Thursday (2019/02/14), twenty people representing a number of Micro-finance Institutions (MFIs) participated in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on the draft of toolkit for developing WASH micro-finance scheme.
This event was held by USAID IUWASH PLUS in Grandhika Hotel, Jakarta.
The participants represented five cooperatives in Tangerang, Bogor, Makassar, three rural banks (BPR) in Jakarta and Bandung, and Bank Magelang participated in the FGD. Almost all the participants have had their WASH micro-finance schemes.
The FGD was held as a part of WASH microfinance scheme toolkit development that the project is currently working on. This event aimed to generate inputs from the participants to the toolkit for developing WASH micro-finance scheme.
During the FGD, the participants learned that the toolkit that USAID IUWASH PLUS developing consists of four books. The first book is covers information on why WASH sector requires micro-finance. The second book contains how to develop a WASH micro-finance scheme. The third book explains WASH facilities to be funded using the micro-finance scheme. At last, the fourth book highlights how to promote the scheme efficiently.
In addition, the participants explained their motivation and shared experiences when developing and running WASH microfinance schemes. Alfarisi, a staff of Komida Bogor, explained that his institution develops a WASH micro-finance scheme to meet its members’ needs. Kopsyah BMI in Tangerang also shared that the cooperative uses secondary data and survey to potential beneficiaries when selecting a market. The cooperative also uses targeted promotion.
The participants from BPRs also shared that their products, including WASH credits, need to require approval from OJK before the banks introduce them to market.
In addition to experience sharing, the participants also gave some inputs to the toolkit, among others is to include information on WASH and examples of promotional messages as the MFIs need this information to identify and promote their products. The participants also suggested to use financial and social consideration to encourage the MFIs to develop WASH micro-finance schemes.
As a follow up, USAID IUWASH PLUS will use the inputs from the participants to finalize the draft of the toolkit for developing WASH microfinance. Once completed, USAID IUWASH PLUS will pilot the tool in some MFIs.
In the future, the tool is expected to help the MFIs to develop their own WASH micro-finance schemes.
“I hope the toolkit that USAID IUWASH PLUS is developing will fit the MFIs’ products and features,” hopes Ria Pratiwi, a staff of BPRS HIK.
