This project was launched at a time when the COVID-19 crisis was affecting the most fragile structures: agricultural cooperatives trying to sell their crops, women's groups seeing their activity collapse, MSMEs facing unsustainable costs. The nature of their activities, 97% of which are informal, makes these groups even more vulnerable, as they saw their incomes falling by almost 70% during the pandemic.

UNCDF therefore developed a mechanism to support 20 informal SMEs in the target communities of Bargny, Mont-Rolland, Ndiob, Ndiaffate and Sandiara. This support materialized in the formalization (registration in the trade register, opening of a bank account) of these SMEs, selected for their strong impact on the economic empowerment of women and youth in their communities.
As a result of this technical and operational support, UNCDF transferred grants to these businesses for a total of USD 222,000. The objective of these grants was to help entrepreneurs improve their resilience to the crisis. The support of the COVID-19 Platform was therefore essential for the SMEs and their workers, whose survival depends entirely on the continuation of the businesses.

One of the beneficiaries of this initiative was the EIG (Economic Interest Group) Khabaranta, created in 2011 in the municipality of Mont-Rolland, which received a 16,000 USD grant. Composed of young women and men, this cooperative cultivates vegetables on an area of 6 hectares. The production is varied: green beans, peppers, tomatoes, okra , among other, and is intended to be sold both nationally and for export. Hundreds of women find seasonal employment in Khabaranta during the harvest periods. But this year, travel restrictions have deprived the EIG of income, resulting in the loss of the crop.
After receiving the grant which saved his business, Mr François Diouf wanted to share his experience with UNCDF.

How has the health crisis affected your business?
The crisis found us in the middle of production. Before the harvest, the Senegalese government decided to put a lockdown in place which made us have all the problems in the world to sell our products on the national market. The lockdown and the restriction of movement between regions caused a substantial drop in sales, which also led to the loss of our production, estimated at several thousands of dollars.

To what extent has the grant contributed to the economic recovery of your EIG? Did the grant help to maintain jobs? How many jobs? Did the grant enable you to expand your business?
The grant came at the right time. With the end of the lockdown in June 2020, we started our activities with the little money we had left in cash. But at the end of the rainy season (August 2020), heavy rains destroyed all the facilities, and our crops were flooded. These two incidents had a strong impact on our activity and 20 young people working on the farm were threatened with unemployment.
Thanks to the grant we received from the COVID-19 platform project, we had the chance to restart our activity and save 20 direct jobs and hundreds of seasonal employees.

What impact has the financial support had on your life as an entrepreneur? What professional and/or personal achievements can you testify to at this stage of the project?
The financial support allowed us to save our business because getting a loan from the bank was not an option, especially because of the administrative red tape and the guarantees requested by the bank, which we could not provide.
This grant enabled us to save jobs, and thus benefiting households because the activity carried out on the farm constitutes the bulk of our income.

How would you assess the impact of your activity on the local economy? (Jobs, economic empowerment of youth and women, contributions to taxation, replicability of the project, inspiration for other entrepreneurs...)
We are one of the first modern farms run by an EIG in Mont-Rolland. It has allowed agribusiness investors to dare to invest for the first time in our municipality on surfaces exceeding 400 hectares. Since the establishment of the Khabaranta farm in 2011, agribusiness has become one of the engines of our municipality’s economy. This farm has enabled the citizens of Mont-Rolland to avoid the rural exodus and illegal migration.
Our activity has enabled young people to realize their life plans: to work, to support their parents, to build a house. Since the launch of the farm, many women have become autonomous by earning a living during the harvest periods. The Khabaranta farm is the trigger for modern agribusiness in the municipality of Mont-Rolland.
With the 16,000 USD grant we were able to produce and export 100 tons of green beans to Italy, renew our equipment and buy inputs. Currently, we are growing chilies and green peppers, for which we expect a cumulative income of about 27,000 USD.

What are your prospects for your EIG in the short/medium/long term?
Our short-term vision is to fully develop the 6 hectares to allow other young people to join the farm. In the longer term, we want to develop other activities such as livestock farming to diversify our sectors of activity and do integrated farming.