Access to Credit for Poor Women: A Scale-up Study of Projects Carried out by Freedom from Hunger in Mali and Ghana

Freedom from Hunger's (FFH) program has attempted to transfer a modified version of the village bank methodology used by FINCA in Latin America into an African context, extending credit only model to include hunger-prevention education. The paper discusses:

• FFH's project methodology;
• Why the program was designed and implemented differently in Mali and Ghana, examining how this explains difference in level of gains and changes reached in the two countries;
• Action and expansion plans for the pilot projects in Mali and Ghana;
• Impact assessment of the programs.

The paper concludes that:

• Certain laws of poverty lending must be followed if projects are to be successful - including keeping loan sizes small, frequent repayment on loans and peer-group analysis, approval of loan activities, guarantee of loan repayment, and, above all, good management;
• Credit linked to hunger-related education increases probability of poor women adopting these practices;
• When FFH's techniques are perfected and documented they can be used by other agencies and in other countries.