KAMPALA: The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation today launched a four-year program to promote access to financial and non-financial services for refugees and host communities in Uganda.

The program is an innovative blended financial approach that combines public and private funds to facilitate financing for refugees and host communities. Access to affordable credit services is essential for refugees to start, create, and expand businesses, meet their daily needs, and be more resilient in the face of emergencies. Furthermore, access to other types of financial services such as savings, payments, and insurance is essential to ensure the inclusion of refugees in the formal financial sector and promote their self-reliance and resilience.

An innovative approach

This is a unique program designed to incentivize microfinance investors and financial service providers (FSPs) to expand their financial services to refugees and host populations. The project is currently being piloted in Palorinya refugee camp in northern Uganda and Kampala, and will gradually be expanded to other targeted refugee-hosting districts.

"This is an effective way to use development aid. We leverage funds from other investors and thus ensure that scarce humanitarian funds can be released to help the most deprived refugees," says Carin Jämtin, Executive Director of SIDA.

The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation will provide debt financing to three financial service providers with a guarantee from SIDA, which will also fund the program's technical assistance through its humanitarian allocation. The Foundation will coordinate, with UNHCR, the technical assistance component to help the three FSPs develop a range of products and services, including financial education and business development training, for both refugees and members of host communities.

Supporting entrepreneurship

For UNHCR, the project is in line with the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) and responds to the call to work with development agencies and the private sector to find durable solutions for refugees. Many refugees are entrepreneurs, having been entrepreneurs in their countries of origin or possessing entrepreneurial skills to create or expand a business activity in their host country. Mahoua Parums, UNHCR Representative in Uganda, welcomed this initiative and stated that “financial inclusion is a key element in finding long-term solutions for refugees, as it helps them rebuild sustainable livelihoods. Many refugees decide to start a business once settled in the country of asylum, and microfinance can help them grow their businesses, avoid aid dependency, and make an economic and social contribution to host communities.”

Through this program, refugees will receive training in entrepreneurial management that will equip them with essential skills such as developing business plans, financial education (including dealing with banks), pricing, and marketing.

“At the Foundation, we are convinced that microfinance institutions, while adapting their products and services, have an active role to play in promoting the financial inclusion of refugees. Digital finance opportunities, in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of each group, regular monitoring, and appropriate non-financial services should stimulate such involvement,” says Eric Campos, Managing Director of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation.

In total, some 100,000 Ugandan refugees and hosts are expected to have access to financial services (credit and savings), including 70,000 women. The project will support the creation and development of small businesses in sectors such as agriculture, crafts, catering, and trade.

The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation continues to expand its activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the signing of a new partnership with the microfinance institution Partner Microcredit Organization (Partner), to which it has granted an initial loan of €2 million over a period of three years.

Partner is a multi-ethnic organization founded by Mercy Corps in 2000. It was the first microfinance institution to operate in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Partner, one of the country's leading microfinance institutions, provides a range of business, agricultural, and housing loans through a network of approximately 30 branches. To date, the institution has over 40,000 clients, including 42% women and 87% rural clients, and manages a portfolio of nearly €70 million.

With this new partnership, the Foundation has three partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 16 partners in the Eastern Europe / Central Asia region, which represents nearly 20% of partners and 26% of outstanding loans monitored by the Foundation at the end of October 2019.

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Created in 2008, under the joint leadership of Crédit Agricole SA's management and Professor Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen Bank, the Grameen Crédit Agricole SA Foundation is a multi-sector operator that contributes to the fight against poverty through financial inclusion and social impact entrepreneurship. As an investor, lender, technical assistance coordinator and fund advisor, the Foundation supports microfinance institutions and social enterprises in nearly 40 countries.

19 tons of plastic enter the ocean every minute. Yet this waste can be an invaluable resource! Making recycling this waste a profitable and job-generating activity: that's the challenge facing the Plastic Odyssey team. Merchant Navy officers, a sales manager, and an engineer, these young entrepreneurs decided to build an ambitious project to raise awareness about plastic waste recycling and share expertise with emerging countries.

An expedition to share low-tech and open-source plastic recycling technologies

For three years, the Plastic Odyssey team will sail the world's seas on a ship to fight plastic pollution. The expedition will stop in emerging countries to encourage local waste reduction initiatives and the creation of small recycling plants. At each stop, Plastic Odyssey will share low-tech and open-source recycling technologies to foster the development of micro-entrepreneurship and the circular economy. Training in plastic sorting and recycling will also be offered.

This project does not aim to collect plastic present in the oceans but to act upstream, by working with local populations on depollution solutions, so that land-based waste does not end up in the oceans.

The first ship to move forward thanks to recycled plastic

The ship will be ready to sail in the second half of 2020. Measuring 40 meters in length, it will run on fuel made from plastic waste using a pyrolysis plant installed at the rear of the boat: a first in the field of navigation.

For 3 years, he will successively travel the coasts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the oceans, encourage the reduction of plastic and its recycling, and transform plastic waste into resources.

The fight against plastic pollution: a major societal issue

The fight against plastic pollution is a concern that Crédit Agricole shares with Plastic Odyssey. The Group was already a partner of Plastic Odyssey in 2018, during the prototyping phase of the project. Crédit Agricole, through 16 entities(1), is continuing this commitment by supporting Plastic Odyssey's initiative with €1.2 million over 5 years. The support provided for this expedition is in line with the Crédit Agricole Group's Social Project.

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(1) 7 Regional Banks (Alpes Provence, Aquitaine, Atlantic Vendée, Charente-Maritime Deux-Sèvres, Finistère, Normandy Seine, Provence Côte d'Azur) as well as BforBank, CAMCA Mutuelle, Crédit Agricole Assurances, CACEIS, Crédit Agricole CIB, Crédit Agricole Immobilier, Crédit Agricole SA, Crédit Agricole Poland and Crédit Agricole Italy.