We conducted an impact study in Burkina Faso over a number of years to measure the impact of credit, among other things, particularly on women.
That study was conducted together with a network of caisses populaires—the equivalent of the financial institutions called credit unions in Canada—to measure the impact over a period of two or three years.
I don't have all the results to hand. However, I can say that we soon saw that, when credit was granted to women, that credit immediately led to an increase in productivity or revenue from their commercial activities. The women subsequently used their income to invest more in the family, in health and education. So there is an immediate impact on the quality of life of children and family: better nutrition, payment of school fees, access to primary health care. There is an immediate correlation. These are small short-term loans of approximately $100, which are made two or three times a year. When those loans are increased to approximately $500 or $800, the impact in the community is much more sustainable. There's a genuine impact on the size of the business of the woman in question. It multiplies. She can generate an additional job in her own environment or surplus revenue that enables her to reinvest and to grow her small business or crop. The impact is enormous.
I'm talking about Burkina Faso because that's the experiment I know best. If we replicate that across Burkina Faso, for example... Forty years ago Burkina Faso was DID's first partner. Today, the financial institution reaches a million inhabitants of that country. And there's still room as the penetration rate is around 8%. We should reach 25%. A lot of people still are not in the banking system and do not have a bank account or access to a bank account.
This institution alone mobilizes more than $300,000 and recycles as credit... Now there's a diversity of credit products—that's where we can measure the impact—ranging from credit and small pools for women, the equivalent of $50, which turn over very quickly, to a financial centre for businesses that offers loans of up to $10,000 or $15,000.
It's still network members, who were assisted and who were originally poor, who have improved their situations. Their financial institution has managed to assist them and has made increasingly large loans to them, as a result of which they have managed to develop specialties and are now able to finance their own businesses.
On the agriculture side—these financial institutions are also active in the rural community—this network reaches 10,000 farmers, which is a not negligible figure in that country. It is now being consulted by the country's authorities and the departments of agriculture because, based on its policies, its distribution network reaches a critical mass of producers, either in the form of specialized credit products or in other forms of state intervention which they need to speak with agricultural producers. So there is an enormous impact, but all that is built up over time. There is a maturity...
You always have to keep in mind that institutional support is necessary because capacity reinforcement changes over time. Forty years ago, we started up the caisse in a small village in the bush. Today we are introducing high technology so that they can work with cellular telephones to grant loans remotely. We are no longer engaged in the same areas of intervention, but consulting support is still necessary to accelerate these developments.