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PAMIGA Annual Report 2012

February 2013

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Acronyms

ALP African Livelihood Partnership APFI Association Promotion Finance Inclusive APSFD Association Professionnelle Systèmes Financiers Decentralisés / MFI network BCEAO Central Bank for West Africa BipBop Business Innovation People at the Base of the Pyramid (Schneider-Electric-CSR) CBFO Community Based Financial Organizations CITAO Chief Information Technology Advisory Officer CEO Chief Executive Officer COO Chief Operation Officer CSR Corporate Social Responsibility DMF Direction de la Microfinance in Senegal EUACPMF European Union Africa Caribbean Pacific Microfinance Facility EFT Equivalent Full Time FNCE Federation Nationale Caisse d’Epargne GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit IFAD International Fund for Agriculture Developement IT Information technology LED Liechtensteinischer Entwitlung Dienst MFI Micro Finance Institution MFSF Microfinance Sans Frontière non profit subsidiairy of BNP Paribas for TA MIS Management Information System MOU Memorandum of Understanding PFSA PAMIGA Finance SA RUFORUM Rural Finance Forum RFP Request for Proposal SPM Social Performance Management SDC Swiss Development Cooperation SSA Sub-Saharan Africa TA Technical Assistance TRIAD Training Research and Initiatives for Africa’s Development TOT Training of Trainers UNCDF United Nations Capital Development Fund WMI Water and Microfinance Initiative

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I. Background The financial and economic crisis in the North (USA and Western Europe) has reached its 5th year in 2012 and its impact on unemployment has gained in breadth and depth, affecting a whole set of behaviours of households, enterprises and policy makers. In the sector of development aid, it certainly is affecting budgetary allocations and settings of priorities for the traditional large donors. In developing countries, export markets for goods to Europe are now more restricted, slowing down the related production sectors. At the same time, Africa has been at the centre of investors’ attention as ever. High growth rates have been found in several countries together with the emergence of entrepreneurship and a rising middle class, well educated and with comfortable purchasing power. Private investors are rushing to Africa, both from the more traditional western countries, looking for more attractive alternatives than those of the crisis affected markets and from emerging countries such as China, India, Brazil, as well as a second generation of emerging investors. The irony is that the microfinance sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) may not much benefit from this opportunity, largely due to its poor performance that is only marginally related to the impact of the crisis in the North. It has however revealed the dependence of the sector on a continuous flow of cross border capital and grant, creating an artificial growth that is not anchored on the reality of the demands of targeted clients. The microfinance sector in SSA has suffered in 2012 of poor quality of portfolio that has been affecting at the minimum the profitability of a vast majority but has also led for some, to a significant risk of failure. The cause of failures in the microfinance sector in SSA is by and large that of an outlived vision, weakness of governance (across all legal status) and lack of leadership and management skills. Like in many other regions, microfinance institutions in SSA have been self serving, putting all their energy into developing their capacities for themselves rather than striving to improve services to clients and to unreached poor population. Many of them have hence become irrelevant. This situation has been observed in several countries where Pamiga is operating. In reaction, Central Banks and Governments in the concerned countries have reviewed policies and prudential norms for the microfinance sector. To improve enforcement of oversight and on-site supervision, consolidation has been widely encouraged. Pamiga’s expertise and experience in assisting mergers and transformation, as well as Risk Management have gained momentum and visibility in Eastern (Ethiopia and Tanzania), Central (Cameroon) and Western (Mali, Senegal, Togo) Africa. Similarly, securing operations and diversifying products and services have been diagnosed by many experts as key stakes and challenges that Financial Intermediaries will have to tackle urgently: again, these are the focus areas for Pamiga II. Finally, with more awareness of all stakeholders (general public in the North and in the South, governments, donors, corporate) for climate change and environmental issues more broadly and with a growing interest of investors for developing their footprints in the green economy for rural Africa, the Environment and Microfinance program of Pamiga has also gained a lot of attention and interest.

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All in all, in an uncertain time threatened by many changing factors, the African Rural Microfinance Network facilitated by Pamiga and the key strategic thrusts / activities of Pamiga II appeared in 2012 as robust and well positioned in the trends of today. It appears as innovative in it uses the delivery channels of rural microfinance institutions to provide a range of services and products (financial and capabilities) to the clients at the base of the pyramid, those that everyone (governments, donors and large corporate) want to reach but few have identified the concrete ways to do it efficiently. This fact by itself justify amply the years of investments donors and practitioners have put in developing Community Based Financial Organizations (CBFOs), in empowering small farmers’ groups, in promoting Financial Inclusion to reach out to those that are hard to reach and hard to serve appropriately.

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II. Highlights and main achievements 2012 has been a very successful year for Pamiga. In the field of funding, all the funding proposals materialized in multiyear contracts signed: - Liechtensteinischer Entwicklungs Dienst (LED) agreed to support Pamiga II for 3

years (2012 – 2014) starting January 1st 2012 and has disbursed accordingly. - Swiss Development Cooperation has signed a 3 year contribution to both Pamiga’s

overall program in general and to the “Water and Microfinance Initiative” in 4 West African countries in particular (Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo) for 3 years (2012 – 2014), starting February 1st 2012 and has also disbursed accordingly.

- In July, the EU ACP Microfinance Capacity Building Facility has awarded Pamiga II in support of the overall program and for total duration of 30 months (July 1st 2012 to December 31st 2014) and has also disbursed its first tranche in September.

- IFAD has approved a “Large Grant” for the Pamiga II overall program and some specific activities for 3 years (November 1st 2012 – October 31st 2015) and has disbursed at year end.

Ongoing designated projects were pursued with the support of Mastercard Foundation (mergers in Mali and Burkina Faso) and UNCDF / Gates Foundation / Microlead 1 (Ethiopia with Basix India). New project design activities have also been successful in getting funding for implementation in 2013: ex. Microlead Cameroon (UNCDF / Mastercard Foundation) or are close to this stage: ex. Africa Livelihood Promotion in 3 African regions, in partnership with Basix and the Livelihood School (SDC). In the area of Human Resource, Pamiga has also been able to recruit a team of very talented and experienced professionals and has hired during the year 2012, 5 professionals for a 4 EFT: - Fouad Abdelmoumni, a very senior microfinance expert, as senior Manager for

Environment and Microfinance (half time, based in Rabat and West Africa) - Mathieu Merceret, a senior investment expert, for developing and implementing

Pamiga Finance SA (PFSA), Pamiga’s investment vehicle as senior Investment Director (half time for a start, based in Paris office).

- Teddy Kouvahey, an experienced Program Officer, for the Water and Microfinance program (full time, based in West Africa, covering Burkina Faso, Senegal, Benin and Togo)

- Jacinta Maiyo, a senior IT expert, as Chief IT advisory Officer, (full time, based in Nairobi), covering all the countries where Pamiga works.

- Moussoukoura Diarra, an experienced Finance and Administrative Officer (full time, based in Paris office).

At year end, the overall staffs have grown from 4 headcount and 3.5 EFT to 9 headcount and 8 EFT, 4 of them operating from either the Dakar or the Nairobi hubs. In June 2012, Pamiga Finance SA, a share company, registered as a securization company under Luxembourg law for the financial sector has been incorporated. Pamiga Association is its sole shareholder and has provided PFSA with a governance body that is in place to help it grow and act as the investment vehicle for its network. A first debt vehicle has also been developed to refinance participating MFIs’ portfolio in water related projects. By year end, two loan contracts have been signed with member MFIs in Burkina Faso and Senegal and first tranche disbursed.

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Pamiga also considers as a significant achievement to have been able to develop a very promising partnership with a strong global private corporate, Schneider-Electric, in implementation of a joint program providing access to Clean Energy for rural Africa. In the context of the BipBop Program for SSA, the partnership will cover 4 initial countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania and will focus on 3 segments of market: the rural or poor households, the MSMEs and the villages / communities. A MoU has been signed with clear distribution of tasks and responsibilities. Finally, a very successful CEO meeting has taken place in Arusha in October, including a highly appreciated management training, 2 working groups for Knowledge Management that have been formed, a good process for a participatory planning and for feedback. The network for exchange of experience, lateral learning, benchmarking and knowledge management is shaping up. All ingredients are hence assembled to make Pamiga II a real success for rural Africa.

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III. Activities Report

In The Annual Workplan for 2012, targets were set for both core and thematic activities. Main targets for core activities are: - Setting up of 2 working groups for exchange of experience and innovation sharing. - Capitalization on processes, in particular on mergers, development of a good practise

toolkit - Communication and advocacy for sustainable rural finance and paradigm shift for

Africa, in international events - Contribution to IFAD’s Rural Finance knowledge management by interventions in

workshops and events - Development of technical partnerships with banks, corporate and research entities - Development of South South cooperation opportunities while promoting innovative

approaches in pro-poor economic development. For thematic activities, objectives were set to: finalize 3 mergers in Mali and start 3 transformational projects in Kenya, Cameroon and Togo; launch pilots for the Water and Microfinance Initiative (WMI) in Senegal and Burkina, followed by expansion in Mali and Benin to involve 6 MFIs in provision of productive water loans by year end; for technology, assist 6 MFIs in developing an adapted MIS and implement TOTs in Financial Education in Ethiopia (Microlead 1) and another country (Microlead 2). Activities were also foreseen in cross-cutting areas such as specific Financial Education and Procedures Manuals for the Water and Microfinance Initiative (WMI) for instance. The creation of Pamiga Finance was planned to provide debt funding to MFIs involved in WMI. Exploring the opportunity for Equity capital and Investment Vehicle for the TRIAD partnership are activities envisaged.

III.1. Core Activities implemented

3.1.1. Working Groups

Working groups are put in place when several MFI members are implementing (or interested to implement) specific activities under the Pamiga II’s 3 thematic pillars and are committed to exchange experiences, share innovation, provide feedback on processes, methodologies and tools used, in a lateral learning format. The Pamiga champion for the thematic will facilitate the working group, prepare and animate the information sharing and feedback sessions. In November 2012, in Arusha, at the Annual CEO Meeting, 2 working groups have been formally established in the two thematic areas that have made the most progress in the field, namely, Consolidation & Mergers and Water Microfinance Initiative (WMI). For a whole day, MFIs involved have presented in a structured way, their experience to others that are interested, in terms of context, steps, outputs and outcomes and have also assessed the overall process and made recommendations on how to implement it better in the future. This exercise has allowed a good benchmark for the MFIs involved and awareness rising for preparedness for those who are interested and want to know what it takes to be involved. The 2 working groups were very well attended, exchanges were both informative and conceptually challenging, and participants were very focused and committed. The final evaluation showed strong supports for the continuation of working groups and even more

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on-site exchange opportunities another time during the year, between two CEO Meeting where the groups may have more autonomy and initiative in organizing themselves. This proposal was agreed and a small budget allocated for organizing these interim events.

III.1.2. Capitalization on processes in Consolidation and Mergers

Activities in assistance to merger of member MFIs are performed in compliance to new laws and regulations in the concerned countries or sub-regions. In these geographies, such approach in consolidating the sector is gaining momentum as major stakeholders and decision makers are putting it very high on policies. Capitalizing the process, steps and tools is therefore a major contribution to the financial sector as a whole and to financial inclusion in particular. In 2012, Pamiga has developed a very fruitful collaboration with BNPParibas’s microfinance assistance arm, Microfinance Sans Frontières (MFSF) who has formed a task force composed of 3 senior professionals having longstanding experience in participating in various mergers and acquisitions involving the bank. This task force has helped our Consolidation & Merger department to define a specific process for mergers, to document each steps, organize outputs and tools used in the 3 mergers in implementation phase and developed a collaborative space on the web called “Confluence”. Benchmarking activities with other production in the microfinance field in developing countries and in the banking sector in the North will be undertaken, so as to set recommendations for good practises for the sector in a second step. Thanks to this support, a relatively well structured capitalization effort has been done in 2012, has allowed a helpful base for discussions in the Consolidation working group and will provide the foundations for a Regional Conference in Dakar in 2013 as well as a publication of a toolkit for dissemination.

III.1.3. Communication and advocacy

In our participation to all meetings and working groups, Pamiga has always communicated on what it considers as major stakes and challenges for Rural Microfinance and Financial Inclusion in Africa. In 2012, René Azokli, senior manager for Consolidation and Mergers and representative of Pamiga for West and Central Africa has formally joined the donor and technical partners’ working groups in 3 countries: Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo, in addition to Mali where our former hub was set up. He has intervened in the microfinance week of Burkina Faso to present all Pamiga’s contributions to the sector for the next 3 years and in Togo, in a Forum, on the role of “Transformation” in improving the governance structure in a mature MFI. René Azokli was also invited as a guest speaker at the forum held in December 2012 by the Federation Nationale de Caisse d’Epargne (FNCE) in Paris to provide his insight on “the situation of microfinance in SSA and future trends: what are the needs for technical assistance”. Renée Chao-Béroff, CEO of Pamiga has also intervened in two major sectoral events in 2012. She was speaker at the Convergences 2015 conference in September on the topic of “Partnership for more Impact” where the need to broaden the scope of work to integrate other actors and services to the provision of financial services is highlighted, especially in complex activities such as access to water and energy for the rural poor. She was also panellist in a forum in the European Microfinance week in Luxembourg, in the context of UE ACP call for proposal where Pamiga was selected and awarded (12 projects awarded among 230 proposals received). The forum dealt with donor coordination, harmonisation of reporting formats and efficiency of co-funding, from the perspective of donors and of grantees/recipients. Renée Chao-Béroff advocated for a

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joint knowledge management and sharing process where lessons from field experience could be learnt and broadly disseminated and highlighted the very pro active approach used by UE ACP in the previous capacity building microfinance program as well as by a private foundation such as Mastercard Foundation that is supporting Pamiga in mergers in Mali and Burkina Faso and has put emphasis on capitalization of the experience and organization of a regional conference for knowledge sharing broadly.

III.1.4. Contribution to IFAD’s Rural Finance Knowledge Management by

interventions in workshops and events

In the frame of dialogs with different parties within IFAD such as the West and Central Africa division, the Rural Knowledge Management Partnership in Eastern and Southern Africa and AFRACA, a panafrican network of agricultural and central banks, decisions were made for Pamiga to participate and contribute to major events organized when the thematic are those covered by its program, starting when the IFAD Large Grant agreement with Pamiga will be effective (November 1st, 2012). In December, Renee Chao-Beroff, CEO of Pamiga has agreed to join the expert group reviewing publications of RUFORUM, as a first area of collaboration. She also contributed as a resource person in the IFAD’s Learning Event, especially sharing Pamiga’s experience on assisting CBFOs’ mergers in SSA.

III.1.5. Development of technical partnerships with banks, corporate and

research entities

Activities in partnership development were very intense and fruitful during the year. The Microfinance Sans Frontières, voluntary TA arm of BNPParibas has agreed to provide senior level expertise support to Pamiga in two key areas, as per the need expressed: assistance in knowledge management for mergers and in development of a toolkit and assistance in mentoring the Chief IT advisory Officer and in development of a cutting-edge standardized IT support process. The Knowledge Management team is composed of 3 senior professionals who are working closely with Pamiga’s CEO, Consolidation and merger champion and Institutional Strengthening expert, both through regular in person meetings in Paris and using the web-based collaborative space. The IT team is composed of a senior IT and technology based banking services manager and in certain aspects, a senior IT in-house consultant, both supporting Pamiga in the overall process of setting up the IT department, recruiting the CITAO and developing its offer to fit MFI members’ needs. The two groups of technical partners from BNPParibas have been very committed and the partnership adds a lot of value to Pamiga’s work. Technical Partnership with the Federation Nationale de Caisse d’Epargne (FNCE – the French Savings Bank Network) has also been excellent in assisting Pamiga to develop training modules in Risk Management and in Change Management and also in delivering the trainings jointly with Pamiga’s staff in the field: Risk Management training with AEMFI in Ethiopia in February and Change Management with member MFIs involved in mergers in December in Burkina Faso. The two organizations have now reached a good level of understanding of how they can cooperate best, so that setting up a mission has become smooth and efficient, and outcome mostly satisfactory for both parties and for beneficiaries. The main achievement in 2012 was the development of a long term partnership with Schneider-Electric’s CSR program, BipBop to provide access to clean energy for the poor in rural areas in SSA. There is such a convergence in vision of the needs that a well balanced MoU was developed and signed in just a few months, aiming at the

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implementation of a joint program in 4 countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. Division of tasks is done according to each partner’s skills and added value. Agreement was made to share costs involved (market studies, TA and training missions) and also for governance and operational framework with set agendas for steering. In December 2012, the first market research activities have started, commissioned to MIFED Cameroon who is involving the 4 participating MFIs (A3C + 3 regional EMF present in Northern, Southern and Littoral regions). Finally, Pamiga also worked closer with CERISE in 2012, especially in getting certification for SPI assessment and development of SPM action plans. Joint answers to EOI and calls for proposals in this field have also been performed.

III.1.6. Development of South-South cooperation opportunities while

promoting innovative approaches in pro-poor economic development.

The main activity undertaken in this area of South-North-South cooperation and in the promotion of a pro-poor innovative approach is through Pamiga’s participation in the preparatory phase/design of the African Livelihood Partnership (ALP), from May to December 2012. The output is a Project Document submitted in December to SDC, with the following key features: The overall goal of ALPs is to enhance livelihoods of the poor in a select number of African countries in a sustainable, scalable and innovative manner, based on the practical experience of the BASIX and its strategic partners. The scope of ALPs can be defined along the following terms: (i) Segmental (ii) Thematic and (i) Geographical In terms of vulnerable segments of the population, ALPs plans to work with –

• smallholder farmers Including pastoralists and fishermen, as needed; • women – as smallholders, micro-entrepreneurs and homemakers; and • youth – aspiring but jobless, seeking employment.

ALPs believes that it can best make a difference in the lives of the target segments – smallholders, women and youth by catalysing transformational changes in the following areas:

• Within Financial Services, making them Inclusive, by enhancing access for all the three vulnerable segments, with different products for which there is unmet demand, such as savings, insurance and money transfers. For smallholders, the focus will be on crop and livestock insurance and value chain finance. For women, the focus would be to help them save, mitigate financial risks through health and life insurance and access credit both for income generating micro-enterprise as also for improving quality of life such as loans for home lighting systems or for water and sanitation. For youth, the focus would be on savings and on micro-equity or participatory finance for start up enterprises.

• Within Agriculture and Rural Development, Smallholder Productivity Enhancement and related Value Chains (SPEVAC). Smallholder farmers are currently stuck in a vicious cycle of low output and low productivity, little disposable income and thus low ability to invest in increasing output or productivity. The focus of ALPs will be increasing the output and productivity of smallholders, mitigating their risks and helping them participate in value chains of commodities they produce.

• Within Human Resource Development, given the demographics, the focus has to be on young men and women. ALPs would focus on promoting Youth Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment through Agro-enterprises and Franchises after Vocational Education and Training (YES-AFVET).

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Geographically, ALPs plans to work in each of the three regions

• Western-Central: Cameroon and then Burkina Faso • Eastern: Tanzania and then Ethiopia or Rwanda • Southern: Mozambique and Malawi.

In the first three years, ALPs will be a BASIX project and by the third year it will become institutionalized as a legal entity registered in an African country with a majority of African institutions on its Board. The ALPs guidance structure would comprise an Advisory Board of nine members, comprising BASIX, PAMIGA, CIDR, TLS, LBI, MIFED, GAPI, KREP and a Tanzanian partner to be identified. There would be a mechanism for six-monthly consultation and feedback meetings with SDC, Berne.

ALPs will have an Executive Committee of three members - one each from BASIX, PAMIGA, and the CEO/COO of ALPs. Along with three independents, they will constitute a Task Implementers’ and Staff Selection ((TISS) Committee, This committee will approve projects and the budgets for work to be done by any of the nine members or their affiliated organisations.

There will be three Country-wise Advisory Boards, with expert members one each for inclusive financial systems, agriculture and value chains and youth entrepreneurship and self-employment. These committees will have 5-7 experts each and they would meet twice a year to review the work of ALPs and give advice on how to make it more effective. ALPs implementation strategy will leverage the strength of its Strategic Partners to act as or identity others as Field Innovation Testing Partners, These could be financial/promotional institutions working with low income households in target countries; Networks of Rural Banks/MFIs; Actors in Agricultural Value Chains – public/private/cooperatives; Providers of Vocational/Entrepreneurial/ Self-Employment Training. This project is now following the normal SDC approval procedures. The funding is expected to be signed by early April 2013, ready for launching in the field. Many lessons to be learnt are foreseen from this very unique experience, among them: (i) leaders of relevant institutions in the three thematic areas adopt ALPs offerings to transform themselves into effective developmental institutions, evidenced by them adopting more pro poor, pro women and pro youth policies, processes and products and practice good governance and achieve sustainability and (ii) dissemination of lessons to the relevant Indian development actors. There is a lot for India to learn from African development experience (M-Pesa mobile money transfer system, the Ethiopian horticultural producers exporting to Europe or Tanzanians involving the surrounding community in maintaining wild-life reserves). One of the roles of ALPs will be to share its learning with Indian government development agencies, private companies and also with developmental NGOs. The BASIX promoted Livelihood School would be given this responsibility, along with a dedicated budget. In this sense, ALPs could be seen as a post-BUSAN trilateral cooperation experience, contributing to build a new model of South-North-South cooperation.

III.2. Thematic Activities implemented Pamiga II has three strategic thematic pillars: (i) Consolidation, Merger and Transformation (ii) Technology and (iii) Product Development, in particular in the domain of Environment and Microfinance. Two technical fields of interventions are cross-cutting

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to these; support their deployment while applied to all MFIs of the network, independently to their priority of the moment: (iv) Social Performance and Financial Education of clients and (v) Institutional Strengthening and Risk Management.

III.2.1. Activities in Consolidation of members, financial intermediaries

The main responsibilities of the consolidation, merger, acquisition and transformation’s department are to:

• Consolidate MFIs, through mergers, acquisitions and / or transformations ;

• Ensure that MFIs receiving PAMIGA’s support develop a good governance system, streamline their distribution channel and improve their management tools to be able to provide good financial services to clients in sustainable, efficient and profitable manner ;

• Capitalize and disseminate good practices about mergers, acquisitions and transformations;

In 2012, it has continued to support the Kayes and OSK’s merger process in Mali and the Boucle du Mouhoun and Soum’s merger process in Burkina Faso and has started the San Jene and Jigifa’s merger process in Mali, in partnership with the Projet de Microfinance Rural (PMR – a IFAD funded project).

Table 1 : Support to merger processes’ activities

ACTIVITIES PERIODS MERGER

PROCESSES CITIES AND

COUNTRIES

Participation in a workshop to

develop policy and procedures

manuals

January 2012

Kayes-OSK Bamako, Mali

Participation in a general

assembly to create Benso

Jamanun

January 2012

Kayes-OSK Kayes, Mali

Mission to launch PAMIGA’s

support to San Jene and

Jigifa’s merger process

February 2012

San Jene - Jigifa San,

Mali

Participation in a workshop to

develop policy and procedures

manuals

February 2012

San Jene - Jigifa Bamako,

Mali

Recruitment of a HR

consultant February 2012

Kayes - OSK Bamako,

Mali

Participation in a workshop to

develop policy and procedures

manuals

Mars 2012 San Jene - Jigifa Bamako,

Mali

Preparation and remote

monitoring of Benso

Jamanun’s board members’

training

May 2012 Kayes - OSK Kayes,

Mali

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Mission to prepare Benso

Jamanun’s license application June 2012 Kayes - OSK Bamako,

Mali

Recruitment of consultant in

charge of the audit and the

valuation of assets and

liabilities

June 2012 Kayes - OSK Bamako,

Mali

Support and monitoring

mission June 2012 Boucle du Mouhoun -

Soum Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Participation in a meeting

with Mastercard foundation

team

September 2012

Kayes-OSK and San Jene - Jigifa

Paris,

France

Feasibility study of A3C

network’s reconfiguration October 2012

A3C - CRATED Yaoundé,

Cameroun

Co-organization of a change

management workshop November 2012

All merger processes Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Mission to study main

challenges faced by the San

Jene and Jigifa’s merger

process

December 2012

San Jene - Jigifa Bamako,

Mali

Training of APFI’s board

members December 2012

Boucle du Mouhoun - Soum

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Cross-cutting TA activities complementary to the consolidation process that were performed in 2012, includes:

- Development of Manuals of Policies and Procedures for Benso Jamanum (admin and finance, treasury, savings and credit, risk management, AML/FT, internal control) and review of those of APFI.

- Development of training modules based on these manuals and TOT in Benso Jamanum both for the officials (directors) and for staff.

The main outcomes are:

• Founding of Association pour la Promotion de la Finance Inclusive (APFI), a new and independent Association (not-for-profit financial organisation), born from the merger of CVECA Boucle du Mouhoun and Soum, fully registered, that has been able to bring a complete application file to Ministry of Finance and national BCEAO for a licence as MFI in compliance to the new law. The application has, since, been reviewed by the local authorities and sent to BCEAO Dakar for final decision and notification of licence.

APFI as a merged entity with a national coverage focus, has 55 000 members/clients, a savings balance of 1.375 million EUR and a loan outstanding of 3 Million EUR and has become the 3rd largest MFI in the country.

• Founding of Benso Jamanum, a new and independent Association (not-for-profit financial organization), born from the merger of CAMIDE (CVECA Kayes) and CVECA OSK, fully registered, that has been able to bring a quasi complete

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application file to Ministry of Finance and national BCEAO for a licence as nation-wide MFI, in compliance to the law. The only piece missing is the valorisation of the assets and liabilities of both entities and the transfer to the new entity. The insecurity in Mali has delayed considerably the work of the audit firm in the field.

Benso Jamanum as a merged entity has 56 400 members/clients, a savings balance of 8 million EUR and a loan outstanding of 5.8 million EUR. It will be the unique MFI in Mali that has a strong identity based on participation of and support from migrants and their remittances that has just launched its own money transfer corridor with France, in partnership with a French private bank.

• The outcome of the third merger is more uncertain due to the failure of Jigifa, one of the merging MFI where audits have shown many inconsistencies and further investigations revealed cases of serious fraud and collusion, amplified with the political crisis. The position of Pamiga is to support CVECA San Jene to withdraw from the merger and recover its original integrity, in cooperation with PMR and the supervisory authorities.

Lessons learnt are manifolds. They were discussed in the working group in Arusha and capitalized so as to improve the process and TA methodology in support of mergers to allow wide dissemination.

III.2.2. Technology

The IT department became functional on 1st October 2012. The objective of this office is to provide IT advisory services and support to Pamiga members and help them strengthen their MIS structures and use technology in order to increase efficiency in their operations and gain competitive advantage to attract rural clients. Technology has the potential to improve the access, quality, and affordability of financial services being offered by MFIs. It is therefore important that members deploy IT solution efficiently and effectively. Additionally most MFIs do not optimize the systems and solutions that are already in existence. These challenges are very apparent in most MFIs and it is Pamiga’s objectives to support these MFIs so that they can fully leverage on the potential of IT. The IT department will therefore:- • Support in assessing the needs of individual member MFIs and assist in choosing the

most appropriate technology that suits their environment and meets their needs.

• Offer support in writing Requests For Proposals (RFPs)

• Assist in selecting service providers for MFIs, ensuring solutions are tailored to meet

MFIs’ specific needs and context.

• Play advisory role in project implementation for MFIs from beginning to end, ensuring

best practices are applied during the life of the project.

• Assist in developing products that ride on new technology solutions.

• Carryout MIS evaluations and offering recommendations.

Plan Primary Activities Output (deliverables) Status

Orientation • Introductory meetings with Pamiga

General Manager in Paris

• Orientation workshops with mentors in

Paris

Short-term and mid-term

work plans

Completed in

October

Mission at ACFB,

Benin (on Site

mission)

PHASE 1 - Objective : Analysis of existing

Information Systems and identification of

areas to improve

• Carried out a full diagnosis of the current

Terms Of Reference (TOR)

and Memorandum of

Understanding (MOU)

templates.

Completed in

November

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Main outcomes as per year end 2012 are: • The service offer presented at the CEO meeting obviously met the needs of many MFI

members who came to express their demand for Pamiga’s IT department’s support in the MIS/IT field. The calendar is now full for the whole year 2013, with “flash diagnosis” of 9 MFIs and two pilot projects (APFI in Burkina Faso and WPS in Kenya,

information system.

• Identified strengths and weaknesses in

different areas:- Processes, organization

and IT resources, technical architecture,

security, risk

• Analyzed financial statements produced

by MIS. Checked for reliability and

accuracy.

PHASE 2 - Objective : Description of

recommendations and identifying those that

can be implemented quickly and develop a

plan for implementation.

• Supported ACFB prioritize the list of

recommendations and developed a Macro

Implementation Plan

PHASE 3 - Objective : Support ACFB to

develop an IT strategy for the period 2013 -

2016

• ACFB IT staff was trained on how to

develop an IT strategy.

• We gave them the tools necessary to

develop an IT strategy.

Assessment report of the

existing Information System

with a complete list of

recommendations

Macro Implementation

Plan

The following tools were

developed to help ACFB in

implementation of some

recommendations:

� MIS evaluation tool

� IT Fixed Asset Register for all IT equipment

� Helpdesk tools � Sample job descriptions � User Access Matrix tool

� Project Management

tool in excel. Currently

ACFB does not have

Microsoft Project

Management tool.

Therefore this excel tool

will help in the

meantime.

Tools for “Developing and

IT strategy”. This tool will

assist ACFB in designing

and drafting the IT strategy

document for the year 2013

- 2016

Ongoing and

almost completed

before end of

December.

Plan is completed

and

implementation is

ongoing end

December and a

gradual process for

some

recommendations

Completed in

December . ACFB

will now start

drafting the IT

strategy with

assistance from

CITAO. Target to

complete IT

strategy by end of

February.

17

both for a strong MIS to sustain the growth expected after a merger or a transformation).

• The first on site mission (3 weeks) at ACFB, Benin, have established the credibility of the Chief IT Officer in advisory service delivery in a francophone African context.

III.2.3. Environment and Microfinance: the Water and Microfinance

Initiative in West Africa

The “Water & Microfinance Initiative - W.M.I” ended its first year of activities with the establishment of the foundations for the program. In the first semester, the prerequisites were established (hiring part of the team and launching the activities with the partners). In the second semester, some of the foundations were finalized:

• Institutionalization: Identifying the interested partners, signing memorandums of

understanding, developing efficient and specific ways of collaboration, in good

understanding with the Swiss Development Cooperation (in particular, for the

replacement of Mali by Togo after the events in Mali), and establishing PAMIGA

Finance, PAMIGA’s arm for all financial intermediation for the benefit of MFIs.

• Conception : Defining the key processes of the program, in a participative way

with the partners on the field, by helping each partner to :

o Build its action plan for the Initiative

o Adapt its products.

• Organization :

o Hiring and preparing the PAMIGA staff of the program (a senior manager in

February and a field officer in July)

o Helping the partnering MFIs adapt their organization, procedures and

systems and train their staff.

• Administration :

o Beginning of production in Burkina Faso and Senegal,

o Launch of the impact evaluations.

Two MFIs were chosen to be the pilots for the program: APFI (the entity coming out of the merger of the CVECAs of Boucle du Mouhoun and Soum) in Burkina Faso and U-IMCEC in Senegal. Two other MFIs were consulted through a field visit to test their ability and interest to be involved: ACFB in Benin and WAGES in Togo. A last one, CAURIE, in Senegal, has also expressed its interest for the process. Therefore, from an original group of 6 MFIs in 4 countries including Mali, the Initiative will be conducted with 5 MFIs in 4 countries, Togo having replaced Mali when the political and security crisis has occurred there. The main activities implemented are:

a. Defining the partnership

The Initiative has been identified in strong partnership with the network’s member MFIs, and after a

study of the expectations of the clients. Even though, the details of the program and the timeframe

resulted from interactions between the MFIs, PAMIGA and the funder, and the MFIs are acting in a

changing world where the operational constraints evolve a lot.

The formalization of the partnership aimed mainly to secure the ownership of the initiative by the

MFIs. The risk is always that the MFIs perceive a program as the property of a third party, and then

act mainly in an opportunistic way that would impede them from mastering the process and

integrating the knowhow.

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The partnership resulted MOUs signed by participating MFIs, but the discussions around it were very

important, and allowed to ensure that all the pre-requisites for the success are met. The 4 first

organizations listed signed the MOU.

b. Developing the action plans

Each MFI had to decide on its own action plan for the Initiative’s implementation, involving:

• Appreciation of the market and definition of segments and locations in numbers and

amounts and decision on the targets, at least for the first phase of the program,

• Defining the main orientations of the program, including the specifics of the product, the

pilot process and sites, the organization, the team and the in-house “champion” for WMI…

• Deciding on the timing of the operations and setting responsibilities: conception of the tools

and systems, training of the piloting team, marketing of the product, analysis of the

applications for the first and second groups of clients, modalities of evaluation and impact

appreciation and perspectives for expansion…

By year end 2012, APFI, U-IMCEC and WAGES have developed their own action plan in Water and

Microfinance.

c. Developing the tools and training the staff

The MFIs have their tools, systems and skills, but these elements are not necessarily adapted to the uses, amounts, regional areas and durations of the loans required by the funding of equipments for productive water. In the case of APFI, there was a need to get out of the very small loans for less than one year, for which the analyses are based on the reputation and the social links of the applicant. For U-IMCEC and WAGES, the challenge was more to generalize the financing of rural equipment on a non-subsidized basis. Each MFI appointed a “champion” for the Initiative, all of them being senior professionals in the organization. Typically, the champion worked closely on the program with a team of 2 to 5 staff, mainly credit officers. The development of the tools is an iterative process. The general principles are defined in a participative way between the representatives of the MFI and the PAMIGA TA team. Then the PAMIGA staff formalizes the tool and submits it to the review of the MFI’s field staff. After adaptations, the tool is experimented with some clients, and the feedback is again used to refine the tool. The “1.0 version” is then applied in the field followed by the need for new adaptations. Tools developed in a context can be applied with minor adaptations in another rural context in West Africa. Therefore, the investment in fine tuning a tool is rewarding as it could serve as reference for future dissemination, provided that the participatory process involving local actors is preserved as a principle and serves for adaptation purposes. In APFI and U-IMCEC, and with the technical assistance of PAMIGA, the team participated in workshops of production (for the establishment of the work plan and product’s proposals) and training (for the financial analysis of the loan applications, the financial education and the impact assessment). The equipments for productive water is by and large targeting agricultural farming activities, and funding applications are in a large proportion to buy water pumps. One of the objectives of the program is to help develop know how on the equipment (nature, adequacy, capacity, availability, guaranties and maintenance, prices…). This activity could be quite time consuming. In the field, observations show that the more entrepreneurial farmers make quite well informed decisions, since they build their choice on all the information and experiences they collect personally and through their

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neighbors. Linking the MFIs with technical partners who are knowledgeable in agricultural and irrigation good practices appears however to be very crucial when the program will scale up and when onsite training of the farmers/clients on conscious use of water and inputs become a key element of impact (economic and environmental) for the program. In 2012, the cross-cutting activities performed in accompanying the launch of Water and Microfinance Initiative have been: - A manual of procedures on “Water and microfinance” was provided to the 2

institutions, APFI in Burkina Faso and U-IMCEC in Senegal to be used by all branch managers and loan officers. Each institution has assigned a champion to be the main reference on that topic. This champion was in charge of training staff on these procedures.

- Both pilot MFIs in the “Water and microfinance” programme have a tailored tool, used

by loan agents for loan appraisal. After a couple of months of use, feedbacks and comments were used to design a new version of the tool.

- The point is to use this Excel file for all “Water and microfinance” loan applications. - In Burkina Faso, 6 branch managers were trained. In Senegal, 8 branch managers

and loan agents were trained.

-Designing a methodology for the impact monitoring: 3 tools were developed � An individual questionnaire to be used in personal interviews with 15% of the

clients at the beginning and the end of the loan period

� A grid of qualitative questions that will be used in focus groups

� An excell tool for the MFIs to enter the results and analyse the data of impact

monitoring

- Pilot-testing of the tools and training of the MFIs’ staff on the impact study

� The tools were tested with a dozen of potential clients in Burkina Faso. � In APFI (Burkina Faso), 6 branch managers and loan officers, including the WMI

champion, were trained in on the tools for impact monitoring.

� In UIMCEC (Senegal), 5 branch managers, including the WMI champion and the Social Performance Manager, were trained during a workshop on methodology, the organization and the tools of the impact study.

- In Financial Education and in the frame of WMI, APFI (Burkina Faso), 6 branch

managers and loans officers were trained on the “budgeting” module. The tool was adapted to the context of loans for productive water investment projects.

- In UIMCEC (Senegal), 8 branch managers and loan officers were trained on the

budgeting module. The training was under the supervision of the social performance manager, who will be responsible for the deployment of the financial education program. This training was co-facilitated by Snezana Jovic, the Social Performance and Financial Education program manager with the newly recruited WMI program officer, Teddy Kouvahey. He will be, from now responsible of training the other MFIs’ staff participating in the WMI program.

Two country/regional diagnosis on environmental stakes of a water project has been commissioned to a specialized firm, CEREG, in Senegal in July and in Burkina Faso in November 2012: the very stimulating findings have helped raise awareness on practices that can affect more or less the quantity of water drawn but also the potential protection or pollution of the underground water in sensitive regions such as the one in which our project in Burkina is operating. Criteria and indicators for selecting projects have been recommended and integrated in loan applications. The study also raise the awareness of

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the program and participating MFIs on the absolute necessity to link clients to technical assistance in agricultural practices so as to provide them with adequate information and skills to improve yields and profitability while reducing costs and protecting the environment in which they produce. Main outcomes: • 4 MFIs in 4 western African countries have signed a specific Water and Microfinance

Initiative MOU with Pamiga where the roles of both parties are well defined and have accepted in broad terms of modalities of Technical and Financial Assistance that will be provided to them for the next three years.

• 3 MFIs have developed an action plan out of which 2 have started implementation in

pilot branches / regions. For the 2, products have been developed for funding of medium terms equipment loans for small irrigation in horticulture mainly, adjusted procedure manuals, trained staff/credit officers in loan analysis based on profitability of the project, an ad hoc organization is put in place to promote and handle the WMI, managed by a dedicated “champion” who is a senior professional to whom staff is allocated.

• 2 loan agreements have been signed by Pamiga Finance SA with the 2 pilot MFIs

dedicated to refinance their loan portfolio of water related projects and disbursement has taken place from PFSA to the MFIs as well as from the MFIs to 222 clients, just in time for the irrigation season in West Africa.

• The participating MFIs have confirmed the existence of a vast market for productive

water related projects and the relevance of WMI: the pilots have played its role in developing the process, the methodology and the tools; the initiative can now be scaled up and disseminated.

� An impact monitoring system is in place to follow up and measure economical as well

as environmental changes occurring.

III.2.4. Social Performance and Financial Education

This thematic is implemented as a cross-cutting technical assistance activity for all MFI members of the network, independently of their main strategic priorities. In particular, financial education has been performed in accompanying the launch of the Water and Microfinance Initiative in Senegal and Burkina Faso, as reported in the chapter on the WMI. Aside from these, the program managers for SPFE has also developed other activities in this field that were planned for the year and that are relevant to the overall core program of PAMIGA. They are, as follows:

a. Training of trainers in Wasasa, Ehtiopia (MicroLead Program)

The objective of the UNCDF MicroLead Expansion Program to support leading financial and technical service providers with savings led methodologies to expand their operations to new markets which are underserved in Sub-Saharan Africa. More particularly, in Ethiopia, the PAMIGA/Basix consortium is in charge of a global project aiming at strengthening the microfinance operations of Buusaa Gonofaa and Wasasa, and increasing the outreach of these two Ethiopian MFIs on the rural poor market, particularly in terms of mobilization of savings. Technical assistance on financial education for clients is part of this project.

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A 5-day mission was organized in July 2012 in order to support Wasasa Microfinance S.C. (Wasasa) in the implementation of a financial education program for its clients on the topics of Savings and Debt Management. The development of a clients’ financial education program on the topic of savings should allow Wasasa’s clients to better understand the mechanisms of savings and the benefits they can have by saving their money within the MFI. This should help Wasasa achieve its objectives in terms of mobilization of internal resources. In addition, the advisory mission also proposed a financial education component on the topic of debt management, the objective being to educate clients on how to better manage their loans and avoid the risk of over indebtedness. Wasasa’s portfolio at risk being still relatively low, this part of the mission focused mainly on preventing over indebtedness rather than on correcting it. The methodology used was the one developed by Microfinance Opportunities and Freedom from Hunger. More specifically, the mission aimed to train trainers in financial education, who will then be responsible for deploying the modules to clients of the institution. A detailed action plan was developed at the end of the training for the deployment of the financial education program. 30 persons were trained. Most of them were branch managers; all Wasasa operating areas were represented. The remaining were field coordinators, regional coordinators and savings officers. They were trained on 2 financial education modules, Savings and Debt Management. Three action plans were developed for the implementation of the financial education program in the 3 regions where Wasasa operates. In total, Wasasa plans to train approximately 18,000 clients before the end of June 2013.

b. Designing of a financial education module for women entrepreneurs in Senegal (GIZ - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale

Zusammenarbeit)

In July, PAMIGA submitted a proposal in response to a call for tender from GIZ in Senegal, for the design of 4 financial education modules for the microfinance sector in Senegal. PAMIGA was selected for the development of the module for women entrepreneur. A 3-week on-field mission held in November 2012 in Dakar was organized in order to get inputs from the field for the content of the module. Different meetings were organized with the partners of GIZ (APSFD, DMF, OQSFD) in order to match their expectations with the proposed content of the module. The mission also helped developing different practical cases inspired from real-life experiences of microfinance clients. Indeed, in each of the 14 sessions of the module developed, practical exercises are used in order to make the clients practice immediately the new knowledge and skills acquired. Those practical cases were developed in partnership with UIMCEC and its clients. Some illustrations were also included in the module in order to help illiterate clients better understand the content; those illustrations were developed by a professional illustrator working for a well known national newspaper. Different workshops were organized with the illustrator in order to select the exercises where an illustration is needed and define the right content so that the impact on Senegalese women entrepreneurs is enhanced. The output was the financial education training module and the related user guidelines for women entrepreneurs in Senegal.

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These tools will be used by the GIZ partners (mostly the “Association Professionnelle des Systèmes Financiers Décentralisés” - APSFD) in order to train women entrepreneurs in how to develop a business plan and improve their use of financial services.

III.2.5. Institutional Strengthening and Risk Management

This thematic is implemented as a cross-cutting technical assistance activity for all MFI members of the network, independently of their main strategic priorities. It includes development of policy and procedures manuals, development of specific loan analysis tools and risk mapping, scoring and development of risk management plans. Its activities can be deployed in accompanying activities in strategic pillars such as for mergers (see manuals produced and training performed in Mali and Burkina Faso) or for the Water and Microfinance Initiative (see manuals, loan analysis tool and training performed in Mali and Burkina Faso, cited above). The program manager has also performed other specific activities in these fields that appeared as relevant for Pamiga’s strategy. They are the following: In the frame of the Consortium Basix/Pamiga and the implementation of the Microlead Ethiopia Program, different short term TA were planned and required: - Training of MFIs staff on Risk Management in the context of AEMFI - Technical assistance on risk management to Wasasa

a. Training session on Risk Management at AEMFI

The training session on risk management was held from February 20 to February 24, 2012 in AEMFI head office in Addis Ababa. It was conducted by Claire Ozanne, senior program officer from PAMIGA and Idrissa Coulibaly, a professional volunteer from FNCE (Fédération Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne), with the support of Ram Lohan Rao, the team leader from the Microlead programme and Bethlehem Girma from AEMFI. The training session was attended by 25 participants, coming from 21 MFIs. The objective of the training was to raise awareness on risks in microfinance and how to develop a risk management framework. The training session was designed to be participative, interactive and enable trainees to share their experience, achievements or failures, as well as to raise questions to trainers. For this purpose, topics were presented in plenary sessions, followed by breakout sessions, where activities were performed by groups of 5 people, in order to enable participants to better own the content and share their understanding in national language rather than in English. Training was designed to bring knowledge and tools to all participants, taking into account that they had different backgrounds, different skills relating to risk management and different stages of risk management development in their MFI. It was then crucial to clearly define all concepts and give actual examples as illustrations.

b. Risk management diagnosis and suggestions for improvement

The objective of the mission was to assist Wasasa in strengthening its risk mitigation system and its internal controls system, by implementing a comprehensive risk management framework. More specifically, objectives were to: – Understand the actual risk management framework in place;

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– Identify the risks, categorize them and assist the MFI in understanding risks

mapping;

– Provide recommendations on improvements ;

– Provide tools to implement the risk management framework, and make it efficient.

Final report on risk management was presented to Wasasa’s General Manager and to MicroLead Team Leader, it includes: • Risks mapping;

• Risks analysis;

• Recommendations after diagnosis;

• Proposed new organization chart;

• Proposed detailed action plan;

• Tools to implement risk management and follow-up.

III.3. Activities implemented versus planned The vast majority of activities planned in 2012 have been implemented. Some delays could however be observed and some adjustments were needed due to unexpected events. Delays can be identified in the launch of the activities in the IT department, mostly due to late recruitment of the Chief IT Advisory Officer (October instead of June or July) and delays in finalizing the funding for the year (a donor took more time than expected to sign the grant agreement). The recruitment process for the program officer for WMI also took longer than expected, as a first selected candidate never took his position in the field and was only replaced 4 months later. This situation has affected the pace of the launch of the 2 pilots and needed a lot of flexibility from the program manager and other staff to make up for the activities to be implemented. For Consolidation & Merger and for the Water & Microfinance Initiative, Mali was initially a focus country. Due to the coup in April followed by the AQMI crisis in the North, security has become a serious issue, affecting field work in general and microfinance operations in particular. Most activities of Pamiga had to be re-oriented: for the mergers, 2 merger cases were implemented out of 3 planned – the Burkina Faso case has been proposed to Mastercard Foundation as a substitute and some activities such as training for change management were operated from Burkina Faso while involving Malian participants who came cross-border to join; and for the Water & Microfinance Initiative, it was agreed with SDC to switch from Mali (3 MFIs) to Togo. Fortunately, there have also been unexpected opportunities that Pamiga had been able to seize also, such as the participation to the project design of ALP with BASIX, the GIZ assignment in Financial Education for women entrepreneurs and developing the partnership with Schneider-Electric in access to energy for the BOP in rural Africa.

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IV. Way forward, perspectives for 2013 After a good start, 2013 should be for PAMIGA II a crucial year for full implementation of all the thematic programs as well as the cross-cutting social and institutional strengthening activities, with full staff on board. In terms of recruitment, one more program officer will be integrated beginning of 2013, in charge of the Access to clean Energy program in partnership with Schneider-Electric. With this recruitment, Pamiga’s staff will reach its optimal size of 10 headcount and 9 EFT and will be stabilized at that level till the end of this Business Plan, in 2015. Training opportunities will be provided to staff: the Boulder Turin training, Microfin/financial projections training in Washington, among others. For the core activities, the focus will be on Knowledge Management and sharing, especially in the area of Consolidation, Merger and Transformation, in view of preparing for the Regional Conference to be held in Dakar on October 2nd and 3rd, 2013 in co-promotion with BCEAO, IFAD and Mastercard Foundation, where 2 cases of mergers in Mali and Burkina Faso will be presented and where a toolkit will be disseminated to an audience of practitioners, professional associations, policy makers, regulators as well as donors active in supporting Financial Inclusion in West and Central Africa. Many opportunities for advocacy will be seized through participations in national, regional and global events and forums on Financial Inclusion and on Environment and Microfinance, involving different members of the staff. PAMIGA FINANCE will be fund raising for its new compartment C dedicated to Water and Energy debt funding for 9 MFIs involved in our Environment and Microfinance Program. Both private investors (social and impact investing) and DFIs will be approached. The goal is to have the instrument ready for the last quarter of 2013. In the field of Consolidation, Merger and Transformation, while finalizing the activities in Mali and Burkina Faso, the focus for 2013 will be on Cameroon, with the streamlining of the delivery channels for A3C, on Kenya with pursuing the transformation of WPS and in assisting WAGES in Togo to make an informed decision for its transformation or not. In the area of Technology, 9 diagnoses will be made during the year, leading to tailored recommendations and action plans and assistance will be provided for 2 pilots in strengthening the MIS in a situation of post-merger or transformation: APFI in Burkina and WPS in Kenya. For the Environment and Microfinance Program, the component of Access to clean Energy will be launched in Cameroon, Kenya and Tanzania in March and April, with the objective of testing the market for the 3 segments while delivering the first loans in all 3. Building concretely in the field the partnership with Schneider-Electric and its BipBop program will be key for success. The Water and Microfinance component will have reached in 2013 its full deployment with 5 MFIs in 4 countries involved and at least 3 of them providing access to funding for water related productive projects in a significant way. The two Microlead programs in Ethiopia and Cameroon, in collaboration with Basix India will be in implementation, involving for Pamiga delivery of TOTs as well as tailored TA missions to member MFIs and to the sector in areas such as “governance strengthening”, “financial education”, “risk management” and “product development”. The ALP (the African Livelihood Promotion) program should normally be launched in April 2013 in 3 countries: Cameroon, Mozambique and Tanzania with the support of SDC. 2013 will be a crucial year to set up the hub in Arusha, install the 3 thematic experts in

25

their respective focal countries from where they will operate and cover the 3 others, build the partnerships with local organizations while delivering cutting-edge TA services to enhance capabilities of existing organizations to better serve rural poor, women and youth in agriculture and employment creation. PAMIGA as part of the executive committee will have to take a very active part in this new program. Finally, at year end, preparatory activities will be carried on in the view of the mid-term evaluation of the PAMIGA II Business Plan that should take place end of 2013 – beginning of 2014: assessing performance, measuring impact and drawing lessons learnt for dissemination and advocacy.