Mali Poverty Outreach Study of the Kafo Jiginew and Nyèsigiso Credit and Savings with Education Programs
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F REED O M F RO M HUNGER RESEARCH PAPER NO. 7 Mali Poverty Outreach Study of the Kafo Jiginew and Nyèsigiso Credit and Savings with Education Programs Anastase Nteziyaremye and Barbara MkNelly May 2001 Contents Executive Summary ....................1 Introduction................................5 1.0 Clients’ Relative Poverty by Financial Product: Basic Needs Survey..................................7 2.0 Wealth-Ranking Exercise: Relative Food Security of the Current and Ex- Members of Credit Freedom from and Savings with Hunger’s Mission Education (CEE) ..............29 3.0 Poor Women’s Founded in 1946, Freedom Perceptions: from Hunger promotes “Self- Constraints and Help for a Hungry World.” Opportunities of Joining Freedom from Hunger brings and Participating in the innovative and sustainable CEE Program ....................49 self-help solutions to the fight Résumé Analytique ...................65 against chronic hunger and Resumen Executivo ...................68 poverty. Together with local partners, we equip families Bibliography .............................71 with resources they need to Index of Tables and build futures of health, hope Figures ...............................73 and dignity. Appendices ..............................75 ©2001 Freedom from Hunger Portions of this document may be reproduced with due acknowledgment Credits of the authors and title. Design Michael Curry/ Donna Justice 1644 DAVINCI COURT DAVIS, CA 95617 (530) 758-6200 FAX (530) 758-6241 [email protected] MALI POVERTY OUTREACH STUDY OF THE KAFO JIGINEW AND NYÈSIGISO CREDIT AND SAVINGS WITH EDUCATION PROGRAMS ANASTASE NTEZIYAREMYE AND BARBARA MKNELLY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY clients come from the relatively poorer versus the relatively better-off households? Introduction ! Focus-group discussions were held with CEE Since 1996, Kafo Jiginew and Nyèsigiso credit union members and nonmembers, all from households networks added Credit and Savings with identified as among the poorest in the community, Education (CEE) to the range of products and to answer the following questions: What services they offer clients. For the credit unions, obstacles prevent women from the relatively one of the main attractions of the CEE strategy was poorest households from joining CEE? Why its potential to better serve a relatively poorer is it that some women are able to overcome clientele. Although CEE does not employ specific these obstacles and join CEE even though screening mechanisms, it is thought that features such they come from the relatively poorest as small loan sizes, joint guarantee and regular households? meetings result in the self-selection of relatively poorer women. With a cadre of motorcycle- Findings equipped animatrices,1 the credit unions have used Basic Needs Survey CEE to extend services to smaller and more-remote communities. Applying the basic needs methodology for developing a poverty index, the CEE clients were The objective of this study is to determine whether the relatively poorest client category for both credit the CEE strategy improves the depth of outreach of union networks. This method is based on the the Kafo Jiginew and Nyèsigiso credit union population’s own perceptions, as the interviewees networks. The study will also examine the obstacles themselves define what is important to them. For to membership that may deter the poor from example, some of the conditions that the greatest participating. The study employed a variety of number of respondents identified as being a “basic quantitative and qualitative methodologies to answer need” that no household should have to live without three types of specific questions. included the following: ! A basic needs survey methodology was used to ! Having all the children complete the entire answer the question: Is CEE better at reaching vaccination series. relatively poorer households than the credit ! Having soap in the house for bathing and for unions’ other financial products? washing clothes. ! A wealth-ranking exercise was undertaken in a ! Having enough food in the household so if a child number of CEE program communities to answer is hungry there is something to give him or her. the question: What proportion of the CEE ! Having the means to honor one’s children’s wedding ceremonies. 1 Field agents. Research Paper No. 7 ! 1 Comparisons of the poverty scores across client reaching women living in households classified as categories: among the poorest and most destitute in the community. CEE clients vs. regular credit union members CEE improves Nyèsigiso and Kafo Jiginew’s One of the most striking findings from the wealth- outreach to a significantly poorer clientele as ranking exercise was how closely the wealth compared to their regular credit union members. distribution of CEE members mirrors the overall wealth distribution in the communities in general. CEE clients vs. clients of other financial products for women (AFCRED) In the absence of specific screening mechanisms, CEE clients were significantly poorer than the clients the wealth-ranking exercise showed that a cross- of financial products such as AFCRED that cater to section of socioeconomic groups will participate in a predominantly urban clientele. Of the five financial the CEE program. The relative wealth of the clients products included in the Nyèsigiso sample, the will mimic closely the distribution of wealth in the AFCRED individual loans for women had the highest community at large. For example, more of the average loan size and the relatively best-off client Nyèsigiso CEE households were chronically food- households. insecure than Kafo Jiginew CEE households, in large part because more of the households in the Nyèsigiso CEE clients vs. clients of agricultural loans communities in general had been classified that way. (PACCEM cereal loans and CCA cotton loans) Despite the program terms, a certain number of CEE clients were not significantly poorer than women from better-off households will join CEE. borrowers of financial products such as PACCEM And, despite their extreme poverty, a surprising and CCA that are designed for farmers. Actually, number of women from the poorest, most food- there was considerable overlap for the Kafo Jiginew insecure households will also join. For Kafo Jiginew, network between the CEE and CCA client some bias is evident in CEE membership toward categories. In this random sample, 23 percent of the food-secure category and away from the two the CEE clients came from households in which poorest categories. Still, this bias is relatively minor another member was a client of Kafo Jiginew’s CCA and the representation of each wealth category cotton loans. among CEE households is never more or less than Products that were brought to the villages reached 10 percent of what it is in the population at large. a relatively poorer clientele. Extending the credit Focus-Group Discussions with Women from unions’ services beyond the towns and large villages the Poorest Households in which the branches are typically located seems to be more important than loan terms or even Women from households identified by the wealth- preferentially lending to women in reaching a ranking exercise as among the poorest third in the relatively poorer clientele. community were interviewed further. Separate discussions were held with poor women who had Wealth-Ranking Exercise never joined the CEE program, with poor women In nine CEE program communities, local informants who were currently members and with ex- categorized all households into relative wealth members. The discussions revealed little to no groupings. Four common categories emerged: evidence of the poorer women being systematically Category I: Households Which are Food-Secure; excluded either by better-off members or by Category II: Households Vulnerable to Food program representatives. Insecurity; Category III: Households with Periodic Women in the majority of the focus groups believed Food Insecurity; and Category IV: Households that the program was designed for the poor. In Which are Chronically Food-Insecure. several instances, women referred to community The wealth-ranking exercise showed that the orientation given by the CEE animatrice who majority of CEE client households for both networks described the program as being meant for poor came from the target clientele represented by women to pull them out of poverty. categories II-IV. In fact, both programs were even However, some poor women were self-excluding themselves and chose not to join out of fear for their Mali Poverty Outreach Study ! 2 already precarious economic situations. In fact, savings” that are coming from their overall productive nonmembers referred three times more often to the and consumption strategies rather than simply returns poverty of their household than to any other reason from a single enterprise (Rutherford 1999). From for not joining the program. They also referred to a this perspective, the absolute amount of repayment lack of experience or a lack of means for starting an installment is very important and potentially limited. income-generating activity, fear of tainting their Considering that most of the poor have little or no reputation or the trust of others if they are unable to previous experience running an income-generating repay, and the pressure to use the loan money to activity, the first educational sessions should meet immediate consumption needs such as food emphasize business development to enhance their and clothing and other work responsibilities, skills and