- The Foundation's scope
of action
- urban, rural and/or farm areas.
- What are ‘‘social business’’ enterprises?
Approach
The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation offers a combination of financial support and technical assistance to microfinance institutions and "social business" enterprises and projects. The human and financial resources that will mobilise to defend the cause of the poorest people make the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation a leading operator in microfinance.
>> Support to microfinance institutions
>> Support to social business enterprises
SUPPORT TO MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS
The vocation of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is to help MFIs
to become self-sufficient by providing financial support and technical
assistance.
Appropriate financial instruments
The Foundation will offer a full range of financial instruments to meet
the needs of microfinance institutions throughout the world, including:
- medium and long term credit lines, in euros, dollars and local currency
- full or partial loan guarantees to facilitate MFI access to bank financing in local currency
- quasi-equity, in the form of non-voting subordinated notes
- acquisitions of equity interests to reinforce prudential capital required by the local central bank.
The terms and conditions of remuneration of such financing will systematically take into account:
- each institution's repayment capacity
- the specific context in each country
- the cost of funds
- loan application review and administration costs
- non-recovery risks.
Services
The Foundation may also provide technical assistance with a view to contributing
to the growth of microfinance institutions and to helping them achieve
professional status by:
- sharing and disseminating best practices
- enhancing product ranges to include savings products, funds transfers, microinsurance, etc.
- providing management advice and support in the areas of governance, legal affairs; by submitting projects to local authorities or international development agencies; through management control, risk management, collections, reporting, IT systems, HR, etc.
- serving as a training platform for networking of managers, management training, study trips, etc.
- offering new technologies.
These services will be offered to partner microfinance institutions at a price that is compatible with their means. They may be billed below cost, with the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation making up the difference.
SUPPORT TO SOCIAL BUSINESS ENTERPRISES
The Foundation may dedicate a minority of its funds to financing "social
business enterprises" as this term is defined by Professor Yunus,
that is, to enterprises whose shareholders give up the right to make
a profit on their investment and instead seek to maximise its economic
and social impact on local communities, while protecting the environment.
It will help finance a variety of projects with a microfinance aspect, such as:
- selling products made by a group of farmers by marketing them through fair trade channels
- participating in innovative industrial social welfare and nutrition
projects, such as the pilot yogurt factory developed by Grameen Bank
and Danone in Bogra (Bengladesh)
>> More information on the danone.communities initiative
(website in french) - creating an enterprise to distribute products based on renewable energy technology in rural areas, such as solar panels or methane produced on farms.
