| Grant Profile: |
| Project Title: |
Micro Credit to Iraqi Widows |
| PCF/LICUS/SPF: |
PCF |
Status: |
Closed |
| File Number: |
293
| Region: |
MENA |
| Sector: |
Social Protection |
Country: |
Iraq |
| FY approved: |
2004 |
Grant Theme : |
Social dev/gender/inclusion |
| Keyword(s): |
Widows; Job-market training |
Approved Amount: |
$50,000.00 |
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Grant Recipient:
Iraqi Widows Organization |
Grant Purpose:
In conflict-affected Iraq, this project will be a pilot program to test and develop effective credit delivery mechanisms for war widows. The purpose of the grant is to assist young widows (ages 20-40) with children in recovering and developing their economic capacities. The project specifically focuses on improving widows’ incomes in the city of Diwaniyah by providing them with micro-credits to start their own business or with training to develop or upgrade the skills needed to enter the local job market.
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Grant Activities:
A study commissioned by Dr. Rajaa Khuzai, member of the Iraqi Governing Council, aiming at identifying the status and needs of women in the Governorate of Qadissiya, identified the most vulnerable group in the city of Diwaniyah as female-headed households. Seven percent of the women aged 20 to 40 in Diwaniyah, the principal city of the Governorate, are widows (the majority war widows), most of them with children. This project aims to test methodologies that would assist them in becoming self-reliant by providing either microcredit to start their own business or training to develop/upgrade the skills necessary to enter the job market.
The project consists of two components:
Component 1: Micro credit to widows
About fifty percent of the women assisted by the Iraqi Widows Organization (IWO) are able to present a business case to support a request for microcredit and become independent in the near term. The business case and the viability of the proposal is assessed by IWO. Once approved, a contract is signed between IWO and the widow, which includes an agreed reimbursement rate. The Board of IWO currently meets twice a month to make the final decision based on the recommendations of the staff.
Component 2: Training of widows to enable them to access the job market by identifying and upgrading their skills and matching them with the market demands
Candidates that are unable to present business cases for Component 1 will receive assistance from the IWO that helps identify their (possible) skills, provide training to develop or upgrade those skills, and match their skills with local business needs, by providing a link to the private sector. Staff at IWO supervise the activities through regular visits and counseling to the widows at their home and business place to ensure successful implementation.
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Results:
(1) The grant achieved its objective of improving 120 widows’ ability to recover their economic capacities by providing micro-credits with an overall success of 116 micro-credits (97 %), meaning that the widows as a result of the micro-credit were heading a small viable business and were able to provide for their families. The remaining unsuccessful four micro-credits were due to two widows dying during implementation, and two suffered from illness.
(2) Ninety percent of the widows granted a micro-credit are reimbursing as scheduled in their agreement with IWO. IWO was at the closing of the grant trying to resolve what to do with the 10 % that are not reimbursing IWO as scheduled.
(3) Due to the good rate of reimbursement, the IWO is able to approve 12 new micro-credits every month.
(4) As for the second objective of upgrading the skills of another 120 widows, the project actually performed much better than expected as a total of 534 women received training. Of these 534 women, about 75 % were subsequently successfully integrated into the job market. This much higher number than first anticipated was possible because the cost of trainers and training facilities was lower than expected.
(5) IWO also developed a website to inform the public and other organizations about its activities, seek participants for the training and contact donors. www.iraqiwidows.org.
(6) Replicability: this project could be applied elsewhere in Iraq, as the need for such assistance is urgent and country-wide. The Emergency Community-based Infrastructure Project is identifying the possibility of developing similar programs in different rural communities.
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Lessons Learned:
Key challenges:
(1) Due to the limited size and capacity of the implementing agency, the implementation of Component 2 was delayed until the implementation of Component 1 had been completed. The implementation of the grant was therefore overall slower than initially anticipated.
(2) The Bank had hoped to be able to provide training in microfinance to IWO staff in parallel to the PCF grant, using the Bank’s own budget. The Bank was, however, unable to provide this training given the security situation on the ground, which both prevented local Bank staff from traveling to the area and IWO staff from traveling to Baghdad to make use of the Bank’s video conferencing facilities. The IWO is therefore still only capable of applying the one mechanism of micro-credits that the organization was already familiar with prior to the grant approval.
(3) To continue operating as a micro-financing institution, IWO will have to improve its ability to apply variable loan sizes and increase interest rates. Failure to change the mechanism will in the long run make Iwo reliant on new donor funding to function as the revenues from reimbursements may in time not be sufficient to finance both new micro-credits and the NGO’s overhead costs. This increases the risk of a high staff turn-around and thereby loss of institutional knowledge and experience acquired.
General lessons learned:
(1) Training of NGO staff should if necessary be carried out up-front before signing the grant rather than in parallel with the grant. Alternatively, it should be part of the grant itself.
(2) Such a project might have benefited from being part of a larger package, working with known NGOs in areas where Bank staff can travel. Having a larger program would allow for extensive training in various delivery mechanism and increase the adaptability and sustainability of the program.
(3) Working in areas where staff cannot travel and communication is complicated is problematic.
(4) The point-person in the implementing agency responsible for communication with the bank should be involved in the day-to-day managing of the Bank-funded project. In this project the head of the NGO, who was the Bank’s main counterpart, was busy with other work and traveling, which slowed communication.
(5) Language-barrier: The TTL responsible for projects in Iraq should be able to speak Arabic as all communication is still in Arabic.
(6) In Iraq most NGOs still used internet email accounts (i.e. yahoo, hotmail etc.), which have limited capacity for receiving larger attachments and, as several people make use of the same email account, there is an increased security risk. |
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