Grameen Foundation : Where we work : Latin America / Caribbean
Latin America and the Caribbean
Grameen Foundation’s goal in Latin America and the Caribbean is to reduce extreme poverty, particularly in rural areas, by providing its microfinance institutions and other poverty-focused organizations with funding, technology support and management tools and strategies. This allows these organizations to expand their outreach to more families and increase their impact. In a region with 125 million people living on less than $2 a day, and 50 million of those barely surviving on less than $1 a day, the ability for such organizations to expand to reach large numbers of very poor families is even more critical.
In 2005, Grameen Foundation launched a four-year Latin America Initiative overseen by a Latin America Advisory Council of expert volunteers with a long-term interest in the region. This $10 million project addressed the need for financial services by many of the areas poorest people. The Initiative’s goal was to reach 186,000 impoverished clients by 2008, with 93,000 of them escaping poverty within five years of receiving of their first loan. To achieve that, Grameen Foundation provided vitally needed funding to expand the outreach and impact of 10 MFI partners in six countries as diverse as Haiti, Mexico, Honduras and Bolivia. Since 2005, GF has provided over $3 million in loans, over $350,000 in grants and $5.75 million in growth guarantees leveraging over $13 million in local currency financing. GF has also piloted the Progress out of Poverty Index with MFIs in Bolivia, Haiti and Mexico to measure and track client poverty levels and provided critical technical assistance such as needs assessment visits, staff training and operational audits.
In September 2008, GF held a Regional Forum on “Scaling, Optimizing and Leveraging our Services to the Poor” in Chiapas, Mexico, that brought together over 40 participants from 10 MFIs in fivecountries to exchange learnings and best practices throughout the region. Over the course of three days, participants discussed diverse regional perspectives on key challenges affecting MFIs. Some of the main topics included microfinance as a platform for non-financial services, operational efficiency, human capital formation and development, the need to integrate and disseminate social performance results within MFIs and to external socially responsible investors, and the use of information as a strategic asset through business process mapping.
As of December 2008, microfinance institutions supported by Grameen Foundationwere directly serving 212,000 clients (benefiting over 1 million people) through the Latin America Initiative. This represents an increase of 47 percent compared to January 2005, and was largely boosted by the addition of two rapidly growing institutions.
The Latin America Initiative builds on Grameen Foundation's work in the region dating back to 2000, and is supported by philanthropists, volunteers and local financial institutions. Two key supporters are Fund for the Poor, Inc., a New York-based foundation and the Chiapas Project, a fund-raising initiative organized by businesswomen and professional women in Dallas, Texas.
Latin America Region Highlights
Read about our work in Latin America and the Caribbean:
Grameen Foundation : Where we work : Latin America / Caribbean
Grameen Foundation uses microfinance and innovative technology to fight global poverty and bring opportunities to the world's poorest people. With tiny loans and financial services, we help the poor, mostly women, start businesses and escape poverty. Our global network of 55 microfinance institution (MFI) partners including our Growth Guarantee partners has touched more than 34 million people in 24 countries. In addition, we introduced and now sustain technology initiatives (Mifos and Village Phone) in Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, bringing our total country outreach to 28.
+1-202-628-3560 www.grameenfoundation.org
You can help