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Microloan Foundation and Agriculture
From: Muzungu in Kasungu
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n a slightly separate vein from my usual social performance management work, I’ve also been involved in setting up a partnership between MicroLoan Foundation and a local charity based in Mchinji, who focus on agricultural sustainability and food security for the most vulnerable. An agreement is being worked on whereby they provide the agricultural training and support and help groups access markets and form associations. MicroLoan will work in the same geographical area, providing its clients with loans and group dynamics/leadership training. The idea is that the most vulnerable in this area of Mchinji therefore benefit not only from better agricultural skills, but have more access to credit to buy inputs (like fertilizer) and support to market their produce more effectively after harvest.
To introduce the local charity to MicroLoan Foundation’s way of working, we went to visit a ‘tilime’ group. This is a special kind of MicroLoan group, who are given a loan not to invest in their business, but to spend on agricultural inputs. It’s made during the rainy season when most people are planting their fields. This particular group welcomed us in matching group chitenges (the colourful cloth women use as skirts) and exuberant singing and dancing! They told us that they used their loans for fertilizer to grow maize, legumes and groundnuts, and that their fields are flourishing. One lady informed us that this is her fourth loan, though her first time loan. With the first loan’s profits she managed to invest in a goat, with the second a bicycle, with the third she extended her house, and now she is expanding her area under cultivation with the tilime loan. The sense of group solidarity was undeniable. Recently when one member was bitten by a snake and forced to stay in hospital for a month, the remainder of the group tended her fields for her, harvested her crops and assisted her family.
http://muzunguinkasungu.blogspot.com/2010/02/agriculture-and-microloan-foundation.html
Microloan Foundation
Malawi Parliament Approves Credit Reference Bureau Bill
From: Nyasaland Times
Malawi’s legislature recently passed a bill that will mandate information sharing among banks by establishing a formal credit bureau. This could be a milestone in preventing juggling loans and spotting potential defaulters. Hopefully some of these benefits will extend to the microfinance sector as well.
Microloan Foundation
How does credit access compare to other services?
From CGAP:
How does credit access compare to utilities like water/sanitation and electricity?
According to the CGAP’s report Financial Access 2009, 40% of the world bankable population has access to savings or credit accounts.
This is much lower than:
- basic sanitation: 60%
- mobile phones: 68 %
- electricity: 78%
- safe water: 83%
- basic medical care: 84%
Link reblogged from TimeDesk with 6 notes
Africa: Continent Ripe for Citizen-Led Development Plan →
Microloan Foundation
From allAfrica.com, excerpt:
There have been real improvements in Africa over the past decade. Economic growth has been averaging about five per cent a year, 34 million more children are in school, malarial death rates have nearly been halved in a number of countries and more than three million people are on life-preserving AIDS medications.
Africa can build on this progress to achieve sustainable development by establishing a new citizens’ compact. This bottom-up approach would ensure that development is devolved, that citizens are connected with new technologies, that executive powers are diffused, that political parties are strengthened and that the integrity of leaders and governance institutions firmly take centre stage.
Source: caraobrien
Post reblogged from 33needs with 2 notes
great opportunity for students interested in microfinance …
Microloan Foundation
Download now or preview on posterous Nairobi Microcredit Summit Scholarship Application.pdf (64 KB)
Posted via email from 33needs | Comment »
Source: joshtetrick
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HAP International Evaluation Report →
Microloan Foundation
The evaluation was commissioned by the Chair of HAP in April 2009 and was conducted during May and June of the same year. This evaluation report is based on 78 written or oral responses to 158…
Link reblogged from Change Thru Information with 2 notes
HAP International Evaluation Report →
Microloan Foundation
The evaluation was commissioned by the Chair of HAP in April 2009 and was conducted during May and June of the same year. This evaluation report is based on 78 written or oral responses to 158…
Source: aidresources
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Microloan Foundation Blogger: What Works and What Doesnt?
From: Muzungu in Kazungu
http://muzunguinkasungu.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-works-and-what-doesnt.html
Link reblogged from B-Vision 101 with 3 notes
You're invited to Microfinance Happy Hour on Feb 09, at 06:00PM →
Microfinance Happy Hour? Now thats a good idea! :)
Source: brianrweinberg
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DFID Releases Malawi Assistance Report
From: Reliefweb
Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:
“It is difficult to judge whether the Department for International Development has spent UK public money efficiently in Malawi.
The report highlights the need for sustainability and an “exit strategy”. It is also mentioned that only 60% of DFID’s targets were met, and that even those targets were “not fit for purpose”.
Will this lead to a new process of target-setting and participation? Will more decisions be undertaken by Malawians in choosing their future?
Particularly of interest here is the priority given to microfinance in the minutes of the discussion. DFID officials and MPs seem to agree that expanding credit access for the rural poor is instrumental for poverty-reduction in Malawi.
Microloan Foundation
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