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MEETING OF COUNCILS June 24-26 1999, ABIDJAN, COTE D'IVOIRE
President of Cote d'lvoire H.E. Henri Konan Bedie will chair the opening plenary, at the second-annual Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils, June 24-26, 1999 in Abidjan. Participants will have the opportunity to share and develop bold Institutional Action Plans, exchange best practices, and network with others in the field. All participants are required first to join a Summit Council and submit a 1999 Institutional Action Plan.
The meeting will include four papers to be discussed in plenary sessions and six, in-depth courses focused on the Summit's core themes.
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Courses offered at the meeting of the councils
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Learning to Use Participatory Wealth Ranking (PWR) and the CASHPOR House Index to Assure Identifying the Poorest Families, specially the women of those families, and encourage their participation in programs
- National Frameworks for Success - the Appropriate Role for Governments
- Learning to Use Cost-Effective Impact Evaluation Tools for Practitioners
- Learning to Plan for Institutional Financial Self-Sufficiency While Reaching the Poorest Families
- Entering the Field: Learning the Basics on Starting a Microcredit Program, the African Context
- Building a Movement: Learning to Work with the Media, Advocate with Governments, and Reach New Constituencies
For a registration brochure, contact: The Microcredit Summit Campaign, c/o RESULTS Educational Fund; 440 First St, NW, Suite 460; Washington, DC 20001; USA; fax: 1 202 637 3566; e-mail: or access the registration brochure on-line at: www.microcredit.org/meetings/intro.htm
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SIDBI to Invest in Mirzapur Expansion
The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has approved in principle a loan at 11% for CASHPOR India to expand its operations to the second half of the Mirzapur District. Mirzapur Two aims to reach an additional 18,000 poor women clients over the next four years. Six branch managers have already been assigned and began forming their first groups in January. SIDBI officers visited Mirzapur in January to discuss the business plan in detail. The SIDBI loan will have a term of three years and a two year grace period. SIDBI requires 10% of the funds to be blocked on fixed deposit for the period of the loan.
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GRAMEEN FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA LAUNCHED
Grameen Foundation was at last incorporated with the Australian Security and Investment Commission on January 28 of this year. The charter of the new foundation stipulated that its objective is to support the Grameen Trust and its affiliate organizations by word and deed. It has also been mandated to raise investment funds for its operation from its own members. Congratulations to Shan Ali and his support group whose relentless efforts have finally led to a fruitful conclution and it is expected that Grameen Foundation Australia will further reinforce the global network of Grameen Trust in expending microcredit programs for alleviating poverty round the world.
For further information contact:
Grameen Foundation Australia
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GRAMEEN TRUST ACTION PLAN
Grameen Trust (GT) has pledged that through its network of Grameen replicators worldwide, it will reach one tenth of the goal set by the Microcredit Summit i.e. 10 million poorest families by 2005. Sixty seven of 83 partner organizations have pledged, according to action plans submitted to the Trust to cover approximately 8.3 million poorest families by 2005, provided their funding and training requirements are met.
To date GT has reached about 330,000 poorest families through its network of partner organizations. To achives this , GT has approved nearly US$ 9 million and extended nearly US$ 2 million for technical support, training, monitoring, evaluation and other support to its partners. In order to reach 10 million families. GT estimates that it will need funds to the tune of US$ 241 million which includes cost of staff training and onsite technical assistance for organizations that it funds.
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US PRACTITIONERS TELECONFERENCE
Beginning with December 1998, Grameen Foundation USA has been hosting a series of teleconferences for the U.S.-based microcredit practitioners across the United State to brainstorm, problem-solve, give and receive feedback, and discuss recent developments in the microenterprise field.
Among the topic discussed have been welfare regulations that affect the poor, targeting and recruitment, training methodologies, group formation, impact assessment, and loan processing tools. Similar to the peerleading methodology that Grameen Bank pioneered, microcredit practitioners in the US are also finding that periodic opportunities to come together and network with others in their fields of varying competencies and talents, creates a supportive, educational, and empowering environment that facilitates microcredit best practices.
Agencies that are currently participating in Grameen Foundation's monthly teleconference are:
Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City,Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Credit for All, Denver, Colorado, Dallas City Home's Peer Lending Action Network, Dallas, Texas
Philadelphia Development Partnership, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Project Enterprise, New York City, New York
Washington CASH, Seattle, Washington
Working Capital Florida, Miami, Florida
For more information on the teleconference contact Leslie Enright, Program Associate for Grameen Foundation USA. E-mail: Leslie Enright
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TECHNIQUES FOR DIVERSIFYING LOAN PORTFOLIO
Grameen Trust jointly with Grameen Bank organized a five day long workshop on Diversifying Loan Portfolio for the Gbreplication project executives on March 20-26, 1999. Ten participants from Bangladesh, India, Krygizstan, Nepal, Nigeria and the Philippines, attended the workshop. Given the importance of loan diversification for achiving both institutional and borrower level viability, the objective of the workshop was to enable the participants to gain in-depth understanding of GB strategy for loan portfolio diversification policies and it's impact on financial performance of a branch.
CARD, Philippines, has in the meantime developed several innovative products based on the needs of its borrowers. One of these called CLAP Loan, operates like credit cards targeting those borrowers who have a proven track record with CARD for at least five years. This loan allows the borrowers to draw down any amount within the approved credit line with a pay back period of one year. LAPO, another Grameen Bank replication in Nigeria, has also developed a number of innovative loan products. One of these called the Joint Project Scheme (JPS) provides loan to finance projects that are jointly owned and managed by LAPO members.
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THIRTY FIRST GRAMEEN INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUE PROGRAM
The Thirty First Grameen International Dialogue Program was held on March 07-19, 1999. Fourteen participants from nine countries i.e. India, Nepal, Pakistan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, El Salvador, Kyrgystan and Unitade State of America, attended this program.
The participants were able to observe Grameen Bank operation at field level in selected branches around the country. Dr.Rahat Achylova, project Director, Kyrgystan Rural Trust Women in Development, from Kyrgystan, and Dr. Prabhakar Puthiyaveedu, Chief Executive, Society for Rural Improvement (SRI), India, attended the dialogue as resource persons. Both of them shared their own experiences of Grameen replication in their respective countries. Some of the participants prepared follow-up action plans to initiate future action research or pilot projects that aim at alleviation of poverty through micro credit programs.
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US $ 1 Million from Citigroup for GRAMEEN Replications in Asia
A US$ 1 million grant from Citigroup Foundation will give thousands of poor enterprises in Asia life line to self employment by providing them with micro loans to start small businesses.
The grant to the Grameen Foundation USA, enable the Grameen Trust to extand its successful global micro credit to out reach five countries hit hard by the Asian financial crisis; Indonesia Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. Citigroup is represented in Asia Pacific by Citibank, Salomon Smith Barney and SSBC Citi Asset Management. It offers a comprehensive line of consumer and corporate financial services in more then 100 countries worldwide.
The grant will allow poor enterpreneurs to qualify for loans at or near commercial bank rates to establish and run micro-business loans, whose recipients are primarily women, typically support small-scale business from the production of food and textiles in rural areas to texi services, cleaning, gardening and day care in cities.
Grameen will focus on four key activities in selected Asian countries. Providing seed capital of up to US$ 50,000 to new programs raising the capitalization of existing programs by US$ 100,000; providing scolerships for training in the Grameen Microlending methodology; supplying on-site technical assistance to microcredit programs. To date, there are 81 Grameen supported programs in 28 countries around the world. As of February 1999, Grameen-funded micro credit programs have disbursed funds to nearly 300,000 borrowers who have maintained extraordinarily high repayment rates.
The US$ 1 million grant from Citigroup Foundation to Grameen was announced in Jakarta, Kuala Lampur, Bangkok and Seoul between 24-30 March. Representatives from Citibank and Grameen Trust met with the media and non-government organizations in each country recently to discuss the use of the grant. Issues discussed including how to identify implementing partner organizations and potential borrowers, size and terms of loans, setting interest rates and transparency.
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GRAMEEN DIALOGUE IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
Grameen Dialogue is now available in the following languages: Bengali, Tamil, Hindi, Nepali and is available from different distribution points. The dialogue is also being reprinted in the Chinese magazine, published by Rural Women Knowing All in China. Please contact Grameen Trust for more information.
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1999 DIRECTORY OF MULTILATERAL AND BILATERAL FUNDERS OF MICROCREDIT
The directory has been compiled by the
Microcredit Summit Campaign
440 First Street, NW, Suite 460
Washington, DC 20001
phone : 1.202.637.9600
fax : 1.202.637.3566
e-mail :
website :www.microcreditsummit.org
write to the campaign office to obtain a copy of the directory.
The list of donor contacts is based on a list originally published in November 1997 FOCUS magazine. FOCUS is the primary vehicle for dissemination of information on best practices and microenterprise finance by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) a consortium of more, that twenty-five bilateral and multilateral donor agencies with a secretariat based at the World Bank.
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