SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Microfinancing the poor in Haiti
Microfinancing is effective in many communities, but what about those who are too poor to get started? Fonkoze is Haiti’s answer. Founded in 1994, it now has branches in all parts of Haiti, and supports women like Ytelet to get out of extreme poverty and into futures as business owners.
by Steven Werlin
F
ounded by Father Joseph Philippe and a network of community activists in 1994, Fonkoze is now
Haiti’s largest microfinance organisation. Father Philippe and his colleagues had come to believe that democracy in Haiti would depend on developing a more inclusive economy, so they established an institution that could serve as something like a bank for Haiti’s most excluded; its rural poor. Fonkoze began to offer small loans and a way to save, and eventually spread across the country. It now has 45 branches in all parts of Haiti that serve over 60,000 borrowers and hold over 200,000 savings accounts. Ytelet is one such borrower.
TOO POOR TO MICROFINANCE When Ytelet joined Fonkoze’s CLM program in January 2011, she was struggling just to feed her children and herself. She lived by farming, but didn’t own her own land, so she could never grow enough to get by. CLM stands for Chemen Lavi Miyò,
Haitian Creole for “The Pathway to a Better Life.” It is a program that provides the comprehensive support that a person in Ytelet’s position needs to transform their life. Fonkoze established the program when it learned that there
18 MARCH 2017
are families too poor for the usual microfinance system. CLM is an example of the ‘graduation
approach’; a poverty-elimination strategy drawing increasing attention. Developed by BRAC in Bangladesh, the approach is now being used in dozens of countries. Graduation programs have been studied extensively, and proven effective. They empower women like Ytelet to break free from the poverty traps that hold sway over their lives, by unlocking entrepreneurial talents that can pave their road to success. This is achieved by providing support in three key areas.
1
HEALTH. Many poor families were driven into extreme poverty by
sickness or death. When Ytelet joined the program, her health was a barrier. Poor nutrition left her vulnerable to even minor fevers, and unsafe drinking water caused her frequent stomach and intestinal problems. Eventually a fever confined Ytelet to bed. The nearest clinic was a long hike from her home and to get there, she needed to be carried in a stretcher. Her family went to a nearby traditional healer, who told them that Ytelet was doomed, so they decided that the hike wasn’t worth the trouble.
The CLM program assigns each family a case manager. Ytelet’s case manager enlisted neighbours to help him carry her to the hospital, and made sure that she was allocated a bed upon arrival. Less than a week later, Ytelet’s health had improved to the point where she was, able to hike back home. Few of the CLM program’s health
interventions are as dramatic as Ytelet’s, because its main focus is prevention. For instance, participants receive water filters and latrines (few have access to a latrine before they join). They also receive help to repair their home. All participants graduate from the program with a tin roof on their home, which protects them from tropical downpours. In addition, they receive weekly training in critical health topics, including vitamin A, hygiene, nutrition, and family planning. Finally, Fonkoze’s close collaboration
with Partners in Health (PIH) ensures that all program participants receive free healthcare at Partners in Health facilities. For Ytelet the care that PIH provided saved her life.
2
ASSETS. We say that teaching someone to fish feeds them for a
lifetime, but a woman who knows how to fish still needs tools. CLM teaches women to manage small businesses,
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