Virtual Closing Workshop :Improving Rural Financial Inclusion through Financial Cooperatives (IRFITCO)

Monday, 20 September 2021

9:00 to 11:00 AM (EST)

Background and Event Brief

Improving Rural Financial Inclusion through Financial Cooperatives (IRFITCO) was started in March 2017 to enhance Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania’s rural poor financial inclusion by strengthening financial cooperatives networks. To enable this, the primary target group for the project activities was the National Apex Organizations and the official agencies that support Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) and their operating environment. The secondary target group was either rural SACCOs or SACCOs with rural outreach. Policymakers were also engaged in removing existing constraints for sector development.

IRFITCO’s Project sought to achieve 3 specific objectives, namely:

• strengthen the capacity and human resources of financial cooperatives serving rural areas;
• promote innovative and better-quality products and services, and thereby contribute to improving access to and use of financial cooperatives’ services among poor people living in rural areas; and
• promote, at the government level, policy and regulations favorable to financial cooperatives to benefit the rural poor.

The Project’s Virtual Closing Workshop on Monday, 20 September, will highlight the progress and achievements made by the IRFITCO over the 4 years of its implementation in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania in relation to the original Log Frame and the Work Plans.

The Virtual Closing Workshop will discuss and highlight the lessons learned, milestones, and impact achieved while sharing the knowledge management initiatives and access process of useful Cooperative development tools developed as a result of the Project such as Toolkits, Training Manuals, and Policies etc. 

With the tremendous help of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the IRFITCO Project became effective in March 2017, with a target completion date of 30 September 2021 in the three target countries Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania. The Grant Recipient and Project Implementers being the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CDF Canada) in partnership with the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCUF) and the Africa Confederations of Co-operatives and Savings Credit Associations (ACCOSCA). 

 Link to the webinar recording