Project Proposal Form
| Overview | |
| Date of submission | 02.07.2021 |
| Name of person submitting proposal | Damien NKUBANA Tel. +250782149004 Email: dkubana1976@gmail.com |
| Title of the proposed project | “ABIYUNZE”VULNERABLE ACTIVE WOMEN FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT PROJECT |
| Name and contact details of person /organisation responsible for the proposal on-the-ground | Damien NKUBANA Tel. +250782149004 Email: dkubana1976@gmail.com |
| Project country | Rwanda |
| Project period | The project will be completed within one month but the manager will assist women group for one year to ensure durable impact. |
| Total amount requested with this proposal in local currency | RWF 1,100,000 |
| Total amount requested with this proposal in USD | $1,111.11 |
Project Update
| Project Details |
| Aim of the project |
| “ABIYUNZE”VULNERABLE ACTIVE WOMEN FINANCIAL EMPOWEMENT PROJECT aims at promoting socio economic empowerment of eight rural Women in informal trade of fruits, vegetables and cereals. In Rwanda, women are important productive agents in the economy. In addition, they take the primary responsibility within families for the education and health of their members, more so, their children. Women‘s empowerment is an important tool for sustainable development. When women are empowered, all society benefit from it. Raising women‘s income has a higher impact on children‘s welfare and on the whole family‘s wellbeing. There are many reasons which explains why many people especially women are involved in informal sector. However, the most important reasons are: high level of poverty, inequality in income distribution, increase in tax and burdensome regulations. Contribution of informal trade in Shingiro/Musanze In Shingiro village, the informal trade makes a considerable contribution to production, consumption and creation of employment and income generation in developing countries. The informal trade is also a source of sustenance for the majority of the poor, unskilled and socially marginalized population, especially women. Women, being the backbone of rural economies in Rwanda, play a significant role to ensure their families well-being. Most of the rural women provide for their families through subsistence farming and other agricultural activities supplemented by petty trade or micro enterprises. |
| The project activities (Say exactly how the project will work, what will it do, how many times a week, where, the duration of each event/activity, how long will the project last?) |
| “ABIYUNZE”: informal financial group under Accumulated Savings Association philosophy One of the best-known and most prevalent informal financial groups in Rwanda is Accumulated Savings Association-Known as “IBIMINA”, in Kinyarwanda language. “IKIMINA” (singular of IBIMINA) “Abiyunze” (Reconciled) will function by taking weekly deposits of RWF2, 000 from each member of the group. The term ‘Accumulated Savings Association’ was introduced to describe savings groups in which funds are not immediately withdrawn but are left to grow during a period of a year. Savings will be accumulated in weekly regular meetings throughout a cycle of to twelve months. In the course of the cycle, the deposits are kept on IKIMINA bank fixed account in rural local microfinance with monthly interest rate of 4%. At the end of the cycle, the individual savings will be cashed out and profits will be distributed among shareholders. This strategy has been taken not only to sustain the project but also to develop a saving culture among group members. HOW DID IT START? This “Abiyunze” informal arrangement is a group of 8 women, 4 women genocide survivors and 4 women whose husbands participated in genocide and now in prison. After long journey with government programs aiming at dialogue, forgiveness, unity and reconciliation, these women decided to come together despite what happened in the past. They had started running individually small trade in informal way. Facing a challenge of very low capital/investment and very low earnings, on 23rd June, 2021, they came to meet me (Damien NKUBANA) in village of SHINGIRO. They knew that I am interested in women economic projects! We met and discussed cordially. I was impressed by their courage! I took time to visit their economic activities in Shingiro village. Average capital per each is estimated at RWF42, 000 or $42.42. I asked them whether they can put together their financial efforts and run one collective business. They convinced me that management of such a collective business may be very complicated in rural areas with some particular realities. I advised them to keep their informal trade individually but having some economic activity in common. They will be running informal trade individually in this project. ACCUMULATED SAVINGS To keep their achievement and strong social ties, I advised them to form informal financial group”IKIMINA” where each person contributes a certain amount of money-RWF2, 000 or $2.02 per week. It makes RWF 64,000(£46.29) group savings per month or RWF768, 000 ($775.76) as group savings at the end of the cycle of one year. Accumulated interest will be added! We all agreed with that. But I realized that their capital needed to be increased to RWF100, 000 or $101.01. The reason why I come to you for advocacy. The project manager will continue to oversee the works in this project and therefore will also take full responsibility for the entire project success. Under his regular, intensive and direct supervision during one month, the following will be the main project activities: Two days training for women empowerment, self-organized and self-managed group. Trainings will be provided by Damien NKUBANA, Project manager. No training cost.Weekly members and project manager meet, collect contributions, discuss issues of mutual interest, challenges handling and making group decisions;Signing mutual individual agreement on funds received; Distributing funds(RWF 100,000 or $101.01 per each member) and buying more commoditiesRegular monitoring and evaluation of the beneficiaries’ activities;Reporting and providing pictures, videos, quotes N.B.: After one month, the project manager will continue women business coaching and success monitoring during nine months remaining to complete the whole cycle of one year. |
| Need for the project (Get some local and regional statistics, use information from surveys, feedback, and information gained through your work on why there is a need.) |
| PROBLEM STATEMENT: Socio economic problems faced by rural women Rwanda is a country with about 90% of the population engaged in mainly subsistence agriculture. The political, social and economic context of Rwanda was profoundly affected by genocide of 1994. These events impoverished Rwandans and increased their vulnerability, particularly among the widows and orphans of the genocide. Vulnerable people, such as women-headed and child headed households, are generally at greater risk of being poor than other groups. Rural women in Rwanda are facing several problems. Widows of genocide, women whose husbands are in prison, and teenage girls heading households are particularly vulnerable. In spite of their socio-economic responsibilities, rural women are still facing problems of low level of access to capital. It is worth noting that the socio-economic empowerment of women will bring tangible changes in community perceptions of women. In Rwanda, women groups form the majority of local initiatives. Informal groups (Ibimina) operate on the basis of contributions by their members mainly from the same village. They request no legal existence approval of the central bank for their activities. Rural women informal groups have equipped women with more knowledge and skills—a result of interacting with fellow group mates that represent a diversity of backgrounds. Group administration “Abiyunze” Women Group is established by 8 women who are the group members. The group is organized with the leadership of chairperson, secretary, and treasure elected by members. Organization structure The group is organized in simple structures, which ensure the participation of all group members. The group is guided by their simple legislation so as to ensure the operations are smoothly implemented. N.B.: Project manager will be supervising directly each step and achievement for durable impact of the project. |
| Who is your target audience? (Who is your project trying to reach, women/youths/older people? From where? What background? How many people will benefit from the project and how are you going to attract these people?) |
| The beneficiaries of this project are eight women: four women/widows genocide survivors and four women whose husbands participated in genocide and are now in prison. All of them reconciled (”Abiyunze”) running small and informal vegetables, fruits and cereals trading in SHINGIRO village, Musanze District/ Rwanda. They are organized in Accumulated Saving informal financial group for keeping their socio economic ties. |
| Outcomes: (list the difference you would like to see as a result of your project) e.g |
| Following are some project outcomes: Increase their income Able to save Improve their families’ wellbeing and social ties. Improve their farming and livestock Economic empowerment is one of the most powerful routes for women to achieve their potential and advance their rights. Meeting poverty-reduction goals requires addressing women and their economic empowerment. Discrimination against women is economically inefficient. National economies lose out when a substantial part of the population cannot compete equitably or realize its full potential. Working with women makes good business sense. When women have the right skills and opportunities, they can help businesses and markets grow. |
| Who would be involved in running the project? (e.g. staff, trainer, volunteers, committee members, project leader etc. and what are their and your organization’s experience of running this type of project) |
| Project manager and beneficiaries are the ones to be involved in running the project. |
| How do you plan to monitor and evaluate the project? (Please explain.) e.g. Register, feedback from the service users, evaluation questionnaires, periodical reports, an Annual report, photographs |
| Project manager will be attending weekly meetings of beneficiaries. Project manager will also have access to each vendor’s cash flows bank account (opened in Shingiro sector microfinance). Regular reports, videos, pictures and quotes will be provided by the Project manager. |
| Project Standards and Safety e.g. All our trainers and volunteer have had DBS check. Organization has Safeguarding policy for children/vulnerable adults. A designated person has received training in safeguarding children. Our organization has the appropriate insurance cover. |
| Ecosystem and Sustainability |
| What current interventions and organizations are already addressing this issue? |
| In Rwanda there is overwhelming evidence that women contribute to economic development in various ways and are the primary caregivers in households. In recent years significant steps have been made by government and other organizations to promote women‘s economic empowerment. This has redefined their roles and responsibilities in families and communities. Balancing paid work and unpaid care responsibilities is a daunting task for most women in Rwanda. Many strategies have been taken by Rwandan government to promote women‘s socio economic empowerment, among those strategies we can cite the beginning of informal groups in the country wide. The local administration has been addressing the issue but due to many vulnerable people in need of support the problem persists. |
| State any partners required to implement this project. |
| Apart from Avasara Foundation there is no any other partner to implement this project. |
| What is the expected sustainability of the impact/outcome when the project completes? (Please explain.) |
| This project will help them to increase their capital, their livelihood, and they will be used to savings. They will be bank business partner that will allow them to access bank loans in future to sustain their trading activities. |
| Would there be running costs for the community to continue the impact after the project completes? (Please provide details.) |
| No. Costs related to trainings, coaching, monitoring, evaluation and reporting will be included in Project manager wage (RWF300, 000 OR 303.03). |
PEARLS Rwanda Educational Centre 