Blogs: STARS

The impact of the STARS program in Rwanda

After five years, the ICCO Part of Cordaid STARS program in Rwanda is coming to an end. ...

Providing better access to inputs and finance through warehouse rehabilitation in Ethiopia

In the first two years of its implementation, ICCO Cooperation’s STARS program in Ethiopia has learned ...

Supporting Female Entrepreneurship in Burkina Faso

As part of its STARS program, ICCO supports female shea nut collectors and shea butter producers to ...

Mitigating effects of climate change through crop insurance in Rwanda

Farmers in Rwanda increasingly face excessive rainfall and floods or extreme drought due to climate change. This ...

Using Behavioural Science to Develop attractive Savings Products in Ethiopia

Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Ethiopia generally lack the financial resources to develop more loan products for their ...

Empowering Youth in Rwanda to Become Successful Agri-preneurs

To help youth become successful agri-entrepreneurs (and evolving them from land renters to landowners in the long ...

STARS in Rwanda empowers women to take leadership roles at work and at home

By supporting producer organizations in Rwanda to include more women in their leadership, ICCO Cooperation’s STARS ...

Providing Business Opportunities for Sesame Farmers in Burkina Faso

How does ICCO Cooperation’s STARS program develop more business opportunities for over 24,000 sesame farmers in Burkina ...

Changing clients’ savings behaviours helps MFIs in Ethiopia to become financially healthy

Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Ethiopia generally lack the financial resources to develop more loan products for their ...

Digital Finance - An Effective Way to Increase Autonomy for Female Farmers in Senegal

With the introduction of digital products in finance, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Senegal allow farmers to invest ...

How to Scale Fee-Based Services within Producer Organizations in Rwanda

One of the main challenges for producer organizations in Rwanda is to sustain agricultural training programs for ...

Managing Financial Risks Key in Unlocking Farmer Investments Burkina Faso

Agricultural finance has never really taken off in Burkina Faso. This is partly because microfinance institutions (MFIs) ...

Shea Producers in Burkina Faso Develop New Business Plans

The shea sector in West Africa is growing at a promising pace. But can the female shea ...

Combating Fungal Diseases in Maize Value Chain in Rwanda

Many farmers store their maize produce for months after harvest with the aim to sell it at ...

Introducing Equipment, Creating Jobs For Youth in Rwanda

By mapping the gaps and opportunities in equipment financing, STARS discovered a new pathway to improve access ...

Malt Barley Farmers Access Inputs Through the Farm Service Center

Ethiopia is one of the major producers of barley in Sub-Saharan Africa. But farmers have low yields ...

Linking Potato Farmers in Ethiopia to Senselet

The potato value chain is valuable as it plays a great role in food security in Ethiopia. ...

Boosting the Onion Value Chain in Senegal

In Senegal, onion is the most consumed vegetable but annual production does not cover domestic demand. STARS, ...

Developing Climate-Resilient Cowpea Value Chain in Senegal

Cowpea farmers in Senegal often lack access to quality inputs, best agricultural practices and access to finance ...

A-CAT - A Tool for Risk Assessment in Agriculture Financing

Both farmers and MFIs have an interest to know how much it costs to produce a certain ...

Warehouse Loan: A Promising Product for Smallholder Farms in Senegal

Strengthening African Rural Smallholder (STARS) is a five year program that runs in Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Ethiopia ...

Measuring Income of Smallholder Farmers: Some Insights from Practitioners

Life is complex. And so is the measurement of income and economic empowerment. Here are four take-away ...

Developing Business Models with Agricultural Input Providers Companies

The aim of the STARS (1) program is to improve access to financial and non-financial products for farmers. ...

Making the Market Work for the Poor: Case of STARS Program

Making the market work for the poor (M4P) is an approach that aims to improve the ...

Effectively Assessing Household Food Security Status

Empowering Rural Women in Ethiopia

In rural Ethiopia, women are responsible for household chores such as cooking, cleaning, raising kids, caring for ...

The Importance of Timing in a Food Security Survey

In ICCO we use the HFIAS tool (Household Food Insecurity Access Scale) to measure food security. In ...

A New Instrument to Measure Food (In)Security: MAHFP

To increase food security is an important objective for ICCO Cooperation, in facts it is a separate ...

STARS Program: Characterizing Smallholder Farmers Households

The STARS Program aims to have an impact on smallholder farmers by giving them access to credit ...

​Navigating with Data to Increase Income and Food Security

How to stay in control of your results? In the Strengthening African Rural Smallholders program (STARS) ICCO ...

Strong Women, Strong Farms: Empowering Female Smallholders through Access to Finance

Many women in Africa struggle to scale their farms and build their businesses. This blog explains how ...