Australian NGO: Opportunity International Australia
Local Partner: Microfinance institutions (Taytay sa Kauswagan, Tulay sa Pag-Unlad, Alalay sa Kaunlaran)
Project title: Market-led Product Development for More Client-Focussed Microfinance
2011-12 funding: $772,030
Microfinance helps individuals and communities overcome poverty by improving access to financial services and market opportunities. Australia helps poor people to access financial services by working with NGOs to provide microfinance and other financial services for the poor.
In 2011, the ANCP assisted an Opportunity International Australia project in the Philippines that worked with three local microfinance institutions to develop more flexible loans that better met the needs of the communities. Through this project, Opportunity's microfinance partner Tulay sa Pag-Unlad, Inc. (TSPI), responded to feedback from clients and developed an individual loan, known as a Maunlad.
In August 2011, Corazon Baustista was one of TSPI's first clients to graduate to the newly launched Maunlad loans. Although Corazon had tailoring skills, she lacked the capital she needed to start her own business, so she borrowed money from TSPI through a group loan of 5,000 Philippine pesos (AUD115). She took multiple loans from TSPI to expand her business and allow her to hire staff to meet increasing demand for her products.
After four years in the program, Corazon reached the limits of the group loan product with a maximum loan amount of Php40,000 (AUD920). As a result of Opportunity's work with TSPI, she was able to access the Maunlad loans instead, and borrowed Php100,000 (AUD2300). She used the loan to buy equipment to expand her weekly production to 4,000 pairs of shorts, 1,000 blouses, and thousands of T-shirts.
Before accessing loans from TSPI, Corazon was living in poverty in a squatters' shelter. She now employs 25 people and her business keeps expanding, including into boutiques, department stores and shopping malls around Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon. In recognition of her business success, Corazon was awarded the Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year in 2011. She has also been able to move into a newly built, spacious two-storey home and she can afford to send her eldest son to college and purchase him a laptop to help in his studies.
At the end of June 2012, there were 519 TSPI Maunlad clients (including Corazon) and a total loan release of Php 18.89 million ($442,000 AUD) in 74 TSPI branches.