Microfinance Lunch Break - Watch the video

Kawien Ziedses des Plantes took us back to the early days of Oikocredit in the 1970s and showed the evolution the organization and microfinance as a whole went through, from simply giving small loans to a more holistic approach. 
Measurement methods evolved from listening to the individual stories of clients to systematic measurement, although there’s always debate on even ‘simple’ definitions like ‘when does someone live in poverty’. Clients are our largest data set, she concluded, but we often don’t use this source of insight enough to strengthen our services. 

Rubén León Ibarra then continued to show us that poverty is a multidimensional problem that needs a multidimensional solution, and how we need to design these solutions together with the clients. 
Oikocredit has been helping organisations in 23 countries set up systems to create an ecosystem where the clients don’t just get a higher income but a better life altogether. 
One of the main things clients ask for when it comes to global changes like the climate crisis, is not products, but training to know what’s coming and how they can address this. That way, we can help them to build more resilience in a world that is increasingly becoming more uncertain.