 Irish League of Credit Unions Foundation TCD-UCD M. Sc. Development Practice | NGO Project | Microfinance Initiative

Project Brief “How to improve the Global Profile of ILCUF as an Expert in Microfinance Provision and in Microfinance Research and Evaluation” This Policy Brief looked to: Research and convey current global microfinance initiatives and practices Discover current organizations involved within microfinance Identify potential sources of funding Formalize links between the ICLUF and current microfinanciers Evaluation and Benchmarking of ILCUF microfinance projects

 Background What are Credit Unions? How do they differ from other financial institutions? Sizeable movement across the world Democratic nature of Credit Unions Social Aspects to microfinance The current projects of the ILCUF

 Literature Review Focused on 3 articles “The Microfinance Illusion”- Bateman and Chang “Evaluation of Microfinance Projects”- Susan Johnson “Learning from Failures in Microfinance: What unsuccessful cases tell us about how group based programmes work” – Michael Woolcock Varied lessons to be learned from academic literature

 Case Studies Examines the successes and failures from microfinancial examples and identifies lessons which the ILCUF can learn from. Grameen Bank, 1976-Present “People’s Banks”, 19 th Century Ireland Bormi Branch, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh Ekorchalli Branch, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh Bridge Foundation, Southern India Karntaka Village, Southern India

Microfinance | Overview Microfinance providers (type) Microfinance providers (location)

Microfinance | Overview

Microlending | Current Initiatives  Spectrum of service vs. low returns  Core competencies vs. risk  Primary focus vs. borrower domination, supervision, competencies, transparency, government involvement  Impact vs Inconsistency & sustainability  Dilution of Financial & geographic risk vs. Appropriate management Private & State banking systems Traditional MFI’s Credit Unions Philantrophy MIV’s

Funding

Social Reporting

Conclusions Consistent, reliable sources of funding corellated to the ILCUF MFI stage of growth Mitigation of financial and managerial risk through expertise (hedging foreign currency risk, loan portfolio management etc.) Logistical Support Ensuring transparent local government involvement Exposure and involvement within MFI financial & social datasets (MIX Market) Social Impact Reporting Transparency