As you know, one of our goals through ITL is to create deep and lasting change in communities. Sometimes this means influencing how business as usual activity is carried out moving forward. At other times it is about leveraging additional support off the back of our pilot projects to build on the progress made. With this in mind, we’re delighted to revisit our ITL Women’s Economic Empowerment and Leadership project in Sierra Leone and the Climate Monitoring Action (CLIMA) project in Nicaragua to share how these projects are continuing to evolve since ITL support ended.
Climate Monitoring Action project
The CLIMA (Climate Monitoring Action) project equipped families in Nicaragua with the skills and knowledge to protect their livelihoods, which risk being wiped out by increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. The project focused on training families to gather locally sourced climate information, sharing and interpreting that information and utilising it to develop targeted agricultural adaptation strategies particularly in regard to cocoa, coffee and honey farming practices which are central to household incomes.
Our local partner, Soppexcca, an organisation made up of a network of farming cooperatives across Nicaragua, played a central role in the ITL project. One aim of the project was to strengthen Soppexcca's capacity in key areas of need, using that as a springboard for sustainable change.
These efforts to build local capacity continue to bear fruit following the project end, and we’re delighted to report that in 2023, Soppexcca received the award of PREMIO A LA PRODUCCIÓN MÁS LIMPIA (National Cleaner Production Award), positioning it as one of the best environmentally friendly companies in Nicaragua, based on an evaluation of their operational, technological and administrative performance in the areas of coffee and cocoa production.
Since the project ended, and enabled by increases in cocoa yields, the Rustikao Chocolate Factory (an initiative promoted by Soppexcca) have increased their supply of cocoa and secured a permanent contract with Ritter Spot.
There are also plans for the model of locally based weather stations manned by trained community members which was trialled in the ITL project, to be expanded to Honduras. The team have had a productive meeting with CENAO (national hydromet agency in Honduras) in October. CENAO are interested in increasing their network along similar lines to the CLIMA project, especially in the east of the country where they have poor climate station coverage. This amplification of the learning from the project is a great example of the spirit of ITL in action.
ITL Women’s Economic Empowerment and Leadership Project (WEEL)
The WEEL project brought mobile digital banking to remote areas of Sierra Leone for the first time, driving investment and entrepreneurship to transform rural women’s income and wider social influence.
Since the project ended Christian Aid Sierra Leone (CASL) and Orange Sierra Leone (OSL) have been in discussions on formally partnering, building on the initial partnership with Orange Moni initiated through the In Their Lifetime project. The shape and scope of the partnership agreement will be finalised in Spring 2025.
This partnership will scale the gains made by the ITL project to other communities, with the aim of reaching new women's groups across the country. Over time, our aim is to leverage our success and learning from these initiatives to devise a pan-African programme that will provide mobile digital financial services to more women and support them to adapt to climate change.