This case study presents work done with CARD Bank in the Philippines as part of a larger savings mobilization project with Grameen Foundation to introduce a new type of savings product and expand CARD’s market share to poor savings clients.
This case study illustrates the use of data analytics - including the use of the Progress out of Poverty Index® - to strengthen CARD Bank's savings strategy. It outlines the business questions that were asked and the client insights they gleaned, as well as how this information is being used to change produce design and delivery.
Most economic development programs that aim to reach the poorest households have not been designed using a sustainable business approach. Instead, these programs have been developed as grants and charity-driven projects. While there is a role for grant-driven programs, organizations can also make sustainable business decisions to extend outreach to poorer populations in the medium to long term.
The capability of their staff is perhaps the single most important resource microfinance institutions (MFIs) have for meeting the challenges of reaching more people, while navigating financial, regulatory, political, competition and other issues.
Targeting and selecting groups for social development programs based on poverty levels can be a powerful first step in achieving greater impact. However, the complex nature of poverty often leads to processes that are accurate, but extremely customized, making it difficult to make comparisons across projects and geographies. This paper presents a methodology that aims to address both these issues.
Effective data analytics is essential for meeting the bottom line, and is even more critical when you are trying to meet a double bottom line. This case study examines how PT Ruma – a social enterprise based in Indonesia – is using social and business data to change its business practices.
People-related issues have consistently ranked among the top ten industry challenges in the Microfinance Banana Skins report. This review analyzes the concerns raised in the 2011 report, including governance, management, staffing and the overall institutional strength of microfinance institutions.
This is not volunteerism for the sake of volunteerism, but rather a new business model for solving some of the real problems impeding the scale, sustainability, and impact of microfinance and T4D initiatives. A greater and more strategic use of volunteers can help the field to realize, more rapidly, strategic and operational improvements.
In Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Another Look, Odell examines studies which have demonstrated that microfinance helps poor people better cope with financial shocks that often upend their lives. It also addresses the difficulties in isolating microfinance’s impact from the myriad forces at play in poor people’s lives.
Grameen Foundation’s Community Knowledge Worker Initiative is based on the belief that a distributed network of intermediaries, or Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs), can use mobile devices to collect and disseminate information to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.