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PRO
MUJER is a non-profit, non governmental organization. It began
its activities in 1990, designing and developing social programs
under a participatory scheme, involving a technical team as
well as the local population. The institution was created
with the vision to "Develop Women's Potentialities"
and eliminate the attitude of dependency on assistance-oriented
programs.
In
1991, PRO MUJER implemented the program denominated "Training
and Development of Women's and their Family's Potentialities
" in the city of
El Alto. The women who participated in this program began
to request services that would allow them to adopt more concrete
actions, aimed at improving their standard of living. The
idea of establishing a credit program that would meet the
needs of these women emerged based on this need.
In 1992,
the program "Training in basic business skills and community
associations" was launched. During that year PRO MUJER
trained 1,500 women in the "Development of Potentialities"
and 500 women received training in basic business skills and
community associations so they could have access to PRO MUJER's
credit program.
In 1993
the credit program was reorganized based on the principle
of self-sustainability. To succeed in this new endeavor, a
number of structural changes were made to the credit technology,
increasing the responsibilities of field personnel and establishing
procedures to ensure efficiency. A year later the operations
were expanded to the city of Cochabamba. Three months later
PRO MUJER began working in two additional cities: Sucre and
Tarija.
In a parallel
manner, a number of initiatives were developed with the aim
of strengthening the existing services and meeting the clients'
demand. This crystallized into training actions in health
and coordination with health facilities in the region. PRO
MUJER also began to provide training to young women who needed
to develop working skills and access to job opportunities
through an employment office.
Financial
credit and savings services were implemented in all four regional
offices as well as non-financial services such as management
development and basic health. Each one of these services begins
with a pilot phase. This allows the institution to evaluate
the operational efficiency, the quality of service delivery
and the weaknesses with the purpose of adjusting them to each
particular surrounding.
PRO MUJER
offers financial as well as non-financial services, which
are provided applying an integral approach. Financial services
are provided using a methodology based on community associations,
and these include credit and savings. Community associations
constitute an efficient means to provide access to credit
to a significant number of women at the same time. The women
themselves do a large part of the work in the approval and
granting of loans and ensuring the punctual repayment of loans.
PRO MUJER
provides loans to community associations, which are formed
by 5 or 6 solidarity groups. The associations secure the loans
and manage them, through their board and a credit committee.
Additionally, this type of organization allows for the development
of a community-based savings system that generates profits
for the clients.
Loans
are granted in cycles of 3 to 8 months. The loans are sequential
and range from 100 to 1,000 U.S. dollars. They are subject
to a weekly repayment until the organization is consolidated.
Thereafter this frequency is increased to bi-monthly payments.
The groups of 25 to 30 women receive training in community
association management and administration. This initial training
is offered in 7 sessions. It is a participatory way to assist
and guide women in their efforts to form, organize and manage
community associations.
Non-financial
services are aimed at improving access to management development
and health services for PRO MUJER's clients as well as their
families, in order to improve their living conditions and
support them in their endeavors to overcome their social and
economic exclusion.
In the
area of health services there are also two components. Training
in preventive maternal and child health as well as sexual
and reproductive health. The second component is primary health
care. The institution has implemented health posts in its
different branches, thus the clients can have access to health
services when they attend their association's repayment meetings
or every time they go to the branch,
In response
to the constant search for efficiency, PRO MUJER has developed
an operational strategy that allows the concentration of a
significant number of clients in the branches known as "Focal
Centers". The Focal Centers allow the institution to
assert its presence in different geographical areas and facilitate
the provision of integral services.
By the
end of the July 2001, PRO MUJER had a total of 10 branches
(Focal Centers) in the city of El Alto, 6 in Cochabamba, 3
in Tarija, and 5 in Sucre. Additionally, in Sucre and Cochabamba
there are neighborhood centers, which will consolidate in
time into focal centers. To date the institution has 1,547
community associations, comprising 28,606 clients.
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Operational
Data
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Indicators
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July
2001
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| Number
of branches (Focal enters) |
24
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| Percentage
of female clients |
95%
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| Community
associations |
1,547
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| Current
borrowers |
28,606
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| Gross
portfolio |
US$
3,505,310
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| Default
with PRO MUJER |
1,31%
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The population's
demand and the enhanced quality of service delivery have allowed
PRO MUJER to grow constantly in terms of the number of clients.
However, the economic recession the country is currently going
through and the adverse economic conditions that the target
population is facing, have led to a slow portfolio growth.
The
benefits of the financial and non-financial services not only
reach the clients, but indirectly their families, above all
through the improvement of the family income and access to
health services.
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Microfinance
In Bolivia Today
At
times, market reforms fail entirely or have unintended
consequences for poor people. The lessons of these
failures point to the importance of designing and implementing
reforms in a way that is measured and tailored to the
economic, social, and political circumstances of a country.
Market-friendly reforms create winners and losers. And
when the losers include poor people, societies have
an obligation to help them manage the transition (World
Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty).
As
recommended by World Bank experts, this last one reflects
pointedly what microfinance institutions, and particularly
their clientele, have experienced in Bolivia.
It
is evident that market reforms as well as the economic
recession have not benefited "the poor". Supportive
measures to the market reforms, such as the Customs
Law and the eradication of the coda plantations, have
had direct negative effects on the economic activities
of the low income sectors of the population, already
affected by the severe economic crisis in the country.
The
results have been immediate as evidenced in the difficulties,
contraction, and bankruptcy of hundreds of micro-enterprises,
and in the increase of delinquency in the loan portfolios
of the financial system, particularly the microfinance
institutions that service a clientele living "in
poverty".
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By
Lic. Carmen Velasco, Executive Director, Pro Mujer,
Bolivia
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