Support Project for Local Economic Development in the North and Sahel Regions of Burkina Faso

Strengthening local economic development and employment in the North and Sahel regions of Burkina Faso

To strengthen local economic development and employment, the Support Project for Local Economic Development in the North and Sahel Regions of Burkina Faso is working on the establishment of a territorial mechanism to support and finance economic activities led by young people and women. It facilitates access to financing for very small enterprises (VSEs) and microenterprises (MEs) which find it hard to meet the financing conditions of microfinance institutions.

Continuing the support of the previous employment programmes in Burkina Faso

The Support Project for Local Economic Development is both a follow-up and a complement to the systems to support vocational training and employment set up by Expertise France in Burkina Faso since 2017.

The objective of these programmes was to develop the employability of people and their integration, in particular the most vulnerable young people and women. They achieved this by helping to develop training opportunities for trades and/or entrepreneurship and by providing assistance for the creation and development of microenterprises. The strategy was developed based on a territorial approach and allows projects to be managed by local development actors, i.e. regional and local authorities with competence in this field.

This project came about through a new observation: in the regions, a significant proportion of the beneficiaries trained and supported in recent years find it hard to access financing to launch their activity. Indeed, although the technical assistance (training, advice, start-up and establishment kits) is central and essential, it is not sufficient to sustainably develop their activity. Furthermore, these entrepreneurs rarely obtain funds from microfinance institutions, as they generally have few or no guarantees.

This project has therefore been designed using an approach based on financial inclusion: it involves setting up a pilot system to finance and support the beneficiaries, but also assisting regional councils with their local economic development policies by creating a territorial fund.

Facilitating access to financing and the market for very small enterprises and microenterprises

The project to support local economic development is aimed primarily at young people and women in the Sahel and North regions who have benefited from training leading to a qualification or assistance from one of Expertise France’s employment programmes.

It helps raise funds by setting up honour loans, meaning loans allocated to natural persons without a request for a guarantee, granted after approval by a financing committee.

This committee is made up of business support professionals who will validate the financing requests. Partner microfinance institutions will participate and will be responsible for providing the funds to the beneficiaries. They will also handle the collection with a close follow-up.

Strengthening the skills of partners in the field

The project is based on a strong partnership approach with the regional councils in the two regions. It involves helping them to set up and manage systems to support and develop local companies.

Consequently, a territorial fund will complement the sources of financing provided by local actors and conventional financial institutions, such as banks and microfinance institutions. The regional councils will lead the calls for projects to identify the VSEs and MEs that will benefit from this fund. They will also work closely with the microfinance institutions responsible for releasing the funds and will carry out a close follow-up through support-advice on a day-to-day basis.

In addition to supporting the local coordination of the project, the operational team will also assist the very small enterprises and microenterprises via a capacity building plan. It will cover themes such as management, gender, women’s economic empowerment, self-esteem and access to goods and resources.

Expected outcomes

Following the project, 120 economic microprojects (EMPs) and microenterprises (MEs) will have been supported:

• Financially, in order to ensure the company’s growth and competitiveness, while taking the gender perspective into account
• Technically and socially for the launch of their economic activities
• Through capacity building in management.

At least 200 beneficiaries, including 120 women, will have created or developed their own activity, 2 regional funds dedicated to EMPs/MEs will have been created and secured and the capacity of the 2 regional councils will have been strengthened in terms of supporting EMPs/MEs, including the gender perspective.