Irish Aid ICSP Programme Supporting GOAL’s S4Nut Approach in Niger

GOAL’s S4Nut Approach

S4Nut is GOAL’s Systems Approach to Resilient Food & Nutrition Security. It is a framework to increase access to, availability and consumption of nutritious food using three evidence-based approaches – Market Systems Development (MSD), Social Behaviour Change (SBC), and Financial Inclusion. With support from Irish Aid through Ireland’s Civil Society Partnership (ICSP) and Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI) through UNITLIFE, GOAL is implementing the S4Nut framework to improve the nutritional status of communities and enhance women’s empowerment in the Mirriah and Gouré departments of Zinder.

The S4Nut financial inclusion approach seeks to increase people’s access to food, their investment in their livelihoods and their resilience to shocks. Initiatives are risk-informed and contribute to women’s socio-economic empowerment.

Laouré’s Story

Laouré Hassan is a widow and mother of 11 children, living in the remote village of Dan Balou, in the Mirriah department of Zinder. Previously, she had no reliable income and limited employment opportunities in her village. Laouré began to participate in Dan Balou’s local Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), supported by GOAL’s S4Nut intervention in Zinder.

A VSLA is a group of people in a community who regularly meet to save together and take small loans from those savings. The activities of the group generally run in cycles of 12 months. Subsequently, the accumulated savings and loan profits are distributed among the members. A VSLA provides an informal method for savings and loans in a community that lacks access to formal financial services. Accountable governance, standard procedures and simple accounting that everyone can understand and trust are core pillars of the VSLA approach.

Being a member of the Dan Balou VSLA has contributed to Laouré developing financial literacy skills. She has also learned how to grow crops in community gardens. This is enabling Laouré to support the nutritious food needs of her children. When her family’s needs are met, she sells surplus food for a profit at the local market. This has not only given the single mother the ability to earn a living and provide for her household’s immediate needs, but also the confidence to build a better future for herself and her family.

GOAL staff distributing farming tools and supplies to female members of the Dan Balou VSLA.

Skills Training Transforming Lives

“Before, we had no occupation and could not meet our basic needs,” Laouré reflects. “Today, we carry out several income-generating activities like market gardening, saving through the VSLA, and processing of agricultural products.”

Through the financial inclusion approach of GOAL’s S4Nut intervention, Laouré and other women have learned how to save and invest as a group. With their pooled savings, they buy peanuts, which they then turn into products like peanut oil and cookies. With GOAL’s support, they have obtained tools and farming supplies, as well as gaining access to a one-hectare community garden.

In this garden, 73 women grow a wide range of crops—squash, sweet potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, okra, cassava, peppers, and onions. The garden not only provides nutritious food for their families, but also gives them a real sense of empowerment within their community.

“Now we have jobs, and it is uplifting to witness this change,” Laouré says, proudly. “We have organised ourselves into five sub-groups, each with 14 members, all actively involved in income-generating activities. Our collective savings will reach 700,000 FCFA (€1,067) by September”.

Empowering Women in Niger

But the women in Laouré’s community are not stopping there. They have big dreams for the future. They are laying the foundation for resilience by passing down and sharing the skills they have acquired with young people in their community. They are also supplying local markets with their products and expanding into neighbouring communities, contributing to improving nutritional status in the Mirriah department of Zinder region.

Through the S4Nut intervention, 63 VSLA groups constituting 1,575 women have been established in 20 project villages since 2022. Women’s financial inclusion has increased from a baseline of 0% among targeted women in 2021 to 81% by the end of 2023. This result represents a substantial increase in women’s access to informal financial services, from a very low base.

Community conversations (CCs) are taking place in parallel to activities that increase women’s financial inclusion. CCs are aimed at reinforcing women’s empowerment in their communities through changing of social and gender norms on household decision making. The strength of CCs is that they bring the whole community together to discuss the current social and gender norms around a woman’s role within the household and how that role can be changed to improve the well-being of families. Community facilitators are trained in participatory skills and participatory learning in action tools that allows for sensitive subjects to be discussed. This supports a community to visualize different social and gender norms that do not change the fabric of who they are as a community.

A ‘Community Conversations’ in Niger, as part of GOAL’s S4Nut approach.

Laouré is grateful for the skills she has developed through her participation in GOAL’s Irish Aid and MBRGI – UNITLIFE supported S4Nut intervention in Zinder. With new financial and food production skills, Laouré and other women participating in the project are contributing to efforts to improve the nutritional status of children and adults in their communities.

“These are more than just skills—they’re the foundation for a better future,” says Laouré. The women of Dan Balou and other villages are not just changing their own lives—they are uplifting their entire communities.

Learn more about the Market Systems Development (MSD) approach of the S4Nut intervention in Niger.