Major Award for an ECLOF Leader
Pilar Ramirez, of ECLOF Bolivia and a leading figure within the global ECLOF family, has won a prestigious prize for her work within the field of micro finance.

The Inter-American Development Bank has awarded Ms Ramirez, who is president of Fondo Financiero Privado FIE S.A. of La Paz, its Excellence in Social Entrepreneurship Award. More than 100 candidates took part in the Inter-American Awards for Microenterprise Development, which has five sections. A prize giving ceremony was held in Barcelona, Spain on 19 October at the invitation of the Catalonian President Jordi Pujol.

The citation for Ms Ramirez describes her as a pioneer of microlending in Bolivia and a “trailblazer” in promoting the cause of microenterprise in her country. “She has also been a leading advocate of policies and programmes for women in Latin America. FIE has become a self-supporting financial institution with branches in seven of Bolivia’s nine departments. Among other innovations, FIE was the first Bolivian microfinance institution to offer its clients housing and home improvement loans.”

Bolivia
ECLOF Bolivia has a new president. Ana Verónica Ramos Morales is an economist and agricultural development specialist. She is currently visiting professor at the University of San Andrés. Ms Morales played a major role in consolidating the rural credit development programme of the Episcopal Conference of Bolivia, one of the most successful programmes of its kind in the country. She says that her most important contribution in the area of micro finance in Bolivia was to prove that a programme geared to meet the credit needs of the poorest could maintain its mission in the face of increasing pressures to achieve financial sustainability.

Cameroon
Alice Kengne Youmbi was recently elected as the first president of ECLOF Cameroon. Mrs. Kengne represents the Organization Santé Femme Chretiennes (Christian women’s health organization) [OSFC], which she co-founded at the end of 1993 and of which she is now the president. OSFC has 30,000 members throughout the country and, after the government, runs the largest anti-malaria programme in Cameroon. OSFC works with three staff members, hundreds of volunteers and lots of good will.
Mrs Kengne studied law and has experience in public finance, accounting, law, banking, management and government work. She played a central role in the co-ordination and establishment of the new NEC in Cameroon.

Jamaica

We are happy to announce that following the Latin America/Caribbean regional workshop last March, ECLOF Jamaica has elected a serving member, LeRoi Lorde, to be its new chairperson. Mr Lorde is already a member of the ECLOF Geneva board.

Kenya
The new president of ECLOF Kenya is Alfred Lulu. Mr Lulu has been a member of the board and vice-chairperson since 1994. He took part in the process that led to the legal registration of ECLOF Kenya. He is an architect by profession and chairman of the East African Portland Cement Co. Ltd., one of the leading cement manufacturers in the East African region.

Claes Johan Alexandersson, Secretary of International Development Co-operation for the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden visited ECLOF Kenya in September. Mr Alexandersson discussed issues concerning the role of the church in ECLOF Kenya with Rev Patrick Rukenya, board member and general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. Some of ECLOF’s clients as well as its credit officer provided Mr Alexandersson with first hand information about how the NEC operates.

Peru
Pier Paolo Sissa is the new Executive Director of ECLOF Peru. He has assumed the difficult challenge to promote and guide the self-sustainability of his NEC in the midst of its re-organisational process. Pier Paolo studied at the American School of the Methodist Mission. His involvement with ECLOF began with its need for financial consultancy on the relation between finance and the credit programme.

Mr Sissa has extensive experience in company management, general administration, finance, design and the implementation of management systems. He was previously the director of a large bank in Peru for six years. He has a masters degree in economics, and has taught at local universities including the Catholic Pontifical University of Peru where he currently teaches finance.

Uganda
The work of ECLOF Uganda has impressed a recent Swiss visitor. Urs Jaeggi, Head of Information for Bread for All, an ECLOF ecumenical partner agency in Switzerland, said what he had seen and heard of the work of ECLOF Uganda would be very useful to support efforts by his organisation in the areas of advocacy, documentation, publications and fund raising.

During a five day visit in July, Mr Jaegi visited 12 projects financed by ECLOF. He also held meetings with the board chairman of ECLOF Uganda, as well as senior officials of the Uganda Joint Council of Churches, the National Association of Women’s Organisations in Uganda, and the Uganda Agency for Development. Besides visiting people and projects in the capital, Kampala, Mr Jaegi travelled to six other districts and visited a variety of urban and rural projects including community schools, agricultural production and processing, livestock and poultry rearing, trading activities, cottage industries, metal fabrication, and church-related construction work.

Zambia
Maluba Handahu Wakung’uma joined ECLOF Zambia in 1995. In January 2000, after rising through the ranks, she became programme manager. Before joining ECLOF, Ms Wakung’uma worked with a capacity building programme for NGOs, which gave her an insight into the activities of community based groups. She has also been involved in church and community youth programmes. This new programme manager, who combines her profession with being a young mother, holds a degree in development studies from the University of Zambia, and a qualification in entrepreneurship development and promotion, which she gained in India.

Capacity building

Armenia
Twice-monthly training meetings are introducing clients of ECLOF Armenia to the principles, policies, procedures and practicalities of obtaining micro credit loans, reports programme manager, Tigran Hovhannisyan. The seminars take place at the University of Etchmiadzin on Saturdays. This capacity building programme has been organised to reduce the amount of time staff have to spend with individual clients. This is necessary due to the increase of applications for loans now being received. In a three-month period (July to September 2000), 90 people attended the seminars and, as a result, ECLOF Armenia has received 25 project proposals.

Kenya
Staff of ECLOF Kenya receive training before they go into the field. ECLOF Kenya has prepared training materials based on a needs assessment it undertook with its credit officers. This identified the need for training in the management of default loans, running a sustainable NEC, and counselling and training techniques. Modules have been devised to meet these three areas and ECLOF Kenya reports that the result of this capacity building has been excellent. Staff have been able to learn about ECLOF’s policies and procedures; some have even had to unlearn things they had learnt whilst working for other MFIs.

Philippines
Two ECLOF Philippines staff members have attended micro finance capacity building courses. Sahlee Aldaba, cashier/secretary, attended a course in Baguio, whilst Allan Cledera, project officer, took part in a four-day forum on micro insurance at the Asian Institute of Management. The Punla sa Tao Foundation sponsored both courses in order to assist MFI networks improve the management of their institutions, the quality of the services they provide and outreach to clients.

Mr Cledera reports that micro insurance is being introduced into the micro finance sector in the Philippines in order to address three major risk factors, viz. the death or illness of clients, and property loss.

South Africa/Zimbabwe
An intensive five-day visit to ECLOF Zimbabwe provided an initiation into the operation of an ECLOF programme for the Rev. Desmond Lesejane, interim co-ordinator of the newly-formed ECLOF South Africa. Mr Lesejane held in-depth talks with John Banda, director of ECLOF Zimbabwe, who outlined the history of this part of the ECLOF family and some of the challenges it has faced since its inception. Other board members also met Mr Lesejane who received a full briefing on global ECLOF practices. He spent one day visiting clients: the construction of a church, a women’s co-operative, and a group of micro entrepreneurs. Travelling was limited, however, due to a serious fuel shortage gripping the country.

After his visit to Zimbabwe, Mr Lesejane said he had learnt many valuable lessons including the need for a micro finance programme to have a well-defined and transparent credit policy that all stakeholders can understand. He also said that for a programme to grow there needed to be a management structure that allows for a healthy convergence of views on key issues from all staff levels.

Seasonal Greetings to all our readers

from the ECLOF Geneva secretariat team
(Standing l. to r.) Muhungi Kanyoro, George Petty, Nejib Ababor, Richard Pavlic
(Seated l. to r.) Angelita Canelos, Priscilla N. Daniel, Suely Maradei