A Staff Story

There are a couple of options for where we do the Progress out of Poverty Index, either in group meetings or in the client’s home. Today I spent the morning working with Kasungu’s branch manager, Olivine, training her how to implement the Index in the client’s home and doing role plays. We’re going to be carrying out one set of pilots here at the Kasungu branch so Olivine’s input will be crucial.

It’s not just the clients who have inspiring stories to tell. Olivine started working for MicroLoan as a branch office assistant eight years ago when MicroLoan was just starting out, and has worked her way up to loan officer and then branch manager. She has seen the charity grow and has herself grown with it, and really understands MicroLoan and its clients. She says, “as long as MicroLoan is around I will be around. I am very proud of how MicroLoan has grown. My favourite thing about working for MicroLoan is working with the women, particularly helping them to develop their businesses to improve their lives. When a group is struggling I don’t give up, I keep coming back until they realise I am not going anywhere. I encourage the women.”

Agriculture and MicroLoan Foundation

In a slightly separate vein from my usual social performance management work, I’ve also been involved in setting up a partnership between MicroLoan Foundation and a local charity based in Mchinji, who focus on agricultural sustainability and food security for the most vulnerable. An agreement is being worked on whereby they provide the agricultural training and support and help groups access markets and form associations. MicroLoan will work in the same geographical area, providing its clients with loans and group dynamics/leadership training. The idea is that the most vulnerable in this area of Mchinji therefore benefit not only from better agricultural skills, but have more access to credit to buy inputs (like fertilizer) and support to market their produce more effectively after harvest.

To introduce the local charity to MicroLoan Foundation’s way of working, we went to visit a ‘tilime’ group. This is a special kind of MicroLoan group, who are given a loan not to invest in their business, but to spend on agricultural inputs. It’s made during the rainy season when most people are planting their fields. This particular group welcomed us in matching group chitenges (the colourful cloth women use as skirts) and exuberant singing and dancing! They told us that they used their loans for fertilizer to grow maize, legumes and groundnuts, and that their fields are flourishing. One lady informed us that this is her fourth loan, though her first tilime loan. With the first loan’s profits she managed to invest in a goat, with the second a bicycle, with the third she extended her house, and now she is expanding her area under cultivation with the tilime loan. The sense of group solidarity was undeniable. Recently when one member was bitten by a snake and forced to stay in hospital for a month, the remainder of the group tended her fields for her, harvested her crops and assisted her family.

Tragedy

I got home to my guesthouse last night to learn that the young son of one of the owner’s cousins passed away a few hours before. He was just three years old and died from cerebral malaria. Though saddened, the owner said ‘these things happen’. When you read of malaria fatalities and under-5 death rates it shocks you, but somehow this has brought it much closer to home and shows how much a part of life death is here.

Of mice and maize

Back home most food supplies are available throughout the year in our well-stocked supermarkets. Living here though you come to appreciate the availability and seasonality of food much more. We’re still mid-mango season, and avocados and pineapples are available from street vendors all around Kasungu. That said, the staple (maize) is in short supply. Now is the hungry season whilst people have planted their fields and wait for crops to be ready for harvest; last year’s stocks are dwindling and the cost of maize is rising.

I enjoy the local staple, msima (made with maize flour and roughly comparable in texture to mashed potato) with beans or local vegetables. One of my more adventurous attempted forays into local food, however, was an altogether less enticing prospect: mice on a stick (photo). I somewhat foolhardily agreed to try them as they are a local delicacy. However, when faced with the critters, looking uncooked, furry and in a state of toothy rigor shock, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it! They did make one of the guards of the guesthouse I stay at very happy though and he polished every last mousey morsel off in no time.

No pain no gain

Having just spend the day on the back of a loan officer’s motorbike, I now have even more respect for loan officers, who spend most of their days travelling on their motorbikes (come rain or shine) to distant rural areas to visit client groups. I wanted to attend some new loan application meetings, to see if they would be an appropriate setting for us to do the Progress out of Poverty Index in future. It was a very long day, and in the process every fibre of my being was shaken into submission on the bumpy back roads - everything hurts! That said, we attended three group meetings and I got to see the ins and outs of new member vetting and selection, the local Chief signing off new members (photo) and how loan sizes are agreed, so definitely a case of no pain no gain!

Rain, mud and flowery bikes

The rains have well and truly set in now, and though the South of Malawi is suffering from a lack of rains, here in the Central region the rains are looking quite healthy. Welcome news for crops. From a purely selfish point of view, it does make my half-hour walk to and from the office somewhat treacherous, as the un-paved roads are instantly transformed into mud-baths! It’s also very hot and muggy. Therefore I’ve recently been treating myself to a ‘kabaza’ to work. This is basically a bike taxi but there’s no roughing it here…it has a wonderfully comfortable passenger cushion behind the driver, and separate passenger handle-bars and foot rests (photo). It’s Kasungu’s answer to the black cab and a popular mode of transport for local commuters. They zip up and down the main and back streets during Kasungu’s rush hour, ferrying children to school and workers to the office. Depending which one you get they can also be quite bling, decorated with rainbow handlebars, up to 15 reflectors, a bushel of mirrors and carrier baskets decorated with bouquets of plastic flowers!

What works and what doesn't...

I’ve been testing some food security questions on clients to find out which ones work best – that is, give the best information, are easily understood by the clients and don’t take too long. Some caused lots of misunderstanding and took ages. I now know which ones I can discount!

All systems go

We’ve narrowed down what out social focus areas are going to be for the remainder of my stint out here. We’ll be looking at clients’ food security status as well as their poverty status (the latter using the Grameen Foundation’s Progress out of Poverty Index – more info at http://progressoutofpoverty.org/) when they very first take a loan, checking that training is taking place and what the quality of that training is, and getting detailed feedback from clients when they leave MicroLoan to see what can be done differently to encourage them to stay. The plan is to restructure the operations department whilst I’m here so they have the capacity to take on operationalising this work going forward.

Time to get stuck in – there are pilots to plan!

The paper-trail

I’m struck whenever I visit client meetings by how efficiently they fill in the various pass books and other records. Especially older groups who have experienced a few loan cycles need little to no prompting from the loan officers when it comes to doing the minutes, counting up the loan repayments and savings, and filling in the forms. At repayment meetings there are forms, receipts and booklets in abundance, and the women know they have to account for every last kwacha (photo). Those clients who can’t read and write put a thumb-print on the documents – other groups members help them out and explain where to make their mark.

Learning the ropes

I spent the latter stages of 2009 learning in detail what MicroLoan does, and now feel I’ve got a good insight into what everyone from the team at head office, to branch managers and loan officers do. The best bit was meeting the clients though and hearing from them the difference microfinance has made to them, from being able to send their children to school and feeding their family to building a new kitchen and buying a push-bike or a bed. They welcome visitors with exuberant songs and dance that are totally infectious!

My job with MicroLoan

I’ve been tasked with looking at MicroLoan’s ‘social performance management’. The Imp-Act Consortium defines social performance management as an “institutionalised process which involves setting clear social objectives, monitoring and assessing progress towards achieving these, and using this information to improve overall organisational performance” (http://www2.ids.ac.uk/impact/). Said another way, microfinance institutes are a hybrid of financial and social objectives. Financial benchmarks are relatively easy to measure – repayment rates, portfolio at risk etc – but social benchmarks are less tangible and harder to measure. I’m therefore working with the UK and Malawi MicroLoan teams to define what their social objectives are and putting in place piloting activity that will ultimately be operationalised. This will mean a better understanding by MicroLoan of its clients, a better ability to respond to their needs and therefore better social outcomes for the clients themselves. But that’s enough jargon – what I’m doing day to day will hopefully give a much better insight!