Breakthroughs are core to our history. They go back to the first use of microcredit by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. Beginning in 1970s, this breakthrough showed that microfinance could empower a woman and create a hopeful future for her family.

Professor Yunus established Grameen Bank as a bank for the poor in Bangladesh, and later provided a seed grant of USD6,000 to establish the independent US-based global nonprofit Grameen Foundation. It began work in India in 1998, and in 2010 established Grameen Foundation India.

We continued to innovate in the microfinance field while also developing digital technologies that help the rural poor, especially women, to access financial services, improve their livelihoods, and protect their health.

Our work in India has:

• Enrolled 160,000 Micro-savers at Cashpor through BC Model; a/c dormancy rate of only 20% vs. national average of 80%

• Enrolled 58,646 women in a digital microloan repayment program in Uttar Pradesh, India

• Reached 30,236 women with microloans to improve their livelihoods

Who are

we?

Grameen Foundation India’s mission is to enable the poor, especially women, to create a world without poverty and hunger

Our Mission

• Helped Margdarshak reduce turn around time in Loan process by 24%; helped them create next line of business managers for expansion with MDP

• Managed Sonata Financial Services launch digital payment solution in partnership with Oxigen, partnership now clocking monthly GTV of 60 lacs

• Trained over 100,000 clients on Digital Financial Literacy

• Increase client stickiness for CSI and Shikhar by providing credit+ solutions

• Provided critical maternal and child health information to > 68,000 poor women and > 153,000 health workers

• Championed poverty measurement as an integral Social Performance Management metric in India; 30+ organizations using the PPI

• Enhanced leadership and management skills of 5000+ field managers across 56 organizations in 12 countries

Breakthroughs continue today, as we develop customized poverty-alleviation solutions that leverage digital technology and trusted intermediaries to reach the “last mile.”

As an organization, we aim to work with the poor wherever they are. In recent years, much of our work in India has focused on poor women in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We leverage on the learnings and expertise of our colleagues who work in very diverse environments.

In Asia, Grameen Foundation is developing and replicating new business models, with a specific focus on innovations in mobile financial and information services designed to serve the poor in India and in the Philippines.

Grameen Foundation India aims to work with the poor, wherever they are. In recent years, much of our work has focused on women in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We leverage on the learnings and expertise of our colleagues who work in very diverse environments.

In Asia, Grameen Foundation also works in the Philippines and Indonesia, developing new business models and tools to serve poor rural communities, with a dual focus on mobile financial services and digital innovation for agriculture.

Around the globe, Grameen Foundation concentrates its work in countries where large populations experience extreme poverty and chronic hunger, and where wide disparities of wealth marginalize many, including a number of countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Where do we work?

INDIA

Lucknow, Uttar PradeshPatna, Bihar

Client Insights & Social PerformanceGFI demonstrates leadership in ensuring that the poor remain central to the financial inclusion agenda in the country, in particular, through application of the Poverty Measurement Tool - Progress Out Of Poverty Index (PPI). We provide advisory services to research, collect, and analyze client/beneficiary data to help organizations make informed business decisions that are pro-poor and suited to their needs.

GFI has used its technology expertise to improve access to health information and services. In January 2016, India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched a national mobile health program powered by Grameen Foundation’s MoTech software platform to promote health behaviors - behaviors that can sometimes make a difference between life and death for young mothers and their infants.

One service on the platform, Mobile Kilkari, directly calls pregnant women and mothers on their mobile phones, delivering crucial health information targeted to their stage of pregnancy or their infant’s age. It aims to reach at least 10 million women, and as of October 2016, 996,913 mothers and pregnant women received the information and 991,118 users are active and currently receive health messages on weekly basis.

Financial ServicesGFI builds and delivers digital financial services solutions that are relevant for poor clients and commercially viable for financial service providers. These solutions include designing new products and improving current ones, partnering with trusted entities to provide financial literacy to end beneficiaries, and building networks that enable community-based rural agents to serve as banking agents.

Our institutional partners include commercial banks, mobile network operators, and microfinance institutions. We also provide customized consulting services in this domain.

Bankers without BordersOur Bankers without Borders® BwB® initiative aims to harness the skills and services of the world’s brightest minds and institutions to support social entrepreneurs working with the poor. We partner with Fortune 500 companies such as JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Google, higher education institutions, and professional associations to connect social enterprises with talented professionals in such areas as banking, financial analysis, technology, marketing, and human resources.

Mobile Health

People Solutions

GFI through its program, Through its People Solutions program, GFI ensures that Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) leverage their human resources appropriately to achieve their mission and business goals. This is achieved by capacity building and leadership trainings of the field officers.We provide services such as strategic human resource management as well as advisory services that produce the employee competencies and behaviors an organization requires, which are intrinsic to achieving their strategic goals. We recently launched an e-learning app, G-LEAP, which equips frontline staff with the information and skills need for cost-effective operations.

30 microfinance institutions trained on poverty measurement tools, analytics &

application of such data as business intelligence

1,000 managers were provided enhanced leadership and management skills

996,913 mothers and pregnant women connected through project

KilkariStr

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What doesGrameen Foundation India Offer?

Innovations

ChangeManagement

OurOfferings

BusinessModel

Development

BusinessProcess

Re-engineering

TechnologyImplementation

FinancialLiteracy

andEducation

ClientCentred

ResearchDesign

Innovations

We innovate in two main areas to expandfinancial inclusion:

• Digital financial products and services for the poor

• New delivery channels to reach the last mile

Our Innovations

Integrated Mobile Financial Services and Education Delivery:

GFI is executing an innovative partnership between Sonata Finance Pvt. Ltd., a microfinance institution and Oxigen, a payment partner, to route MFI repayments through mobile money. This repayment system acts as an introductory transaction, enabling clients to develop their mobile financial capability as well as to start using mobile money to access digital financial services. The project is designed to let Sonata reduce the cash management burden and focus on its core strength as a trusted intermediary to develop the financial capability of the clients and on delivering financial services to the poor. Meanwhile, Oxigen focuses on providing a digital transaction channel to the poor. GFI enabled selection of the appropriate payments partner, negotiating the terms of partnership, piloting the model, training staff and clients and mapping data and financial flows between the two partners.

Bringing Mainstream Banking to the Doorstep of the Poor -Microfinance Institution- Business Correspondent (MFI-BC) Model Transformation:

GFI is bringing mainstream banking to the doorstep of the poor through this project. GFI is helping an Indian MFI, Margdarshak Financial Services Ltd (MFSL) transform from an organization focused on credit alone into a sustainable and scalable business correspondent of a commercial bank. MFSL will act as an agent for the bank, enabling it to provide savings and other services to at least 40,000 poor women in the state of Uttar Pradesh. GFI worked with the MFI at the strategic level in developing a business correspondent strategy and diversifying banking partnerships for the business correspondent channel, which led to two additional banking partnerships. In addition, GFI provided technical support on technology development, business process re-engineering, change management, staff and client training.

Scaling Digital Financial Services: Research and Innovation

This program is working to research the financial context of beneficiaries from the rural and urban communities and aims to develop a financial capability for households from low income groups, by assessing their financial status and creating an ecosystem to enable behavior change in using banking services. It also aims to generate acceptance of the digital channel among the poor.

Microsavings Delivery through Business Correspondent Model:

Savings is a crucial element of financial services that meet the needs of the poor for accessibility, affordability and convenience. Through this project, GFI applied the Business Correspondent approach to expand mobile savings services for the poor, working with Cashpor Micro Credit, a microfinance institution operating in two of India’s poorest states – Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. GFI provided project management, change management, staff and client training content and processes for data and financial flows between the partners.

58,646 have e-wallets on their mobile phones

160k microsaving clients acquired by Cashpor within three years

30,236 poor households given access to credit from mainstream banks and microfinance institutions

Stories of ChangeKula and her eleven member household had struggled to make ends meet for years. Only employed seasonally and facing high medical expenses, the family was forced to sell their only property. Kula recognized the opportunity for change in a loan from Cashpor. She used her first loan of Rs.6000 (US$130) to purchase a cow to sell milk, and is now running a profitable business that has grown rapidly since that first loan. After paying back four loans totaling Rs.50,000 (US$1100), she makes more than Rs.1,000 (US$22)in sales daily. Kula has not only built a lucrative business, but a new home for her family on a plot of land they recently purchased.

Kula Prajapati

Vidya lives in Gadhaganj, Uttar Pradesh, India. She has four grown children. Her eldest son is 35 and works as an electrician. Two of her children aged 30 and 25 live in Mumbai and her youngest son, 22 years old works as a driver. Vidya has been borrowing loans from Sonata for 6-7 years and this is her 5th loan cycle. She has used the loans for agriculture. The family owns their own land where they grow beets and rice. They also have a buffalo and a cow. The loans have allowed them to invest in their farming practice and increase their income. They have also started a commercial enterprise in the house, selling wood. In addition, they also own a small shop. These loans are further helping Vidya in saving to invest in a house and to pay for her youngest son’s wedding.

Vidya

Rajwati is a mother of four. Her husband was a daily laborer who worked in construction before meeting with an accident. Due to this, they were unable to pay the school fees which led to her older two children dropping out of school.

Now her husband is back at work and she is firm that her younger children will at least finish their high school education. Her children’s education is her first priority. She says, “They have to go to school and study.”

With a loan from Sonata, Rajwati was able to purchase a buffalo, and she now sells milk to pay the school fees. She is planning to buy another buffalo to grow her business, hoping to send her children past high school.

Rajwati

Reeta received a loan from Margdarshak, a micro-finance institution in India. She found out about the organization when she saw a meeting taking place in her town.

Even though Reeta is well educated, she had chosen to get a loan from Margdarshak, instead of the traditional banks, because it was much easier to get one from Margdarshak.

With the loan, she plans to open a new boutique. Before she got married, her family owned a boutique where she helped in the business by stitching and selling clothes to a market. Now, she has an automatic sewing machine and can buy more materials, which makes her very excited to stitch and design her clothes again.

She is now saving for a good education for her three children, aged between 1-2 years.

Reeta

Wajira and her husband Mohammad live on the outskirts of Allahabad, with their four young children, aged between 3-11 years.

Mohammad used to work as a bicycle repair man but because people are using fewer bikes now, his business has become less lucrative. Wajira was able to get a loan from Margdarshak and she used it to buy a sewing machine, which allowed Mohammad to start his business as a tailor. This is far more lucrative than repairing bicycles. They hope to grow the business by taking another loan to buy more machines and hire more employees.

Wajira took a second loan and bought a cow with the money. Their cow gives about three liters of milk a day. They keep one liter for the house and sell the other two liters to earn some more money. Wajira keeps her savings in an Indian National Bank. They have been using this service for a while, but do not have any insurance.

Neither Wajira nor her husband are educated, but they are keen to save money to educate their children.

Wajira

Our Partners

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www.grameenfoundation.in

info@grameenfoundation.in (+91) 124-4100702/3