Karim Traore, President of Burkina Faso's National Union of Cotton Producers, speaks about the cotton farmer's experience with agricultural index-based insurance in a new GIIF Result Stories. “It would be difficult for me to provide exact data, however, I can tell you that index insurance strongly encourages farmers in their work, and we are finding that cotton production has increased in all of the areas where farmers have subscribed to it," says Mr. Traore. The Result Stories is part of a new bilingual series produced in 2017 to capture farmers' experiences with index insurance in Burkina

A newly designed Global Index Insurance Facility's Country Profile for Burkina Faso is available for digital viewing. The document contains an overview of GIIF's project in Burkina Faso and partner, PlaNet Guarantee. A French version is also available.

With 1.5 billion people worldwide getting access to financial services through a post office, postal networks are powerful tools to advance financial inclusion. Posts have already proved to have comparative advantages in remote areas and with specific vulnerable groups – the poor, the less educated and those in the informal economy – compared with other financial services providers. This study by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) delves into the transformative potential of postal networks into well-suited providers of insurance. The report

Download full publication Crop insurance in the Sahel enables farmers to take a higherrisk by getting more fertilizers.Crop insurance in the Sahel stimulates the production of insured farmers compared with non-insured farmers. However, despite the apparent differences in fertilizers and production, the two groups get almost the same yield. Non-insured farmers seem to be more specialized in agriculture.

"Farming in Burkina can be very challenging. Uncertain weather conditions can have severely damaging impact on harvests and the ability of smallholder farmers to continue farming," says Sou Campaore, a 42-year old cotton farmer from Houndé, a farming village just outside Dedougou, a city in the western corridor of Burkina Faso. "Since the income from such an unpredictable harvest is not steady, we don’t get access to capital in order to implement more efficient farming practices and purchase better inputs. A bad season can also have a telling effect on the health and social position of