Burkina Faso

Sababougnouma is a group of women from the region f las Cascades, in south-western Uagadugú, set up with the aim of taking advantage of the growth potential of Attiéké, a typical regional dish made from cassava, with high nutritional value. The group produces cassava paste for the catering sector. The company led by Flamousso Bindo is an example of female leadership in its community and generates employment for more than 35 women. With this help we seek to boost business growth by taking advantage of its niche market status to stabilize employment and improve the incomes of working women

Plateau Lait is a cooperative of milk processors in the Cascades region, bringing together three dairy farms which specialise in marketing dairy products, pasteurized milk, and yogurts. After a first phase of support from Oxfam, the three dairy businesses joined up to create a more ambitious enterprise, with an innovative business model, based around a common brand name, which facilitates lower production costs, and selling to new customers such as schools, hospitals, state institutions. Plateforme Lait works with more than 200 milk producers, offering better income to their families, and creating jobs for more than 30 processors, half of whom are women. In addition, this community business participates actively in promoting a local milk industry and the consumption of local milk in a market threatened by imports of milk based on European milk powder.

Amokfat is a company directed by Nacro Bintou, a born entrepreneur, dedicated to the processing and marketing of healthy cereal-based products. In Burkina Faso, it is very unusual to see women running a successful business like this one. Nacro Binsou is determined to change this inequality and to do so employs women and promotes their empowerment. Amokfat offers stable work and income to 14 women, and promotes their leadership by providing them with training and access to positions of greater responsibility in the company. This drive allows women workers not only to maintain the education of their sons and daughters, but also to access credits with which to develop complementary economic activities for their families. The enterprise aims to work directly with small-scale producers, limiting costs and keeping better control of the quality of the raw material.

Café Rio is a company run by Azara Toé, an entrepreneur, who is engaged in the processing and marketing of dairy products in Bobo-Dioulasso and other cities in the country. In Burkina Faso there are thousands of families living from their cows, but most of the milk consumed is imported. By encouraging greater consumption and production of local milk, we are able to improve the quality of dairy products and the livelihoods of cattle-breeding families. Azara Toé is determined to change these imbalances, aiming to work directly with more than 60 producer families, promoting the local milk value chain. Milk producers and collectors receive technical and financial support to organize themselves as a cooperative. Café Rio also provides stable employment and income to 20 women, and promotes their leadership by providing them with training and access to positions of greater responsibility in the company.