A brigade for sustainable development

Global Brigades Exeter travelled to Ghana to help a rural community achieve sustainable development through reviewing and contributing to a microfinancing process. Nathan Dundovic, a member of Global Brigades, talks about the challenges facing the community and how the Brigadiers supported their progress.

“Our main aim was to achieve sustainable development through learning about their daily routines, informing them of good income and expenditure practices and teaching them about access micro loans to either start or grow their business.

GB members from earlier trips discovered that community members were being held back in their business progressions where relatively small amounts of money could help them substantially. This was the birth of the pilot loans in the CDF (Community Development Fund), where loans of as little as 300c (60 pounds) can measurably improve a business. Giving access to micro loans where this would be unachievable from conventional banks has allowed local businesses to expand and afford health insurance. This is a key aim of GB as it makes the communities self-sufficient and gives them a better quality of life.

“In theory it works, but when put into practice there are issues as we discovered on the ground. For example the day to day running of the bank is critical. The only prerequisite for running the CDF bank was being able to read and write, the practical numeracy skills were overlooked most likely due to having a calculator. This led to miscalculations being made with regard to savings, such as an extra zero being added to a lucky individuals account. This was thought to be a simple mistake of pressing the double zero on the calculator rather than the single, but nonetheless undermined the integrity of the CDF. We found it was a difficult line between commending the voluntary work they were doing for their community and constructively communicating these issues with them.

"We found it was a difficult line between commending the voluntary work they were doing for their community and constructively communicating these issues with them."

We then found more mistakes and narrowed it down to a particular CDF volunteer who was less numerically literate. We then went through all of the CDF records dating back to over a year and organised a reform where cross checking took place and only a select few of the 7 volunteers did the bookkeeping. This preserved their integrity and allowed the bank to remain in operation.

Each brigadier had $100 that was reserved for them to fund a specific project in the community which they and the team thought was the best use for the outlined objectives. As a group we funded a Cassava mill which is a piece of machinery that will allow the community to mill their staple crop for greater return along with attracting others to the community to do the same, contributing to money going into the community. Finally, the rest of the fund was spent on the final construction of the half built school in the community and supplementary education of community members about not only the function but the idea of loans and what they can achieve.

I was incredibly happy to have been on the trip and experience the Ghanaian culture and have helped so many people, and thank the Annual Fund for their support.

A GB society is being formed this next academic year and are planning a future brigade.”

Global Brigades was funded by the Annual Fund in 2013