Marli Kasdan

Location / Country: Kigali, Rwanda
Organization: Hands of Mothers

Kasdan: "Overall, my internship experience with Hands of Mothers (HOM) was extremely rewarding for me. I learned a lot about development at the local level though the lenses of women’s empowerment in business, capacity building, and project sustainability. In addition, I feel that my work with HOM centered on deliverables and impact to our program participants. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the three cooperatives that HOM supports: Twiyubake, Baho, and Ejo Hazaza. I appreciate and recognize the many challenges they face, and I think that the HOM summer team was able to lay the groundwork for a sustained upward trajectory for each cooperative. My hope is that our team’s focus on capacity building through a series of trainings and workshops and our emphasis on promoting sustainable income generation has put in place the foundation for each cooperative to become independent from HOM and sustainable in the long run.”

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Hands of Mothers

“HOM worked with three women’s cooperatives in Kigali, Rwanda:

• Baho: raises kuroiler hens and sells eggs

• Twiyubake: makes hand-crafted leather sandals

• Ejo Hazaza: makes hand-crafted jewelry; applied for a grant to start a project to grow and sell oyster mushrooms”

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Deliverables and Impact to Program Participants

“During the internship, my deliverables and impact on program participants mainly focused on my work with the women in the cooperatives that HOM supports. Throughout the summer I ran a series of trainings and workshops along with my team members in order to help the women in the cooperatives improve their record keeping skills, sales skills, cooperative management and organization, and cooperative accountability structure. “

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Conclusion

“I thoroughly enjoyed my internship experience with Hands of Mothers in Kigali this summer, and I hope that I had a positive impact on the women we worked with and HOM. I gained valuable field work experience this summer, and I want to extend my most sincere thank you to Jerry and Yunie Blakeley for the fellowship.”

Claudia Cruz Leo

Location / Country: Hyderabad, India
Organization: Vaya

CLAUDIA CRUZ LEO: "Vaya is a for-profit microfinance institution (MFI) based in Hyderabad, India, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. The organization is the brainchild of former SKS Microfinance1 CEO and Tufts alumnus, Dr. Vikram Akula, who now serves as Chairperson for the organization and is a constant source of guidance and inspiration for Vaya staff. Vaya sees itself as “a next- generation financial inclusion organization”, as it provides financial services with a focus on integrating digital finance technology through the use of tablets for loan management.2 The firm’s aim is to enhance the livelihoods of underserved low-income women, mainly in rural areas, through the provision of financial services and financial literacy training. Vaya is operational in six states in India and is currently the only microfinance firm present in Telangana following the Andhra Pradesh crisis in 2010.

Throughout my nine weeks at Vaya my focus was on individual lending. Being a traditional microfinance firm, Vaya currently only offers group lending, or joint liability, products. After an initial discussion over Skype with the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), I realized individual lending would be a priority area for the organization. This hunch was confirmed after I arrived in Hyderabad, following an annual all-staff retreat in which senior management stressed that the organization going forward would begin to transition into individual lending.

My direct supervisor and I developed a work plan with three goals for the summer:

1. Investigate individual lending products and underwriting practices in India and around the world;

2. Design a survey to administer in the field and gain a solid understanding of the demand for individual lending products;

3. Recommend entry or delay into the individual lending market and propose a road map for next steps.

“In addition to conducting independent research, I worked closely with various department heads at Vaya (operations, finance, training, data management, and human resources). I made two visits to the field to speak with and understand the composition and needs of Vaya clients and staff. I also spoke with key staff members at competing microfinance organizations, e.g. Ujjivan Financial Services, Muthoot FinCorp, and others, to understand the approaches others in the industry were taking towards individual lending. My final recommendation was based on the Indian context with regard to individual lending (products and process); client demand; and the firm’s level of readiness.

Apart from this main research effort and market analysis, I also helped Vaya staff begin to think through how to design a credit absorption index to assess new clients’ creditworthiness, although this work was preliminary. “

IMPACT:

i. Vaya’s Staff

Vaya’s CEO was very thankful for my efforts in helping the organization move one step closer to cracking the individual lending puzzle. My research, which combined an academic and fieldwork approach, provided the organization with the groundwork and tools for conceptualizing an individual lending product and the new underwriting process. This is something for which the organization did not have the resources, human and financial, to do carry out on its own.

ii. Vaya’s Clients

Various colleagues at Vaya told me in my first days at the organization that their clients had been clamoring for individual loan products. Many of these women had already successfully completed various loan cycles with Vaya and other microfinance organizations, reaching the maximum amount they could borrow at one time under RBI regulations, and therefore wanted expanded opportunities to access larger chunks of capital to grow their businesses. I spoke to women who felt this way on my field visits. Others, interestingly enough, no longer wanted to be responsible for other group members’ repayments. The recent demonetization effort further exacerbated this issue as many women were unable to meet their repayment schedules, putting undue pressure on their peers to meet their repayment obligations. Although my ultimate recommendation was to delay the launch of individual lending products, I emphasized the need for the organization to put in place the necessary processes and seek the needed expertise to meet these women’s needs.

Paroma Husain

Country: Uganda
Organization: BRAC Uganda

PAROMA: "During the last summer I spent almost three months working with the Microfinance programme of BRAC in Uganda. BRAC is an NGO that started as a small post-war rehabilitation operation in the newly born Bangladesh in 1972, and grew to be one of the largest NGOs in the world. BRAC now operates in 12 different countries across Asia and Africa; taking its years of experience from Bangladesh in implementing successful models in various development programs such as health, education, microfinance, and community empowerment into other developing countries.

Uganda is BRAC’s largest and fastest growing operation in Africa. In the last decade, Uganda has grown consistently, at an average rate of 6.4 per cent. It has made significant progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals and is now focusing on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. But approximately 20 per cent of Ugandans still live below the poverty line and they are mostly concentrated in rural areas. While there are a number of financial institutions providing financial services to marginalised groups, they have limited operations in rural areas. With 147 branches all over Uganda and more than 180,000 borrowers served, BRAC Uganda’s microfinance program is one of the biggest in the country and it reaches out to the poorest in both urban and rural areas.1 Besides microfinance, BRAC currently operates programs in small enterprise, agriculture, poultry and livestock, health, education, youth empowerment, adolescent livelihood, and the Karamoja Initiative in Uganda. To date the programs have served 4.4 million people, which is almost 12% of Uganda’s population.2 Before Fletcher, I have been working in BRAC’s microfinance program in Bangladesh. This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to work with and learn from my colleagues in Uganda."

"My three years of experience with BRAC Bangladesh had made me curious to find out how well BRAC can apply its learnings and program models from Bangladesh in a starkly different country context. Working with BRAC Uganda gave me an opportunity to assess the success and failure of BRAC’s international scaling efforts. My overall conclusion is that while there are some things BRAC is doing quite well in its country offices, it can do a much better job in many other aspects. For instance, there is a clear cultural divide between Bangladeshi expats, who generally occupy higher management posts, and the local staff. While the highly standardised operational models were so crucial in BRAC’s amazing success story of scaling in Bangladesh, strict compliance of these standards can overlook the contextual operational needs in a different country. There is also a resource constrain in the mostly donor-depended programs of BRAC International that BRAC Bangladesh does not have to face. As a result,

many effective client oriented programs and monitoring tools that have proven to be effective in Bangladesh cannot be implemented in other BRAC countries. Based on several of these observations, I can make the following recommendations: (The suggestions made in this section are mostly based on interviews with clients and staff members and observations from field visits – which are often anecdotal and not grounded in rigorous studies.)"

Jessica Meckler

Country: Bangladesh

Organization: Social Innovation Lab

Jessica Meckler interned at BRAC’s Social Innovation Lab, a development organization headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Jessica’s specified role was to assist the Social Innovation Lab, which is nestled in the Microfinance department, with they Innovation fund for Mobile Money.

Jessica: “My internship solidified my interest in M&E, and the lessons that I learned while at BRAC will help determine my courses for my second year at Fletcher. I already rely on my knowledge from BRAC now.”

Heather Lemunyon

Country: Rwanda

Organization: AEC (The African Entrepreneur Collective

Heather Lemunyon’s role at AEC (The African Entrepreneur Collective) was to serve as a Global Business Mentor, or and entrepreneurship consultant who worked one-on 0one with AEC’s clients in business planning financial planning, developing strategies for growth, market and sales analysis, and and strategic vision.

Heather: “In every way possible, my time as a Global Business Mentor with AEC was outstanding. Not only did I fulfill all of my personal goals for my internship experience, I was allowed great opportunities to directly and positively impact the growth of East African companies that I hope will continue to grow, increase employment, and continue to develop this region of the world with such large opportunities and potential.”

Rachel Bass

Country: Myanmar

Organization: Golden Rock Capital

Rachel Bass worked as a summer associate for Golden Rock Capital, a newly launched private equity fund focused specifically on Myanmar and generally on the ASEAN region. She hoped to gain insight in the demands and processes of private equity, leveraging her background in Microfinance, further explore finance skills acquired through Fletcher coursework, and contribute to a rapidly growing and evolving Myanmar

Rachel: “I learned more about my own intangible skills while gaining a much greater sense of appreciation for my good fortune. I believe this awareness will help me infinitely during a long career grounded in social service.”

Tommy Galloway

Country: Myanmar
Organization: MasterCard, MDRI-CESD (Myanmar Development Resource Institute, Center for Economic and Social Development)

Tommy Galloway travelled to Myanmar with the goal of identifying lessons about the financial habits of rural and urban communities in Myanmar that could aid in developing better financial tools to improve Myanmar citizens’ financial stability. He partnered with MasterCard to co-author a report that identified ways in which these lessons could be developed into points of market entry as well as ways that MasterCard could contribute to ongoing reform in the region.

Tommy’s research team was able to successfully reach a range of communities in Myanmar, helping to create important connections amongst local organizations that work on social and financial reform. In his second partnership with MDRI-CESD he developed qualitative survey questions and conducted interviews to identify themes about the financial habits and needs of Myanmar’s communities.

Tommy: “Given my abiding interest in Myanmar before arriving at Fletcher, and my intention to focus on the crossroads of development economics and business while there, this summer work was perfectly situated to allow me to step closer to my long term career goals.”

Nate Stell

Country: India
Organization: PCI

Nate Stell carried out an evaluation of the OVC team’s vocational training model which provides services (skills, education, microfinance and life skills eduation) to street children, Orphans and Vulnerable Children through interviews with prior participants and key staff to determine if the processes being used are being optimized for success.

Nate: “One key attraction was that the focus of my internship was on designing and implementing an evaluation of a well regarded vocational training program. I was interested in developing a skill set in program evaluation because I am planning my career in the nonprofit management field.”

Sarah Ryan

Country: Paraguay
Organization: ACCION MFI partner Fundacion Paraguaya

Sarah Ryan focused on the Fundacion’s reading glasses microfranchise and investigated new microfranchise opportunities for FP. She was able to meet with microfranchises, loan officers, and potential suppliers. Her business plan suggesting strategic changes in order to grow sales and expand the number of vendors was presented to the directors.

Sarah: “It was extremely useful to get on-the-ground experience in a developing country… and to understand the cultural differences which impact the speed and implementation of new operational models.”

Max Mattern

Country: Jordan
Organization: FINCA

Max Mattern had responsibility for implementation of a survey of FINCA Jordan clients. FINCA is an international microfinance institution with a mission to provide financial services to the world’s lowest income entrepreneurs and so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living.

In this capacity Max designed the sample and survey strategy, hired trained and managed a team of five surveyors located throughout Jordan. He performed an analysis of the social performance indicators and wrote a report and presented his findings to the CEO of FINCA. The findings will be used to set poverty outreach targets and improve products and services.

Max: “Overall, the internship was an invaluable experience that will surely advance my career goals. I can confidently say that have experience managing a complex proess that employed logistical and analytical skills, as well as personnel management. …I now feel confident that I have the knowledge and skills necessary to begin a successful career in microfinance after graduation.”

Liz Henry

Country: Ecuador
Organization: Root Capital

Liz Henry was assigned by Root Capital’s office in Lima, Peru to investigate and formulate a plan for expanding its loan activity into Ecuador. Using her Spanish language she was able to engage with diverse stakeholders, include personnel international: agencies such as USAID and NGOs such as Catholic Relief Services, directors at the Inter-American Development Bank, representatives from commodity trading firms, employees and consultants at Ecuadorian government ministries, CEOs of SMEs and rural cacao and coffee farmers.

Liz: “Working for Root Capital in Ecuador was a perfect fit for my Blakeley Fellowship. I now recognize the crucial role of the agricultural sector and SMEs within development, as well as the importance of promoting access to finance for such businesses.”

Bernardo Goriupp

Country: Uganda

Organization: MAPLE (Microdevelopment for the Alleviation of Poverty through Learning and Entrepreneurship), an Oregon based NGO operating in Uganda

Bernardo Goriupp worked as Project Manager, responsible for design to implementation of a small scale fish farm. This included everything from technical and business modeling to investigating potential sources of funding to developing a business plan to be used for grant applications and for expansion.

“What makes me proud is that I left behind something that did not exist before… it may well be one the the things of greatest significance I have ever done. The whole experience was also very useful in serving my own careet objectives. I have a profound interest in the synergies between development objectives and business, in particular the role that the private sector can undertake to promote sustainable and long-lasting social progress.”

— Bernardo

Michelle

Country: Uganda

Michelle worked with two Kiva microfinance partners, BRAC Uganda and Pearl Microfinance Limited. Her goal as a Fellow was to ensure that each institution accurately represented Kiva and was utilizing Kiva funds efficiently. She saw how Kiva’s mission came together in the field and had significant involvement with top management at both MFIs.

The Fellowship reiterated my previously held belief that microfinance alone cannot solve problems in development, and that access to health systems, education, and good governance among other things, is needed for change to be sustainable.

Elisabeth

Country: Tanzania

Elisabeth worked for MicroEnsure, a subsidiary of Opportunity International, on a health microinsurance project for poor, small shareholder coffee farmers in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. She assisted the NGO with marketing and communications.

Meghan

Country: Nicaragua

Meghan conducted the Program Evaluation of a microcredit and sustainable agriculture program in Leon, Nicaragua for SosteNica, a U.S.-based nonprofit that funds sustainable agriculture and development initiatives in rural Nicaragua . As the Evaluation Consultant, Meghan developed and conducted an assessment of the socio-economic and environmental impact of this pilot program on its participants.

Jenya

Country: Kyrgyzstan

Jenya worked at Kompanion, a Microfinance Company established by Mercy Corps. She worked on monitoring and evaluating agricultural extension programs that Kompanion carries out as part of its development mission and also provided recommendations on how to develop a social performance management system for the company.

Cheney

Country: Sri Lanka

Cheney served as the bridge between Kiva, BRAC, micro-entrepreneurs and lenders to streamline the loan posting process, monitor and evaluate repayment schedules to improve the new and emerging micro-finance industry in Sri Lanka.

Qiamuddin

Country: Afghanistan

Qiamuddin researched the prospects for small renewable energy enterprises and the role that micro-finance can play in providing capital to small entrepreneurs to develop this industry in Afghanistan and provided recommendations to First Micro-finance Bank.

Rebecca

Region: Central America

Rebecca worked for FINCA: interviewing 300 micro-finance loan recipients for their feedback on their experiences accessing and repaying funds, and the impact on of the loans on business growth. Findings were presented to the CEO of FINCA.

Danielle / Courtney

Country: Peru

Danielle Cooperated with ACCION Investments to analyze their micro-finance portfolio and performance indicators and to recommend client protection policies.

Courtney worked with NGO’s partnering with KIVA, a web based NGO partnering with MFI’s in over 40 countries, interviewing borrowers and evaluated their needs. She also trained local staff about KIVA.