Project profile — Support for Women Rice Parboilers in Burkina Faso

• Burkina Faso (100.00%)

• Secondary Education: Vocational training (11330) (30.00%)
• Agriculture: Agricultural education/training (31181) (20.00%)
• Industry: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) development (32130) (50.00%)

• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (significant objective)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to improve the living conditions of women in the Hauts-Bassins, Cascades and Boucle du Mouhoun regions in Burkina Faso by supporting professional rice parboilers’ organizations (rice parboiling is a rice milling method that allows to retain 80% of the nutritional value, increase strength and facilitate storage). The project seeks to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the rice value chain to better respond to market demands and customer needs. It is expected that the increase in sales will contribute to increase the revenues for all actors in the value chain (producers, processors, traders and transporters). The project will directly benefit more than 5,000 women and indirectly benefit all 15,000 women parboilers, members of various professional organizations in the country. The project has two components: support the processing and marketing of rice and support the professionalization of women steamers. Project activities include: i) provide training to women in parboiling techniques; ii) develop and implement a communications and marketing strategy for professional organizations; iii) build two parboiling rice centers with 10 improved stoves; provide training for women members of professional organizations in literacy, leadership and political dialogue; iv) provide training to professional organizations in the field of administration, member services and financial management to maximize economies of scale and provide better services to members.

The expected intermediate results of this project are: i) rural women members of unions of parboiling groups increased their income by meeting local demand for parboiled rice. ii) the National Union of women rice paraboilers and unions of groups of rice paraboiler of Burkina Faso have improved their governance and representation in the rice supply chain.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (June 2020) include: (1) built two parboiling centers and renovated and equipped three parboiling centers with additional buildings, including decentralized units, to increase their capacity; (2) improved parboiling techniques, enabling supported unions to produce rice that meets national standards; (3) established a fund to facilitate access to credit, leading to a 275% increase in loans and contributing to the professionalization of parboiler unions; and (4) increased the volume of rice parboiled and marketed by 64% compared with production before the start of the project. It rose from 1240 metric tons (t) in 2013 to 1910 t in 2019.

• Proactive disclosure