Grameen Foundation
Three billion people worldwide live on less than US$2 per day. Many lack access to financial products and services, which prevents them from taking advantage of income-generating opportunities.
Meanwhile, many microfinance institutions (MFIs) and other organizations that help the world’s poor lack the tools to determine how well they are achieving their goal of moving people out of poverty.
Grameen Foundation combines financial services and innovative technology to help people improve their lives and, ultimately, become economically self-sufficient.
Grameen Foundation works with local organizations that provide these services, helping them increase their efficiency and scale.
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A "microfranchising" entrepreneur in Indonesia. Photo courtesy Grameen Foundation
The Grameen Foundation partners with companies like Cisco, nonprofits, government agencies, technology professionals, community leaders, social investors, and poverty-focused organizations to help people take control of their lives and move out of poverty.
Cisco has provided more than US$2.1 million in support for Grameen Foundation technology projects, such as the Progress Out of Poverty Index (PPI) and the Mifos open source management information system.
More than 30 MFIs in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East now use Mifos to better serve their 850,000 clients. The PPI is used by more than 150 organizations worldwide, including Fonkoze, an MFI in Haiti that serves 57,000 clients.
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A microfinance client in Haiti. Photo courtesy Grameen Foundation
Grameen Foundation is a global leader and innovator in using mobile phones and mobile technology to provide business opportunities for poor entrepreneurs.
For example, the organizatoin has developed mobile technologies to provide banking services and information on healthcare, agriculture, financial literacy, and more to people in hard-to-reach communities in the developing world.
At regional Application Laboratories in Africa and Asia, Grameen develops, tests, and deploys mobile technologies that can be replicated in other regions.
The Grameen Foundation created the Mifos platform, a scalable open-source management information system that helps MFIs process and manage loans and savings accounts, track client data, and more. In February 2012, Grameen Foundation handed over management of Mifos to a community of open source developers.
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Staff at a microfinance institution in Kenya use Mifos to improve efficiency. Photo courtesy Grameen Foundation
MFIs and other poverty-focused organizations have increased their capacity thanks to tools developed by Grameen Foundation.
For example, within three years of adopting the Mifos platform, MFI Grameen Koota nearly quadrupled its portfolio size from US$7.8 million to US$30.22 million and grew its client base 275 percent, from 70,938 to 265,000.
An estimated 47 percent of people who participated in a mobile-based business opportunity developed by Grameen Foundation nearly doubled their incomes if they stayed more than four months.
And by the end of 2012, Grameen Foundation expects that 20 million clients will be assessed through the Progress Out of Poverty Index.
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Clients like this one in India benefit when poverty-focused organizations use Grameen Foundation's PPI to measure their effectiveness. Photo courtesy Grameen Foundation
