Interview with Anne-Sophie Bougouin, SIDI’s new CEO

Anne-Sophie Bougouin, who has been with SIDI for more than 20 years, has now taken over as its director. Her career path, convictions, and strategic direction: she shares her vision amid a complex and troubling international landscape.

My involvement with SIDI is part of a very consistent career path. I studied development economics, and from very early on, I was determined to dedicate myself to issues of international solidarity. At the same time, I became interested in solidarity-based finance, particularly through the FAIR-Finansol network, which I joined in 1997 to help organize a conference on the theme of “Savings and Solidarity.” I then spent several years working on debt cancellation issues within a coalition of NGOs that included CCFD-Terre Solidaire and SIDI, and in that capacity, I participated in the joint working group on the implementation of C2Ds (French government debt relief and development contracts).

I first learned about SIDI around that time; it embodied precisely that connection between solidarity-based finance and international solidarity. That’s what made me want to get involved.

Your first years were devoted to supporting SIDI’s partners. What do you remember today?

They were founding experiences. I first worked as a partnership manager in Haiti and Laos, in very different geographical contexts, but with one thing in common: fragile partners in isolated rural areas where financial inclusion was virtually non-existent.

I have worked with mutual aid organizations in Haiti, agricultural enterprises, and a network of savings and credit cooperatives in Laos. Above all, this work involves providing long-term support to help organizations build their capacity and become more self-reliant. It was a very hands-on and formative experience in this partnership-based approach—rooted in trust and close collaboration—which remains at the heart of SIDI’s work today.

You then played a key role in the creation of the FEFISOL fund. How did this experience shape your company?

This was a major milestone in my career and also marked an important step in SIDI’s history. Initially, we had begun negotiations withthe French Development Agency (AFD) to secure its support for financing our partners in Africa. The Agency was also looking for ways to support SIDI, convinced of the impact of its work. Together, we devised an innovative mechanism to hedge against currency risk by creating the FEFISOL fund, dedicated to financing rural microfinance and small family farms in Africa. Setting up FEFISOL took us several years of work: legal structuring, mobilizing donors, defining the investment strategy… I then managed this fund for ten years.

This project has allowed us to scale up our operations by bringing institutional investors on board with our approach, which is centered on our strong social mission.

This required a major internal transformation: strengthening our practices, structuring our processes, increasing our skills. But without ever abandoning what makes us unique.

For me, this was an important lesson: it is possible to grow and increase our impact without compromising our mission, as long as we remain very clear about our principles. Dare to think bigger, while staying true to your values. FEFISOL enabled SIDI to scale up, gain visibility, and demonstrate that its approach was not only relevant but also replicable.

In your opinion, what makes SIDI unique today?

What sets SIDI apart is that it always prioritizes its social mission. The business model is a means to an end, never an end in itself. SIDI’s model allows it to go where others do not, and to adapt to a wide variety of contexts, many of which are fragile. It is an organization that takes risks, and it does so with a very high level of professionalism and technical expertise, combined with a strong commitment from its teams. It is this combination that allows us to operate to the highest standards while remaining true to our mission. It’s quite unique!

How do you see the main challenges for SIDI?

The first challenge is to continue our growth in a controlled manner in an environment where risks are intensifying and mounting: political instability, economic crises, and environmental crises. The needs of our local partners are immense, but to address them effectively, we must adapt and ensure that we are capable of managing and bearing these risks over the long term. It is a delicate balance.

The second challenge relates to environmental crises. We must go even further in our support for issues related to climate change adaptation, the conservation of natural resources, biodiversity, water, and food sovereignty in these highly vulnerable contexts. This is essential to the long-term sustainability of our partners.

Finally, in France and across Europe, we face legal and regulatory constraints that, on the one hand, limit our ability to mobilize resources—particularly from the public—with the end of the tax benefit granted to subscribers in ESUSs that have been in existence for more than 10 years, such as SIDI. On the other hand, this also restricts our ability to provide financing to partners. Adapting our operational framework will be essential for our continued growth.

What gives you hope today?

Our hope comes from both our supportive shareholders and our partners.

First and foremost, our shareholders. Their commitment is essential: over and above financial resources, they provide us with an energy that carries us forward. Today, supporting a structure like SIDI is almost an act of resistance, against a backdrop of inward-looking attitudes. It sends out a strong signal. They help to keep alive the chain of financial solidarity that lies at the heart of SIDI’s project.

Hope also comes from our partners. Despite often extremely difficult conditions, they continue to innovate, adapt, and move forward. Their resilience is remarkable and inspires us.

Finally, there is the strength of the collective. At SIDI, we share a common conviction: to make the best use of the resources entrusted to us in order to maximize the impact of our activities. It is this collective dynamic, focused on the long term, that drives and sustains us.

What message would you like to send to shareholders?

Not to give in to feelings of powerlessness.

Even on a small scale, every contribution counts. Collective action has real power. Through SIDI, they help support concrete initiatives, foster alternatives, and demonstrate that a different approach to finance—one focused on social good—is possible.

This is exactly what SIDI is all about: a chain of solidarity linking citizens, teams and partners, in the service of a fairer, more humane economy.

Back from mission: in Ivory Coast, our partners face declining cocoa production

Plants cacao 5 Cote d'Ivoire

Mission feedback: every quarter, a member of SIDI's operational team shares with us a mission carried out with partners and their beneficiaries.

Have you noticed the soaring price of your favorite chocolate lately? Rising prices present a number of challenges for our partners involved in the cocoa sector in Ivory Coast, a country which alone accounts for almost 40% of the world’s cocoa production. Junior Tombe, investment officer, has just returned from a mission to shed some light on the situation.

Since September 2023, I have been in charge of monitoring SIDI’s partners in several West African countries. This is how I discovered Côte d’Ivoire, one of SIDI‘s intervention countries. The changes taking place in the country’s agricultural sector make each mission exciting.

This time, my mission concerned the cocoa sector. We mainly work with certified cooperatives that buy dried and fermented beans directly from producers and then resell them to exporters, often subsidiaries of major chocolate multinationals.

Today, Ivory Coast accounts for between 35 and 40% of the world’s cocoa production (over 50% with Ghana). Any change in production therefore has a direct impact on the world market.

Cocoa futures trading vs soaring world prices

An interesting feature of the Ivory Coast cocoa market is that it is highly regulated. The State, through the Conseil Café Cacao (CCC), sets the price of cocoa at the start of each season: from October 1st to March 31 of the following year for the long harvest, and from April 1st to September 30 for the small harvest. A price scale defines the selling price at all levels of the marketing chain, from planter to exporter. The “bord champ” price is the one paid to growers by the cooperatives. In principle, no one is allowed to buy below or above this price, under penalty of sanctions.

This policy of price stabilization, adopted after the excesses of liberalization, guarantees a minimum price to producers and secures future sales via forward contracts, at prices negotiated six-twelve months before the campaign. However, the last season (2023/24) and the main part of the 2024/25 season were marked by a drop in production: down 25 to 30% in 2023-2024 and lower deliveries for the current season. Caused by climatic disruption – “droughts” alternate with excessive rainfall – the drop in production, coupled with stock market speculation, contributed to the historic surge in international cocoa prices (a tonne of cocoa rose from $4k to $12k between the end of 2023 and April 2024).

Given that the majority of Ivorian cocoa production is sold in advance at pre-negotiated prices, soaring prices have widened the gap between the farm-gate price paid to producers and the market price, ultimately putting a strain on the price stabilization policy. This poses new challenges for cooperatives.

Mature partners capable of anticipating production trends

During my mission, I was impressed by the maturity of our partner cooperatives in the face of these challenges. They have succeeded in delivering 80% of their contracts to buyers in the 2024/25 long harvest.

This demonstrates their level of local knowledge and the effectiveness of their producer loyalty strategies. Against a backdrop of falling cocoa production, which can intensify competition, the benefits our partners provide to their members are decisive in securing the stock: supply of inputs, school loans, training, donations of tools, and so on.

In addition to focusing on non-commercial services, our partners have anticipated the increase in their financing needs. This is how they obtained larger amounts of pre-financing from buyers, in addition to increasing the amounts of their loans negotiated with SIDI (+1.1 M€ of loans in 2024 compared to 2023).

Unlike buyer advances, which are repaid on delivery, and bank loans, which are often amortized monthly, SIDI loans offer flexible working capital, as they are repaid on the last deliveries.

The example of ECAM, an emblematic SIDI partner since 2017

Based in Méagui in southeastern Côte d’Ivoire, ECAM has over 3,000 members and a production capacity of around 7,000 t of cocoa.

During my visit to ECAM members’ plantations, I became aware of the cooperative’s resilience, as some plots have been affected by swollen shoot disease for several years. This disease, which is incurable to this day, destroys the branches and leaves of cocoa trees, leading to a drop in production for producers and, consequently, a fall in income. To counter this scourge, ECAM is promoting crop diversification by distributing vegetable seeds to supplement cocoa in infected areas. This is in addition to the activities of ECAM’s sustainability program: promotion of organic inputs to support productivity, distribution of shade trees, etc.

SCEB, a 100% organic cooperative that could become a new partner

This mission enabled me to meet a potential new partner for SIDI: SCEB, a 100% organic cooperative, quite different from what we see in Côte d’Ivoire.

For SIDI, it’s important to support a partner that chooses organic agriculture in a context where less than 10% of the members of partner cooperatives are organic, and where the European Union, the main buyer of Ivorian cocoa, is strengthening its legal measures to combat deforestation.

The cooperative’s positioning in this niche market, in a country where cocoa is almost exclusively grown conventionally, sets an example for other cooperatives.

All in all, it has been truly enriching for SIDI to support these partners in the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire, who have shown a great capacity to adapt. I’m convinced that the Côte d’Ivoire experience can be a rich source of lessons for other countries and other sectors.

 

Interview by Anne-Isabelle Barthélémy

Image credits SIDI: cocoa plants, shade tree nursery, on the road, a cocoa tree affected by swollen shoot.

 

Resisting in times of conflict: the testimony of Hekima, a partner based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at SIDI’s General Meeting

Hekima took part in SIDI's Annual General Meeting on June 11 to give us a better understanding of the role of microfinance institutions in Kivu, a region marked by armed conflict and high levels of insecurity, and of how Hekima manages to pursue its activities in this context.

Like every year, the Annual General Meeting is an opportunity for SIDI to invite one of its partners to speak. This year, we were delighted to welcome Laurent Daddy Yamba, Director of the microfinance institution (MFI) Hekima partner of SIDI in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

A partnership between Hekima and SIDI based on trust

The first contacts between Hekima and SIDI date back to 2013, and the partnership officially began in 2021. It is based on great trust. In terms of financing, SIDI and FEFISOL (European Solidarity Fund for Africa)financent Hekima up to1.5 million since 2021. At the same time At Hekima’s request, SIDI joined its Board of Directors, contributing to the debate on its strategic and controlled development: portfolio growth, digitalization, expansion in a high-risk area.

Hekima and the situation in Kivu

Laurent D. Yamba explained how Hekima continues to work in a difficult context: since January 2025, the offensive led by the M23, a rebel group active in Kivu supported by Rwandan soldiersaishas led to atrocities, displacement of populations, economic losses and widespread insecurity, all of which are undermining the MFI’s activities (see our article on the M23 takeover of Goma and the impact on our partners and the population). On June 27, a peace agreement was signed between the DRC and Rwanda, but the situation remains uncertain.

Founded in 2007, Hekima is an MFI headquartered in Goma and through three three other branches in Bukavu, Kalemie and Lubumbsahi. It had 8,119 active borrowers and a loan portfolio of $9.7 million at the end of the first quarter of 2025. The MFI mainly targets women entrepreneurs (78% of its clientele), notably through group loans (inspired by local tontines) mainly in urban areas, due to the risks associated with the informal agricultural sector.

Since January 2025, cash has been in short supply, so MFIs have become strategic structures, but also particularly exposed, endangering Hekima’s activities and team. Between violence against customers, looting of borrowers’ businesses the economic slowdown and logistical difficulties, Hekima, like all other MFIS in the region, has had to scale back its operations.

Laurent Daddy Yamba is currently in Kinshasa for security reasons. Exchanges with customers have become difficult, as have loan rescheduling. While some MFIs are still holding out, many mutualist structures “only hold out in name. They’re dead.

“Microfinance institutions are dying and need support – and they’ll need it even more tomorrow, when the crisis is over, because we’ll need to restart operations.”

Maintaining business despite conflict

Despite all this, Hekima continues to operate and serve its customers, constantly adapting. Fallback points are organized for fund-raising and distribution, sometimes in hotels. The team, though dispersed, continues to work from home, arranging appointments at the safest times. All remain hopeful and committed to their mission, despite the civil war.

This business continuity has strengthened customer confidence in Hekima. In Goma, from March to May 2025, the MFI was able to finance 476 loans for a total of $246,000, in the form of small loans of around $500, in a region where cash is scarce and crucial for access to healthcare or food. In these complex times, Laurent Daddy Yamba explains how Hekimato loans to as the impact is greater.

What solutions for tomorrow?

Laurent Daddy Yamba also lobbies international and national institutions and national institutions – IMF, World Bank, Central Bank of Congo – for the creation of a recovery fund for the post crisis. In fact, no MFI can cope with the upturn in activity on its own. . This stimulus fundwould three components: 0-rate loans, subsidy funds – either for equipment or for the portfolio – and the rapidly usable financial guarantees. For Laurent Daddy Yamba, such asuch a stimulus fund is essential to restart operations as soon as security conditions allow customers to return in large numbers.

A meaningful testimony

Invite Hekima and his Director Laurent Daddy Yamba to our Annual General Meeting is an honour for SIDI, and also a strong way of expressing our solidarity with our partnerthe Congolese people and microfinance players in Kivu. Today, the challenge is clear: to stand by Hekima and prepare for the post-conflict period.

In Lebanon, the fragile renaissance of Al Majmoua and microcredit, despite financial crisis and war

Return from mission: every quarter, a member of SIDI's operational team shares with us a mission carried out with partners and their beneficiaries. For his first mission in Lebanon, Jean-Baptiste Cousin recounts his discovery of our partner Al Majmoua, in a country still reeling from the financial crisis and recent Israeli attacks.

I took over the monitoring of the SIDI partnership for Lebanon in January 2025. A first mission, scheduled for February, had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the excessive Israeli bombardment of Beirut, despite the truce that had been signed. In May, I was finally able to leave, with my colleague Ariane Bevierre and a delegation from ADIE. During this mission, I discovered the resilience of Al Majmoua, the leading microfinance institution in Lebanon, a partner I know little about, but which is perfectly in line with SIDI’s target.

Banks in Lebanon are no longer operational

When I arrived, I discovered a country where there were no banking services and no financial activities. In 2020, following a massive devaluation, the banks confiscated savers’ assets ($90 billion!). The country’s elite got their money out in time. But the rest of the population found their accounts blocked and were unable to withdraw any money, except in small amounts. In recent months, it was still forbidden to withdraw more than 250 dollars a month. At this rate, it would take 3,000 years for Al Majmoua to recover the $9 million sequestered in his accounts. As a result, no one is depositing money with the banks, which are not granting any loans.

With average incomes plummeting and 30% of the population living below the poverty line, the demand for credit is enormous. The only recourse is money from the diaspora or microfinance. The problem? No donor wants to go to Lebanon any more because of the losses incurred during the crisis.

Lebanon’s financial crisis nearly wiped out our partner Al Majmoua

Before the crisis, Al Majmoua was a highly successful financial institution, managing over 100,000 loans. At the time of the crisis, it found itself on the verge of complete bankruptcy. With the devaluation of the Lebanese pound, its portfolio lost 99% of its value, given the exchange rate imposed. The association lost all its financial assets in the turmoil: $50 million!

The association’s bankruptcy was avoided thanks to the settlement of its debts by the donors, who assumed losses of $50 million, including $1 million for SIDI.

Loans repaid on time and on budget

After almost disappearing, Al Majmoua continues to operate with caution. With the little money it has, it issues modest loans averaging around $500. This enables it to reach more people. By April 2025, it had 23,000 loans outstanding. Of these, 85% are to support economic activity.

In Beirut, I visit a Palestinian chicken seller. The ceiling of her store collapsed during the Israeli bombardments. The loan will enable her to repair the ceiling, so that she can continue her business and gradually pay back her loan instalments.

Against the backdrop of Lebanon’s financial crisis and war, I’m impressed by Al Majmoua’s loan recovery rate of 98%. Including in bomb-ravaged southern Lebanon and the Bekaa plain.

Among the loan beneficiaries I met, I felt a strong sense of identification with Al Majmoua and recognition. For them, nothing is more important than paying, because Al Majmoua is the only entity that can lend them money for their projects. They hope that the association can continue to help them get back on their feet.

A global vision in the fight against poverty

I totally identify with Al Majmoua’s approach.

For Al Majmoua, microcredit is not an end in itself, but first and foremost a means of combating poverty. The association carries out both financial and non-financial activities. To support its members, it acts on various levers: financing, but also education and organization. For example, it offers a financial education program: how to manage a loan, a budget, a forecast. It’s a basic entrepreneurial culture that’s extremely important if you want to get out of poverty.

This posture is not so common in the world of microfinance. But it is totally in keeping with SIDI, which offers both financial services and support.

For me, this global approach is the most effective way to fight poverty. Because poverty has many facets, and credit alone solves nothing.

Supporting the rebirth of Al Majmoua

It’s not easy to think about lending again in Lebanon. SIDI (or rather FID, the guarantee fund backed by congregations, CCFD-Terre Solidaire and SIDI itself) has had to cover major losses. But this seems to me to be the right time to support Al Majmoua in its redeployment, at a time when so few organizations are backing it. It’s an institution that seems to me to have the potential and the qualities to turn itself around.

In a context where poverty has exploded, the demand for microcredit is very high. But so far, no one wants to return to Lebanon. Wouldn’t it make sense for SIDI, which “wants to go where others don’t go”, to get involved again?

It’s our job, as partnership managers, to maintain this balance between preserving the resources of SIDI’s shareholders and fulfilling the mission they entrust to us.

 

Interview by Anne-Isabelle Barthélémy

Photo credits: Philippe Lissac – agence Godong /SIDI; except ADIE cover photo

Vanilla of Madagascar, a journey at the end of the world with a new partner

Back from mission: Gabrielle Orliange tells us about her extraordinary journey up the vanilla route and a new partnership for SIDI.

Before it enhances our ice creams, cannelés and custards sublime, did you know that vanilla had to travel a road full of pitfalls? For SIDI, Gabrielle Orliange travelled the vanilla trail to meet the cooperatives, from Madagascar’s capital, Tananarive, to the jungle around Mananara. We invite you to follow her, particularly on the day she reaches a particularly isolated area, and discover a new facet of the job of partnership manager at SIDI.

I live in Madagascar where I work part-time as a partnership officer for SIDI. Having identified a possible new partner in the agricultural sector, I needed to meet them in the field. MVE (Madagascar Vanilla Export) is a family-run SME that processes vanilla for export. It buys vanilla from two cooperatives of male and female producers, and also helps them to structure themselves.

After four months of e-mail exchanges, I organized a seven-day mission to meet them and present a detailed report to SIDI’s Financing Committee with a view to obtaining a loan.

MVE is based in Tamatave, about 400 kilometers from Tananarive, the capital of Madagascar where I live. Covering this distance took me a whole day in a bush cab. Then I continued by 4X4 for two more days on bumpy roads, meeting producers in coastal areas.

Meeting in the highlands

On this fourth day, I have to reach a village near Mananara, located on the “high plateaus“1, in a very dense forest. It’s here, in this particularly remote area, that the best quality vanilla grows.

The track is too narrow for a 4X4, and we start with a two-hour ride through the mud. By the time I reach the village, some fifteen growers from the Label Vavasaha cooperative, which numbers around 500, are gathered in the village hall. I can tell they’re eager to show me their plantations. To do so, we have to go deeper into the jungle. We start by taking a pirogue, before finally clearing a path with a machete.

Once we arrived, they were very proud to show me their plots, where Madagascar’s finest vanilla is grown!

I can see big green beans hanging from the vines wrapped around the trees. Vanilla is a very demanding crop, requiring constant care. Native to Mexico, it has to be cut and the flowers fertilized by hand to produce vanilla.

At the end of the world

I’m struck by the isolation of these producers. It’s like being at the end of the world. Madagascar is already a lonely island. The vastness of its territory and the area’s lack of accessibility add to this feeling.

In a way, this isolation, which protects them from theft, suits the growers. But arriving after four days of acrobatic transport, I understand the logistical cost of growing vanilla. I have even more respect for MVE, forced to deal with this reality and its share of unforeseen events: broken-down cars, fuel supply problems. It’s not easy to get vanilla from so far away.

The second thing that stands out for me is how the value of vanilla has helped generate wealth. Even though these areas are very isolated, I see motorcycles everywhere, satellite dishes and 4X4s. Goods that are very rare on the agricultural plateaus near Tananarive, a less landlocked but poorer region that mainly produces rice.

Here, everyone grows vanilla, from a few beans to several kilos. This windfall benefits everyone, even if some benefit more than others.

For male and female growers, the difference lies in the way they sell their produce. Those who work alone find it harder to sell their produce at a good price. But those who manage to form cooperatives are able to negotiate and sell their produce at a better price. MVE is keen to buy vanilla from cooperative producers at a higher price than the market price.

Tour of the processing site

On the way home, I stop off at the final processing site in Tamatave. The MVE warehouse is located in a discreet, safe and secure area, with guards.

Here, vanilla is sun-dried for several weeks. The beans are then sorted before being cured in caissons to develop their aroma. After several months, they are checked and graded by quality before being packed for export.

In the final stage, the vanilla is sent to Tananarive before being shipped to Europe. The fragile beans travel by air. The more resistant powder can be shipped by boat. It takes no less than 90 days on average to reach France from Tananarive.

An extraordinary mission

This mission was a real discovery for me, even though I live in Madagascar. I’ve never been so far into the country. The other partners we work with on the island in the microfinance sector are much more accessible. This allows us to strike a balance. Although the partnership with MVE is financially more risky for SIDI, it fulfils our vocation of supporting the agricultural sector and strengthening this type of business.

As it is a structure that has never benefited from investments, SIDI’s loan represents real added value for it. This is what we call a “impact partner”, and I was able to measure its social and environmental commitment on the spot.

The loan was disbursed in the summer of 2024. Thanks to it, the vanilla could be purchased from the producers. As it does every year at this time, MVE is awaiting approval to export to European buyers. The sale of vanilla will allow MVE to repay the Sidi loan. If they manage to repay and meet the deadline, the loan can be renewed in 2025, enabling them to buy vanilla this summer.

 

Interview by Anne-Isabelle Barthélémy

 

1. These are high plateaus, but they have nothing to do with the Malagasy high plateau region, which rises to 1,500 m.

Testimonial at the SIDI General Meeting: resilience and social impact of Financiera FDL

présentation Julio Flores AG SIDI

SIDI invited Julio Flores, Managing Director of Financiera FDL, to attend its Annual General Meeting.

This year’s General Meeting was an opportunity for SIDI to invite one of its partners to testify. Julio Flores, Managing Director of Financiera FDL, came to present the activities of this microfinance institution (MFI) which operates in Nicaragua, the 2nd poorest country in Central America.

The fruitful exchanges between Julio Flores and SIDI shareholders continued the following morning with a question and answer session. This time allowed us to go into more detail about FFDL’s business and its formidable resilience in the face of crises.

The NGO Fondo de Desarrollo Local (FDL) was created in 1993 by the Jesuits, following the civil war. FDL’s aim is to improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable Nicaraguans by providing them with loans, training and support services to help them develop their businesses, at a time when banks are not interested in this group. Financiera FDL has become the first MFI in the country and one of the largest in Central America. The institution mainly targets low-income people, farmers, breeders and micro-entrepreneurs in peri-urban areas. Thanks to its 38 branches, La Financiera has a strong territorial coverage, enabling it to provide 70% of its loans in rural areas, to populations with little access to credit.

 

Financiera FDL and its resilience to crises.

FDL’s growth was first slowed by the crisis between 2008 and 2011. In addition to the global economic crisis, an anti-MFI “Movimiento del no pago” (non-payment movement) has developed. It has led to a decline in the number of customers and payment defaults in the microfinance sector. FDL, despite a decline in portfolio and customers of around 50%, managed to restructure, before creating, alongside the NGO, the financial company Financiera FDL (FFDL) in 2016. To structure this financial company, FDL has chosen “international partners who share its vision”. As a result, SIDI became a minority shareholder.

A second crisis affected the country from 2018 to 2021. Politico-social conflict (murderous repression by the authoritarian regime) and economic instability led to a three-year contraction in GDP. Mass migration (10% of the population fled the country) was caused by persecution of civil society, including the Church. The number of FFDL customers has plummeted. This recession and drop in activity were exacerbated by the Covid crisis. Several MFIs have gone bankrupt, while FFDL’s portfolio has once again shrunk by 50% (more than $6 million in losses in 2018 and 2019)

FFDL overcame a number of challenges in order to emerge from the crisis: renewing its customer base, consolidating its portfolio and building up reserves. To support it, SIDI participated in the recapitalization of FFDL and made a 5-year subordinated loan (total outstanding amount of over €1.7 million in 2023). This second acquisition brings SIDI’s stake in FFDL to 4.4%. Backed by the support of its international shareholders, FFDL was able to negotiate with lenders to maintain its credit lines.

FFDL has achieved a spectacular turnaround. The portfolio has been growing since the end of the crisis, with a forecast +12% in 2024, which will enable us to recover the $6 million in losses recorded in recent years. All this has been made possible by the serious management and expertise of the company’s management team.

 

FFDL, an MFI with a strong social and environmental impact.

Nicaragua is one of the countries most exposed to climate change. The economy is partly based on cattle farming (54% of agricultural land), and the deforestation rate is the second highest in Central America. These activities are highly polluting and destructive, while severe droughts reduce agricultural yields by 20 to 40%.

Over the years, the MFI has developed a comprehensive range of support services for producers and breeders in the transition to agro-ecology. Support for producers in agro-ecological practices focuses on themes such as water management or arboriculture combined with animal husbandry. This technical assistance is paid for in part or in full by FFDL, depending on the customer’s standard of living.

To improve producers’ incomes and reduce poverty, FFDL supports product processing, such as packaging coffee for export. This on-site processing of raw materials by producers creates added value, reduces the number of intermediaries and enables them to sell their produce at a higher price, guaranteeing local producers a better income.

FFDL seeks to maximize its impact, and the results are there. According to an independent survey partly financed by SIDI, in 2023, more than 60% of FFDL’s customers will report an improvement in their standard of living. The structure adapts its loan amounts and terms according to customers’ needs. It grants loans from 14 months on average (for traders and businesses) to 36 months for agricultural activities. This earned FFDL a Microfinance Index award in 2023. (see related article).

FFDL has demonstrated impressive resilience, while maintaining a strong social and environmental dimension, with a focus on financial inclusion in rural areas and environmental protection.

For Julio Flores, “although SIDI is a minority shareholder, it is very much involved in FFDL’s key moments. SIDI’s active participation in FFDL’s governance through the involvement of a volunteer consultant (on its Board of Directors) is decisive”.

Trip to Ecuador for SIDI shareholders

Individual shareholders of SIDI, they left for Ecuador at the beginning of September to meet two local partners and their beneficiaries. The trip was organized by SIDI to enable them to discover the extraordinary work being carried out locally, and to see first-hand what their commitment as solidarity shareholders makes possible in very concrete terms.

Here’s a testimonial from one of them with Alicia, a farmer and customer of Banco Codesarrollo, the Ecuadorian social and popular economy bank in which Sidi has been a shareholder since 2016.

Meeting in Ecuador – by Nathalie Verhulst, SIDI shareholder

Experiencing solidarity and ecological development

In Ecuador, as elsewhere, social and climate issues are linked. The experience of Alicia, a farmer in the sierra in the north of the country, shows us how solidarity and the desire to develop a sustainable economic system can bear fruit on a territorial scale.

Alicia is the manager of “Rayon de soleil”, a SIPAS (Système familial Intégré de Production Agricole Soutenable) farm, i.e. a one-hectare, self-sufficient farm that takes into account climate change issues through the rational use of resources and plantations that prevent runoff and maintain humidity. She is president of her village community “San Petro alto”. As well as being self-sufficient, each farm in the community markets different processed products – cakes, cheese, roast guinea pigs, etc. – to avoid competition between farms.

Leader in agro-ecology

Alicia and her husband were able to transform their farm into a “SIPAS” thanks to micro-credit provided by Banco Codesarrollo and technical support from the FEPP (Fonds Equatorien Popularum Progressio) social group.

The ecological stakes of “SIPAS” are very high in Alicia’s home province of Imbabura, a highly fertile region in northern Ecuador where intensive potato cultivation leads to erosion and pollution.

The village community thus became aware of the role of the primary forest, and stopped clearing it. It has even started to reforest, which helps to limit the effects of wind on farms.

Funder, FEPP’s educational foundation, trains villagers in the “SIPAS” model. In addition to reforestation, Alicia and her family have started using biogas from the farm’s waste processing instead of wood for heating and cooking. The waste is also used for compost and animal feed. Water management – reservoirs, drip irrigation – guarantees the rational use of spring water and rainwater.

Village of solidarity

In addition to non-competition, each farm contributes to a common fund which helps to deal with individual difficulties – illness, claims, etc. – within the community.

The “Rayon de soleil” farm is a training ground for other farmers in the village, who come to learn about new techniques for self-sufficiency and sustainable production.

Banco Codesarrollo and Funder are two FEPP tools whose motto is “Better love, happiness and peace”. Alicia illustrates this with a big smile when asked what her project has changed for her: “It’s changed everything. We’re doing well economically. We’re showing the way to our neighbors and friends. For example, we all have passionflowers, but only ours produced fruit. Our neighbors have been able to copy our technique.

Solidarity with Lebanon

[chapeau]Faced with the unprecedented explosion that hit the port of Beirut and its inhabitants on August 4, the President of FTL, a long-standing partner of SIDI, is calling for solidarity to help the victims.[/chapeau]

SIDI has been a long-standing partner of the FTL (Fair Trade Lebanon) association, which seeks to promote the economic and social development of rural areas in Lebanon, in particular by supporting small cooperatives and family farms. SIDI played a decisive role in the creation of its marketing subsidiary FTTL (Fair Trade Lebanon Tourism Limited), of which it is a founding shareholder, and provides significant technical support to maintain its activity.

The devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in Lebanon on August 4 killed around a hundred people and destroyed the homes of hundreds of thousands of families, leaving them homeless. The President of the FTL association, Philippe ADAIME, testifies to the seriousness of the situation, which he describes as “unprecedented” in a country already heavily plagued by corruption and tested by the political and economic crisis since 2019. The association is appealing for solidarity to enable it to help those hardest hit by the explosion, and is planning, in conjunction with the country’s agricultural cooperatives, to respond rapidly to the disaster by financing the production of food baskets for disaster victims.

Click here to read Philippe Adaime’s testimonial