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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
USAID Microenterprise Programs in Bangladesh & India
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
FACT SHEET
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
PRESS OFFICE
http://www.usaid.gov
(202) 712-4320
2000-0077FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rekha Chalasani
Monday, March 20, 2000
USAID defines a micro-enterprise as a business with ten or fewer employees (including unpaid family labor) with low assets and an owner who is poor. A large percentage of the micro-enterprises assisted have no paid employees. Micro-enterprise activities include micro-finance and non-financial services such as training and business development activities.
In FY 98, USAID Missions and central offices reported obligating $138.4 million worldwide in support of micro-enterprise development activities. Of this amount, 68 percent supported micro-finance services and 32 percent supported business development services and other non-financial activities. In FY'98, 654 institutions were identified as having active funding agreements in support of micro-enterprise development.
Approximately, $41.1 million in funding supported micro-enterprise activities in the Asia/Near East (ANE) region, 78% of which was used directly for micro-finance activities. The average loan size in the ANE region was $249, somewhat below the worldwide average of $389.
At the end of FY 98, worldwide, micro-finance institutions with active agreements with USAID reported having 3.5 million loan clients with active loans totaling $1.3 billion, 84 percent of the loan clients were women and 5.1 million persons had $800 million in savings in USAID-supported micro-finance institutions. Institutions providing business development services reported having 2.2 million clients.
In the ANE region, institutions reported 2.464 million clients with active loans and 2.176 million business development clients, 93% of the loan clients were women. The number of people served jumped dramatically upward in FY 98 due to USAID/Bangladesh initiating an assistance agreement with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), which alone reported 1.9 million active savings and loan clients at the end of FY98.
BANGLADESH
The USAID Mission in Bangladesh has been involved with micro-enterprise development since the late 1980s. In the latter part of the 1990s, the Mission was among the 6 largest programs worldwide with multi-million dollar investments each year beginning in FY 96. Obligations were as follows, $7.6 million in FY 98, $3.4 million in FY 99, and $2.5 million is the working estimate for the year 2000. In addition, programs in Bangladesh receive support through centrally funded activities.
USAID supports both financial and non-financial services to micro-entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. In FY 99, the Mission spent just over $3 million on financial programs and $300 on non-financial services; for FY 2000 the entire $2.5 million will be dedicated to the non-financial activities. To do this work, USAID has worked with some 60, mostly local, organizations.
At the end of FY 98, institutions supported by USAID reported 1,960,300 borrowers with active loans valued at over $538 million. The institutions reported 1,957,988 savers with savings of $54,223,416. Organizations providing business services assisted 2,130,145 clients.
INDIA
USAID/India's involvement with micro-enterprise development is much more recent and much more modest, a matter of several hundred thousand dollars per year and at intervals. An important initiative has been with the local organization, Friends of Women's World Banking (FWWB). The initiative has supported training and technical assistance to 50 micro-finance institutions, and the development of a loan fund. By January of 2000, the loan fund had lent 113 million rupees. In addition, USAID is working on a groundbreaking study to assess how micro-finance services can make a difference to poor women. At the end of FY 99, USAID supported institutions in India reported a total of 34,052 borrowers with $1,837,642 in active loans and 42,676 savers with $4,921,999 in savings.
The USAID/India Mission has submitted estimated values of obligations for coming years which suggest that it is planning to significantly increase funding for the micro-enterprise area in FY 2000 and FY 2001. As with Bangladesh, the central bureaus of USAID also support micro-enterprise development activities in India.
USAID is the lead development and international disaster assistance agency for the United States government.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 12, 2001 |
