It’s no secret that microfinance institutions provide a variety of beneficial services to communities beyond just loans.  In addition to micro-credit services, BRAC Liberia also runs a community health program and an agricultural program to improve the quality of life for its borrowers and the community as a whole.

A Young Girl Selling Vegetables At The Market

The agriculture program provides entrepreneurial farmers with both technical assistance and funding for seeds and other inputs. Having a background in agricultural business, I am always fascinated by international agriculture and its relationship to development.  One of my first observations in Liberia was the notable lack of small farms.  In my past experience and travels in the developing world, small farms have always been a mainstay of family income and subsistence.

With further research, I discovered that prior to the civil war Liberia had a well-developed agriculture system utilizing its large land base, fertile soil, and abundant water resources.  But after decades of conflict, many of the fields were overgrown by jungle and irrigation systems fell into disrepair. Several years after the war, the Liberian agriculture system remains in disarray.  Armed with questions, I set off with a BRAC agriculture specialist to examine the puzzle that is Liberian agriculture.

King has worked with BRAC for 3 years and studied agriculture production extensively in and out of school.  In fact, King grew up on a diversified farm growing vegetables, palm, corn, peppers, and rice.  I was excited to go into the field with such a qualified guide.

Seedling Social Business Site

Our first stop, on our exploratory adventure, was a school growing small seedlings as a social business.  BRAC Liberia partnered with this school to help produce vegetable seedlings for two reasons: to provide the school with income to offset operation costs, and to provide local farmers with much-needed seedling transplants to grow on their farms — a true win-win situation.  While the program was successful, it hasn’t expanded as fast as King would like.  He explained that a combination of factors has slowed agriculture development in Liberia. One clear theme emerged: a misalignment of incentives for farmers.

First, profits from farming cassava and rice are low.  Both are staple crops, widely produced throughout the world and easily stored and transported.  Cheap imports depress Liberian food prices and two-thirds of Liberia’s food is imported.  One of the main sources of these imports is food aid. Tens of millions of dollars in food aid is imported to Liberia, providing millions of people with food security, but deflating market prices for local farmers.

Farmers are rational actors.  King explained that, “it’s hard to convince people to farm when they get low market prices and can get food for free from food aid [programs].”  King has been struggling to shift farmers away from staple crops so that they can focus on high-value fruits and vegetables.  BRAC has developed a model small farm program dubbed the “kitchen farm.”  King works with community members to build individual plots loaded with fruits and vegetables like potatoes, eggplant, corn, and mangos.

Through these kitchen farms, families can not only slash their personal food costs (a major expenditure in Liberia), but also earn additional income by selling their products at market.  One of the challenges faced by agriculture development organizations are Liberians’ expectations.

“In the past, aid organizations provided work programs to Liberians which paid individuals a daily wage to work on community infrastructure projects,” King says.  BRAC Liberia’s program will only provide technical support and inputs to help the farmers.  The organization’s model is to train and equip farmers to run their own farms and reap their own profits at the end of the season.  On more than one occasion King has helped set up a farm with community members only to have it fall to the wayside because the members didn’t want to wait for the harvest to reap the bounties of their work.  It’s the classic paradigm of a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.

Talking with King about agriculture development was akin to reading an international agriculture development journal, only less stuffy.  I was amazed to see that King’s experience on the ground accurately summed up the dilemmas in Liberia much more efficiently than many think tanks, journals, and NGOs.

King At A Kitchen Farm

I found it especially interesting that King has a much more challenging time finding clients for his agriculture program than for its sister micro-credit program even though its free.  To me, one of the compelling dynamics of micro-credit is that the money is allocated to those who are motivated to receive it.  So why are people streaming to micro-credit services but away from traditional agricultural development services?  And how can we satisfy the need for food aid without damaging the market for local farmers?   Unfortunately, that is where my personal expertise ends.

Thankfully, the Kiva community is comprised of an educated and worldly base of supporters with a wide range of experiences and expertise that could shed more light on this problem. So what do you think? Has food aid been a much needed safety net in the developing world, or has it hampered sustainable agriculture development, economic growth and independence? And, finally, what role can micro-credit play in promoting food security and stability?

Ryan Cummings is a Kiva Fellow working closely with BRAC in Monrovia, Liberia.

Cynthia and Maroline with their Bangladeshi host

All too often, when people talk about the positive impact of micro-credit, they focus exclusively on borrowers. While they are obviously a significant beneficiary of micro-credit, I have a dirty little secret for you: many other people benefit from micro-credit too.

There is an entirely different group of people who are having their lives changed for the better by the micro-credit movement. Who am I talking about? Let me introduce to you Cynthia and Maroline, two Liberians working for microfinance institution BRAC in northern Monrovia, Liberia.  BRAC employs more than 300 staff members. In fact, BRAC is one of the fastest growing companies in Liberia – and it’s in the top 15 largest employers.

Cynthia and Maroline are employed at the Caldwell BRAC branch and the Nimba BRAC branch, respectively. BRAC’s micro-credit operations have impacted their lives in several ways.  First, they are gainfully and meaningfully employed in a country that has an 85% unemployment rate. With a salary 18 times higher than the gross national income per capita, these woman help provide a high quality of life for their families.

How do they spend their money?  Buying permanent housing, medical care, nutritious food for the table, and education for their children. These expenditures have strong ripple effects in their local economies too.  On top of that, as breadwinners, these women set a standard of gender equality in their homes for their children to see and value.

Second, BRAC provides invaluable leadership training. Liberia is decimated by war, leaving no formal management resources for businesspeople. BRAC has introduced  professional management structures, systems, and training to its operations in Liberia.

Cynthia and Maroline have worked at BRAC for several years, and have made their way up the ladder to take on managerial roles. Throughout this process, BRAC has provided them with training, support, systems, and opportunities to strengthen leadership in the workplace.

Lastly, BRAC offers its employees the opportunity to travel and receive additional training abroad. Cynthia and Maroline have just returned from a global micro-credit training summit in Bangladesh. To be able to travel internationally is a rare and invaluable opportunity.

Cynthia and Maroline at the Global Learning Meeting in Bangladesh

While they were nervous about their first ever airplane ride, they relished the chance to meet colleagues from around the world, and brought back many new ideas to help build the micro-credit industry in Liberia.

So although lending money to borrowers is the impetus for Kiva’s work, it shouldn’t be a secret that, in fact, micro-credit institutions have a much broader impact than just the clients they serve!

Ryan Cummings is a Kiva Fellow working closely with BRAC in Monrovia, Liberia.

by Carlos Cruz Montaño KF14, Liberia

Are you hungry and you have only one dollar for a snack? With an exchange rate around 72 Liberian Dollars (LRD) per US dollar, a buck will give you a chance to try several snacks that sell for 10LRD or less…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

1. Two donuts will also cost you 5LRD each. Walking around the streets you can find ladies carrying clear buckets on their heads (check also David’s blog), there’s a good variety of snacks and food to be found in these buckets; donuts are easy to spot and in my experience they are fresh in the mornings and very good. The ladies selling donuts usually have a cup of sugar and a spoon inside the bucket just in case you want to sprinkle yours a little bit more. Donuts have sometimes the typical round shape but on a smaller scale, sometimes they are like a small twist and also very common round ones, just like donut holes.

Small donuts at 5 LRD each.

2. Two cookies will cost you 5LRD each. These cookies crumble as you bite them and sometimes they seem to split into layers, they have just enough sugar to be on the sweet side. Like many other delicious street snacks you will get these cookies wrapped in a piece of newspaper. If you happen to keep them in the paper long enough you will notice they are a little greasy… just in case you’re thinking about your rigorous diet these may not be the ones to pick.

Crunchy cookies at 5LRD each.

3. For the healthy conscious, there’s also fruit to be found. A full slice of pineapple will set you back 10LRD or you may also buy two half slices for 5LRD each. You’ll get a toothpick to choose the best looking slice from the bucket. I’ve still yet to bite into my first sour pineapple. If you’re looking for a good and healthy sweet pineapple is a pretty safe bet.

4. Out of all the snacks in this list, this one is my most recent find, the least available and my favorite. This bread is like a square and very thin meatpie but with peanut butter inside. The girl selling these delicious treats sets up a table outside the market and is only there late afternoons.

Delicious peanut bread! Guess how much?

5. A small piece of cornbread or shortbread for 10 LRD. The size of the cornbread depends on where you buy it but considering the price don’t ask for a large piece. I’ve been lucky to buy the bread when it’s still warm, soft and delicious. Just like the cookies, cornbread can be slightly sweet. This one you can find either on a small plastic bag or wrapped in newspaper.

Pork skin squares. That's right, 10 LRD each!

6. For the meat eaters there are cow meat kabobs and pork skin squares. Haven’t tried these as I rather have a vegetarian diet, but they are available around the city. Have seen people selling these from a tray or you can go around markets and get the kabobs hot from the grill or the pork skins recently fried.

7. With the Monrovia heat you’ll be happy to invest your last 10LRD in a cold bag of water. Most times it will be fresh rather than cold, some kids sell the bags in the streets out of trays, or better yet, you may find someone with an ice chest and get a cold one.

In theory you would still have two LRD to spare… but with no coins in circulation and the 5 LRD bill being the smallest, you’ll have to save those two LRD left  for your next outing.

If you think this is stretching a buck? Maybe but not as much as some Kiva borrowers who prepare and sell these snacks to support their families. Through BRAC Liberia, one of Kiva’s newest partners, women like Lucy, Marie and Mama invested in ingredients to prepare donuts, or like Hawah, Patience and Cecelia who invest their money to buy drinks for sale. You can also make your money go a long way by supporting loans through BRAC Liberia.

Carlos in a Kiva Fellow finishing his third and last placement in Liberia working with LEAP and BRAC in Monrovia.

As a Kiva Fellow one has many roles like trainer, guest speaker, advisor and others but I never expected someone to think of me as a woman, a priest or a diamond trader… how did it happened?

Meeting a Microfinance Group in Monrovia

Walking through a small town I was happily greeted by many kids that were calling me Father – it sounded more like ‘fada’. I didn’t understand what they were calling me until my friend explained that the few foreigners came to the area and they are mostly priests visiting churches… If I was a foreigner, then I had to be a priest.

Fellow on the Road

Why would someone think I am a woman? While visiting a small town in Sierra Leone two little boys were arguing if I was either a man or a woman, the one who said I was a man had talked to me the other had just seen me and was saying I was a woman because I have straight hair. It was an area that doesn’t receive many visitors and only women wear hair extensions or wigs with straight hair… If I had straight hair then I had to be a woman.

Another occasion I was waiting outside a store and had an encounter with two immigration officials. They asked me for identification documents. Luckily that day I was carrying my passport and after a couple of minutes talking why I was in Liberia they said they liked microfinance and wanted to be friends; then they casually asked me if I was interested in purchasing diamonds or helping them do business with diamonds in my home country. Never thought a Kiva Fellowship could open these kind of doors in my career.

Besides these unusual roles as a Kiva Fellow, there are others where I have the opportunity to participate in interesting activities related to Microfinance. Recently I was invited to join a lunch with personnel from Liberia’s Central Bank Microfinance Unit. It was great to hear that microfinance is considered as an important tool to activate the economy and also had the chance ask a couple of questions regarding a national personal IDs and about a credit bureau. Liberia currently does not have a national ID to identify its citizens, the closest would be the Voter’s Registration Card which some institutions are already using to identify their borrowers. The credit bureau may take longer. Currently there is only a database of bad loans (and borrowers) where banks submit information on a voluntary basis, but without a National ID system it is difficult to identify people by their name only. Things are changing fast in Liberia and hopefully these tools will soon be in place to have system to protect borrowers and ensure Microfinance indeed helps reduce poverty and activate the economy as it is expected to.

Training for BRAC Liberia Credit Officers

Want to try the world of microfinance around the world??? Join the Kiva Fellows program and give it a shot…

Carlos is enjoying his last weeks working as a a Kiva Fellow in Liberia.