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Sharing knowledge to help MFIs attract new
capital
Grameen Foundation's dedication to sharing knowledge to
increase impact across the microfinance industry led us to Italy
and India this August. This time we focused on increasing the
flow of needed capital into microfinance. Our team of experts
taught courses on investment readiness to microfinance
institutions (MFIs), non-profit organizations, consulting firms
and individuals interested in building bridges from capital
markets to microfinance clients around the world.
Executive Vice President Deb Burand and Diane Smith, vice
president of our Capital Management Advisory Center (CMAC),
taught two courses on securing debt financing and equity at the
13th Annual Boulder Microfinance Training, organized by the
Boulder Institute of Microfinance and held in Turin, Italy. The
courses used real-life examples to show how MFIs can attract and
work with equity investors who provide risk capital in return
for a share of ownership, and how MFIs can diversify their
funding as they mature.
Meanwhile in New Delhi and Kolkata, India, Camilla Nestor and
Shannjit Singh of our CMAC team co-taught courses designed to
prepare MFIs to succeed at the upcoming Microfinance India
Investment Fair in October. Training included discussions about
working with potential debt and equity investors, and covered
the fundamentals of capital structures. Participants, who ranged
from novice managers to experienced microfinance entrepreneurs
from 60 MFIs, participated in mock loan negotiation sessions and
were given the tools to develop investment pitchbooks for
raising funds. Grameen Foundation conducted the courses in
conjunction with Intellecap, with support from The Mix Market,
ACCESS, and CARE.
As microfinance continues to gain momentum in world capital
markets, we will continue to provide learning opportunities to
strengthen MFIs' capacity to raise new funding and reach out to
more of the world's poor.
Learn
more about our work to connect MFIs with capital
markets
Helping MFIs streamline their technology to
reach the poor
Grameen Foundation's Partner Technology team empowers our MFI
partners to use information strategically as they integrate
automated technology solutions into their operations. Our MFI
partners conduct tens or hundreds of thousands of client
transactions a week. Information about these transactions and
other aspects of an MFI's operations are essential. With
information the MFI is more agile, makes better decisions,
improves its operational performance, and ultimately reaches
more poor borrowers with better products and services.
Moreover, accurate and timely information enables the MFI to
measure its operations, and is a key to successful management
and sustainability. Helping our partner organizations change how
they use, manage, and value information can have long-term
impact. Michael Eber, Manager of Partner Technology, says:
"We're the ones who keep asking MFIs: How is this going to get
you to higher-value decisions and better information to run your
organization?"
The team works across Grameen Foundation's regions. For
example, in China, Pakistan, and Tunisia, it conducted business
process workshops that help MFIs run more efficiently, and in
the Philippines, it supported the automation of all 39 branches
at NWTF. Now the team is exploring ways to assist our newest
partners in Nigeria and India, and will be working on Business
Process Management with Fonkoze in Haiti.
Partner Technology work is integral to our other activities
as well; as Michael points out, "it ties in with Mifos, the
Capital Management Advisory Center, Monitoring and Evaluation,
and Social Performance Management. They all demand information
from our partners to make decisions" that ultimately improve our
interactions with our partner MFIs and help us serve the world's
poor.
Learn
more about our Partner Technology work
Bright futures in Aceh, Indonesia
Ticahaya with the grinding machine she purchased with her
first loan
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Much has changed in Indonesia's Aceh province since the
tsunami hit almost three years ago. The majority of those
displaced now have permanent housing, most major roads have been
rebuilt and hotels have reopened. However, unemployment remains
high as Aceh's informal economy, which generated 70 percent of
the province's economic activity, has yet to fully rebound. On
September 13, the governor of Aceh, Irwandi Yusuf, spoke to an
audience of business leaders, academics and international NGOs
in Washington, D.C. as part of a U.S. business development tour.
He outlined his vision for moving Aceh forward through
initiatives focused on economic development, social welfare,
environmental resource management, and called for greater
"access to non-collateralized, low interest loans for
agricultural purposes and business start-ups."
Since 2005, Grameen Foundation has been working with MFIs in
the hardest hit districts of Aceh. We provided more than $1
million in funding to YAMIDA
and YKBS,
microfinance institutions serving more than 6,500 clients. For
clients like Ibu Ticahaya, who lost her daughter, home and
livelihood, the loans have given her a way to start over. Now on
her second loan, she has been able to rebuild the family
business of making and selling kalapa gouseng (coconut paste
used in Acehnese dishes) and is expanding to sell in larger
markets further away from her home. Ibu and others like her will
be the backbone of the recovery envisioned by Governor Yusuf
whose goal is for the "way forward to be as bright as the past
was dark."
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