Flourishing cooperatives are closely linked to local sustainability and prosperity. CSOs are an effective tool for bringing together community members and working together to develop plans and strategies that meet their needs. Participatory planning enhances the interaction of individuals with the decision-making process and enables cooperatives to set priorities and focus on initiatives that benefit the community.

The regional program “The Participatory Planning and Implementation of the Community Initiatives in Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab,” which started in October 2022 in partnership with MEPI aims to enhance and develop the capacity and the ability of the CSOs to integrate local decision-making with efforts to address social, economic, and environmental issues. Both CSOs and government officers were involved in the program from the beginning.

Five women’s cooperatives in Bir Gandus commune allied with each other, and they decided to work together to empower the rural women to get incomes to help their families. In the beginning, the cooperatives worked separately to make couscous but when they benefited from working collaboratively and the training the alliance provided, they knew that the alliance put power in their hands.

A participant in the program, Hana, said “Instead of being divided and each cooperative is looking for its own benefits, the alliance of these five cooperatives will be a solution for the women to get many clients and opportunities, alliance is power for us so we named it ‘Alliance of Tidarguit Tasamouh’ which means peace. Now we rent a small office for the alliance where we can plan, and execute the alliance objectives, not only for the alliance members but for all the women in Bir Gandus commune”. Creating alliances between the CSOs is one of the program’s most important accomplishments after 12 months of implementation.

The alliance members seek now to expand their work and sell their products outside of the region. The alliance continues to involve the local government officers in their activities and communicates with them regularly to support the alliance in transportation and office rent.

The women of the alliance believe that the alliance effectively combats precarity and poverty and constitutes an essential factor in achieving sustainable development in the Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab region.