 The IRDP Women's Program seeks to incorporate women in the development process.It acts on the premise that a subsistence level activity by women can be raised to a commercial activity if a surplus is produced.The cooperatives, which are individual self-help societies rather than communal efforts, therefore provide credit facilities to help women start projects in which they already have expertise'for example, raising poultry, goats or cows'or provide them with improved varieties of seeds or fruit stock.