The third Board meeting of Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation (GCAMF) was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on September 9, 2009. It was for the first time that a Board meeting of the Foundation was held in Dhaka since the establishment of GCAMF in Luxembourg in 2008. A 19 member delegation including the members of the Board of Directors and the microfinance team of GCAMF arrived in Dhaka from Paris for the purpose.
Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation is a joint initiative by Credit Agricole S.A., France and Grameen Trust, Bangladesh. With an endowment of EUR 50 million, the Foundation is committed to play an active role in fighting poverty and financial exclusion by providing financial and technical assistance to the microfinance institutions and social business projects in different countries.
The meeting was of great significance as the Board approved the General Policy Document of the Foundation, its Indicative Investment Programming and also the Estimated Budget for 2009-2012. A presentation on the Foundation's social and financial assessment and analysis tools was also made in the Board meeting.
The Foundation has so far approved loan to six projects in Kosovo, Cambodia, Kenya, Mali and Tanzania. Seventy percent of the approved fund has already been disbursed. It has also approved guarantee funding to two projects in Ethiopia and Egypt.
As the Foundation is ready to provide financial support to the social business, the members of the delegation visited Grameen Danone Factory and Grameen GC Eye Hospital in Bogra. It was an exciting and learning experience for them, as they had the opportunity to see the operation and the impact of these two social business initiatives in Bangladesh, which are based on the principles of social business as defined by Professor Muhammad Yunus. During the visit, the members talked to the management, staff and the beneficiaries of the social business projects, the borrowers of Grameen Bank, micro-enterprise loan recipients and the students, who received scholarship and higher education loan from Grameen. They were highly impressed to learn the positive impact of GB and Grameen social business projects. Following the visit, Mr. Rene Carron, Chairman, GCAMF, sent his greetings and an autographed photo of the visit to each of the students the delegation met during their visit.
Report by: Senti Chakma
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