• Empowering Women through Gender-Responsive Finance: Tanager, through IGNITE+, is helping microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Burkina Faso integrate gender considerations into their financial systems—ensuring that women have better access to credit, savings, and tailored financial products that reflect their unique needs.

•  Localization for Sustainability: The Association Professionnelle des Systèmes Financiers Décentralisés du Burkina Faso (APFSD-BF) transitioned from being an IGNITE client to a Local Service Provider (LSP), enabling them to scale IGNITE+ services and sustain gender mainstreaming across its member organizations and beyond.

• Expanding Reach and Long-Term Impact: With renewed and expanded partnerships involving CMBF, PAMIFI, CODEC Ouaga, CFAAA-Koudougou, Coris Meso Finance, and Microstart, IGNITE+ is deepening its footprint in Burkina Faso—empowering thousands of women and households through inclusive financial services that promote gender equality, improved nutrition, and resilient livelihoods.

For far too long, people with low incomes especially women and other marginalized groups have been left out of formal financial systems. For a smallholder farmer or a woman running a market stall, without access to credit or savings means they cannot invest in their business or plan for the future. Instead, they are forced to turn to informal and unregulated financial services that come with high risks, such as lack of legal protection and loss of capital due to fraud.

This challenge is widespread. The 2025 World Bank’s Global Findex report reveals 1.7 billion adults globally remain financially excluded, living without access to formal credit or savings. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) play a critical role in bridging this gap by extending financial services to low-income households, which is an essential step towards improving livelihoods.

Furthermore, the World Bank’s report on Financial Inclusion, Women and Building Back Better highlights a striking reality. In Burkina Faso, as in many other African countries, women represent the largest client base for microfinance institutions. Yet despite being the majority, social norms and structural inequalities often give men control over household resources and financial decision-making, hence leaving women with limited financial power to improve their livelihoods.

 

How IGNITE+ is driving change with MFIs

 

Since 2021, Tanager, through its gender technical assistance mechanisms IGNITE and IGNITE+ has been working with financial institutions in Burkina Faso and Tanzania to mainstream gender into their financial systems, products, and services.  In Burkina Faso, IGNITE+ has been supporting the Association Professionnelle des Systèmes Financiers Décentralisés du Burkina Faso (APFSD-BF), a national network of microfinance institutions to strengthen their agricultural investments that prioritize and benefit women.

Between 2021 to 2024, Tanager supported APSFD-BF and four of its MFI members—Caisse Baitoul Maal (CBM), Caisse Mutuelle du Burkina Faso (CMBF), GRAINE SARL, and PRODIA-AC Microfinance on gender mainstreaming after mapping the status quo to assess the current status of gender integration and identify capacity needs. Based on these findings, Tanager provided targeted technical assistance that included:

• Supporting the development of three gender strategies and policy reviews.
• Providing capacity-building training for MFI staff through tailored modules that focus on gender mainstreaming in operations and management, designing gender-sensitive financial products and services, and using sex-disaggregated data to enhance oversight for improved financial inclusion.

Initially an IGNITE client, APFSD-BF later transitioned into a Local service provider (LSP), becoming one of the first microfinance associations in Africa to offer gender inclusive services. This transition gives APFSD a unique strategic advantage; they can now expand IGNITE+ technical assistance services to more of its member organizations and across the continent.

Expanding MFI Reach

 

With the rollout of IGNITE+ in 2024, APFSD-BF as a Local Service Provider is playing a pivotal role in scaling IGNITE+ services beyond the program’s lifetime. The association is strengthening the capacity of its member organisations to mainstream gender within their financial systems and drive inclusive growth.

Tanager recently renewed its partnership with CMBF and extended support to five more APFSD-BF member organizations — Pascal Microfinance (PAMIFI), CODEC Ouaga, Caisse pour le Financement des Activités Agro-pastorales et Artisanales (CFAAA-Koundougou), Coris Meso Finance, and Microstart.

This expansion significantly increases IGNITE+ reach in Burkina Faso and beyond. It opens a pathway to mainstreaming gender in financial systems, enabling the development of inclusive financial products and services tailored to women’s needs over time. By empowering APFSD-BF to integrate gender into its services, Tanager is strengthening the capacity of local institutions and creating a ripple effect that advances gender equality, women’s empowerment, and agency across West Africa.

Why This Matters?

Access to tailored financial services, which consider social norms, can economically and socially empower individuals, creating self-reliance and long-term sustainability. Through IGNITE+ technical assistance, MFIs are better positioned to:

• Expand their market by reaching untapped women-led agribusinesses and nutrition-sensitive value chains,
• Improve repayment performance through informed and empowered clients,
• Build stronger client pipelines, enriching their impact on inclusive growth,
• Provide nutrition-sensitive financial services and consider nutrition when offering complementary services and support to clients.
• Improve social outcomes such as health, nutrition, and gender equity,
• Strengthen credibility with donors, investors, and multilateral funders,
• Drive innovation through value-added products like insurance linked to nutrition outcomes

By putting women at the center of agricultural finance, Tanager and APFSD-BF are not only advancing financial inclusion but also empowering women across Burkina Faso to transform their livelihoods and drive more resilient food systems.