In Burkina Faso, AKDN established the packaging factory Faso Plast, Faso Coton, which worked with cotton community-based farmers, and SOSUCO, which cultivated sugarcane and sold sugar and its byproducts.

Première Agence de Microfinance Burkina Faso was established in 2006. Its financial services help small farmers in rural areas with agriculture-specific products, focusing on rice, cassava, maize and livestock.

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In 1965, Côte d’Ivoire was focusing on cocoa to drive its development, but lacked packaging capability. In response, Industrial Promotion Services (IPS) set up the Filtisac factory to manufacture jute sacks. It expanded to support other critical industries, becoming regionally significant in the packaging sector.

Other AKDN investments in agro-business and agro-processing included Ivoire Coton, which operated 14 cotton gins; and Cajou des Savanes, focusing on the transformation of cashew nuts.

AKDN provided staff with adult literacy classes, constructed community health huts, increased access to potable water and supported staff through workplace wellness programmes. From 2015 to 2018, AKF and IPS worked to strengthen the social and environmental resilience of the surrounding communities.

Multiple Uses of Water in the North

We worked with the Margaret A Cargill Foundation in the north of the country to improve sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation, improve the use of water sources for food security, and build capacity to respond to socio-economic and environmental shocks. Achievements included giving 134,000 people access to drinking water by equipping boreholes, repairing pumps, installing water management committees and training municipal technicians. AKF also funded small producers to grow corn, trained and equipped women’s market gardening groups, educated communities on sanitary and hygienic practices, and helped municipalities increase their capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters.

Telemedicine

We worked with several partners to strengthen the skills of healthcare professionals in charge of people living with HIV. We established a telemedicine network between Abidjan and Boundiali, with two telemedicine centers built/rehabilitated and equipped in Boundiali and Adjamé-Attécoubé. This enabled 118 medical professionals to be trained remotely on HIV care and treatment. We also screened 11,000 people.

Strengthening Schools in the North

Together with Cargill and Ivoire Coton, we gave 4,700 children access to an improved learning environment. We built and equipped a school in Balabougou; rehabilitated and equipped 21 other schools; and trained over 140 school management committee members and canteen coordinators.

Early Childhood Development

Working with the Ministry of Education and other partners, we aimed to help families support the mental, physical and emotional development of their children. In this pilot project, 626 parents and supervisors were trained on early childhood development and best support practices, with 907 children reached through parent training and public activities at the Filtisac health centre. We also developed training modules and trained facilitators.

Microfinance

AKDN created Première Agence de Microfinance Côte d’Ivoire to improve agricultural productivity and finance small enterprises. The microfinance institution was sold in 2023.

Energy

AKDN and partners established Azito Energie, now Côte d’Ivoire’s leading electricity supplier and soon to increase its capacity to 713 megawatts.

Read more about AKDN’s current work in Côte d’Ivoire.

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AKDN’s activities in Mali have encompassed cultural restoration and social development projects in Bamako, Mopti, Timbuktu and Djenné, as well as economic development projects and civil society building across the country. Our multi-input area development interventions combined environmental, social and economic elements.

Culture

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture has created a national park in Bamako. Developed under a public-private partnership between the Government of Mali, the 103-hectare park provides a significant green space for leisure and education.

AKTC has also restored the Great Mosque of Komoguel, Mopti, Djingareyber Mosque, Timbuktu and the Great Mosque, Djenné, training hundreds of artisans in traditional earthen architecture techniques. We upgraded the surrounding public areas for residents’ benefit, for example constructing an underground sewage system and a flood barrier in Mopti, establishing several public drinking water points and paving the streets with locally manufactured bricks.

Read more about our cultural development work.

Civil Society

AKF supported the development of a dynamic, competent and sustainable civil society sector in Mali. Following a consultative process, we developed widely accepted standards for a good quality civil society organisation (CSO) and designed a self-assessment tool to measure organisations’ progress towards reaching these standards. We facilitated 285 CSOs across every region of Mali to complete self-assessments and supported 80 to build their capacity.

We also supported collaboration between government and civil society; helped develop a comprehensive civic education curriculum, teachers’ guide and modules for use in the non-formal education sector; and introduced best practices in corporate social responsibility, training organisations within and beyond AKDN.

Health and nutrition

Responding to high infant and maternal mortality rates, AKF established 100 rural maternity health centres, built by the community. They were staffed by AKF-trained community health workers, who were certified by the Ministry of Health and paid for by the community.

We collected health data for regional authorities, trained health workers and worked to reduce the high rates of malnutrition and diarrhoeal diseases through training, providing sanitation infrastructure and supporting over 30,000 farmers to increase and diversify their agricultural production.

We supported the scaling up of the Government of Mali's National Health Worker programme. This aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality and morbidity through advocacy and increasing gender awareness.

Microfinance

Première Agence de Microfinance Mali (PAMF-Mali) was established in 2005 in the Mopti region in line with an initiative by the Malian government to develop the microfinance industry in the country.

PAMF-Mali operated three branches and two points of sale in Mopti, Koro, Sikasso, Djénné and Sévaré. While nearly half its borrowers were in rural areas, it also expanded to urban areas and offered a wide range of products, including credit and savings products, tailored to meet the needs of farmers, artisans and traders. It aimed to empower women, with almost 50 percent of its clients being female. PAMF-Mali offered group loans to finance agriculture, small trade, micro-enterprises and livestock. These group loans were especially popular in rural areas, where most credit was used for agricultural production and livestock.

Multi-input area development

The Mopti Coordinated Area Development Programme aimed to help families in this region seek long-term solutions to achieve greater food security, and increase literacy rates and income levels. The programme was active in 200 villages in 20 communes of Mopti and Djenné. Supported by supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs Canada, the European Union, the Agence Française de Développement and the Orange Foundation, the Aga Khan Foundation and sister agencies implemented nine projects in the region in the areas of health, nutrition, gender equality, rural development, education and civil society.

AKDN worked with over 43,000 farmers, trained more than 4,000 women in new vegetable production techniques, and improved physical and financial access to health care for close to 450,000 beneficiaries.

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IPS worked in Senegal for over 20 years to stimulate economic growth in the region and improve the quality of life for residents. It was involved in two packaging companies, Cofisac and Fumoa.

Their high-performance blow moulding lines made high-density polyethylene bottles used for petroleum companies and groundnut oil producers, and preforms to contain drinks. Cofisac’s woven polypropylene bags were used in the agricultural, agro-industrial and textile sectors. Fumoa manufactured metal drums for petroleum and edible oil producers.

These packaging products enabled local goods to be exported, stimulating the economy. Cofisac’s crop storage bags, for example, reduced post-harvest crop damage, allowing small-holder farmers to store grains for longer and sell when prices are higher. The companies generated income to reinvest in development activities and provide social welfare for employees and their families.

For example, IPS set up a group solidarity fund used in the prevention and detection of HIV, TB and malaria, and cared for workers sick with AIDS. Other activities included establishing health insurance, distributing mosquito nets and organising blood donations.

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