In this issue

• Grameen Foundation Reaches 3 Million Clients
• The story of client Muazzam Jan from Pakistan
• Progress out of Poverty in Haiti

Grameen Foundation Reaches 3 Million Client Milestone

Record of innovation also supports the broader microfinance industry

Grameen Foundation is pleased to announce that we now reach more than 3 million clients through our global network. This milestone arrives on the heels of a number of key successes across our network of microfinance institution (MFI) partners.

Grameen Foundation was established in 1997 with a mere $6,000 in seed capital and a handful of staff members. Since our humble beginnings we have expanded our global network across four continents and now provide a wide array of management, technical and financial products and services to our partners. One of our first partners in India, SKS, has grown from 22,000 clients in 2003 to more than 500,000 in 2007; our support of SKS has included leveraging nearly $10 million in financing for their loans to India's poorest. A number of our other MFI partners have demonstrated similar success; Grameen Koota recently announced that they have reached 100,000 clients and LAPO in Nigeria is also closing in on the 100,000 client mark, becoming our tenth partner to do so. By reaching these latest milestones, Grameen Foundation and its partner MFIs are closing in on our goal of reaching 5 million of the world's poorest families by the close of 2008.

Over the years, we have also recognized a pressing need for even more strategic and innovative solutions to poverty that could move the entire microfinance sector forward. We formed our Seattle-based Grameen Technology Center in 2001, and later added our Capital Markets Group and Social Performance Management initiative to do just that. Our Growth Guarantees Program has mobilized tens of millions of dollars for MFIs around the world. Our Village Technology projects have empowered thousands of women across Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, and the Phillippines as telecommunications entrepreneurs. Last year we launched our Mifos Initiative, an open source framework that puts control of technology into the hands of MFIs. By sharing these advances with our partner network and across the microfinance industry, we look forward to empowering millions more of the world's poorest to lift themselves out of poverty.

Victory of a Village Vase Vendor

Muazzam Jan, client of Grameen Foundation partner UPAP, Pakistan

Muazzam Jan's house is filled with dozens of beautiful vases and other decorations. Her oldest son's backpack sits nearby, ready for him to go to school along with her two other school-age children; her youngest will soon join them. Muazzam now runs a successful business in partnership with her husband. But not too recently, Muazzam's life looked very different.

Five years ago, Muazzam and her husband moved from the countryside to a village just outside Islamabad, in search of better opportunities for their family. They went into business together, buying vases and other household decorations in Islamabad and then selling them from a cart they rode around the village. However, profits were small as products were not available at good prices in Islamabad. Muazzam struggled to make ends meet, and she was unable to send her oldest son to school when he reached five years old.

Read more about Muazzam >

Grameen Foundation Pilots Innovative Progress Out of Poverty Index Tool at Fonkoze

Fonkoze clients at a center meeting

Jeff Toohig, Grameen Foundation's Social Performance program officer, spent the month of February piloting our Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) at Grameen Foundation partner Fonkoze in Haiti.

When Jeff first arrived, he held an all-staff training day to introduce the benefits of the PPI and how it can be tailored to the needs of Fonkoze clients. Fonkoze chose to implement the PPI because it helps MFIs better determine their clients' needs, which programs are most effective, how quickly clients are leaving poverty and what helps them to move out of poverty faster.

Over the next few weeks, Jeff traveled from Fonkoze's main office in the capital Port-au-Prince to Okay, Jakmél, Gwonón and other cities to get Fonkoze staff started using the PPI and to meet Fonkoze clients. Once the pilot is completed, the PPI will determine key baseline data for Fonkoze clients and the tool will be customized to adapt to Fonkoze's diverse range of clientele.

Carefully adapted to capture the particular socioeconomic environment of each country, the PPI has been piloted at a selection of our MFI partners in the Philippines, Mexico, and India. The Social Performance team plans to continue their PPI launch this year with additional partners in India, Bolivia, Morocco, and Pakistan.

Newsbriefs

Village Phone Replication Manual Sparks Two Projects in DRC and Cambodia: Inspired by GF's Village Phone Replication Manual, a telecommunications operator in Cambodia is piloting a Village Phone replication project with two Cambodian microfinance institutions (MFIs). The pilot is supported by funds from the UN Development Program, the German development agency GTZ, and Nokia-KTH. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a satellite telecom operator is at the beginning stages of launching a pilot of the Village Phone program. The Village Phone Replication Manual was authored by David Keogh and Tim Wood of the Grameen Technology Center in 2005 to help facilitate the expansion of affordable access to telecommunications into rural areas.

New Director joins GF's Capital Markets Group: GF welcomes Diane Smith as head of our Capital Markets Group, which works to link microfinance institutions with funding from local and global capital markets. Smith has 20 years of experience in domestic and emerging market private equity investing, banking and fund management. In recent years, she provided consulting services to early stage entrepreneurs seeking capital from professional investors; she previously spearheaded expansion of Electra Investment Trust PLC (United Kingdom) in the US and South America. Smith will lead a dynamic team that has already mobilized US$25 million in financing for MFIs since its inception in 2005.

University of North Texas fundraises on behalf of the Chiapas Project: On March 28, GF board member Lucy Billingsley and UNT President Gretchen M. Bataille announced the "Recycle to Eradicate Poverty" fundraising project. The project will provide a means for UNT staff and students to donate used cellphones and ink jet cartridges to The Chiapas Project, a Dallas-based organization founded by Lucy Billingsley that supports the work of Grameen Foundation. The "Recycle to Eradicate Poverty" project is part of an ambitious fundraising effort on behalf of The Chiapas Project to help Grameen Foundation reach thousands of impoverished women throughout Latin America with microloans and other critically-needed services.

Professor Asif Dowla Discusses The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story: On February 27, GF hosted a luncheon for Asif Dowla, a former Grameen Bank employee and co-author of the book, The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story. The book, co-authored by Dipal Barua, the Deputy Managing Director of Grameen Bank and the Managing Director of Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh, follows the overhaul of Grameen Bank's operating and financial system -- creating "Grameen II." A former student of Dr. Yunus, Professor Dowla colored the informative discussion with inspiring anecdotes about his tenure at the Grameen Bank. He is currently an economics professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

GF receives a warm welcome in Peru: In February, a GF team led by board member Rosanna Ramos-Velita and president Alex Counts visited Peru to meet with commercial banks. Discussions centered on how the banks could invest in microfinance institutions (MFIs) to expand financial services to the poor. The state retail bank (Banco de la Nación) exchanged ideas with GF staff on the bank's potential future role supporting microfinance programs. GF's direct involvement in Peru started with a Growth Guarantee to Pro Mujer Peru in December 2006, and we are working with Peruvian banks on additional Growth Guarantee transactions to bring new capital to Peru's MFIs.