supporting demand-driven development in guinea's poorest areas

ADF and CAD staff meet with community groups in Kouratongo to discuss local development priorities.

The United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) 2004 Human Development Report ranks Guinea among the world's 20 poorest countries and notes that poverty remains highly concentrated in the country's rural areas.

While the urban estimate of citizens living in extreme poverty is three percent, the average rate of extreme poverty among Guinea's rural residents is projected at 18 percent.

With support from the World Bank, Guinea launched a national rural development program in 1997 that is channeling development support to 303 local "rural development communities" (CRDs) and which uses participatory development forums to identify pressing local needs and fund the construction of new, demand-driven rural infrastructure. The first phase of the 12-year program has already delivered significant improvements in living standards to communities in 146 CRDs. ADF has served as a donor and field operator for rural infrastructure development in the CRDs of Bady, Baguinet and Banguigny, which are located on the outskirts of the bauxite mining town of Fria.



Guinea's Ministry of Planning also conducted a national poverty study that identified 12 extreme "pockets of poverty." These pockets are located primarily in the provinces of Upper Guinea and Middle Guinea (see map) and are characterized by geographic isolation, minimal access to economic opportunity and minimal access to basic social services (i.e., public education, medical services, and clean water).

Recognizing the importance of stepping up direct delivery of social and economic development opportunities to Guinea's neediest citizens, ADF has played a pioneering role in extending development support to several village clusters in two pockets of poverty (see map). Over the past six years the Foundation has funded a series of projects in the Fria Mabiriya area of Middle Guinea ("pocket of poverty" seven) and the Lansa-Badiar area in Upper Guinea ("pocket of poverty" one).

ADF has worked with communities in these areas to create popular forums that debate, prioritize and select key development objectives, and Foundation-funded projects have benefited from local in-kind donations of labor and basic construction materials that have helped ADF spread the impact of its financing. ADF grants have stimulated local economic development through investments in road rehabilitation, and they have supported the construction of dozens of new schools, health centers and public wells.

In 2004, ADF is extending its work to communities in a third "pocket of poverty" by funding US $246,125 in social infrastructure development in the Kouratongo village cluster, which straddles the administrative prefectures of Tougue and Dinguiraye. ("pocket of poverty" five). The goal of the project is to stimulate sustainable and equitable development capable of generating long-term economic growth.

It is expected that ADF's project support in Kouratongo will provide more than 7,500 local residents first-time access to education, health care and clean water.

Road development will also play a prominent role in ADF's efforts to help Kouratongo residents build a better future. The region produces sizable surpluses of peanuts that are the sole source of cash income for many families, but hundreds of local farmers are forced to sell their harvests to visiting produce buyers because poor road conditions make transporting goods to Labé and other local market towns a difficult and prohibitively expensive proposition. Preliminary market surveys have shown that Kouratongo's farmers will be able to earn three times more for their peanuts once they have obtained direct and affordable access to urban markets (see sidebar).

During the past year, the staff of ADF's Guinea partner organization, the Center for Development Support (CAD), have worked with 38 participating villages in Kouratongo to establish participatory decision-making forums and generate priorities for rural infrastructure development. These priorities have been laid out in detailed community action plans, and the construction of community-approved projects will start in 2005.

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