It’s Financial Inclusion 2020 Week – but what happened to microfinance?

This week you may notice a lot of online discussion and social media chatter about financial inclusion, and how we ensure that low- and moderate-income people around the world have access to a full suite of quality financial services. And while this conversation is important, and this week gives those of us working in the sector the opportunity to galvanise support and mobilise action, it dawned on me that some people might be wondering: “What ever happened to microfinance?”

Promoting solar power in Pakistan

The city of Lahore is renowned as the literary, educational and cultural heart of Pakistan and has a long history of beautiful architecture dating in particular from the Mughal period with buildings such as the Badshahi Masjid and the Shahi Qila or Lahore Fort.

Shakeel and Rehan from Akhuwat on the roof  where the solar panels are located

How to increase investment in micro-enterprises (and get your money back)

This blog was orginally posted on CARE Insights.

Today CARE has submitted written evidence to the International Development Committee (IDC) of the House of Commons on our peer-to-peer lending network, Lendwithcare. (For a snappier and more entertaining overview of Lendwithcare, see our new Christmas animation above.) The IDC is currently looking at jobs and livelihoods and is interested to understand more about the role that a relatively new way of funding micro-enterprises can play in generating growth and jobs in developing countries.

More from Lendwithcare in the Philippines | The impact of Typhoon Haiyan

Day 12 and Tracey retells the stories of the Lendwithcare entrepreneurs she has met whilst in the Philippines ...

I had to accept that we were not going to get to Leyte or any of the other worst affected islands due to the bad weather. There has been an area of low pressure over the Philippines for the last couple of weeks which has been causing constant rain and high winds and severe flooding in some areas. 

CARE/Peter Caton

Making loans & changing lives for three years

Three years ago CARE International UK launched its innovative peer-to-peer lending platform, lendwithcare.org with the aim of helping people in developing countries work their own way out of poverty and to promote financial inclusion among low-income sectors of the population. Through the lendwithcare website, lenders can make small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries to help them start or expand a small business.  

Since launch and with the fantastic support of The Co-operative (who put together and designed this infographic) and our wonderful lenders we are proud to say we have have achieved so much ...

Video update | Market fires in Togo & how lendwithcare.org's microfinance partner helped

Early this year two of Togo's biggest markets, Kara and Lomé, were devastated by fire. The fires, which occurred 48 hours apart, destroyed both marketplaces and the hundreds of businesses that lay within their walls.

 

Lendwithcare’s microfinance partner in Togo, WAGES, told us that the fires were a huge disaster and that many market vendors had lost everything – some lost all their money as well as their stock since they had kept it in the marketplace for safekeeping. A large number of the market vendors, particularly in the Grand Market of Lomé, are clients of WAGES and were faced with the added stress of how to meet loan repayments without a way to generate an income. In this short video update, we learn how WAGES helped clients to get their businesses back up and running as well as reworked repayment schedules (often pausing repayments) to give time for businesses to recover.

Why are some microfinance loans not so 'micro'?

When asked recently by a lender why many of the loans featured on the lendwithcare.org website were rather large (often around £1,000) we explained why that might be:


1. At lendwithcare we believe that supporting small to medium enterprises (SMEs) often generates waged employment opportunities for some of the very poorest segments of the population. The latter occasionally do not even qualify for a microloan in their own right. This strategy of supporting a range of businesses we believe is more effective in tackling poverty than simply supporting one type of business.

Youth, employment and micro-credit

Chakriya Yoeur from Cambodia

Hana Yousef, recent university graduate and CARE International UK Volunteer, discusses what microfinance could mean to the rising number of unemployed young people in developing countries ...


Historically, micro-finance has never been something typically associated with youth. It seems as though the general pre-conception of young people moving around and being less likely to ‘stay put’ make them less desirable recipients of a micro-credit loan. 


Following my donations

Jun Pérez, President of SEED Finance and Amy Lithgoe

It’s not often you get to know how the money you donate to charity is actually spent but today I was able to meet Jun Perez, President of SEED Finance, the Filipino partner of lendwithcare.org.  I’ve always thought the whole concept of lendwithcare.org is fantastic and was keen to find out more about how the scheme actually operates on the ground.

Rice production in Cambodia: the poor farmer’s perspective

Rice farming in Cambodia can be a tough and uncertain business. Rainfall is highly erratic, both drought and floods being regular occurrences, land is often infertile or under-nourished and investment in new farming systems and technology is minimal. 

Yet approximately 60% of the Cambodian population rely on agriculture (mainly rice production) for their livelihoods and unsurprisingly the vast majority of those are living on less than $1.25 a day. Despite government commitments to expand rice production and increase the country’s export capacity, the reality for the majority of farmers is stagnant growth and an uncertain future. Which is why, on a recent trip to Cambodia, I was keen to find out why so many of the entrepreneurs we have supported through lendwithcare.org are sticking to rice farming.