New Campaign Commitments to help end poverty: MicroLoan Foundation and Musoni Services
Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) April 30, 2015 -- The Microcredit Summit Campaign welcomes MicroLoan Foundation and Musoni Services as the 51st and 52nd organizations to make a Campaign Commitment, joining a global coalition working to help 100 million families lift themselves out of extreme poverty.
The Microcredit Summit Campaign’s 100 Million Project is building a movement among financial service stakeholders committed to helping to end extreme poverty through: public statements of commitment to action, expanding practices to reliably measure movement out of extreme poverty, and promoting innovations and best practices to accelerate movement out of poverty.
MicroLoan Foundation offers small loans and business trainings to women in Zambia and Malawi to work their way out of poverty. They commit, by the end of 2016, to successfully complete a pilot program in 2 Malawi branches and 1 Zambia branch involving 2,700 clients enabling improved client outcomes due to the following:
- Streamlined products which meet the needs of the poorest clients (living under $1.25/day) as well as more experienced business women who wish to grow their business
- Improved access to savings for emergencies and planned costs
- Improved support to vulnerable clients including formal rescheduling of loans
- Standardization of pre-disbursement and follow up training using adult learning methodologies
"At the MicroLoan Foundation," said Peter Ryan, founder and CEO, "we’re committed to ongoing innovation and learning in our mission to reach the poorest women and enable them to move out of poverty. This project is all about responding to client needs with products and services that enable them to overcome difficulties and improve their standard of living."
Musoni Services supports MFIs with its innovative microfinance software platform, the Musoni System, and is committed to promoting social performance management. "Musoni Services is…excited to be part of a movement helping to lift 100 million families out of poverty," CEO Cameron Goldie-Scot stated. "At Musoni, we fundamentally believe in increasing the amount of social performance measurement in the industry…By making it as easy as possible to capture and analyze PPI data, we aim to encourage MFIs to focus more on their social impact and also improve our understanding of the impact microfinance has on reducing poverty."
Musoni commits to the following by the end of 2015:
- To integrate the PPI Scorecards into the Musoni System enabling MFIs to easily capture and analyse social performance data
- To integrate the PPI Scorecards onto the Musoni tablet app making it possible for field officers to capture PPI data remotely, in both offline and online mode
- To develop the core PPI Reports and add directly to the Musoni System for all MFIs to benefit
- To encourage at least five of the MFIs using the Musoni System to start capturing PPI data, with the goal of capturing PPI data for over 50,000 entrepreneurs
Musoni commits to the following by the end of 2016:
- To encourage at least fifteen of the MFIs using the Musoni System to start capturing PPI data, with the goal of capturing PPI data for over 150,000 entrepreneurs
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About the Microcredit Summit Campaign
The Microcredit Summit Campaign, a project of RESULTS Educational Fund, is the largest global network of institutions and individuals involved in microfinance and is committed to two important goals: 1) reaching 175 million of the world’s poorest families with microfinance and 2) helping 100 million families lift themselves out of extreme poverty. The 100 Million Project was launched in response to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim’s call to end extreme poverty by 2030 and in recognition that full financial inclusion can only be achieved by targeting the extreme poor. For more information on Commitments and the 100 Million Project, visit our website or write to mycommitment[at]microcreditsummit[dot]org.
About MicroLoan Foundation
MicroLoan Foundation (MLF) helps some of the poorest women in the world feed their families, send their children to school, and pay for life saving medicines. By providing small loans (on average £60) and ongoing business training and support, MLF empowers women in rural Malawi and Zambia to set up self-sustainable businesses. The profits from these businesses enable the women to work themselves and their families out of poverty.
About Musoni Services
Musoni is a microfinance software company that supports MFIs with its innovative and award-winning microfinance platform, the Musoni System. As a result of pioneering new technology in microfinance, over the last three years the Musoni team has won multiple awards, including the award for "most innovative use of technology" at the Global Microfinance Awards (July 2011), and the Frost and Sullivan award for "Technology Leadership" (August 2014).
Sabina Rogers, Microcredit Summit Campaign, http://microcreditsummit.org/, +1 (202) 637-9600, [email protected]
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