of indigenous women, youth cooperatives in marginalized villages in Guinea with a focus on rural communities.
These households practice traditional agriculture by combining the cultivation of cereals, vegetables and the gathering of non-timber forest products.
But the current rush for natural resources and climate change have severely affected their survival means including indigenous community protected areas.
We are targeting 500 groups including 400 women's groups and 100 youth cooperatives.
1000 ha of forests including sacred lands / cultural sites are protected and 10 Million trees planted
100% of the population are involved in restoration operations
60% of the income of indigenous communities comes from restoration operations
100% of the population suffering from food shortages are able to produce enough to feed themselves year round.
The production and sale of 300 MT of shea butter and honey per year for an amount of USD Million and 80% of which comes from exported products;
The income of women and youth will increase from GNF 350,000  (35 USD)/ year to GNF 45,000,000 (5000 USD) / year and digital technology is provided to improve productivity and market access.
The producer's share of the final price is 70%
The existence of local risk reduction strategies is tested and is functional
The wealth and density of wildlife has improved
100% of households have access to solar energy (renewable energy)
The abundance of species is palpable (showed).

Our solution covers the restoration of degraded land, sacred sites included, taking into account the economic dimension of  indigenous communities whose life in particularly is intimately linked to forest resources and to biodiversity .

Our solution:

• Restauration of degraded lands and forests through assisted regeneration and conservation of biodiversity.

• Transfer of technologies through a series of training courses for sustainable crops production and non-timber forest products processing and to assist indigenous cooperatives to enter in the market to better generate income and improve their resilience face to climate change.

• Provision of solar-powered agro-food production and processing equipment.

We selected this stage because currently we have established partnerships with three Rural Communes.

We produced 30,000 trees to restore 30 ha of indigenous native forests.
We are supporting 10 cooperatives of indigenous women to produce shea butter and honey.
We distributed 10 small mills and a large mill for the production of shea butter.
We distributed 100 Kenyan beehives.
We sold 5 tons of shea butter  and we plan to introduce digital technology to improve productivity and market access for indigenous communities.

It is the fact that we use the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem integrating digital technology and agro-food processing equipment for non-wood forest products (shea butter, honey, etc.), powered with solar energy for:
• Stopping the destruction of indigenous communities forests ecosystems and improve biodiversity conservation,
•  Reducing food vulnerability and extreme poverty of women and youth from indigenous communities.
• Improving  incomes of 5,000 members of indigenous  women groups and  youth cooperatives at the end of the 1rst  year and 40,000 members in  the next 5 years through training, technology transfer and the supply of  food production and processing equipment's to facilitate their access to the local and international market. and boost the green entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Currently we are serving : 750 persons (600 women)

In one year, we target :5,000 groups beneficiaries including 4,000 women

During the next five years: 40 000 groups  beneficiaries with 80% of women.

Number of trees planted

Quantity of shea butter and honey produced and sale  per year 
The income of women and youth improvement
% final price shared with producers 
Strategies of reduction of local risk 
% of wealth and density of wildlife 
% of households that have access to solar energy (renewable energy)
%  of abundance of species  

Number of households using digital technology

Area of sacred lands / cultural sites protected
% of the population involved in restoration operations
% of revenues from catering operations
Yield of non-timber forest products
% of the population suffering from food shortages
% of households with access to renewable energy

Full-time staff: 5

Partial time staff : 10 members

seasonal contractors staff :30

Mamadou Baïlo Sow,

CEO and Team leader,   Rural development, Engineering specialist and  Business Development Strategist

Saïdou BARRY, Graduated in Business Law, COO  

Ismatou BARRY, Degree in  English language, Director of Financial Resources,

Djibril Barry,  graduate in Communication, Marketing and customers Director,

´Hassimiou Traoré, Graduate in sociology,  Rural Organizations Manager

Oumar BARRY, Bachelor in Rural Engineering, Logistic Manager Assistant,

AlHassane Diakité, Agroeconomics' specialist, Program Assistant

All of our activities take in account the diversity, the inclusivity and equity.

Our beneficiaries are constituted with 80% of indigenous women with poor revenue in rural areas.

60% of our Direct employees are women and disadvantage people of the country.

Solve is an international prestigious University's company who can help our organization:

 To be more visible ,

To raise fund with  financial partners and grants donors,

To establish partnership with technology provider and international costumers.

To improve our business model and plan

Digital technology:

We want to use digital technology to monitor the state of ecosystems and to track bush fire and forests destructors.

We want to use digital technology to detect diseases  of trees, vegetables and many crops,

We want digital technology to connect our beneficiaries to the market.

We would like to partner with

MIT faculty or initiatives

Solve team

We are empowering indigenous communities  for better resilience.

80% of our beneficiaries are women

We are planting trees for Carbon absorption, for example, during the next month of July, we will plant 33 000 trees.

We are a digital technology enthusiast, we would like to use technology for irrigation (solar powered irrigation system) and digital technology to improve productivity

and income and ecosystems restauration.

All of our activities contribute to alleviate poverty and improve the resilience of communities.