Fonkoze Chemen Lavi Miyo Program

Implementers: Fonkoze

Pilot Overview

Fonkoze’s graduation pilot is called Chemen Lavi Miyò, which means “Pathway to a Better Life” in Creole. The pilot project served 150 families in three of the poorest areas in Haiti: Boukankare, Twoudinò, and Lagonav. Fonkoze partners with Partners in Health to offer health services. Fonkoze provides additional benefits such as support for housing renovation, and facilitating school attendance for participants’ children.

For more information on this pilot contact:  croenen@fonkoze.org

Implementing Organization Overview

Fonkoze is Haiti’s largest microfinance institution, serving more than 230,000 savers and 60,000 borrowers, most of whom women living in Haiti’s countryside. Fonkoze has 46 branches offering credit, savings, remittances, currency exchange, microinsurance (life/credit and catastrophic), literacy, business skills, and life skills training all over Haiti.

Targeting: Fonkoze selects families who are headed by women with children, who have no income-generating assets, who do not have any of their children in school, do not have reliable access to food, and are often hungry, and do not have access to healthcare or do not know how to access it. Fonkoze starts its targeting process with information gathered from members of the local community through a careful Participatory Wealth Ranking. Staff then visit the homes of potential participants, in order to verify their eligibility in order to ensure that Fonkoze targets only the ultra-poor who are not eligible for their microfinance program.

Consumption support: Fonkoze provides participants with the equivalent of US$7.00 per week for six months (based on the price of a kilo of rice a day). This amount is distributed in cash.

Livelihoods: Fonkoze provides participants with the assets necessary to establish two of four income-generating activities: goats; chickens; pigs; or merchandise to sell.

Financial service: Participants save in an individual account at Fonkoze. Savings are made on a voluntary basis, but participants are strongly encouraged to save regularly and to try and build-up lump sums.

Additional services: Fonkoze provides materials to construct: a 9x9 meter home with a sturdy roof and floor, as well as a latrine, and gives each member a water filter. Additionally, participants receive confidence-building, enterprise management, and life skills training. All participants receive free healthcare at Partners in Health. Participants also receive support from Village Assistance Committees that receive training in conflict management.

Research: Mid-term and final evaluations of the Chemen Lavi Miyo pilot were conducted by the Institute of Development Studies and BRAC Development Institute with funding from Concern and CGAP.

Graduation criteria: At the completion of 18 months (the duration of the program), Fonkoze evaluated each of the 150 families for their readiness for graduation. Participants could not graduate out of the program if they had a malnourished child, were too sick to work, or had a shoddy roof. Additionally, participants were evaluated according to the following criteria: participant’s family was “food secure” and had two income-generating activities; the participant had an active savings account; the value of the productive asset was US$150; and the participant has confidence and a plan for her future.

Graduation rate: Ninety-six percent of program participants met the above criteria and graduated out of Chemen Lavi Miyo. Of these, seventy- five percent took their first small loan (about US$25) through Fonkoze’s Ti Kredi program immediately after graduating, and others continue to join. Additionally, ninety- nine percent of Chemen Lavi Miyo participants report that they have confidence to provide for their families, and that they have made progress on their pathway out of poverty.

Scale up: Fonkoze expanded its activities to 350 households with funding from Concern and the Haitian Timoun Foundation in 2010. It reached 1,300 households in Boukan Kare as of 2012 with funding from The MasterCard Foundation. By the end of 2011, ninety- five percent out of 2,146 members had graduated and 386 had joined the Ti Kredi program. Fonkoze have an eventual target of eliminating extreme poverty from Central Plateau and are exploring how to expand through technical assistance to other implementing organizations.