IICD supported programme: Improve Communication in Shea Butter Section (MIPROKA) - Burkina Faso

The overall goal of this project is to set up two small information centres (Maisons d’Information et de Promotion du Karité or MIPROKAs)in rural areas for women who produce shea butter. In these centres women have the opportunity to access the internet to keep in touch with the central office of the project owner in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

Apart from the shea producers, the centres are also accessible for other inhabitants of the rural areas. This way the centres benefits about 800 people.

The women who produce shea butter received  ICT training and made a shea database in the information centres. This database is open to producers, researchers and students. The women also broadcast radio programmes about shea related topics such as the multiple use of shea and protection of shea trees. On the website www.songtaaba.net updates can be found on the shea industry, they also produce a quarterly news bulletin.

Videos, CD-roms, photos etc. are used to train members on shea nut collection techniques, conservation, and processing the nut into butter. Some of these materials are for sale in the MIPROKAs.

The quarterly news bulletin is in both French and Mooré, the local language. It covers activities of Song Taaba and its members, and is distributed for free among members and partner organisations.

Shea butter is an important agricultural product in Burkina Faso that is being exported worldwide. It is a sector in which especially women are active and gain income. Song Taaba, a women organisation active in the field of shea, assists its members in the production and commercialisation of the butter. It has one head office in Ouagadougou, and more than 2000 members in dispersed, rural areas. Communication is very difficult, time consuming and costly. By improving internal and external communication, production can be increased, and more women will be able to produce and sell shea, increasing their revenues.

Read more about IICD’s Burkina Faso Country Programme.

The objective of this project is to improve the communication within Song Taaba through the use of ICT, in order to increase the competitiveness and production of shea, for the benefit of its members and other shea producers. More specific, it aims to:

• Improve the internal and external communication of Song Taaba
• Improve the information dissemination on shea and its butter
• Assist in the revenue increase of the members through publicity and the conquering of new markets
• Promote shea and its products
• Assure visibility of Song Taaba activities and of shea production
• Lobby for shea on the national level

• Empowerment: capacity building and awareness raising of at least 2000 women producers of shea butter to improve their living conditions
• Governance: a strengthened organisation through improved communication between the members and the head office
• Awareness: audio-visual information on shea and its products for the general public, stimulating the use of shea through local radio and markets
• Promotion: the ‘Maisons d'informations et de Promotion du karité (MIPROKA) in the villages Saponé, Boussé and Gampéla are equipped with computers and showing different shea products and product information. They are run by local women that are trained in the use of ICT and multimedia

Read more about IICD’s approach towards Livelihoods.

The
MIPROKA centres may have to diversify its services to serve different
information needs in the community, and attract more people.

The MIPROKA project is owned by Song Taaba, a national women organisation set up in 1990, with about 1200 members in ten provinces in Burkina Faso. The organisation assists members in increasing their living conditions, through alphabetisation and training in economic activities like shea butter production and trade. As the organisation is mainly depending on (temporary) project funding from different partners, sustainability is still a challenge.