€ 11 million boost to rural development in Algeria

Reducing rural poverty in Algeria is the objective that the Algerian government is seeking with the help of the European Union. The goal is to keep rural people in rural areas, but with enhanced financial and social standards.

Reducing rural poverty in Algeria is the objective that the Algerian government is seeking with the help of the European Union. The goal is to keep rural people in rural areas, but with enhanced financial and social standards.

Basma Karasha - Algiers, Eurojar

The Algerian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development began the implementation of a national plan for rural development since the year 2000. This initiative, called “Sustainable Food Security”, aims at supporting the development of rural areas in Algeria and reducing migration to the cities. This project works on enhancing the living conditions of people and diversifying their activities while preserving natural resources. In the year 2007, the European Union backed this plan through a national support programme for rural development. 11 million Euros were granted from the EU out of the 18 millions that constitute the total budget of the project.

The European initiative is based on encouraging the participation of rural people in the development of their regions. This development is made possible through the support granted to small projects as well as through training sessions that aim at developing rural activities and then evaluating the level of development achieved.

Such efforts were embodied in Dhayet Bendhahoua, in the southern Ghardaïa province, with the initiative of a Women Association for Creativity. This association benefitted from the financial support of the EU in creating workshops to train rural women on knitting the traditional Zarbiya (carpet). Buying the products from manufacturers was also an important step to encourage further production. The objective of this project is to increase the income of poor families in the region and maintain the production of traditional carpet, previously threatened to cease due to difficult economic circumstances.

Unprecedented initiative
Head of the association, Weld Said Massouda, admitted to Eurojar that “this is the first time that a women association receives financial support in the region. In fact, a delegation from the European Union had visited the area last year to get to know the living conditions of rural people. They suggested creating an association to achieve team work in order to preserve the traditional production”. The idea got fermented in the heads of women responsible for this art creation. They worked on a call for proposals that succeeded in bringing some 4.6 million Algerian Dinars (40,000 Euros) as financial support to the association.

The Director explains that women from different social and age groups (even university graduates) work in this association. They are all learning the basics of traditional carpet knitting. The association provides those women with the required raw material for knitting the “Zarbiya”. The final products are then bought by the association itself in support for this production. “We did not put any conditions on women who want to benefit from our project, however, the priority is for widows, divorced and women in need”, explains the director.

About 300 women are expected to benefit from the project. However, the main obstacle that this activity faces is the increasing price of wool, the main raw material of this production. Selling those carpets in the market constitute another problem: many families depending on this “women’s profession” still endure difficult financial and social problems.

It is worth noting that traditional carpet in the village of Dhayet Bendhahoua is of two kinds: the standard one called “Al Azem” and the second one is “Al Nila”. These are mainly the names of the raw material which this carpet is made of. This carpet has a low value on the market; the standard one is sold for 3000 Algerian Dinars (the equivalent of 30 Euros), whereas the upscale one is much more expensive due to the increased price of the wool that is made of. It sells between 1 million and 2 million Algerian cents (the equivalent to 100 to 200 Euros).

Management support
The Director of the association says that experts from the European Union are training her today on the ways of managing this business, mainly on the financial level. She adds that she acquired some management skills that encourage her to go forward with the project.

This association is one of 32 other associations, spread in three Algerian provinces, which benefit from the EU support: Bouira, M’sila and Ghardaïa. In Ghardaïa, 12 associations were supported in the fields of irrigation, well digging, stocking and refrigeration, oil extracting, knitting, and livestock. Improving the techniques of milk collection and developing agricultural equipment were also main concerns in this assistance.

Representative from the Algerian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development in the Ghardaïa province, Twati Sayed Ali assures that “the support to associations in the framework of rural development will continue even after the European project comes to an end. A new phase of strictly Algerian support will take in charge all those associations”.

N.B: Text translated from Arabic by Eurojar team

Refer to the project fact sheet: National support programme for rural development (Algeria)