CGAP Annual Report 2008

CGAP Highlights for 2008

  • Three new projects were approved as part of CGAP’s Technology Program: a project with Nationbank in the Philippines to connect at least 12 microfinance institutions (MFIs) to national automatic teller machine and point-of-sale networks; a project in Ecuador to develop a shared technology platform for 100 MFIs targeting 750,000 client accounts; and a $2 million project in Andhra Pradesh to enable real-time accounting for 800,000 informal savings and credit groups and their 9 million members. Over the past two years CGAP has funded and helped shape nine demonstration projects, targeting 15 million unbanked people.
  • CGAP expanded its work on “graduation” pilots aimed at creating a pathway out of poverty for chronically poor people and developed a framework for client monitoring and program assessment. The program carefully sequences grants, assets transfers, livelihood training, and financial services. Launched in 2006 with the Ford Foundation, five pilots are underway in India, Pakistan, and Haiti, and four more are planned in Ethiopia, Honduras, Peru, and Yemen.
  • As of June 2008, CGAP was working with 13 commercial banks to develop new microfinance services or improve existing ones. These include EcoBank in Ghana, Syria Savings Bank, Cairo Amman Bank in Jordan, BMCE in Morocco, Forus Bank in Russia, Tameer Bank in Pakistan, Equity Bank in Kenya, and Banco de Nordeste, Microinvest, and Unibanco in Brazil.
  • The 150 organizations that make up the Social Performance Task Force agreed to a common set of indicators to measure social performance of MFIs. As of June 2008, 30 MFIs were collecting information on these indicators.
  • CGAP’s Information Systems Program, a joint CGAP–European Union program, helped finance 22 MFIs in 16 countries to conduct system assessments,select and implement a new software, or improve the reporting function of their current system. In total, more than 120 such assessments have been approved from 2005 to 2008.
  • CGAP provided analysis on the regulatory environment for branchless banking in 10 countries and co-authored with DFID a Focus Note for central bankers and other regulatory authorities. In the course of this work, CGAP consulted with more than 600 central bankers, other regulators, and executives from the microfinance, banking, mobile phone, and technology industries.
  • CGAP provided advice on microfinance-related laws or policy reforms in 12 countries: Cambodia, Laos,Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Argentina, Mexico, Syria, the Maldives, Vietnam, Madagascar, and Malawi.
  • CGAP conducted advisory work, regional policy fora, and awareness-building events on policies affecting access to finance in 14 countries—Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda,Mexico, Russia, Nicaragua, Syria, Afghanistan,Cambodia, Madagascar, and the United Kingdom—and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) region, and provided training to 200 staff of microfinance supervisory agencies in Africa.
  • Created by CGAP and spun off in 2002, MIX is the leading provider of business information and data services for the microfinance industry. As of June 2008, more than 1,250 MFIs and 100 funders reported to MIX (www.mixmarket.org).
  • CGAP launched two key documents for investors: (1) the 2007 Microfinance Investment Vehicle Benchmarking Report provided the first publicly available information on the financial performance of microfinance investment vehicles and (2) CGAP’s Microfinance Investment Vehicle Disclosure Guidelines, developed and endorsed by 35 industry and capital market experts, provided a standardized reporting framework to analyze microfinance fund performance.
  • Seven funders (ADB, CIDA, FMO, GTZ, KfW, SIDA,and UNCDF) participated in the pilot round of the SmartAid Index, a tool that provides scores on how well funders are set up to support access to finance work. These funders account for about one-third of all cross-border funding committed to microfinance, amounting to US$4.2 billion. Results from a second round of SmartAid will be available in FY2009.
  • CGAP published 20 new research papers that reached approximately 100,000 people. More than 200,000 individual print pieces and 5,000 CDs were distributed. And more than 100 CGAP publications were translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, and Bahasa.
  • CGAP staff spoke at more than 100 industry events, either headlining or promoting new research. CGAP provided background information for more than 600 articles by mainstream, regional, and trade press.
  • With almost 1 million visits, more than 4 million page views, and 50,000 monthly unique visitors from 200 countries, Microfinance Gateway is the most comprehensive online resource for the global microfinance community. With a library of over 7,000 microfinance documents, Microfinance Gateway consistently ranks at the top in Google searches for microfinance.