I had posted this over at the Soap project thread but I am copying it here since I think it is relevant.

Just to let everyone know, the banana program works like this with the group craft production and I assume would be similar in other projects.

A member earns 1 banana for every 2 hours they work on group production of beads and jewelry during the month.

At the end of the month the group production jewelry is bought on market day.

All the bananas are added up and the amount of money earned is divided by the number of bananas given. This determines the value of 1 banana.

example: 500,000 shillings are paid for the jewelry.

125 bananas have been earned by the group

therefore, each banana = 4000 shillings.

so if

mary has 15 bananas, she would get 60,000

Susan has 9 bananas, she would get 36,000

George has 3 bananas, he would get 12,000

Everyone gets paid for their level of participation and participation is strictly voluntary. The value of a banana is dependent on the productivity of the group.

I do not know if they can exchange for other things other than cash.

With the soap project the total profit would be divided by the number of bananas given to determine the value of each banana. The more soap sold, the more value to the banana. This is why is it so important to have the guidelines for how many bananas will be awarded ironed out before we start.