Chris Dunford on Empowerment and Social Capital
In his recent blog post ‘What is empowerment?’ Chris Dunford sheds light on empowerment as one of the pathways through which microfinance services can reduce vulnerability for poor household. In his endeavour of answering the question of what empowerment really means, he turns to his colleagues, Barbara MkNelly and Mona McCord, and their 2001 paper for Freedom of Hunger …
Economic Strengthening Pathways for the Bottom Billion
Last week 53 people participated in a three-day e-consultation organized by MicroLINKS and SEEP Network’s Poverty Outreach Working Group to discuss issues and challenges related to helping the ultra poor step onto the economic strengthening ladder. This was a very active and rich discussion, as all participants were not just there to listen but to …
Haiti’s Graduation Pilot final evaluation shows promising results
Fonkoze started Chemin Levi Miyo, or Pathway to a Better Life in Haitian Creole, in 2008 to tackle rural Haiti’s extreme poverty in a holistic manner. The final evaluation of the program six months after its end shows that poverty levels of members has reduced, and this is directly attributable to increased ownership of livestock (which went up by from 5% to 39%), improved housing conditions, and greater land cultivation.
SKS and Trickle Up “Graduation Parties”
This October I went to Andra Pradesh and West Bengal for SKS and Trickle Up graduation parties. The CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Pilots were launched in 2007 in both sites. After two years of training, handholding, taking on new economic activities, diligently saving each week, and facing innumerable challenges, most of the pilot participants successfully graduated from the ranks of the poorest. And though they all recognized the vulnerable situation they were still in, and how far they still needed to go, all they wanted to do on that special day, was celebrate.
Graduating out of extreme poverty in Haiti
“Chemen Lavi Miyo” –or “Pathway to a Better Life”–implemented by Fonkoze in Haiti is the furthest along pilot in the CGAP-Ford Foundation Graudation Program with 95 percent of the women having graduated in early 2009–18 months after they began in the program. But how to measure what it takes to “graduate” out of poverty?
