Sustainable Approacheswith the Ultra poor

Grameen Foundation’s workwith the poor and poorest

Camilla Nestor, VP Financial ServicesGrameen Foundation

SEEP 2012 Annual Conference Building Inclusive Markets: Impact Through Financial

and Enterprise Solutions

SEEP 2012 Annual Conference Building Inclusive Markets: Impact Through Financial and Enterprise Solutions

Poverty Levels

Total PT Ruma clients: 15,000

Total BASIX clients: 200

Total CKW clients: 114,218

PT Ruma Indonesia

% below $1.25 9% 18.1%

% below $2.50 62% 46.1%

CKW Uganda

% below $1.25 43.6% 38%

BASIX India

% below $1.25 88.9% 32.7%

% below $2.00 98.6% 68.7%

National poverty rates from World Bank indicators

SEEP 2012 Annual Conference Building Inclusive Markets: Impact Through Financial and Enterprise Solutions

Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs)

• Real-time feedback loop

• Poverty & livelihood data, disease trends

• On-demand impact tracking

• Research and market data collection

• Validated results• Automated web-

based tools, analytics and dashboards (current dashboard is here: http://grameenfoundation.force.com/ckw/apex/Dashboard?sfdc.tabName=01r70000000HaJA)

CKWs provide information on 35 crops , 6 types of livestock, weather, quality standards; MobileMoney agent locations; market prices;seed suppliers

Sourced from and reviewed by experts

SEEP 2012 Annual Conference Building Inclusive Markets: Impact Through Financial and Enterprise Solutions

PT Ruma “Business in a Box”

Technology Platform

Proven Business Model

Established Brand

Working Capital

Training & Support

Idea “What business should I start?”

Skills & Confidence “How do I start and run the business? How to plan for growth?”

Capital“Where do I get the money to start and grow the business?”

Key success factors in starting a business….

… microfranchise “business in a box” solution

SEEP 2012 Annual Conference Building Inclusive Markets: Impact Through Financial and Enterprise Solutions

Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest (LPP)in partnership with BASIX

• Livelihood training, credit and savings services all delivered through adapted self-help groups (ASHGs)

• Sequenced skills, knowledge and self-confidence building• Livelihood development

– Incense stick rolling– Rooftop gardening– Goat rearing and poultry

management training

• Innovative lending model• Inter-group savings

– Groups with large sums of moneyopened formal savings accounts

SEEP 2012 Annual Conference Building Inclusive Markets: Impact Through Financial and Enterprise Solutions

Global Lessons Learned

• Reaching the poorest, particularly women, requires extra effort and creative approaches– Targeting and segmenting– Women’s time restrictions, cultural

inequalities, and lack of self-confidencerequire creative solutions

• Business performance is equallystrong across poor and poorestclients – supporting the business case for working with the poorest- In some cases the poorest require

additional training

05/02/2023

Targeting: Failures ... and a Success

FAILURES Field officers “plus” “Special” field staff to

recruit the poorest Working through

partners Using government

identity cards

SUCCESS Empower existing female

Ruma entrepreneur to recruit poorest• The women were seen

as trusted peers

SEEP 2012 Annual Conference Building Inclusive Markets: Impact Through Financial and Enterprise Solutions

In terms of recruiting the poorest entrepreneurs –PT Ruma hit a few stumbling blocks before figuring out what worked:

Poverty level has not been a good predictor of performance

8

Business Performance of RUMA Enterpreneurs

SEEP 2012 Annual Conference Building Inclusive Markets: Impact Through Financial and Enterprise Solutions

Project Lessons Learned

•

•The women in the BASIX project are very successful savers: in the first 9 months, the 130 participants saved about $776 or $6 each. 9 out of 13 ASHGs opened a formal bank account• Trust is gained through

building confidence, not just through cash hand-outs

• Poverty does notcorrelate with acreage• Poorest are more voracious users of the information• No difference in performance levels between poorest CKW and less poor

• No relationship between entrepreneurs’ poverty leveland activity level• Female entrepreneurs are trusted recruiters