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46th
Grameen International Dialogue Program
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The
46th International Dialogue program, organized jointly by
Grameen Trust, Grameen Bank and Commonwealth Secretariat,
was held on July 19-31,2003. Twenty three participants from
fourteen countries including Bangladesh, China, Fiji, India,
Kenya, Maldives, Malawi, Swaziland, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone,
Tonga, Tanzania, Uganda, and United Kingdom, attended the
program. Among twenty-three participants, nineteen participants
including two from the Commonwealth Secretariat were sponsored
by the Commonwealth Secretariat. This was the 5th special
dialogue organized jointly with the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The program was inaugurated on 20th July at Grameen Bank
Head office. The participants underwent a six day long exposure
at Grameen Bank Branches located in the rural areas, where
participants met and interacted with the poor and had first
hand experience on microcredit operations on the ground.
Participants also visited the urban NGO programs on microcredit
funded by Grameen Trust in Dhaka city. Integrated Development
Foundation (IDF), Bangladesh, a GT partner organization,
presented its experience on the implementation of microcredit
programs in Chittagong Hill-tracts, a relatively remote
area of Bangladesh, where majority of the population belong
to ethnic minority groups which have been marginalized in
the past..
Some of the participants presented their action plans and
project proposals in the concluding session. They have expressed
a deep interest to follow up with more concrete action plans
in their respective country context after returning to home.
Some of them have indicated their interest to start a Grameen
type microcredit pilot project with collaboration from Grameen
Trust.
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Grameen
Basics Training in Tanzania |
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Grameen Trust,
Bangladesh and Presidential Trust Fund (PTF) of Tanzania,
jointly organized a training program on Grameen Basics,
held at Dar Es Salam, on August 28-30, 2003. The training
was attended by 20 participants from five countries. Staff
members from Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Tanzania and Bangladesh
participated in the training program. Professor H. I Latifee
and M. Alamgir Hossain from Grameen Trust, Mr. Godwin Ehigiamus
from LAPO, Nigeria and Ms. Joyce Hamisi and Ms Immaculate,
PTF, Tanzania, participated in the program as resource persons.
The training
program was designed to provide Grameen Bank replicators
in Africa with in depth knowledge of the essentials of the
Grameen Bank Generalized system. The training aimed to familiarize
the partner projects with tools and techniques of GGS, including
loan and savings products that would help them to implement
the new initiative, to reach the targeted poor, maintain
their loan portfolio quality, increase institutional efficiency
and impact on poverty.
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Workshop
on Grameen Generalized System in Nepal |
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A
workshop on Grameen Generalized System(GGS) was organized
on July 3-4, 2003. It was organized jointly by Grameeen
Trust, Bangladesh and RMDC, Nepal
in Kathmundu. Twenty three participants from eighteen organizations
attended the program. Most of the participants came from top
management of NGOs in Nepal. Different features of GGS, including
loan products, savings products, flexibility of loans, provisioning
and write off policy, were the main topics of the workshop. |
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Volvo
Environment Prize 2003 |
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The
2003 Volvo Environment Prize is being awarded to two pioneers
who placed people and their need in focus. Madhav Gadgil
from India and Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh have each
in their respective fields, created new models for understanding
and transforming the relationships between poverty, development
and the environment.
Professor
Madhav Gadgil is one of the world’s leading ecologists
and conservationists, a scientist who has conducted pioneering
work in integrating research on biodiversity, with the needs
of people and their communities.
Dr.
Muhammad Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in 1983, which in
an untraditional way provides small loans to villagers,
especially women, who would never qualify for commercial
credits. The environmental implications of the Grameen project
flow from its impacts on both social capital and women’s
empowerment strongly associated with conservation and sustainable
natural resource management.
The
Volvo Environment Prize was established in 1989 and amounts
to SEK 1.5 million that will be divided between the recipients.
Through the years, the prize has recognized pioneering research
on most aspects of sustainable development, which is especially
well exemplified by this year’s prize. The 2003 prize
will be presented by the EU Commissioner for Environment,
Margot Wallström, in a ceremony to be held on October
29, in Brussels, Belgium.
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Breakthrough
in Mobilising Savings
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Under Grameen
Bank II or the Grameen Generalised System, moblisation
of savings by the borrowers, has become an important function
of the bank. While there were both compulsory savings
(for example the group fund savings) and optional savings
under the classical system, some new and attractive savings
schemes have now been introduced. One of the most attractive
schemes is the Grameen Pension Scheme which is available
for GB borrower-members and also the bank staff. The old
group fund has now ceased to operate. But it is now obligatory
for members to contribute. Tk 50 (US $ 0.86) each month
to the pension deposit scheme, in case of loans that exceed
Tk 8000 (US $ 86). After ten years the amount deposited
in the pension deposit is doubled. The savings scheme
is so attractive, that there are many borrowers who save
multiples of Tk 50 per month. There were as many 1.9 million
GPS accounts in Grameen Bank till the end of June, 2003.
Balance
of Savings Deposits with GB August 2003 |
| Savings
Schemes |
Million
(US $) |
| Current
Deposits |
0.02 |
| Fixed
Deposits |
3.02 |
| Savings
Deposits |
59.34 |
| Grameen
Pension Scheme |
54.17 |
| Special
Savings Account |
32.95 |
| Doubling
in 7 years Scheme |
17.14 |
| Monthly
Profit Deposit |
2.57 |
| Loan
Insurance Savings Fund |
6.71 |
| Others |
20.35 |
| Total |
196.45 |
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In addition
to GPS, Grameen Bank now has a number of other savings
products. These include the Special Savings, fixed deposits,
doubling deposits in 7 years and monthly profit schemes.
Some of these are also available for non-borrowers as
well. June 2003 witnessed a landmark in Grameen history
when deposits exceeded Tk 10 billion. This would represent
77% of the total loan outstanding and a major factor in
promoting financial self reliance of GB. All GB branches
can now look forward to becoming financially self reliant
and earn another star, to mark attainment of branch level
self sufficiency.
Babar
Ali
Monitoring & Evaluation Department
Grameen Bank.
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Yunus has been
awarded a special medal by UNESCO. The medal designed by
artist Oswaldo Guayasamin and minted a few months ago by
the Coin Institute of Paris, depicts a beautiful woman’s
face shedding a tear. It speaks of the solitude, grief,
and anguish clouding the faces of women and mothers around.
This
is the first time UNESCO has conferred this medal. It honors
the outstanding world leadership of Professor Yunus toward
creating a poverty-free world.
UNESCO
also rendered a special tribute to the Mayor of Medellin,
Colombia, by awarding him the same medal, for his efforts
to establish a “Bank of the Poor,” as a strategic
instrument to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable
human development in his famous city.
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| 1. |
Muhammad Yunus,
Some Suggestions on Legal Framework for Creating Microcredit
Banks, Grameen Bank, July, 2003 . |
| 2. |
World Bank, Poverty
in Bangladesh-Building on Progress. Document, of the World
Bank and Asian Development Bank that contains the latest Poverty Assessment
Report outlining the major advances and challenges in poverty reduction
in Bangladesh, World Bank |
| 3. |
World Bank, Bangladesh:
Improving Governance for Reducing Poverty. This report analyzes
the causes of weakness in governance and how it aggravates the poverty
situation in Bangladesh. It also identifies the priorities in required
reforms. World Bank, 2002. |
| 4. |
Palli Karma Sahayak Foundaion(PKSF),
Annual Report 2002, Financial statement as well as
progress report of partner NGOs which have received loan funds onlent
to microcredit programmer in rural areas. PKSF, Dhaka, 2003. |
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