Our Partners
LEBANON
The United Nations estimates that a third of Lebanon`s people cannot provide for their basic needs due to a lack of access to productive resources, thus preventing the poor from starting up small or medium-income businesses.
The spread of poverty in Lebanon varies considerably between regions and sectors. The majority of the poor live in the suburbs of the capital and other cities, while a majority of the destitute poor, who make up one fourth of the population, live in the rural areas. Moreover, it is believed that abject poverty is concentrated in the remote regions of Baalbeck and Hermel in Bekaa, Akkar in North Lebanon and Southern Lebanon.
The poor find it extremely difficult to gain access to banking or financial facilities, because credit policies are not favorable to small and medium establishments. Access to credit is very important for the poor in Lebanon to lift themselves out of poverty, so non-governmental organizations like Al Majmoua have a very important role to play.
Lebanese Association for Development (Al Majmoua): Al Majmoua began as a spin-off from Save the Children, financed by a grant from USAID in 1998. The Association is registered with Lebanon’s Ministry of the Interior as a “non-political and non-profit-making association”.
Al Majmoua is a leading provider of microfinance in the country, with nine field offices distributed throughout the country as of December 2008. It extends loans in markets where other institutions do not, including Palestinian refugee camps. It also offers loans to other foreigners with refugee status who are unable to obtain traditional financial services.
Although Al Majmoua began its operations under a strict group lending methodology (‘majmoua’ means ‘group’ in Arabic), it has since expanded into individual lending. Individual loans range from 500 USD to 7,500 USD made to micro entrepreneurs who demonstrate a viable business plan. Group loans (with an average of five members) range from 200 USD to 1,800 USD and have a repayment period from four to eight months. As of December 2008, there were approximately 1,600 group loan clients. Approximately 75% of Al Majmoua’s active clients were involved in the individual loan program as of the end of 2006.
Al Majmoua reached operational sustainability in 2003, and financial sustainability in 2004. Al Majmoua has a loan portfolio of over US $9.3 million, with 12,017 active clients as of December 2008.
Grameen-Jameel has provided Al Majmoua with US $187,000 in direct financing as well as short-term business planning assistance, SEEP FRAME Tool training, and partner training in Tunisia since the inception of the partnership. Al Majmoua also participated in the pilot for the e-Learning Program for Loan Officers. In November 2008, Al Majmoua participated in the Grameen-Jameel Dialogue for the Arab World, and in December, Grameen-Jameel led Al Majmoua through a formal business planning exercise. www.almajmoua.org