The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's Credit Programs: Performance and Sustainability

This study examines the performance and sustainability of two Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's (BRAC) programs: the Rural Development Program (RDP) and the Rural Credit program (RCP).

The study discusses:

• BRAC's innovative program design to overcome market imperfections and economic dependency;
• Amount of subsidized funds and grants that BRAC has received from international sources since its establishment;
• A framework for analyzing the sustainability of BRAC's RDP and RCP;
• BRAC's institutional development;
• Estimates of financial viability and subsidy for the BRAC's RDP and RCP;
• Viability of BRAC borrowers.

It concludes that:

• BRAC must mobilize more members and expand lending per member in order to be more cost effective;
• Major constraint to the BRAC's expansion or continuation is its donor dependency. BRAC must increase its income and design development programs that are self-sustainable.