> Eradicating Poverty, Building New Lives > Fighting Poverty with Strong MFIs > Building the Industry
With this tool, both MFIs and investors can balance financial returns with social progress and obtain the information they need to make the best decisions about resource allocation. Keeping in line with our goal to share our experiences and lessons learned with others, we make the PPITM available to MFIs free-of-charge. We are involved in a wide variety of promotional activities to ensure that the largest possible number of organizations has access to the PPI. Grameen Foundation, along with a constantly increasing group of other networks, promotes the use of the PPI through training, technical support, and advocacy. We have also developed training modules and practical, user-friendly training and support materials—all available online. In addition to commissioning instruments to measure our impact on poor families worldwide, we are leaders in the industry in providing products that strengthen the relationships between MFIs and borrowers and deliver services to the world’s poorest, especially women. Mifos, our MFI management information management system,
was created using open source Java technology, rather than proprietary software, so that organizations around the world can adopt and adapt the solution with greater ease. Just this fiscal year, there were 12 implementations of Mifos at MFIs in countries like Senegal and Kenya— MFIs with which we have no affiliation. Also, our innovative Village Phone program has provided a way out of poverty for 23,000 poor entrepreneurs in six countries. In order to share Village Phone resources with a wider community, we published two Village Phone Replication Manuals and created a website dedicated to supporting organizations interested in starting their own program. Our new strategic plan embodies this product-focused model, marrying microfinance and technology to produce industry-changing innovations that can be replicated widely to reach more poor people. Although the fight never ceases to pose a challenge, we will continue working to realize the dream of a world without poverty.
Meet Nawar Hakaimia, Borrower When Nawar Hakaimia took out her first microfinance loan of 200 DR (US$151) with enda inter-arabe, a Grameen-Jameel partner in Tunisia, some of her neighbors laughed at her. Nawar was one of a handful of people in the local area utilizing microfinance. Now that her livestock business, which earns between 400-900 DR (US$302-680), has allowed her to remodel her home and send her three children to school, she knows some of those same neighbors are a bit envious. Over time, Nawar has taken out five loans, her latest totaling 2000 DR (US$1,511). “People often come to see me and ask how I managed,” she said. “I tell them to go to enda.”
30 www.grameenfoundation.org
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