Success Stories
Economic Opportunities Open Up for Communities in Andulo
Photo: USAID/Angola, Alison Bird
The communities in the Commune of Cassumbi, Andulo, in Bié province, have been producing honey for a number of years. They have perfected their methods to produce good quality honey but they had no way to sell it. It was a wasted resource. ‘We spend a lot of time and have a lot of skills in producing honey but the problem is we don’t know who to sell it to. The roads are so bad here that even if there were people who were interested in buying it, it is hard for us to go to market to sell it’, argued Domingos Cassinda.
However, when the Municipal Development Program team in Andulo, funded by USAID/Angola, did a community mapping exercise with the villages, some interesting results emerged. Having identified honey as a local asset, the team helped them think collectively about ways to use this asset for income-generating activities. With a bit of collective brainstorming and the insights of the team in Andulo, a new solution was found. Rather than thinking that it is they themselves who have to go to the market, the community found that they can get the market to come to them. Thinking about how to do this,they decided to seek businessmen who already had capital and contacts the community didn’t have. The communities looked into linking with local businessmen in Kuito, Bié's provincial capital to see if they would be interested in working with the community.
‘Before, we just made the honey and did not think about how to exploit it. Now, having worked together we have managed to get not only someone to buy it all from us in bulk, but a contract with them to protect our agreement. And better still, they can come to us and we do not even need to go anywhere! We hope now that this will increase the standard of living in the community and we can start to invest for our future and that of our children’, said Maria Henda, a peasant woman in Cassumbi.
When communities come together to discuss their problems, new and innovative ideas develop to meet their development needs. Simple discussions are now creating economic channels and experience that will help contribute to future economic activity in the area, reducing poverty and giving people the skills they need to determine their own development.
