Burkina Faso

Situation

Burkina Faso has some of the lowest human development statistics in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and income.*

In Burkina Faso the average amount of schooling is just over one year and close to 50 percent of Burkina Faso’s population is living on less than $1.25 a day. About 90 percent of Burkina Faso’s 18 million inhabitants are engaged in subsistence agriculture, but many lack access to modern farming techniques. Droughts, increasing desertification and other affects of climate change have severely impacted agricultural activities and the economy.

This land-locked country is located in Western Africa, bordered by Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali and receives on average just 31 inches of rain annually. Burkina Faso gained indpendence from France in 1960, and following a period of unrest has had a fragile democracy under President Blaise Compoare.

Successes 2016

Thanks to your support in our epicenter strategy and our microfinance program we have already achieved a lot in Burkina Faso!

The national economy has collapsed due to political instability caused by the unrest in the run-up to the 2015 presidential elections and the overall instability in the Sahel region. The collapse of the national economy had an impact on microfinance activities. Most of the activities were therefore not carried out until the third and fourth quarters.

• In 2016, 579 village partners were able to participate in microfinance programme training courses.
• Of these, 292 village partners attended additional training courses on income-generating activities.
• The focus of the microfinance programme's training courses in the first half of the year was on the concept of microcredit, while in the second half of the year the focus was on the role of bank members and the loan repayment process.
• In addition, the managers of the microfinance programme were able to benefit from continuing education on a variety of topics such as social accounting, social service management, professional legislation, financial services via mobile phones and the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), an instrument for measuring the poverty level of customers.
• Most of the loans are invested in agricultural activities and small businesses. For example, borrowers bought agricultural equipment or funds for processing food or small livestock such as chickens.

Travel reports

THP sites in Burkina Faso