Livelihood Restoration through Microfinance
This presentation by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) discusses the impact of the 2004 tsunami on the microfinance sector and its clients in Sri Lanka, and describes how funding helped to revive the sector.
The after-effects of the tsunami on the microfinance sector included loss of records, loan portfolio turning bad due to death or loss of vocation and withdrawal of savings leading to fund shortage. The presentation highlights achievements made by CIDA and its partner organizations in Sri Lanka such as SANASA in rebuilding communities affected by the disaster. These range from quantitative improvements including better access to loans, increase in memberships of MFIS and provision of livelihood loans to qualitative achievements such as rebuilding the living environment of victims and rescheduling and writing off loans to help affected members.
The presentation identifies key learnings from SANASA, the largest microfinance partner of CIDA. It suggests the following measures for further development:
- Greater focus on human resources, staff training and capacity building;
- Launch of comprehensive livelihood development programs;
- Product innovation;
- Assessment of MFIs' feasibility plans to access commercial funding for sustainability.
