Community Led Financial Inclusion in Burundi
- Economic development
- Financial services and markets
- Income generation
- Poverty alleviation
- Sustainable development
- Microfinance
- Rural
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
Founding Story
Sonia
Patterson
Five Talents International
, VA, Vienna, Fairfax County
, XX, Bujumbura, Muyinga, Gitega, Makamba, Matana, and Buye
More than 5 years
Five Talents won an online voting/social media contest in 2012 that awarded us $10,000, from the Giving of Life Foundation. We have also been recognized in the Catalogue of Philanthropy and received certification from ECFA and Guidestar.
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Operating for 1‐5 years
The goal is to alleviate poverty and address gender inequality by building the capacity of women in Burundi in the following areas: budgeting, saving and borrowing- resulting in improved skills for good resource management; the opportunity to establish community owned and managed saving and lending organizations; and basic business skills training- to improve the performance of income generating activities.
Physical and other accessibility obstacles that prevent communities from reaching financial services, The lack of affordable financial products tailored to the needs of underserved and excluded communities,, Other (Please describe below).
No need for guarantees, security of loans, external finance/capital, branch infrastructure; savings and loan capital generated i
About 74% of program members are women, while 26% are men. The majority of program members are recently accredited literate and numerate persons who were identified by a baseline survey and a community-led process as being the most vulnerable in their communities due to their social circumstances. They were also the poorest, and faced challenging circumstances. The program works in six areas within the country. In the majority of these contexts, there are no formal banking or financial institutions for money to be loaned or saved. Target clients include group members who were illiterate until recently and people who have land and know how to farm.
Yes, in rural, post conflict areas. We currently have a similar program in South Sudan which provides literacy, numeracy, business skills, and savings group formation for community members. This program is so successful, in part, because there is an established structure of trainers and facilitators to carry out this work in countries like Burundi and South Sudan, due to our partnership with the Mothers’ Union Literacy and Development Program (MULDP). Both Five Talents and the Mothers’ Union partner with the Anglican Communion worldwide to carry out their programs and this program in particular has been supported and endorsed by the Anglican Church of Burundi.
These savings and credit groups will spread throughout the six areas where we are currently working and touch communities which have not received the business skills and savings group formation training. There are about 30,000 people who have been accredited literate and numerate who are waiting to receive business skills and savings group training. Savings and credit groups will spread through imitation without need for Five Talents. The savings and loan portfolios will grow as the groups grow. Businesses will prosper through access to affordable loans that are reinvested in the community. Communities will flourish. Economic development will be clearly evident and democracy will be encouraged within the groups and practiced in the groups and in their communities.
We will need additional funding to pay for the training of community facilitators who would, in turn, form savings and credit groups in their own communities. Additional funding would also serve to cover the ongoing operating costs of running the program as well as Monitoring and Evaluation expenses.
To date, the program has 378 groups who have graduated into savings and credit groups and who have received financial literacy and business skills training. There are currently 8,459 members of the program with over 40,000 indirect beneficiaries. Now, group members, the majority being women, are able to carry out income-generating activities, including small businesses for their families in particular, and for the community at large. Because group members decide upon the policies and procedures of the groups themselves, democracy is modelled within the group. This encourages peace and attracts new members to the program.
We expect to have graduated 440 savings and credit groups by the end of 2012 when the funding finishes. This will have directly impacted close to 9,000 people. Indirectly, over 40,000 more people will benefit, as on average each client has five dependents. The qualitative impact is probably more significant because of the empowerment that comes with being able to read, save, borrow, run a business and provide for the family. This is particularly transformational for women, who are given knowledge and skills to face the daily challenges of rebuilding lives, communities, and civic bodies in a post-conflict environment.
By February 2013, the project plans to be reaching 8,800 people in 440 savings groups.
Community facilitators will need to organize groups of community members to join savings groups.
Once a group is formed, community facilitators will need to train group members in business skills and savings group formation.
Community facilitators will mentor these groups to ensure that knowledge from training is practiced within the group and that me
By September 2013, the project plans to reach approximately 10,000 people in nearly 500 savings groups.
Train an additional 110 MULDP facilitators
These MULDP facilitators will then start savings groups in underserved communities.
Train group members in business skills and savings group formation.
The Mothers’ Union is a global, grassroots network, of 4 million (mainly) women. Motivated by a Christian faith, they are concerned with the wellbeing of life in their communities. In Burundi they have trained over 30,000 participants to become literate. Once the members have become literate, they continue to meet in their groups, and focus on the development needs in their communities. We also partner with the Anglican Church of Burundi.
We currently have a program in Sudan and South Sudan, which is targeting mostly women. This program uses a similar model to the Burundi program with a goal of building the capacity of local people in literacy, numeracy, business skills and savings group formation with an emphasis on women's rights and civic responsibility in this post-conflict environment. Because of the strong local Mother's Union network, lessons learned from Burundi and the need for this kind of financial and business skills training in Sudan and South Sudan, we are able to implement this program with the Mother's Union.
Five Talents' work is successful because we emphasize building the capacity of local people and partner with community-led organizations and the local church. Local people are best positioned to meet the needs of their community and Five Talents is structured to support them.
We need additional funding if this program is going to continue to impact more communities and people in Burundi. We also need to ensure that our story is told via marketing pieces and through social media.