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”, 19th Century IrelandBormi Branch, Grameen Bank, BangladeshEkorchalli Branch, Grameen Bank, BangladeshBridge Foundation, Southern IndiaKarntaka 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