Comments on: Financial Exclusion or Social Exclusion?

By: John Gitau

John Gitau — Wed, 30 May 2012 08:37:47 +0000

Lisa, your perspectives are awesome. Bringing your experience to all of us triggering our thinking toward possible solutions is a big contribution. Many people focusing on possible solutions can create quantum leaps of inspiration and you never know who can come up with an inspired solution. I am already looking at the brilliance of Getaneh’s idea of other grass-root service providers leveraging on microfinance intensive and extensive infrastructure and contact with the poor. That is already a model right there and Getaneh, you need to write a full story on it so that we can read and learn more.
I see your thought Lisa that” if we wish to achieve financial inclusion, we must start by understanding the world from the perspective of the people who we wish to include as blatantly true and undebatable. Monique Cohen of Microfinance Opportunities has been on this gospel for ages now and I believe that may have triggered the recently impact investment buzz, a realization that something more needs to be done if the poor people are to be helped faster and impactfully. However, if division of labor was to be honoured, I suppose its is better if financial education is seen as an independent intervention while social intervention is left to social workers who are perhaps better informed and trained in how to handle social issues. Of course I agree that the two are issues joined in the hips and cannot be separated and on reading Lisa’s article, one is left wishing if the two can be separated and dealt surgically separately. Given that finance is so central in all sectors of living, perhaps financial empowerment can help reduce the social challenges encountered.
Thank you for your useful perspectives and Getaneh, please pick up the gaunlet.

By: Getaneh Gobezie

Getaneh Gobezie — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:51:42 +0000

Dear Lisa,

Thank you very much for this insight. The GENFINANCE Team advocated similar points at the recent Microcredit Summit in Spain. I like your points …. that 1) microfinance should be integrated with ‘other’ essential support services to be beneficial for poor people especially women, and 2) that ”….microfinance institutions, often with deep roots in the community, are in a powerful place to do this.

To your second point, perhaps I can add – the microfinance sector has a relatively powerful leverage because … financial services (more so than other sectors, e.g agricultural extension, health, etc) demand that there be close communication, monitoring and frequent interaction between service provider and clients, and so contacts are so regular, can be daily, and often monthly and weekly meetings are a must. ….. So other grass-root service providers can use the microfinance service as a ‘platform’ to deliver thier useful sevices to the same poor cost effectively…

It is unfortunate that this opportunity is NOT often used effectively, and there is little integaration, because of lack of attention to the ‘holistic’ support that the poor need, as well as (in many cases, e.g in many African countries like Ethiopia) mis-understanding of the microfinance sector as being exploitative, politically motivated, etc, etc and lack of interest to integrate services. Regards, Getaneh Gobezie (getanehg2002@yahoo.com)

By: alexcountshaitibook

alexcountshaitibook — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:22:42 +0000

I thought this was an excellent blog post, another impressive contribution from Freedom From Hunger and the CFI Blog.

As an outgrowth of the initial client encounter in the blog, the author says that what the woman needs is “advice” which is another way of saying, “information”. Traditionally in microfinance we have thought of providing timely, actionable and contextualized information to clients through educating loan officers and having them convey this information. I think this is still a valid model but it has limitations. Among them, it is hard to customize the information since the loan officer can only learn so much and spend so much time giving advice and doing research. However, the mobile phone with appropriate, pro-poor/client-friendly applications can complement the capabilities of a loan officer an provide essential information on agricultural best practices, employment opportunities, commerce, prices, weather patterns, health care and much more. This is what Grameen Foundation has focused on in a few countries — in Uganda mainly around agriculatural extension (through our Community Knowledge Worker program), in Ghana and India around health care, and in Indonesia around matching job-seekers with jobs. The mobile phone no more than microfinance is not a panacea but it can be a powerful tool — one that can address the social exclusion and need for advice that comes out so well in this impressive article. We are pleased by the initial successes we have had and learnings gained. We have commissioned an RCT to amplify what we have achived and learned in Uganda, so stay tuned.

For information about the Community Knowledge Worker program, visit http://www.grameenfoundation.applab.org/AppLab-Ag.html

By: Millicent Crisp

Millicent Crisp — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:00:55 +0000

Very insightful article. It never ceases to amaze me how simple things are if we really take the time to speak to the end-user of our products and services. Thank You and warm regard, Millicent A.