Self-Managed Aliniha Association

Self-Managed Aliniha Associations

The first level of mutual support in the Aliniha network

The Self-managed Aliniha associations (referred to as AAAs) are formal women associations consisting of Aliniha women from the same neighbourhood or village. They are all active members of one of the 2 micro-financing institution, Benso Jamaanu or Jekabara, which provides various savings and credit services.

Objectives

By joining Aliniha International, the AAA accepts a number of obligations that contribute to the network’s sustainable development. It must take steps to protect the environment, help its members increase their well-being and set up a viable micro-enterprise.

It must also set up and maintain a plant nursery and an “Aliniha hut” (Case Aliniha). More information

In the mid-term, the ambition of each AAA is to become operationally and financially autonomous through the acquisition of technical and managerial competences, and by building up its own capital. The latter is fed by member subscriptions and the profits generated by collective activities that respect the principle of sustainable development defined by Aliniha International. The AAA in Hello village, for example, runs a market garden, Kotiary manages the weekly market, and the AAA in Khasso runs a kindergarten.

On the longer term, when the priority objectives will have reached their full potential and the women fully master new competences, the AAA should be able to take on more and more activities, which nonetheless fit into Aliniha International’s objectives.

To achieve its objectives, each AAA is supported and coached by an Inter-AAA , Jeduman un Mali and Arafat in Senengal, which trains them and helps them at all the vital steps: defining the objectives, drawing up statutes and regulations, electing a management committee, managing the accounts and handling the specific functions of each association. Each AAA must develop an appealing commercial activity that benefits most of its members. It must also commit to managing natural resources, by organising days for increasing awareness and cleaning neighbourhoods or woods (d'assainissement), as well as more targeted actions such as fighting deforestation.

Results

Currently, there are 16 operational AAAs: 9 in the region of Kayes in Mali and 7 in the region of Tambacounda in Senegal.