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Description / Overview:
This project encourages local development and it contributes to alleviation of poverty in the area of Jabal Al-Hoss. Particularly, trying to ensure the long-term sustainability of a network of Village Development Funds (VDFs) financing income-generating activities
Objectives:
The project aims at contributing to enhancing the alleviation of poverty in the area of Jabal al-Hoss, south-east of Aleppo city, through promoting a climate that is conducive to economic development. More specifically, the project is concerned with ensuring the long-term sustainability of a network of Village Development Funds, or VDFs, (created during phase I of the project) that finance income generating activities. The three major objectives of the project are as follows: (i) Formalizing the legal status of the VDFs; (ii) Transferring the financial and organizational management of these institutions from project staff to the Village Committees and to the Executive Board of the VDFs; and (iii) Expanding the network of VDFs through the establishment of additional funds.
Target Beneficiaries:
Rural community of Jabal Al-Hoss
Implementation Strategy:
Prepare, review and finalize a legal framework
Create an institutional linkages with other microfinance scheme networks in the country
Empower Village Committees with the legal authority and technical expertise required for a gradual handover of responsibilities concerning financial and organizational management of their respective funds
Achievements / Current Status:
- A socio-economic database was created to serve progress analysis. Several comparative statistical studies conducted between 2000 and 2005, showed that loan receivers improved their living standard (housing, nutrition, education, women’s empowerment and general income increase).
- The percentage of women loans rise to 45%
- A network of 32 sanduq (VDFs) has been established, 20 of which them are operationally and financially sustainable.
- More than 7000 men and women are fully involved in the village development funds
- Around 14,000 loans were granted with a repayment rate of 98%
- A kindergarten was established to provide pre-elementary education and to create job opportunities for women in the same area.
- Jabal Al Hoss project was recognized as a best practice in terms of microfinance in the country and granted permanent membership in the Sanabel Regional Microfinance network.
Partnerships:
- The Netherlands Embassy
- JICA
- British Council
Project Documents Link:
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