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.
A sustainable development indicator for NGOs and international organisations
The article offers an easy-to-use indicator for measuring whether NGOs, international organisations and government policies and projects meet the criteria for sustainable development that have been established by the Rio Declaration in 1992 and that are recognised by experts in the field. Use of this indicator reveals that most of the major actors in the field of development are actually failing to promote sustainable development and points to the specific areas where they need to improve in order to fulfil sustainability criteria. We also offer a sample test of the indicator using UNICEF as a case study.