Women • In Focus

Southern African women improve both their incomes and local nutrition by producing edible oil.

"Oil processing offers an opportunity for women-controlled income generation rarely found in rural Africa." In Zambia, where the program was introduced, many participants quadrupled their incomes.

Women-Controlled Income Generation

Africare has carried out highly successful programs in edible oil production, beginning in about 1988 and reaching hundreds of villages in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In particular, women have benefited. Noted Africare's country representative in Zambia some years ago, "Oil processing offers an opportunity for women-controlled income generation rarely found in rural Africa."

Typically rural and typically trapped in poverty, participants receive technical and entrepreneurial training, access to credit and the opportunity to purchase cost-effective, manually operated presses to extract sunflower oil. The oil is both nutritious and saleable. And the assistance gets results.

  • In Zambia, where the program was introduced, press owners were netting $1,000 annually by the mid-1990s (for the nation as a whole, average annual net ― not gross ― income is less than $400); many quadrupled their incomes.
  • The Misisi Compound Widows Group exemplifies the program's aims. The Misisi women are residents of Lusaka, Zambia. All were widowed by AIDS. All were left with families to support. All were poor. Today, having developed their oil production business, they are secure. As profits have grown, the women have diversified their work. They are also giving back. The Misisi women donate nutrient-rich oil to nearby families in need ― especially the sick, and especially those afflicted by HIV/AIDS.

 

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(Updated, Dec. 19, 2007)