Loan-tracking systems for NGO microcredit programmes
Loan-tracking systems may provide much more information than the current status of the loans. This article describes information that can be gathered on loan application forms to monitor the economic impact of the loan on business owners and their families. Programmes can track changes by comparing applications for initial and repeat loans. The systems reviewed typically monitored changes in the client enterprises and reported key changes separately for men and women, but gave little information on their socio-economic characteristics. The study suggests that loan-tracking systems can often be implemented at a relatively low cost, and even simple systems can generate useful information for guiding programmes.
Microcredit in the Caribbean : Experiences & Best Practice-EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 Executive Summary : Microcredit : Experiences and Best Practice 1
Since the early 1970s, with the formation of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh by the eminent Mohammed Yunus, the microfinance movement has spread throughout the developing and developed world as a weapon in the fight against poverty. However, success of the Grameen model has not been followed by success in different economic and social settings. These failures have been due to several factors including a lack of appreciation of context (social, cultural and economic), and divergent missions between donors, MFIs and the poor. In some case the poor are excluded altogether as MFIs ‘scale-up’ operations to reach more ‘bankable’ clients.
Tourism in the Amazon: identifying challenges and finding solutions
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the tourism sector in the Amazon regions of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname and then discuss the manner in which tourism activity assists the protection of the Amazon rainforests. The paper also describes the manner in which the first World Hospitality and Tourism Themes Roundtable on Tourism in the Amazon is organized in 2009.Design/methodology/approach – Teams of researchers from the Ministries of Tourism, the private sector and academia in the Member Countries of Treaty for Amazon Cooperation collaborated to address, in ten‐page papers, the question “Does sustainable tourism offer solutions for the protection of the Amazon rainforest?”Findings – The paper provides valuable information on the current state of tourism policy and practice in the Amazon Member Countries. It also articulates the challenges that attend the development of sustainable tourism as a mechanism for the protection of the Amazon.Practical...