Association pour le droit à l’initiative économique (Adie)
Empowering the most disadvantaged communities in New Caledonia
Support from the Trafigura Foundation is enabling Adie to provide training, mentoring and access to finance to young people, the unemployed and entrepreneurs with the potential and ideas to start or grow their own businesses.
The challenge
In New Caledonia, lack of employment opportunities and high poverty rates (one Caledonian out of five lives under the poverty line), as well as an entrepreneurial spirit push people to develop informal economic activities to make a living. The communities living in customary lands are particularly exposed to precarious working conditions, and access to basic services in tribal areas is also extremely limited.
The solution
Adie, a leading microfinance institution based in France, is helping to address the issues affecting Kanak communities by unlocking financial support and business mentoring for small entrepreneurs. In particular, Adie targets female entrepreneurs, who face more obstacles than their male counterpart in creating and leading businesses.
The association has a strong presence in New Caledonia thanks to its network of 11 offices. The creation of a mobile unit in the municipality of Canala in 2020 has contributed to a doubling of the number of female-led small enterprises in the area.
Partnership impact
In partnership with the Trafigura Foundation, Adie is consolidating and scaling up its financial services for remote and underserved communities by creating more mobile units to provide on-site support as well as loans to more businesses.
Our partnership (2022-2024) aims to:
- Establish 4 new mobile units to support new businesses
- Support 700 indigenous entrepreneurs in establishing or growing their businesses
