This was a definitive year for the Community Economic Development (CED) Program. The model has progressed tremendously, we are collecting data on our program metrics in order to determine impact and put together a financial model that shows sustainability of the program. The Kenyan staff is increasingly taking ownership of the program, conducting needs analysis and evaluation, and designing targeted solutions for the last few loose ends. I am so proud of the work that has been done by Andrew Chacha (Program Leader), Moses Mabucha (Field Manager), James Magige (Field Manager) and our whole team of Field Officers. Without intensive dedication, many hours bent in discussion and their desire to see real change in there community 2011 would not have been nearly so successful or even possible. So here’s a little holiday recollection of CED’s big moments this year:
- We launched Msingi wa KAPESA (Mwak, our basic group savings program) with an accessible minimum deposit, and savings and loan trainings to accompany the services offered as a client grows.
- We scaled to three new locations and added 500 clients with our MwaK program during the launch.
- We incorporated Mifos Business Intelligence Suite reporting into our operations and utilized it in order to better analyze and communicate program data.
- The Kenyan team did research and brainstormed the first draft of our MwaK Loan program.
- The MwaK Loan Program was polished and implemented in October with new measures to better ensure direct impact and to bring us back to our “special sauce”, money management trainings.
- 213 first loans were given out through the MwaK Loan program.
- We promoted MwaK when the Agriculture Program did Base Education in November have had spectacular responses that we will be able to evaluate in the new year. For example, Nuru’s Agriculture Program added 13 new farming groups in their location Nyamosense and two weeks later all 13 groups registered at their first MwaK meeting.
- We had 100% repayment for the MwaK loan program thus far and look forward to reporting a strong repayment rate for the next round of this program in our first 2012 quarterly report.
I hope those highlights are as encouraging to you as they are to our team on the ground in Kenya and me. And, I hope they remind you that we are not done yet. The CED program has two scaling initiatives planned for 2012, both to four new locations, just for a start. We know 2012 will be an even bigger year for the CED program and look forward to sharing the journey and progress with you in 2012. See you in the New Year!