WIP Talk: Alleviating Poverty Among Rural Women Shea Butter Producers
5/12/12 12:33 PM
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May 10, 2012
Alleviating Poverty Among Rural Women Shea Butter Producers by Bill Reinecke
Sitting comfortably on a plastic chair in the shade of a mango tree inside a mud-hut compound in Burkina Faso, I wait quietly and patiently to begin an interview as people and chairs are shuffled about. I scan the compound of a seasoned shea butter producer and see that it is kempt. There are a couple of palm trees, a small garden, and many rooms on a larger than usual plot of land. It is apparent that an otherwise poor family has somehow found relative success in subsistence farming. Nearly 70 percent of Burkina Faso’s 16 million inhabitants survive in a similar fashion, though many are unable to feed themselves adequately in April and May, a time of the year some refer to as “the hungry season.” A young man hands me the customary offering of water to quench any thirst I may have acquired on the journey to their village. I take a small • The author, Bill Reinecke, interviewing shea butter producer sip from the tin pot as a gesture of respect and hand the rest to my Marie Yoro and her family. • local language translator, who is sitting next to me. He drinks it down and asks for more. Finally, when we are both satisfied, the woman and her family greet us and welcome us to their home. She tells me she is called Marie Yoro. I am often given the non-traditional name, but am curious of her local language name, so I politely ask. Marie smiles when the question is translated and then laughs aloud as she leans back on her stool. She knows it will be difficult for me. After her laughter subsides, she says something that sounds like “Keyesewia.” I try to pronounce it and we all laugh. Marie’s gentle, easygoing personality is not unlike hundreds of rural African’s I have met over the years, and so is the story she tells me. She confirms that the backbreaking routine of producing shea butter in Burkina Faso is the same as it is in Ghana. For every product that contains a trace of shea butter, every shea nut bearing shea fruit has first passed through the hands of women like Marie. These women are literally the first link in the supply chain of shea butter. Marie begins the process by gathering ripened fruit from her husband’s farm and the communal bush lands surrounding the village. She tells me of the fatigue and muscle soreness she experiences from lifting and carrying heavy headpans of shea fruit, weighing as much as 80 pounds. It often takes two women to load a full pan on the head, which is the way it is carried from the field back home.
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WIP Talk: Alleviating Poverty Among Rural Women Shea Butter Producers
5/12/12 12:33 PM
Marie says that processing the nuts into butter is difficult. She must fetch large buckets of water, handle heavy branches of firewood, crush nuts with immense pestles, lift cauldrons, and beat panfuls of heavy paste with her hands and arms to separate the fat from the residue. In a matter-of-fact tone and without sounding like a complaint she explains, “I get pains in the chest. The arms, the back, and shoulders all become sore.” Even though collecting shea nuts and processing shea butter is strenuous work, it is also a source of pride from a craft that has been passed down through generations of rural African mothers to daughters. The women who produce shea butter have inherited a skill that turns sweat equity into food and income. Marie not only works hard, but she and her fellow producers have proven to be ambitious and business savvy. The women of Lan village have formed an association to help each other with everything from labor to financing. When word got out of a women’s shea butter union supplying a local exporter in the regional capital, the women inquired how they could join. In 2002, their association officially became members of the union and suppliers of handcrafted shea butter to Federation Nununa. Working with Federation Nununa gives the women of Lan village a near guarantee that they can sell a large quantity of shea butter at a competitive price, year after year. Marie emphasizes that it is better than walking two hours to the regional market every week with no • Marie Yoro • guarantees of income and adds “I like selling to Federation Nununa because it’s more profit for me. [They] are reliable and I can be sure to sell all my butter to them.” With the extra income from the bulk sale of butter, Marie now provides extra food security for her family, is able to assist with medical expenses, and can afford to send all five children to school. Life has also become easier for her since Federation Nununa supplies the association with tools to facilitate processing easier - a mill, roaster, borehole to access ground water, storage room and toilet. Since its inception in 2001, Federation Nununa has grown to a membership of over 4,500 rural women shea butter producers. It is viewed as exceptional according to Maud Reboul, Sustainable Ingredients Manager for L’Occitane, and long time buyer of Federation Nununa’s shea butter. Ms. Reboul has been sourcing sustainable ingredients in Africa for L’Occitane for four years and affirms to me during a recent visit that “after one more week in Burkina, [Federation] Nununa stays the best example in terms of organization, high quality service and products, [and] ingenuity…” Hugo Ortiz, Peace Corps Small Business Advisor and loyal customer of Federation Nununa’s specialty soaps, agrees with Ms. Reboul’s assessment and adds, “Federation Nununa is positively impacting the lives rural women who otherwise don’t have any connection to global markets or representation for their personal interests. Plus, they sell a quality product that directly contributes to local development. I really want to see them continue to succeed.” Federation Nununa is alleviating poverty by providing steady incomes to rural shea butter producers, by improving gender roles through the support of female workers, and by subscribing to environmentally sustainable business practices. This is backed by their Max Havelaar Fair Trade and Eco-Cert Organic certifications. Recent initiatives include increasing production capacity and delivery timeliness through a semi-mechanized village production processing facility, diversifying into sesame production, turning organic waste into fuel, and launching a water reclamation project with assistance from the University of Ouagadougou.
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WIP Talk: Alleviating Poverty Among Rural Women Shea Butter Producers
5/12/12 12:33 PM
While Federation Nununa may be enterprising for Burkina Faso’s local shea industry, it helps only a small fraction of the estimated sixteen million women who produce shea butter. Africa’s “shea belt,” the only place on the planet that the shea tree grows, spans twenty-one countries. Improving upon, expanding, and replicating Federation Nununa’s model across the shea belt could create quite an impact, although there is not yet an easy-to-follow blue print for Federation Nununa’s success. Hubert de Beaumont, President of the technical aid organization Tech Dev, has worked with Federation Nununa since its beginnings and is proud of how far they have come. However he recognizes that while “Federation Nununa is an excellent model,…it can be improved upon.”
• Marie Yoro •
Federation Nununa is blazing a trail and making significant strides along the way. The challenges it faces include development of an international sales and marketing strategy targeted at growing the customer base, increase in order frequency for union members, and product diversification to aid in supplementing producer incomes throughout the year. Mr. de Beaumont believes that despite these challenges Federation Nununa is a worthy model and even if all outside aid were to cease, Federation Nununa would find a way to survive as it has done so resiliently in the past eleven years. During my five months of research, I have heard mention of aid organizations working on blueprinting the Federation Nununa model with added improvements for other shea producing regions and countries. Unfortunately, no one would officially divulge any details. If this is the true, it is good news for Marie’s fellow sixteen million pickers and producers throughout the shea belt who struggle every year to make ends meet. Bill Reinecke is a Fulbright Research Fellow in Burkina Faso. Tweet
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