microfinance
New Kiva Borrower Profiles
Another deliverable I've written about that is on my Kiva workplan is adding new Kiva borrower profiles to the system from my microfinance institution here, Ahon sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI).
So what does that mean? I thought I'd do an A --> Z.
A borrower submits a loan proposal. She has to read the proposal in front her entire Center during the weekly Center Meetings (where the women also make repayments and talk about problems and have weekly social development exercises). The proposal has to be approved by her group (5 fellow members of her support team) and the entire Center (about 6 groups, so 30 women).
The loan officer accepts her proposal. Each branch of ASHI have weekly staff meetings. In that meeting all of the development officers submit the proposals they have received and talk about them with the Branch Manger and Accounts Officer. ***Specific loans are set aside for Kiva. These are loans that are for business purposes (not home repair or educational) and also strong members with good credit history.
The branch managers of a region all meet weekly with the Regional Manager. The regional manager has to approve all loans, sign each one and then submit for the checks.
Development officers return to a branch with what they call "Loan Releases." Each Center might have 2-3 loan releases a week. In order to release a loan (this is one of my favorite parts) the member has to stand hold hands with her Group and promise to use her loan for what she said she would and to pay it back. Her group vouges for her and swears that if she can't repay it, they will be responsible for her. It's part of the "group responsibility" that makes microfinance so strong and have such high repayment rates.
Kiva Specific! The development officer "interviews" the Borrower with a template form. Name, age, loan amount, loan terms (interest rate and length) married (husband name, age, occupation). Children (name and age). What the loan is for, how the money will be spent, what her hopes and dreams are, any other information. Takes a profile picture of the borrower.
***Note: Sometimes I'm here acting as a "stand-in" for a development officer so I do the interview and picture taking.
All of the information is given to the assigned Kiva Coordinator (again sometimes this is me) and we enter the information in the back-end of Kiva, a system called PA2. Sometimes based on internet connection this part is painfully slow. My MFI has really unreliable internet and I can often be heard whispering (patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue) while waiting for a picture to upload or the profile to save.
All profiles must be approved by Kiva! They have an extensive network of volunteers, translators and editors that review all loans. (This is why my picture above says "inactive" they need to be approved.)
Profiles go live!
As you can see, it's a process. It looks easy on Kiva for a reason! To make it easy for you to find a loan and fund it. But there are steps and levels and processes in place to ensure the quality of your loans.
I will write another post on monthly reporting and repayments! That's a WHOLE other part of the day-to-day here.
As with all of the items I write about from my Kiva workplan I'd like to emphasize that there are 37 Kiva Fellows currently in the field and each one has their own workplan and each microfinance institution might operate differently.
If you have any questions, comments, insights about this process, please leave a comment and let me know!
From behind the scenes, fondly yours, Sloane