Grameen Bank

Credit Delivery System

Grameen Bank Credit Delivary means taking credit to the very poor in their villages by means of the essential elements of the Grameen credit delivery system.
Grameen Bank credit delivery system has the following features:

1 There is an exclusive focus on the poorest of the poor.

Exclusivity is ensured by:
i) establishing clearly the eligibility criteria for selection of targeted clientele and adopting practical measures to screen out those who do not meet them
ii)in delivering credit, priority has been increasingly assigned to women
iii)the delivery system is geared to meet the diverse socio-economic development needs of the poor

2Borrowers are organized into small homogeneous groups.

Such characteristics facilitate group solidarity as well as participatory interaction. Organizing the primary groups of five members and federating them into centres has been the foundation of Grameen Bank's system. The emphasis from the very outset is to organisationally strengthen the Grameen clientele, so that they can acquire the capacity for planning and implementing micro level development decisions. The Centres are functionally linked to the Grameen Bank, whose field workers have to attend Centre meetings every week.

3 Special loan conditionalities which are particularly suitable for the poor.

These include:

i) very small loans given without any collateral

ii) loans repayable in weekly instalments spread over a year

iii) eligibility for a subsequent loan depends upon repayment of first loan

iv) individual, self chosen, quick income generating activities which employ the skills that borrowers already posses

v) close supervision of credit by the group as well as the bank staff

vi) stress on credit discipline and collective borrower responsibility or peer pressure

vii) special safegaurds through compulsory and voluntary savings to minimise the risks that the poor confront

viii) transparency in all bank transactions most of which take place at centre meetings.

4 Simultaneous undertaking of a social development agenda addressing basic needs of the clientele.

This is reflected in the "sixteen decisions" adopted by Grameen borrowers. This helps to:

i) raise the social and political consciousness of the newly organized groups

ii) focus increasingly on women from the poorest households, whose urge for survival has a far greater bearing on the development of the family

iii) encourage their monitoring of social and physical infrastructure projects - housing, sanitation, drinking water, education, family planning, etc.

5 Design and development of organization and management systems capable of delivering programme resources to targeted clientele.

The system has evolved gradually through a structured learning process, that involves trials, errors and continuous adjustments. A major requirement to operationalize the system is the special training needed for development of a highly motivated staff, so that the decision making and operational authority is gradually decentralized and administrative functions are delegated at the zonal levels downwards.

6 Expansion of loan portfolio to meet diverse development needs of the poor.

As the general credit programme gathers momentum and the borrowers become familiar with credit discipline, other loan programmes are introduced to meet growing social and economic development needs of the clientele. Besides housing, such programmes include:

i) credit for building sanitary laterines

ii) credit for installation of tubewells that supply drinking water and irrigation for kitchen gardens

iii) credit for seasonal cultivation to buy agricultural inputs

iv) loan for leasing equipment / machinery, ie., cell phones purchased by Grameen Bank members

v) finance projects undertaken by the entire family of a seasoned borrower.

The underlying premise of Grameen is that, in order to emerge from poverty and remove themselves from the clutches of usurers and middlemen, landless peasants need access to credit, without which they cannot be expected to launch their own enterprises, however small these may be. In defiance of the traditional rural banking postulate whereby "no collateral (in this case, land) means no credit", the Grameen Bank experiment set out to prove - successfully - that lending to the poor is not an impossible proposition; on the contrary, it gives landless peasants the opportunity to purchase their own tools, equipment, or other necessary means of production and embark on income-generating ventures which will allow them escape from the vicious cycle of "low income, low savings, low investment, low income". In other words, the banker's confidence rests upon the will and capacity of the borrowers to succeed in their undertakings.

The mode of operation of Grameen Bank is as follows. A bank branch is set up with a branch manager and a number of center managers and covers an area of about 15 to 22 villages. The manager and the workers start by visiting villages to familiarise themeselves with the local milieu in which they will be operating and identify the prospective clientele, as well as explain the purpose, the functions, and the mode of operation of the bank to the local population. Groups of five prospective borrowers are formed; in the first stage, only two of them are eligible for, and receive, a loan. The group is observed for a month to see if the members are conforming to the rules of the bank. Only if the first two borrowers begin to repay the principal plus interest over a period of six weeks, do the other members of the group become eligible themselves for a loan. Because of these restrictions, there is substantial group pressure to keep individual records clear. In this sense, the collective responsibility of the group serves as the collateral on the loan.

Loans are small, but sufficient to finance the micro-enterprises undertaken by borrowers: rice-husking, machine repairing, purchase of rickshaws, buying of milk cows, goats, cloth, pottery etc. The interest rate on all loans is 16 percent. The repayment rate on loans is currently - 95 per cent - due to group pressure and self-interest, as well as the motivation of borrowers.

Although mobilization of savings is also being pursued alongside the lending activities of the Grameen Bank, most of the latter's loanable funds are increasingly obtained on commercial terms from the central bank, other financial institutions, the money market, and from bilateral and multilateral aid organizations.

Fuente: Grameen Bank

¿Cómo ahorrar respetando el medio ambiente?

Ofrecemos 25 consejos que nos ayudarán a contribuir desde nuestros hogares a mejorar el Medio Ambiente. Para que cambie el mundo hemos de empezar por cambiar nosotros y vivir respetando el medio amiente.

·Antes de comprar un producto pregúntate si realmente lo necesitas. Cualquier consumo innecesario es en esencia antiecológico.
·Sé crítico con la publicidad. Mira las cualidades de los productos, no los sueños que te venden en los anuncios.
·Antes de tirar cualquier cosa a la basura, piensa si se puede reutilizar, reciclar o reparar, o si puede ser útil para otra persona.
·Evita las latas de bebidas, vale más el envase que su contenido y apenas se recuperan. La energía necesaria para producir y transportar una lata equivale a la mitad del bote lleno de petróleo.
·La energía que producen las pilas es más de 600 veces más cara que la de la red. Conecta los aparatos a la red siempre que esto sea posible. Si te es imprescindible usar pilas (nunca tires las usadas a la basura), procura que sean recargables.
·Desconecta los aparatos eléctricos de la red cuando no están funcionando. Algunos aparatos (como televisores) siguen gastando hasta un 33% de la energía.
·Prescinde de los electrodomésticos innecesarios como cepillos de dientes, abrelatas, cuchillos eléctricos, etc. Ten encuenta los criterios de ahorro energético al comprar nuevos frigoríficos, lavadoras, etc.
·Las bombillas de bajo consumo son más caras que las normales, pero duran hasta 8 veces más y consumen la quinta parte de energía para dar la misma cantidad de luz, con lo cual se termina ahorrando energía y dinero.
·Evita los aerosoles. Contienen CFCs, causantes de la destrucción de la capa de ozono, u otros gases que también contribuyen al efecto invernadero. Los pulverizadores son una buena alternativa y son recargables.
·La gran mayoría de los productos de limpieza que se anuncian no sólo son innecesarios sino también muy nocivos para el medio ambiente. Casi toda la casa puede quedar perfectamente limpia con jabón, bicarbonato, vinagre y limón.
·Los ambientadores no eliminan los malos olores sino que desprenden otros más fuertes que nos impiden detectar los primeros.
·Evita usar productos agresivos: limpia hornos, lejía, etc., que impiden los procesos biológicos de depuración del agua. Nunca tires productos tóxicos, pintura o aceite de cocinar al desagüe.
·Para ahorrar agua, instala un sistema de doble descarga en el inodoro, ya que vaciar la cisterna entera supone gastar de 10 a litros. Repara los grifos que gotean. Una gota por segundo son 30 litros al día.
·Tapa siempre las cazuelas para no despilfarrar calor. La olla exprés es la mejor opción: ahorra tiempo y energía. Si no, son preferibles las cazuelas de hierro, acero inoxidable o barro antes que las de aluminio.
·En la alimentación, evita la comida basura o precocinada, ya que suele contener muchos aditivos y conservantes y viene sobre empaquetada. Procura consumir alimentos frescos, de temporada y de producción local.
·Rechaza los alimentos envasados en bandejas de poliestireno expandido (corcho blanco). Los productos no son mejores porque vengan envueltos en plástico.
·Guarda los alimentos en la clásica fiambrera o tarros de cristal en lugar de envolverlos o taparlos con película de plástico o aluminio.
·Evita los productos que recorren grandes distancias antes de llegar al consumidor. Da preferencia a las alternativas locales. No tiene sentido consumir miel chilena, cerveza mejicana o galletas danesas.
·Aprovecha bien el papel: úsalo por las dos caras, utilízalo reciclado y envíalo después a reciclar. Rechaza el papel blanqueado con cloro.
·Apúntate a la Lista Robinson para dejar de recibir publicidad personalizada por correo. Coloca un distintivo en tu buzón indicando que no quieres propaganda.
·Si te es imprescindible usar el coche para acudir al trabajo, compártelo con otros compañeros o vecinos. En el tiempo o las vacaciones, no recurras siempre al coche, explora otras posibilidades de viajar o hacer excursiones en transporte público.
·Es absurdo pretender estar en manga corta durante el invierno, a costa de gastar mucha calefacción. Es preferible ponerse un jersey. En verano no abuses del aire acondicionado, que también libera CFCs.
·Evita los productos con PVC. Producen furanos y dioxinas cuando son incinerados.
·Si te ha caducado algún medicamento, no lo tires a la basura ni al WC. Llévalo a la farmacia, donde deben hacerse cargo de él.
·No agobies a los niños con juguetes. Déjales jugar con su imaginación. Evita los juguetes y la ropa deportiva importados del sudeste asiático ya que muchas veces son fruto del trabajo infantil y las fábricas suelen ser insalubres, peligrosas y contaminantes.

Fuente: Revista Natural