Location: Nobéré, Center-Sud Region and Municipality of Sakoula, Burkina Faso
It has been proven that giving more space to women allows for better community development. For example, women reinvest 90% of their income in their family and community, compared to only 30 to 40% for men*. In addition, women are responsible for child-rearing, the more empowered and educated they are, the more they can help their children in their own development.
General objective: Improve the income of agricultural households by promoting local savings.
Specific objective: Improve the income and organizational capacities of women.
Project duration: The project in the commune of Nobéré started in January 2015 and ended in August 2021 – Currently, a new project has started in the commune of Sakoula
Beneficiaries: 4,140 women through savings and loan groups
Activities:
Saving for Change (SfC) is an innovative community savings group program. Facilitators form groups of women to save regularly, to borrow from these savings funds and to repay their loans with interest, all in a perspective of self-management of the group by its members.
SfC has shown an improvement in the socio-economic conditions of the beneficiaries: increase of family income, small business start-up, improvement of hygiene knowledge, reinforcement of social cohesion.
The SfC project is an integral part of the Rural Development component of the Colibri Program, which works across several sectors (Nutrition, Water-Sanitation-Hygiene, Rural Development) to improve overall the living conditions and resilience of the population of Nobéré.
* Phil Borges (2007), Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World page 13
