so that they would be able to become financially independent,” Kolbilla said. The 33-year-old Celestina lives together with her husband and parents-inlaw in a small town near Garu. The interventions from PCG helped her to become more independent, not only financially. “The PCG trained us in making compost and block farming and they introduced new varieties of crops such as corn and soya beans,” Celestina said. Celestina: “Now that I have access to land, my financial situation is much better. But most importantly, I have the sense of ownership. I can do things without consulting my husband.” Celestina was lucky that her husband released a piece of land for her. This was not the case for all of the mostly Muslim women in her town. “And a new challenge is arising. Land is becoming scarce, so women’s access to land is decreasing again. This is because of overpopulation. People have also started to use land in a greedier way,” said Dan Kolbilla. Reliable and experimenting It is crystal clear that the road ahead is still long. Despite his critical note, Ton Dietz is convinced that PCG is the right organization to take this road. “The PCG is the complete opposite of these development organizations that want to achieve popular short-term goals. Without exaggerating, I think PCG is one of the best local grassroots organizations in West Africa. They are not afraid to experiment, to fail, and to learn from their experiences. The local communities see them as a reliable partner that does not give up on their people.” ICCO has been standing alongside the PCG all these years. According to Prosper Sapathy, program officer for ICCO in West Africa, the relationship between ICCO and PCG has known its ups and downs, especially in terms of funding. “The amount of money ICCO gives is very insignificant compared to what the PCG is achieving. But we should not forget that ICCO was the one that helped the PCG to go that far and to become so financially independent,” Sapathy said.
42 50 years icco cooperation
So can such an independent organization still benefit from cooperation with ICCO? In a recent interview with ICCO, Manon Stravens, program officer for ICCO West Africa from 2009-2013, said that the PCG had managed to find such a variety of donors that the financial support from ICCO had almost become unnecessary. Does this mean that the time has come for ICCO to end its partnership with the PCG? “That depends on how you look at it,” Ton Dietz said, adding: “If you see ICCO as a traditional development organization, then ICCO should have left a long time ago. But when a huge multinational such as Heineken enters a new market, they show long-term commitment in a country by building sustainable partnerships. ICCO should continue to do the same. As a catalyzer for social entrepreneurship they build longstanding partnerships with grassroots organizations.” Not only boys The 65-year-old farmer Akudago Anthony overlooks his corn fields surrounding his house located in the small town of Gozeig, near Garu. He has been involved in the agricultural programs from the agricultural station since the early days. He is well placed to look back and see the differences the ICCO/PCG cooperation brought to him and his community members. “To be honest, without the agricultural station my life would be miserable,” he said, while picking a ripe corncob from the field. Anthony feeds the corncob to a small pig that lies under the big tree near his house and continues to talk. “Without the station I would not have been able to feed my children. Now I can even send them to high school and hopefully even the university. And not only the boys, the girls go to school too. So that is a big change indeed.”
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