Village Bankers : The Experience of Fandene (Senegal)
The experience of the locally-created credit, and savings institution in Fandene, Senegal, is shared in this note. Its structure grew essentially out of local responses to the problems of drought, and diminished farm fertility throughout central Se...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1999/03/1675505/village-bankers-experience-fandene-senegal http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10832 |
| Summary: | The experience of the locally-created
credit, and savings institution in Fandene, Senegal, is
shared in this note. Its structure grew essentially out of
local responses to the problems of drought, and diminished
farm fertility throughout central Senegal, and, it is the
product of historical interactions: the largely Christian
community shares resources with the neighboring valley, and
river beds of Islamic communities of different ethnic
groups. The "Association des Jeunes de Fandene"
(AJF), or the Fandene Young People's Association, was
created in 1972, concentrating initially in sponsoring
cultural events, which lead to educated young people to
constitute a group of "modern" peasantry. This
effort later evolved into initiatives to diversify the local
economy, and improve the natural resource base. But these
efforts were hampered by inadequate access to credit, and
resources to implement development. The AJF looked at
resolving the bottleneck of credit, and eventually created
local savings and loan committees, to support economic
innovations. Most impressive were the institution-building
results, sharing governance of their activities, and
resources, where both women, and men's branches
exercise equal weight. Moreover, marketing arrangements have
been developed with other peasant federations, and,
technical teams created, to support emerging needs in nearby
poor neighborhoods. |
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