Fighting Poverty through Microfinance: Democratic Republic of Congo

This document enumerates the experience of USAID Microenterprise Development (MD) Team's engagement with microfinance activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

It states that:

• The MD team's work with the DRC provides an example of the multi-pronged support that the office can provide to a field mission;
• The mission faced a challenge to their DRC programming in the late 1990s when most funding was directed toward conflict areas. This prompted MD to step in with Economic Growth funds to support microfinance activities in non-conflict areas;
• In September 2002, MD awarded FINCA US $1.2 million through the competitive Implementation Grant Program (IGP) to launch a village bank program.

The document concludes that:

• MD has consistently supported the DRC mission staff in identifying new program opportunities, evaluating services provided through RAISE, and developing two PRIME proposals and an annual program statement;
• MD expects to continue its support of the DRC mission's efforts to build a strong microfinance sector in this struggling country.