Development Ratings

Supplementing income to ensure stability and security: Tree management is not a full-time occupation, but has real supplementary income benefits. In addition to other daily economic activities, groups of mainly women can tend trees and harvest produce for use by their families or for sale.

Spreading entrepreneurship: The seedling-raising and produce marketing and selling businesses can become sustainable, with the consequent effects on the local and regional economies.

Empowering women: Groups of women are having a greater influence on the policies of local leaders than individual women have traditionally had, being granted rights to plant and harvest trees. The continued existence of these groups implies the improved status of women in the supported areas.

Improved nutrition for health: Additional nutrition from tree products resulting in healthier children and adults will mean improved educational and economic capacity, and potentially reduced morbidity and mortality. Over 20% of the poorest children in Burkina Faso and Mali die before their 5th birthday.

Focus on the poorest: The percentage of people living on less than $2 a day in the target countries is 72% or higher. Life expectancy is only somewhat above 50 in Ghana. Access to improved water sources is 50% or less in Burkina Faso, Mali and Ethiopia and sanitation is even worse, contributing to the average of more than 10% infant mortality rate over the four countries. Northern Ghana’s different physical geography means that national policies poorly support the people in this region.

Ecological impact: The planting, regeneration and protection of tree cover supported by Tree Aid and the provision of fuel-efficient stoves delivers a positive environmental impact, reducing the vicious cycle of deforestation leading to degradation and desertification.

Educational opportunities support: Surplus income can be used to educate children. The female literacy rate in Burkina Faso is estimated at only 8%, in Mali at 12%.