Winners of Round One of the RPPIC

May 6, 2008    

International Justice Mission (IJM), India
IJM works to reverse the exploitation of bonded labor. RPPIC funds will allow IJM to obtain the legal release of individual victims and facilitate prevention by offering microfinance and microenterprise opportunities, through local finance institutions, to formerly bonded laborers and those at risk.

Asociacion Benefica PRISMA, Peru
PRISMA is a microcredit NGO that uses Community Banks and Solidarity Groups and is developing a Risk Management Rural Credit Pilot Program for Small Farmers. The RPPIC funds would be used as seed capital for a contingency fund for the producer associations.

Asociacion PILARH, Honduras
PILARH offers loans and social services to family-owned small businesses, primarily in agriculture. All clients must live below the poverty line and rely on the business as their principal source of income. RPPIC funds will go towards extending access to land for the very poorest of families

Conservation International (CI), Mexico
CI offers credit services, business programs, and sustainable agricultural education to small-scale coffee farmers, all of whom live below the poverty line. RRPIC funds will allow the program, Eterno-Verde, to be replicated in Colombia via the Colombian Coffee Federation.

Small Farmers Cooperatives Ltd. (SFCLs), Nepal
SFC is a system of innovative cooperatives with a range of savings, insurance, and credit products designed to fit agricultural activities. RPPIC funds will be used to establish a trust fund at the Small Farmers Development Bank to support the replication of Small Farmer Cooperatives in remote areas of Nepal.

Bai Tushum, Kyrgyzstan
Bai Tushum targets rural businesses from disadvantaged segments of the population that are engaged in agriculture or service industries. The RPPIC award will be used in the development of a new product targeting disadvantaged women working in the dairy industry, providing loans to individual women to purchase milk cows and to groups of women to buy equipment necessary to successful operation in the dairy industry.

Kyrgyz Agricultural Finance Corporation (KAFC), Kyrgyzstan
KAFC has an extensive branch network that will be used, with RPPIC support, to offer a new product, microsavings. KAFC also plans to work with NGOs to better reach more of the poor and to educate the poor about the benefits of savings.

Mountain Areas Finance Fund (MAFF), Albania
MAFF provides financial services to those in remote highland areas with little access to financial institutions, by targeting isolated villages and adapting services to the needs of the people. The RPPIC award will be used to expand their geographical outreach, and to support the provision of a more diversified range of products.

Moldova Microfinance Alliance (MMA), Moldova
MMA operates in small, rural villages, establishing and supporting Savings and Credit Associations. RPPIC funds will be used to extend these associations into 3 new locations, and to install cash machines in the 20 best-performing SCAs, linked to their partner commercial bank.

Association pour la Promotion des Groupements Agricoles (APGA), Togo
APGA targets groups of low-income women. The RPPIC funds will be used to support the weekly credit programs that help expand and diversify clients' activities.