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The implementation of the “Monitoring in 70 villages in the Dogondoutchi department” action from January 2025 follows the cessation of almost all subsidies from France, the termination of the Cesson-Dankassari decentralized cooperation and the dissolution of the AESCD. However, membership fees and donations allow AECIN to send some financial resources to Niger.

Under these conditions, it has become impossible to create new grain banks, new nurseries, teach literacy skills to new women’s groups, allow new villages to benefit from the microcredit system, provide new goat kits, create new mini drinking water systems, convert hand pumps into self-sufficient water points, or equip new health facilities with sanitation or solar energy.

However, through regular monitoring, we will be able to ensure the satisfactory and sustainable operation of fourteen grain banks and four nurseries, the regular repayment of microcredit in thirteen villages, organize the regular renewal of one hundred and thirty goat kits, ensure the proper maintenance of dozens of equipped or rehabilitated water points, and monitor the quality of latrine and solar equipment maintenance in more than twenty health facilities.

Identification of villages

Given that the same villages have often benefited from multiple projects, RAEDD and AECIN have identified seventy villages for monitoring. The vast majority of these are located in the rural commune of Dankassari, thanks to the achievements of the Cesson-Dankassari decentralized cooperation. The monitoring, financed with AECIN’s own funds, is carried out through field visits by the RAEDD’s monitoring and sustainability manager, who prepares a monthly report. The goal is to visit each of the seventy villages at least once a year. Part of the monitoring can be done by telephone or by tapping into the RAEDD’s network of contacts.

Since AESCD’s activities were already recorded in a Geographic Information System (GIS), the base maps were adapted to include the 20 priority villages where AECIN intervened, thus providing a comprehensive overview for organizing monitoring missions. This work was carried out in collaboration with the company Magellium as part of a skills-based sponsorship agreement with AESCD.

Monitoring in 2025

The template for the monthly report from the RAEDD monitoring officer for the Dogondoutchi department was designed for the year 2025. The aim is to verify the sustainability of the actions undertaken, some of which have been running for over fifteen years and are no longer receiving funding. During the monitoring phase, discussions take place with beneficiaries, management committees, village chiefs, and representatives of decentralized state services (water and sanitation, as well as women’s empowerment and child protection, in particular).
From January to October 2025, more than sixty villages were visited by the RAEDD monitoring officer, accompanied by the driver, and often also by the monitoring support officer and a family planning facilitator. There were two one-day missions per month using the RAEDD vehicle.
New funding from CEBR allowed for changes to the monitoring procedures starting in October. Approximately thirty villages that had received water infrastructure from AESCD were added to the list of villages to be visited. There are three one-day missions per month using the RAEDD vehicle, with a team consisting of the driver, the monitoring officer, the monitoring support officer, and a family planning facilitator. The overall assessment is very satisfactory; the installed equipment is well maintained by the population.
Further details are provided for each component: