BOMA’s Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP) is a data-driven, high impact poverty graduation program for women in the arid and semi-arid lands of Africa.  We put ultra-poor women at the center of our work by helping them build a pathway out of extreme poverty. REAP addresses three elements that contribute to the cycle of aid dependency in the arid lands of Africa: low incomes, inconsistent cash flows and inadequate financial services for poor rural women. Profits from each REAP business provide a diversified income, while BOMA savings associations help women to manage cash flow (for daily needs), plan for future expenses (such as school fees and medical care), and respond to shocks (such as drought or family emergencies).

Against a backdrop of failed aid efforts and few-to-no peers working in its target geographic regions, BOMA is proving that a gender-focused poverty graduation program can improve the lives of women in rural Africa – specifically in arid lands where more than 12 million people face the most dire threats to food, water, economic, and political security.

BOMA’s gender-focused adaptation of the poverty graduation model includes a sequence of interventions over the course of two years:

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The Six Steps of REAP

Step 1: Targeting, Community Buy-in, and Baseline Survey BOMA is committed to enrolling the poorest and most vulnerable women for participation in the Rural Entrepreneur Access Project. Our targeting method was developed by BOMA to deliver on our commitment to identifying and enroll women living in extreme poverty. Targeting commences with a Participatory Wealth Ranking (PWR) exercise: Community members discuss criteria and identify the better and less well-off members of their community. Wealth Ranking allows us to: 1) Investigate perceptions of wealth differences and inequalities in a community; 2) Discover local indicators and criteria of wealth and well-being; 3) Establish the relative position of households in a community. The PWR process identifies a pool of candidates for consideration by the BOMA Locational Committee (comprised of village leaders and REAP graduates) and Mentor. They also review the pool of candidates for representation and balance among various clans and ethnic groups. The BOMA Location Committee (BLC) supports the work of the local BOMA staff member who oversees the training and mentoring of the women participants. The Mentor then interviews a potential participant in her home using BOMA’s unique Participant Targeting Tool (PTT). The PTT is a participant selection survey tool that has been designed for the pastoralist communities in which The BOMA Project works. The BOMA Monitoring and Evaluation team scores the PTT and returns the results to the Field Officers, who then inform the Mentor of the final participant list. BOMA enumerators travel to BOMA Villages to complete a Standard of Living Indicator (SOLI) form for each participant chosen for participation. The PWR process, and the participation of the BOMA Location Committee, contributes to strong community buy-in and ownership of the program. BOMA hires trained, independent enumerators who travel to BOMA villages to survey each women as part of a baseline Standard of Living Indicator (SOLI). To ensure a rigorous commitment to impartial monitoring and evaluation, BOMA uses enumerators to collect baseline and exit data. This allows us to disentangle the incentives faced by field staff (i.e. a Mentor’s perception that BOMA participant and business performance is akin to Mentor performance) from the broader programmatic priorities of our M&E system (such as accurate reporting, informed management and leadership, and timely feedback loops that allow for program improvement).

Step 2 - Mentoring and Coaching The Mentor assembles business groups of three qualified women and helps them to write a business plan, called a Jump Grant Application. This includes a description of the business, projected start-up costs, a budget and a savings plan. Mentors visit with each business and monthly during the two-year REAP program, offering instruction, help with record-keeping, mediation and advice. BOMA Village Mentors are the heart and soul of the REAP program in the field; they receive extensive training and ongoing support from the BOMA field staff. We are fully committed to local leadership.

Step 3 - Cash Transfer In BOMA’s unique adaptation of the poverty graduation model, three women are chosen to run a business together. Each business group receives a seed capital Jump Grant in the KES equivalent of $200 to start the business, which is then converted by the participants into business assets. Grants are disbursed in a public setting with all training program participants and community leaders. Grants are tracked by a strict system of receipts. A second performance-based conditional cash transfer is given to each business group following a progress report by the local BOMA Village Mentor.  The second phase of funding is conditional upon continued business operation, serving as a mechanism to ensure that the first grant is used for business operation rather than for immediate consumption. If the business is doing well, they receive a second grant in the KES equivalent of $100.

Step 4 - Financial Training, Gender Focused Life Skills and Human Rights Women attend an initial financial skills training class led by their BOMA Village Mentor at the time of the initial cash transfer. Trainings include the availability of supply and local demand, profit and pricing, record keeping, marketing and savings. Over the course of the two-year program, women receive additional skills-training modules covering such topics as borrowing and lending, planning for long-term expenses (including a section emphasizing the education of children, especially girls), the loan application process, assessing credit-worthiness, investing, and sustaining the business and savings group after REAP. Life-skills trainings address such issues as family planning, household decision-making, family planning and the rights of women under the new Kenyan constitution.

Step 5 - Savings and Access to Credit At the second conditional cash transfer at six months, Mentors introduce the savings program. Three to five business groups are assembled by the Mentor into savings associations where members meet monthly to deposit or withdraw savings, using a shares-based method. Savings are held in a lock box with three different locks. Three women hold the keys to each lock and the box is stored by a fourth member.  REAP businesses and individuals make monthly contributions to the savings pool, which is then used as a source of credit, with established guidelines and lending rules, for business expansion and individual interest-bearing loans. Women and community members typically have access to credit at the one-year mark. Mentors work with each group for the remaining 18 months of the REAP program and deliver micro-training through the monthly savings association meetings including record-keeping, planning for future expenses and assessing loan requests.

Step 6 - Financial Inclusion: Connecting to Formal Financial Institutions In the final months of the program, Mentors encourage the purchase of a mobile phone, where networks are available, and help participants establish a bank account if bank agents are present nearby. BOMA is currently piloting the introduction of mobile phone banking at the individual, business and savings group level in a partnership with Kenya Commercial Bank. With the introduction of mobile banking, BOMA women will be able to be connection to formal financial institutions that provide increased security for their savings and the ability to safely transfer money for payments such as school fees.

Does REAP work? Yes. According to our impact evaluations, REAP allows participants to double their household income. Women consistently report that the top benefits of a BOMA business are the ability to buy food for their families, pay for school fees and medical care, and establish a financial safety net through savings, so the family is better-equipped to handle emergencies and survive shocks. To learn how The BOMA Project is changing lives in Northern Kenya, click here.