Pakistan's First Private Microcredit Bank

President Pervez Musharaf opened Pakistan's first private micro-credit bank Monday, saying it would help desperately poor people access seed capital and broaden government bids to alleviate poverty.

The Micro Finance Bank Ltd set up by the Aga Khan Rural Support Program with 200 million rupees ($3.3 million) and the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development with 300 million rupees-aims to provide small loans to poor people on a non-collateral basis and open 30 branches nationwide.

Reported in the Daily Star, March 14, 2002.

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Microcredit Summit in NY

The Microcredit Summit +5 will be held on November 10-13,2002, in New York City. More than 3,000 delegates from 140 countries are expected to attend including heads of state and government. Delegates will review progress toward the campaign's goal of reaching 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self employment and other financial and business services by 2005. Delegates will also discuss strategies for overcoming obstacles. Six papers have been commissioned for the Summit which focus on the campaign's core themes of: Reaching the Poorest; Reaching and Empowering Women; Building Financially Self-sufficient Institutions; and Ensuring a Positive Measurable Impact on the Lives of Clients and Their Families. There will also be 12 day-long courses and 60 breakout sessions. Submission of an Institutional Action Plan is one prerequisite for attending. For more information go to: www.microcreditsummit.org/plus5.

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Grameen Trust Activities This Quarter

— Yayasan Pokmas Mandiri (YPM), a Grameen replication project in Sumatra, Indonesia, received approval for funding in January 2002, from Grameen Trust. YPM began Grameen replication in 1999 and currently reports 655 borrowers with a repayment rate of 99.3%.

— Managing Director of Grameen Trust, visited Nepal in January 2002 to attend Annual Genearal Meeting of Nirdhan Utthan Bank (NUB), a long time partner organization of Grameen Trust. He visited field and sites of Women Cooperative Society .

— A Workshop on Reporting was held from March 10-14, 2002 in Dhaka. Fourteen participants from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines, Uganda and Zimbabwe attended the workshop.

— Ms. Ulla Tornroos of GTZ Germany visited Grameen Trust on March 10, 2002. She had day-long discussion with Grameen Trust on existing partnership between Grameen Trust and GTZ. She visited field sites of Grameen replication partners in Dhaka slums and Grameen Bank in rural areas.

— Grameen Trust conducted monitoring-evaluation-technical assistance visits to a number of partner organizations during this quarter. Resource persons from Grameen Trust and Grameen Bank visited Hatia Optimist Peoples Energy (HOPE), in Hatia, an off-shore island in Bangladesh; Paluma Foundation and Bangun Karya Central Java Project (BKCJP) in Indonesia; Community Action for Rural Development (CARD) and Rural Organization For Action and Development (ROAD), and Peoples Institute for Development and Training in India.

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Training on Grameen Basics

Grameen Trust organized a training program on Grameen Basics held at Grameen Bank premises, Bangladesh from January 12 to February 1, 2002. Seven staff members from Grameen Trust partner organizations in China and Indonesia participated in this training program. The program was designed to provide Grameen Trust partners with in-depth knowledge on the essentials of the Grameen Bank management and operational system at the branch level. Emphasis was placed on financial and operational aspects of Grameen Bank including the processes involved in the initiation of a branch, maintenance of credit discipline, supervision of credit program, accounting, monitoring, record keeping, fund management, financial viability and expansion. Trainees were introduced to the new generalized system of Grameen Bank.

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Workshop on Reporting at Grameen Trust

Grameen Trust organized a Workshop on Reporting for its partner projects from March 11-13, 2002 in Dhaka. The workshop was attended by 14 participants from 13 organizations in 8 countries. The purpose of the workshop was to provide Grameen Trust's partners with a forum to discuss the minimum reporting requirements for microfinance institutions, to help participants develop an understanding of GT's monitoring system, to discuss common problems and provide necessary skills to fulfill the reporting requirements, with a view to enhancing their monitoring systems.

Presentations were made by resource persons to introduce the reporting system of Grameen Bank as well as that of CARD, a successful partner organization of Grameen Trust in the Philippines. Professor David Gibbons, Executive Chairman of CFTS, India, presented a paper entitled 'What is the minimum that we need to know about an MFI'. He discussed the minimum performance indicators that an MFI should use to track progress on each of the MFIs objectives i.e. to maximize outreach to the poor, maintain near perfect loan portfolio quality, increase institutional efficiency, become financially sustainable and impact on poverty.

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