Freedom from Hunger credit with education for women program, final evaluation

The CWE program has achieved an organizational sustainability that is reasonably compliant with the grant's intent, and results appear broadly supportive of the strategic objectives of the Office of Private and Voluntary Cooperation. FFH is strongly committed to sustainability and deserves substantial credit for beginning to address the implications of focusing on sustainability and "bottom line" performance at the expense of social purpose objectives. The CWE approach, a distinctive FFH product, fills an important niche in the micro-credit field by emphasizing social impact, the need to reach poor women in remote areas, and a lending and education package tailored to the needs of the poor. The direct monetary cost of the educational component is quite modest, though whether or not either of the program's two components suffers because of its linkage with the other remains to be seen. A serious potential deficiency of FFH's micro-credit approach is that significant shares of borrowed funds are being allocated to non-productive household consumption rather than to capital formation and enterprise development. In-country management ability is the key indicator of program success. Management of a micro-credit program, difficult to begin with, is made doubly so by the addition of an education component and the decision to work in remote rural areas and with very poor women. A serious long-term issue is whether independent local organizations will have the ability to manage both a credit and an education program. FFH has made a very serious effort to build strong local partnerships, though with mixed success due in good part to the tensions inherent in the model. The record suggests that the decision to gradually move away from a direct operational role is a wise one. FFH has a clear and focused sense of mission and purpose, and there is broad consensus regarding strategy, objectives, and future difficulties and opportunities. FFH will have to continually balance its identity between being a "bottom-line" credit organization and a poverty-oriented development agency. In this regard it can serve an extremely valuable role by continuing to challenge outside scepticism about the benefits of integrating education with credit. Strategic dangers include insularity of perspective, a narrowness of approach, and the absence of direct operational experience. FFH takes planning very seriously. The Practitioner Services Business Plan is a thoughtful and well-developed strategy for moving toward financial independence. Leadership appears to be strong, internal tension and dysfunctional behavior quite low. While difficult to document, the current staff seems somewhat below the optimal level needed for what FFH is attempting to accomplish. Senior management appears to be stretched too thin, but the team-based structure is, on balance, appropriate for what FFH does. FFH is very much a "learning organization" and gives considerable emphasis to internal self-examination, evaluation, and impact research. One of the most important functions that FFH should continue to play is that of provocateur to the micro-finance movement. To do this convincingly, FFH will need to maintain a strong analytical capacity.