UNCDF supports the development of the 2020 action plan of the Platform for Actors of Savings Groups in Burkina Faso (PAGE).

The first objective of microfinance is to address the shortcomings of conventional banks by offering small loans to excluded populations. These loans are used to finance income-generating activities and to financially include these populations. However, in rural areas, Burkina Faso's microfinance sector still has a long way to go in order to compensate for the relatively low rate of banking services, which remains at 9% compared to 44% 1 in urban areas. Based on this observation, some NGOs and development structures have embarked on the promotion of improved tontines called Groupe d'Epargne (GE) with the support of UNCDF.

Tontines are savings groups that form an alternative channel to satisfy the demand for savings and credit of vulnerable populations. This promotion of a new generation of tontines has grown in Burkina Faso since 2015. It is increasingly valued by communities, especially the most vulnerable, and is seen by development organizations as an engine for integrated development.

In view of the growing number of savings group promoters who have adopted the model or developed additional services around it, and the need to maintain compliance with minimum standards and standards to maintain and ensure its effectiveness, UNCDF and CRS Burkina Faso have taken the initiative to bring together stakeholders within the Platform Actors of Savings Groups (PAGE) in October 2020.

On 20 February 2020, UNCDF hosted a brainstorming workshop with a dozen NGOs working in the field of savings groups. The objective of the workshop was to discuss the 2020 Action Plan. The action plan adopted at the end of the workshop focuses on sharing experience and pooling of actions in order to better take account of members of savings groups into account by the public administration. The key activities selected are: a visit to the achievements of one of the members, the SEMUS (Mutual Mutual Solidarity in the Sahel) in the field of savings groups, and increased consultation between the various actors through a series of meetings including the one to be organised during the week of savings groups crowned by a forum of savings groups.

The 2020 Action Plan is intended to be modest and realistic, taking into account the timetable and the members' failure to take account of the plan's activities in their annual plans. UNCDF, which organized and hosted this workshop, pledged to support, within its means, all the actions of the PAGE platform to ensure the promotion of the financial empowerment of vulnerable populations. The actors all praised the role of UNCDF in the dynamism of the platform. Appointment was made on 15 April for the second meeting of the year 2020. However, in the context of the current health crisis, the next meeting of the platform will be held on a virtual basis.