Project profile — Inclusive Financing of the Agricultural Sector (INCLUSIVE)

• Mali (100.00%)

• Food crop production:
Food crop production (31161) (40.00%)
Agricultural financial services (31193) (40.00%)
Agricultural co-operatives (31194) (20.00%)

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

This project aims to improve the financial inclusion of the rural poor and of organizations and enterprises (especially female) excluded from the mainstream financial system in order to increase their resilience to climatic, social and economic shocks. The project also aims to promote a sustainable transformation of agricultural value chains and economic partnership between actors in the agricultural sector, including women and youth, producers’ organizations, and small and medium agricultural enterprises. Project activities include 1) promotion of adapted agricultural financial services to small producers, including products that specifically meet women's needs; 2) digitalization of financial services; 3) provision of financial education and support to various target groups to facilitate access to loans; 4) promotion of gender equality and inclusion among organizations and poor populations; 5) provision of technical assistance to the Cellule de contrôle, the Centre de promotion et d’appui and to the Association professionnelle des systèmes financiers décentralisés; 6) strengthening the organizational capacities of producer organizations through training on organization, governance and the animation of a collective structure. The project aims to reach 400,000 direct beneficiaries (50% of whom are women and 50% of whom are young people aged 18 to 40) in the regions of Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Ségou and Sikasso.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased access of small producers and their organizations to appropriate and innovative financial services; (2) an improved institutional environment for decentralized financial systems; and (3) more productive, profitable and sustainable partnerships between producer organizations and the private sector and decentralized financial systems.

Results achieved as of December 2023: 1) increased the volume of credit obtained by small producers and their organizations, from $17.8M to $31.9M (8,000,000,000 to 14,348,982,318 CFA francs); 2) increased the volume of savings mobilized by small producers from $266,667 to $11.9M (120,000,000 to 5,358,830,345 CFA francs); 3) increased the number of people with access to financial services in rural areas, from 100,000 people to 314,217 people, of whom 133,752 are women now having access to credit; 4) allowed 249 producer organizations (POs) to develop profitable and sustainable productive partnerships with public and private organizations (e.g. small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and financial services), out of a projected 360 POs for the duration of the project; and 5) allowed 192 POs to access credit through productive partnerships, out of 310 POs projected for the duration of the project . These results enabled small producers and their organizations to access tailored financial services and establish productive and sustainable business partnerships.

• Proactive disclosure