Category: Partnership

SIDI has concluded a strategic investment in Soluna Energia to contribute to the access of Colombian rural communities to clean and regular energy thanks to solar power.

More than half of Colombia’s particularly rugged territory (55%), and around 40% of the population, are not connected to the national electricity grid. Soluna is a Colombian company specializing in the installation, operation and maintenance of solar home systems. Founded in 2020, its mission is to facilitate access to electricity for rural communities unconnected or with limited access to the national grid, thanks to tailored photovoltaic solutions and a flexible payment model for consumers.

Strategic investment

For SIDI, this is a first step in the development of its climate portfolio in Latin America, directly in line with its new 2023-2026 strategic plan. In addition, this is the company’s^3rd investment in Colombia, representing an interesting diversification of its portfolio in the country. SIDI currently finances and supports a coffee producers’ organization(Cencoic) and a microfinance institution (Confiamos).

Social and environmental impact

Since its inception, Soluna has installed solar home systems for over 300 households in 19 communities in Vichada in the east of the country, including two indigenous communities, enabling a total of 1,600 people to benefit from electricity in rural areas. 43% of beneficiaries are women, 40% are low-income families, and 30% are considered poor. The social objectives shared with Soluna are clear, particularly in favour of disadvantaged rural communities excluded from basic services. Soluna targets mainly, but not exclusively, small-scale farmers and indigenous people in rural areas. Customers who don’t have the capital to buy with cash are offered the chance to pay bit by bit, thanks to the innovative “Pay as you go” prepayment system.

According to surveys carried out among users, 30% are making productive use of the solar energy supplied by Soluna, 2/3 of whom say they have seen an increase in their income. Impressive results, with 90% of beneficiaries reporting an improvement in their quality of life. From an environmental point of view, the solar energy produced in this way mainly replaces kerosene lamps and expensive, polluting diesel generators: 55% of customers say they no longer need kerosene solutions.

SIDI’s partnership officer recently visited the small village of Casuarito on the Venezuelan border and saw for herself, with Yurika, a young woman of Venezuelan origin who runs a small business there, how Soluna’s energy is helping to improve her living conditions and those of the 3 people with whom she lives. Casuarito is connected to the local grid, but this provides a very irregular service, with power cuts during the day, and especially at night, for eight hours at a time. With temperatures in the area remaining high at night, fans are a precious commodity. Early in the morning, thanks to Soluna’s energy, she can use her small appliances to prepare breakfast and recharge her cell phone before leaving for work. The cost of this energy is more than affordable, she says, and in her case it’s shared with her family. The system, supplied with four bulbs and two double sockets, works very well, and Soluna’s technicians make follow-up visits two or three times a year. Yurika much prefers solar power, and will be installing more panels on the roof of her small business when she needs them.

Investment and development plan

SIDI is therefore taking a stake in Soluna, alongside other social investors, as part of a fund-raising operation that will enable Soluna to move from a start-up phase to an ambitious development phase. With a 10-year development plan, Soluna plans to install 60,000 solar home systems. In addition to its financial investment, SIDI brings to the project its experience in working with rural and farming communities, and in particular in supporting their strengthening.

This partnership between SIDI and Soluna is a new step in promoting access to renewable energy in rural areas of Colombia. The combination of Soluna’s ambitious social and environmental approach and SIDI’s long-term vision, embodied in the acquisition of an equity stake in the company, demonstrates the transformative potential of solar energy to improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations while helping to combat climate change.

Nutri’zaza was born of the determination of five committed players who share a common social and economic vision: a social enterprise can commit to the fight against malnutrition. Nutri’zaza‘s strengths lie in the diversity of its founding shareholders, the social mission enshrined in its articles of association, and its capacity for innovation.

In 2013, to mark the launch of Nutri’zaza, a social enterprise based on the Nutrimad development program initiated by GRET, a white paper was published detailing how the company wished to combat malnutrition. At the time, the facts were clear: over 50% of children under the age of five, or 1,300,000 children, were suffering from stunted growth (also known as chronic malnutrition). Ten years on, despite a relative improvement in percentage terms, the number of children in this situation in Madagascar has increased: 42% of children under the age of five, i.e. over 2 million youngsters, still suffer from chronic malnutrition. Madagascar is still one of the world’s poorest countries, with over 80% of the population living on less than two dollars a day.

Fighting malnutrition: 10 years of innovation

To combat child malnutrition on a long-term basis, the company sells fortified products for malnourished children and families: ready-prepared porridge, delivered by outreach workers to disadvantaged neighborhoods in Madagascar’s major cities; sachets of porridge to prepare at home, and cereal bars and sachets of moosli (muesli). Nutri’zaza strives to make these quality, locally-produced products accessible to all Malagasy families, including the most vulnerable.

In this country with its many challenges, the private sector is demonstrating its dynamism and capacity for innovation in response to socio-economic and health issues. In terms of public health, Nutri’zaza’s social objective is more relevant than ever. The company manages to reach a considerable audience: Nutrizaza distributes an average of over 42,000 rations a day, including 23,500 by the ladle to the most vulnerable populations, and employs 273 people.

An atypical company in SIDI’s portfolio, historically dedicated to financial inclusion and agricultural value chains, the alignment of this social enterprise’s mission with SIDI’s social mission makes it a central partner on the Grande Ile. This alignment is guaranteed by the inclusion of this social mission in Nutrizaza’s own articles of association.

A lasting partnership, a key to consolidating the company

SIDI is proud to have supported the development of this social enterprise for 10 years: through its patient capital, its participation in governance and its technical support, SIDI has contributed to the consolidation of Nutri’zaza. Alongside SIDI are GRET, the initiator of the Nutrimad project; TAF, a Malagasy agro-industrial group entrusted with the manufacture of Koba Aina, and the Association pour la Promotion de l’Entreprenariat à Madagascar[1]. The complementary nature of these shareholders, who all participate in the company’s governance, is a strength for Nutri’zaza. As such, each shareholder contributes his or her expertise and technical knowledge: SIDI is therefore particularly attentive to the balance of the company’s business model.

Over the past 10 years, SIDI has been able to accompany Nutri’zaza through its various deployment phases, made possible thanks to the support of institutional donors, notably the Agence Française de Développement and the European Union. Over the years, Nutri’zaza has diversified its product range, forging a strong partnership with Chocolaterie Robert to produce two new fortified products: a chocolate bar and a moosli for older children.

In 10 years, Nutri’zaza has demonstrated its capacity for innovation and resilience in the face of major external shocks, notably the COVID 19 health crisis. The teams must now continue their work to consolidate the business model.

[1 ] The founding shareholders also included Investisseurs et Partenaires, which sold its shares to the remaining shareholders in 2017.

Photo credits: Nutri’zaza 2023

A bank at the service of development and the protection of the planet? Banco Codesarrollo now has over 130,000 customers!

Created in 1998 on the initiative of the Grupo Social Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progresso (FEPP), Banco Codesarrollo was initially a savings and credit cooperative.

Over the years, Banco Codesarrollo has developed as an institution of the social and popular economy of the Ecuadorian private sector, and has successfully transformed itself into a bank. Today, Banco Codesarrollo offers financial and non-financial services tailored to its target population, particularly in rural areas.

SIDI investisseur solidaire, committed 1.8 million euros to the bank’s capital in 2017. Cristina Alvarez, in charge of partnerships at Sidi, points out that this “first investment has enabled the Ecuadorian bank to reach the minimum legal capital required” in the country, which is $11 million. A second round of financing took place in 2019, which enabled SIDI “to accompany the steady growth of the portfolio while limiting Banco Codesarrollo’s indebtedness”, Cristina Alvarez continues.

Today, SIDI is represented on the Board of Directors of Banco Codesarrollo by Patricia Camacho. It sits alongside several Italian social banks, which are also shareholders in the institution. This special bond with Italy is embodied by the Chairman of Banco Codesarrollo himself, Giuseppe Tonello Foscarini, who is Italian by birth but has lived in Ecuador for over 30 years.

“Crediecológico, a financial product to combat climate change

With almost 130,000 customers by 2021, 46% of them women, 56% of them in rural areas and 27% under 30, Banco Codesarrollo is committed to several aspects of rural development as well as ecology.

In 2018, the bank launched a new financial product to finance the ecological transition, the “Crediecológico”. Cristina Alvarez defines it as “a product designed to promote environmental protection and combat climate change”.

With this new product, Banco Codesarrollo has “oriented its management towards environmentally-friendly activities such as sustainable farming, food sovereignty, soil reclamation, wastewater management and the use of alternative energies”, explains Cristina Alvarez. In 2021, through some 100 loans granted, one million dollars were able to finance these activities.

Another advantage of the “Crediecológico” loan is that it not only offers “preferential conditions in terms of interest rate, loan amount and duration”, but also includes “technical support for customers”, explains Cristina Alvarez.

Banco Codesarrollo has also been working on its own ecological footprint. In 2021, for example, the institution has integrated “an organizational environmental management system into institutional processes”, enabling better waste management, the allocation of donations to local foundations when equipment is replaced, or the funding of recycling campaigns or reduced energy consumption.

“Promoting SIDI’s vision as a solidarity investor”.

But SIDI’s role is not only to finance, but also to support its partners through technical assistance projects. Patricia Camacho, a member of the Board of Directors of Banco Codesarrollo, has played a key role in the design, implementation and coordination of various technical assistance projects financed by SIDI.

This support is important for SIDI, which has included environmental and social dynamics in its strategic plan,” explains Cristina Alvarez. The ecological and social transition has even become “a central plank of its strategy and a hallmark of its partnership policy”.

To demonstrate the success of these partnerships, SIDI organized a trip to Ecuador in early September for some fifteen of its individual shareholders, something it had not been able to do since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The aim of the trip: to make their commitment as a community shareholder a reality. SIDI points out that almost 40% of its capital is held by individual shareholders. A great way to connect civil societies here and there.

Ten years of war in Mali have not left Nyèsigiso unscathed. Created in 1990, this mutual network of savings and credit cooperatives was forced to close the doors of its cooperative caisse in Diré, in the north of the country. A major blow for beneficiaries. Mainly located in rural areas, the network works with the poorest people, including many farmers.

With 15 cooperatives, 58 branches and 10 counters across the country, Nyèsigiso, or “house of foresight” in Bambara, is a key player in the Malian economy. With its finances in dire straits, the company had to look for ways to preserve its mission. It was in this context that the mutual network turned to SIDI.

SIDI grants loans or takes equity stakes in structures that share its values. In addition, SIDI lends money without requiring collateral, and therefore with a high risk of loss. A risky gamble, but an essential one: it was by granting a first loan to Nyèsigiso in 2020, at a time when it was being decapitalized, that SIDI contributed to the recovery of this Malian mutual network.

“Our intervention created a leverage effect,” explains Jean-Baptiste Cousin, SIDI’s Partnership Officer. SIDI’s commitment has restored the confidence of other international donors and ” Nyèsigiso has been able to raise ten times the amount lent by SIDI”. The mutual network then ended the year with a “profit of 285 million CFA (over €435,000)”, and increased its equity to 7.19% of its capital.

Strong local roots

It was the strong local roots of the mutual network that convinced SIDI to invest. In a study carried out in 2022, 60 Décibels, a firm that measures the impact of companies, found that 91% of respondents said their quality of life had improved thanks to Nyèsigiso. The study also shows that almost 9 out of 10 customers had never before been able to access a service such as that offered by the mutual network.

Finally, while “60% of its members live in rural areas, often with an agricultural activity”.The study shows that most customers who take out loans from Nyèsigiso use the money for business expenses, mainly in the agricultural sector: “71% for agricultural inputs, 22% for labor”.says Jean-Baptiste Cousin.

On a day-to-day basis, Nyèsigiso has had a major impact on customers’ quality of life: 47% report an improvement in their income, 26% an improvement in their agricultural production, and 88% say they have improved their ability to plan their finances.

Making Nyesigiso sustainable

To continue this “beautiful story”, Nyèsigiso applied for and obtained a second loan from SIDI in 2021. Indeed, a cooperative network must manage to hold 15% of its capital in equity, which was not the case. ” They have a lot of members, but they’re rather poor people who aren’t in a position to contribute a lot of capital,” explains Jean-Baptiste Cousin. And if Nyesigiso forced its members to buy shares at a higher price, the risk would be that it would focus solely on the middle classes, and lose its target audience.

“We made a subordinated loan, which is quasi-capital: it allows us to make a long-term loan that the local banking authorities consider precisely as capital,” he continues. Better still, this type of loan acts as a guarantee for other investors, because here too the risk is very high: if the structure collapses economically, SIDI would be the last to get its money back!

After this second loan, it’s hardly surprising that SIDI has noticed a second leverage effect. ” For the moment, we have lent the equivalent of 500,000 euros” to the Malian organization, says Jean-Baptiste Cousin. The first loan is for three years, with a one-year grace period, and the second for five years, with a two-year grace period. Extremely favorable conditions for Nyèsigiso.

For SIDI, the risk remains, but it is assumed. And so far, so good. The partnership manager is delighted with this successful cooperation and the trust placed in Nyesigiso. The Malian mutual network reaches no fewer than 250,000 people in Mali. And the fact that it operates as a mutual network, electing local representatives to take joint decisions, means that people who are far removed from governance bodies can be brought into the various strata of the structure: “Nyèsigiso is also a school of citizenship”, he concludes.

Developing organic farming systemically in Burkina Faso

“They have a phenomenal approach. The words are strong, but totally justified, according to Johan Thuard, Partnership Officer at SIDI. Bioprotect has a very specific positioning: the company aims to develop and enhance the organic market in Burkina-Faso in a systemic way, by getting involved in the supply and demand of organic products.

This approach is twofold. The first is to enable producers to produce organically. This is achieved through the training provided by Bioprotect teams to small-scale growers, as well as through the sale of bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers from the company’s own R&D. These products improve soil fertility, control pests and diseases, and provide attractive yields for growers.

Bioprotect is actively working to create outlets for producers, notably through the creation of sales outlets for their market garden produce, and the sale of organic sesame locally and for export. Other sectors are also under study.

Bioprotect places small-scale producers at the heart of its business model and, through each of its initiatives, aims to improve their resilience. This approach has the power to act as a virtuous circle, encouraging producers to adopt a more sustainable form of agriculture and helping to democratize organic farming in Burkina-Faso. The company has set itself the target of working with 10,000 producers by 2030.

An example of SIDI’s mission

The partnership between Bioprotect and SIDI seemed a natural one, since one of SIDI’s main missions is “to help develop rural economies in order to have a positive impact on the lives of vulnerable populations”, explains Johan. Bioprotect’s environmental credentials are also important, given the French social investor’s commitment to promoting more environmentally-friendly industries. Against a backdrop of climatic tension, SIDI has placed ecological and social transition at the heart of its activities.

It is in this kind of partnership that SIDI’s action really comes into its own. Bioprotect is run by a visionary entrepreneur, Arsène Savadogo, who manages a small, young and dynamic team. The company has great potential, but also limited resources, which at times constrain its activity. In this context, SIDI can contribute to the development of the company through its two levers of action: financing and support. SIDI has been financing part of Bioprotect’s sesame activities since 2021.

A complicated country context

Based in Ouagadougou, Bioprotect works with producers in several regions of the country. The deterioration in the security situation is making activities more complicated in certain areas that are no longer accessible. Burkina Faso is plagued by repeated terrorist attacks, and today, according to some estimates, almost 40% of the territory is outside state control.

Against this backdrop, Arsène and his team show great resilience and solidarity in coping with the situation. For example, the team has opened new sesame production zones closer to the capital, Ouagadougou. At the same time, the company continues to source and market sesame from producers in areas affected by the security crisis. However, because Bioprotect is no longer able to go out into the field and ensure that organic practices are applied correctly, sales are made on the conventional market.

As far as SIDI is concerned, the geopolitical situation has not altered the partnership we have established with Bioprotect or with our other partners in Burkina Faso. Johan explains, “Our socially responsible shareholding gives us the flexibility to take risks and pushes us to invest in complicated contexts to finance organizations that have a positive social and environmental footprint locally”. For SIDI, the aim is to maintain a long-term presence in the country, even as the situation deteriorates, in order to support its partners and the people of Burkina Faso.

In Africa’s Great Lakes region, coffee is grown by small-scale producers to supplement their food crops. Income from coffee sales enables many families to pay their children’s school fees. To achieve this, the price of coffee must be sufficiently remunerative: this means producing quality coffee that can be valued at a price higher than world prices, and working within cooperatives that can provide access to fair trade and organic certifications and premiums.

SIDI finances several Arabica coffee cooperatives in the region: two in the Democratic Republic of Congo – MUUNGANO and CPNCK-, and three in Rwanda – ABAKUNDAKAWA, KOPAKAMA and BUHANGA. All of them are, or wish to be, in these gourmet, top-quality coffee markets.

SIDI has organized this workshop of experience sharing between theese partners, based on the support work carried out with some of them, in a context marked by a growing and necessary consideration of social and environmental issues.

Co-financed by the ACTES foundation and the SSNUP program (Smallholder Safety Net Upscaling – Luxembourg), the meeting brought together 35 people over three days on the island of Idjwi in the middle of Lake Kivu. It also provided an opportunity to bring together a number of players around the partner cooperatives to enrich the discussion and encourage future cooperation. Other cooperatives from the area were present, as well as players sharing a similar vision: buyers, institutions providing technical and/or financial support to cooperatives, consultants specializing in the coffee sector, and a representative of the public authorities regulating the sector. A field visit was also organized to the CPNCK cooperative based on the island of Idjwi. This revealed the current coffee cherry supply and coffee washing challenges facing the cooperative.

The workshop was a success : the format chosen, the preparatory work and the facilitation provided by two SIDI partnership managers and a consultant enabled the cooperatives to exchange ideas with confidence, despite the competitive context and the tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, and to learn from each other’s experience. Discussions focused on three main themes:

• the sustainability of agricultural practices through the promotion of agroecology
• improving the operational efficiency and shared governance of cooperatives
• access to markets and financing

In this way, the workshop helped to raise awareness of and attention to certain risks and key points, to help prevent and resolve the difficulties encountered, and finally to define actions to be taken to ensure the sustainability of their actions.

On the basis of these fruitful exchanges, SIDI is finalizing a support program for cooperatives, with funding from the ACTES Foundation and the SSNUP program. The program will be operational from the last quarter of 2022.

The Fair Trade Lebanon (FTL) association – as well as its commercial branch Fair Trade and Tourism Lebanon (FTTL), of which SIDI is a founding shareholder as an extension of the partnership initiated with the FTL association in the 2000s – aims to market products from the country’s rural cooperatives or small producers committed to fair trade. A new stage has been reached with the launch of the Terroirs du Liban sales website.

The aim is to help producers, particularly women, who make up a large number of these cooperatives, to add value to their products by finding them commercial outlets in Lebanon and abroad.

Today, Terroirs du Liban brings together more than 50 cooperatives and 1,500 people, including 1,000 women. The brand is committed to artisanal production with a fair trade label. Our recipes are authentic and based on traditional know-how. Terroirs du Liban brings together some thirty products from all over Lebanon: condiments, spices, syrups, seeds…

Alongside the promotion of ethical products, concrete actions are carried out in the field: support for development projects, raising awareness of organic and ethical farming, safeguarding the sustainability of groundwater, training and support for farmers and cooperatives (from cultivation to processing).

To discover their products, visit their online store: Terroirs du Liban