Strategic planning in Burkina Faso

By Sy Alexandre Traoré, business advisor Burkina Faso

The “Union Provinciale des Sociétés Coopératives des Professionnels Agricoles de la Comoé (UPCPAC)" is a Union of Cooperatives for the production and processing and group sale of cereals and oilseeds. It has 917 members (590 men and 327 women) who farmed an area of 1017 hectares during the 2021-2022 season. 

Today, UPCPAC is a cooperative society with a board of directors, an accounting manager and a network of animators of fourteen (14) members and is resolutely turned towards the professionalisation and enhancement of the "peasant" function in Burkina Faso. UPCPAC, through its members, produces and markets various varieties of agricultural products such as corn, rice and soybeans.

In May this year, Agriterra carried out an in-depth evaluation of the UPCPAC cooperative which resulted in a positive outcome, leading to the start of a partnership. This partnership is part of a logic to support the organisational and commercial development of UPCPAC. In this sense, several activities have been planned according to the development priorities of the cooperative in 2022.

One of the activities is the development of a three-year strategic plan. This activity was held from 15 to 19 August 2022 in the form of a participatory workshop. It made it possible to engage in reflections with the various key components of the cooperative on the medium-term strategy to be implemented for organisational and commercial development. It was also the place to redefine the new vision, missions and objectives of UPCPAC to be achieved by 2025 through a strategic development plan. Indeed, the overall objective set by UPCPAC is to be a reference company in the production and marketing of maize led by producers in Burkina Faso in 2025.

For the achievement of this objective, the main activities planned are:

• Supporting women to improve hygiene conditions and increase the amount of maize processed by 2025;
• The integration of agroecology through continuous training (45 producers per year, 50% of whom are young people) and the production sale of compost and organic liquid fertilizers to the members of the cooperative;
• Diversification of commercial and financial partners with well-established and signed agreements;
• Prospecting for new institutional markets for the marketing of maize such as FAO and WFP.

This strategic development plan is now the guide in the decision-making of the board of directors as to the future of the union and the well-being of the members. It is oriented towards the acquisition of quality inputs; the search for institutional market; the improvement of the level of processing and production of maize and the implementation of a compost production system that will be led by young people.
The workshop also provided a three-year financial planning framework for the cooperative.