In rural communities in the Kara region, market gardening, hands-on training and savings schemes are helping women to contribute more to their households’ income. The stories of Samadja Oubayabam and Tchoro Malassiwa illustrate the role that economic empowerment can play in boosting livelihoods, without, however, being the sole factor determining decisions to migrate.
In rural areas of northern Togo, economic prospects can weigh heavily on families’ decisions. When incomes are inadequate, harvests fail to meet food needs, or employment opportunities are few and far between, leaving in search of better living conditions may seem like a viable solution. For rural women, these constraints often compound the responsibilities associated with providing food, raising children and managing the household on a day-to-day basis.
But beyond this decision to leave, another question needs to be asked: what opportunities can women develop locally to improve their living conditions and those of their families?
In the Kara region, two beneficiaries of a ‘Food for Assets (FFA)’ project run by the World Food Programme (WFP) offer some insights. Samadja Oubayabam and Tchoro Malassiwa explain how farming activities, training and savings schemes are enabling them to gradually strengthen their economic capabilities. Their stories prove that empowerment does not necessarily rely on a drastic transformation, but can begin with practical changes in everyday life.
Vegetable Gardening As A Means Of Producing, Saving And Making Money
For Samadja Oubayabam, a beneficiary of the FFA project, the change is most visible in her vegetable garden. For the past three years, she has been growing vegetables that contribute to her household’s diet. “For the past three years, I haven’t had to buy anything – particularly tomatoes, okra, chillies and spinach,” she said.
This shift represents a financial benefit for her household. By growing some of the vegetables needed for meals, she cuts down on certain food costs. However, the value of the garden isn’t limited to self-sufficiency: surplus crops can also be sold to generate income.
“I use these vegetables for my own consumption and the surplus is sold to generate income,” she adds, summing up her ambition as follows: “The aim is for me to be able to generate income here and lift myself out of poverty. ”
This commitment to making the most of locally available resources is important in a context where rural households have to cope with multiple needs. Food costs, children’s tuition fees and other household expenses can put a strain on limited budgets. Having a regular supply of crops makes it possible to cover some of these needs and, when conditions allow, to generate additional income.
Samadja also emphasises the possibility of farming all year round on her plot. “In this small area, there’s no season when I’m not producing anything. I produce at all times because I have water, so when I finish harvesting, I start again,” she explains.
The availability of water is a key determining factor here. It enables her to plan production beyond the rainy seasons alone and to diversify her crops according to prevailing conditions. On a plot where she had previously harvested sorghum, she therefore chose to plant tomatoes, beans, chillies and okra, as she felt the conditions did not offer a guarantee of another sorghum harvest.
Her experience also shows that learning about farming is an ongoing process. After she was trained in setting up a vegetable garden, she learned about the use of fertilisers, particularly ‘moukouna’, as she calls it. She plans to test it on part of her plot to observe the results, whilst maintaining her usual production on the other part.
This approach reflects a desire to experiment with new practices without immediately abandoning those whose results she is familiar with. It also highlights the importance of technical support in helping women farmers adapt their methods to the realities of their farms.
In Tamdè Lao, Sharing Household Expenses Changes People’s Prospects
In Tamdè Lao, Tchoro Malassiwa’s account highlights another aspect of empowerment: the opportunity for women to play a greater part in meeting family expenses.
“Before the project, our life was different,” she says. She describes a situation in which her husband alone covered most of the household expenses. Since joining the project, she feels empowered to contribute towards certain costs, particularly those relating to the children, school supplies and preparing meals.
“Now, I realise I can help my husband with small household expenses,” she says.
This contribution, although humble, can have a significant impact on the household’s financial stability. It helps to share some of the financial burden and can provide greater flexibility when unexpected expenses arise.
For Tchoro, however, the benefits of the project go beyond food production alone. She also talks about training in the construction of improved stoves. This skill could become a source of income: “With this training, we can also go and build stoves and make money from it. Why not?”
The interesting thing about this training is that it offers the chance to diversify revenue streams. Market gardening can meet the household’s food and commercial needs, whilst a technical skill can lead to opportunities to provide paid services to other families.
This diversified income is particularly valuable for households whose income relies heavily on farming. When harvests are poor or growing conditions are unfavorable, having other skills can provide additional ways to meet expenses.
For Tchoro, the skills acquired through the project therefore serve as resources she can potentially draw on beyond the activities originally planned.
Collective Saving: A Way Of Preparing For The Future
Another change that Tchoro Malassiwa brought up is the creation of a women’s savings group. The participants put money aside and can thus gradually build up a sum which they access according to their group’s rules.
“We’ve also set up a savings group,” she explains, adding that the women are successfully saving and that, by the end of the year, each woman will have a sum of money that she can use to fund certain purchases.
Collective saving can play several roles in rural economies. It helps to organise small, regular savings, promotes a level of financial discipline and can provide a means of funding expenses that daily incomes do not always cover.
Depending on how the group works, it can also support the purchase of equipment, the development of a business, or taking care of family needs. These options depend, however, on the amounts saved, the group’s rules and each member’s ability to keep up their monthly contributions.
Beyond the financial aspect, these groups can encourage the sharing of experiences and mutual support amongst members. They provide a framework in which women can share their challenges, discuss their future plans and strengthen their ability to manage their resources.
The Tchoro experience teaches us that economic empowerment is not limited to the ability to earn money. It also concerns the ability to set aside part of one’s income, plan for certain expenses and prepare for future needs.
Rural Migration: Creating Opportunities Without Denying the Desire to Leave
The stories of Samadja and Tchoro shed light on a wider question: what role can local economic initiatives play in migration patterns?
In Africa, migration is driven by a variety of factors. Some people leave to study, join their families, find work or set up a business. Others leave their home towns because they have limited opportunities to earn a living. These factors can overlap, and decisions to migrate can never be boiled down to a single cause.
In rural areas, insufficient income, limited access to productive resources and the vulnerability of agricultural activities can contribute to a desire to look for opportunities elsewhere. Women are no exception to these pressures: they may migrate to find work, start a business, further their education or improve the quality of life for their loved ones.
Strengthening local economic activities could nevertheless broaden the opportunities offered to them. A woman who is capable of producing part of her own food, selling the surplus, utilising a skill that generates income and saving has extra resources to cope with the hardships of daily life.
That does not imply that economic empowerment necessarily prevents migration. A woman whose income increases may still decide to leave to complete her studies, expand her business or join family members. She may also use the resources she has accumulated to fund a project elsewhere. The aim is therefore not to prevent people from leaving at any cost, but to enable them to choose their own future paths under better conditions.
In this regard, rural development initiatives can help to ease some of the economic constraints that may drive forced migration. Their impact, however, depends on their ability to generate sufficiently regular income, to withstand shocks and to open up sustainable prospects.
Beyond Training, Consolidating Gains
Testimonials gathered in the Kara region reveal several factors that complement one another: market gardening, access to water, learning new techniques, business diversification and collective savings.
For these successes to be sustained over time, several conditions remain crucial. Women farmers need sustainable access to water, seeds, tools and adequate technical support. The ability to sell surplus produce at attractive prices is also crucial, as is access to markets and means of preserving harvests.
The skills learned through training must, too, lead to sustainable activities. In the case of improved stoves, for example, the income prospects referred to by Tchoro will depend in particular on local demand, the availability of materials and her capacity to offer her services.
Finally, economic empowerment is best supported by women’s effective participation in decisions concerning household resources, their activities and their projects. Contributing to family expenditure is a major step forward, but the ability to decide how income is used, to control resources and to invest in one’s own initiatives is also crucial.
These two accounts are not alone sufficient to measure the overall impact of the project on household incomes or on migration in the localities concerned. They do, however, help to identify tangible changes in the practices and prospects of the beneficiaries.
Giving Women in Rural Areas More Choices
In rural communities in the Kara region, the cases of Samadja Oubayabam and Tchoro Malassiwa reveal that economic empowerment can begin with simple steps: growing vegetables for the family’s own consumption, selling part of the harvest, learning a new trade, and setting money aside regularly.
These efforts do not address all the difficulties women face. However, they can enhance their ability to meet their families’ needs and to think about new projects.
In the debate on migration, this aspect deserves serious consideration. The issue is not merely to understand why people decide to leave, but also to look at the conditions that enable them to build a future where they live, if that is their choice.
The empowerment of rural women should therefore not be promoted as a one-size-fits-all solution to migration, but rather as a part of a broader policy framework focused on resilience, local development and equal opportunities. By providing women with greater resources, skills and decision-making opportunities, these initiatives can help expand their choices, whether they decide to stay, move or return.
