One of the most promising developments I have seen in my travels in the last few years is the proliferation of mobile phones.  You could find them across the most distant reaches of India, and even in the poorest parts of Liberia you will find mobile phones and the towers that connect them to the world.  Though we in the west have seen a bazillion iterations of mobile phones, with gadgets from cameras to mp3 players, most phones in Liberia are still rather simple.  While some advanced technology has made it here, the vast majority of phones look just like the ones we used 10 years ago.  Don’t get me wrong, these phones aren’t without their technological advancements: their battery lives are extraordinarily long, they utilize built in LED flashlights (for frequent power outages), and they are quite durable. 

Mobile phones have made inroads in parts of the world that have been slow to modernize, like this remote village we visited in Nimba county near Guinea.  The combination of incredible functionality and practicality has contributed to their success.   One of the most exciting parts of mobile phone penetration in countries like Liberia though, is its relevance to economic development.  Mobile phones can not only connect families and friends torn apart by war and economically motivated migration, they can also serve as platforms on which to deliver new and valued services. 

Mobile technology is quite useful in the financial sector, handsets can be used as vehicles to transfer money, access accounts, make purchases, and pay bills.  Though many of these technologies are currently in the development stage, there are examples across the world of success stories, like ALW, M Pesa, etc.  In Liberia, the biggest mobile company, Lonestar already allows people to transfer money between phones, but they have yet to tie up with any banks and offer joint services.

Foundation for Women Liberia had an interesting meeting with Lonestar recently.  They are keen to get involved in these kinds of transactions, after all, more transactions equals more fees.  Interestingly enough, they had already honed in on another one of the mobile phone’s biggest benefits, its utility to small-scale producers in accessing market and weather information.  Lonestar had already started discussions with one of the largest banks in Liberia, Ecobank to tie up accounts and mobile phones.  As we are loyal Ecobank account holders, and see advantages in a partnership to utilize mobile technology. Hopefully we can move forward with the partnership.  Not only do FFW women across Liberia want phones to be in touch with their family and friends, their lives could be made so much easier if they could gather market information and make instant financial transactions using their handsets.  Here’s to hoping a partnership works out, and that technology’s benefits extend to the bottom of the pyramid in Liberia.

One of the most dramatic effects of the Liberian Civil War was the massive migration to Monrovia of displaced peoples from all over the country.  As various rebel groups pillaged and plundered throughout the Liberian countryside, rural Liberians found it harder and harder to live as they had in the past. As their small businesses and farms became merely targets for looting, people fled to Monrovia in search of security and the benefits doled out by international aid organizations like the World Food Program (WFP).  Of the 3.5 million people living in Liberia today, over 2 million of them live in Monrovia and the surrounding areas. 

Like in many other major cities in the developing world, this massive migration has resulted in stress on every kind of infrastructure, physical, governmental, societal etc.  Keep in mind this is infrastructure that in the very best case is 20 years old, and in the worst case was destroyed, distorted, or manipulated during the civil war.  As a result, the poorest Liberians are struggling to make do in an overrun city where living conditions are so bad that they often pose dramatic health risks.  Meanwhile, since peace has returned to the countryside, much of Liberia’s fertile and productive land has gone unutilized. It is odd to see that even the most basic food items like rice and eggs are imported from abroad.

On the “road” to my house last week, a bulldozer was going to work on all of the make shift structures and lean-tos that had grown into an illegal slum neighborhood.  People have grown accustomed to living in the city, even if they have done so illegally. After the war, money poured into Monrovia along with the promise of economic opportunity.  The U.N., international NGOs and other organizations have invested heavily into Monrovia of late, however, much of this wealth does not trickle down. My friend Myles has been documenting other kinds of opportunities available in the city, and they are meager for sure.  Perhaps the government “cleanups” of slums will encourage folks to move back to the countryside to work the land, and begin to provide food for the nation.  In addition to basic agriculture, the countryside is blessed with many other kinds of natural resources: timber, minerals, precious metals, and of course waves.  What will it take for people to realize the economic opportunity of the land their parents and grandparents left a generation ago?

In its work across the rural parts of Liberia, the Foundation for Women endeavors to provide economic opportunity through loans.  Many of our women borrowers are farmers, raise chickens, harvest palm oil, or participate other profitable rural activities that will help Liberia rebuild its own economy from the ground up.   Though it is only part of the puzzle (for example the roads must be rebuilt to make transport of food feasible), hopefully the provision of economic opportunity in rural parts will incentivize Liberians to move back to the countryside and escape the harsh realities of Monrovia.

Shopping in the commercial district of downtown Monrovia is eerie. Foreigners own almost every single business of note. The Lebanese presence here is strong, and their hold on commerce in the city is rather alarming. More recently Indian businessmen have moved in, but their presence here is less pronounced, especially compared to East Africa. Why doesn’t Liberia’s capital city boast Liberian-owned businesses you might ask?

Though I’m not an expert when it comes to the history, I do think there are some (relevant to microfinance) lessons to be learned from the cultural and social forces here. The story begins, so my friends have told me, when Liberian leaders started granting preferential trading rights to Lebanese traders decades ago. The deal they made was to have exclusive import / export rights, but no rights as citizens. For the Liberian political elite this meant that trade would flourish, but the traders and their wealth would not be a threat to the political status quo. Decades later, the Lebanese are quite successful, and you can find hummus just as easily as you can potato greens in this town.

As a descendant of Lebanese businessmen (and women) I have always been aware of the entrepreneurial nature of the Lebanese culture. Though I have not yet visited Lebanon itself, I know that this business ethic is instilled in Lebanese families throughout the world – from Beirut to Brooklyn. Historically, this makes sense. Since the time of the Phoenicians, Lebanon has been at the crossroads of east and west, and has been a dynamic trading power throughout the Mediterranean. For the sake of this post, how this ethic has been passed through generations and become a part of the Lebanese culture interests me.

Because I believe that the path towards the reconstruction of Liberia is through successful local enterprise, the challenge of nurturing local entrepreneurs is paramount. But, in a country like Liberia, where civil war interrupted school for 15 or so years (our office cleaner is 19 and is in 5th grade) and human capacity is lacking, how do we spread the spirit of entrepreneurialism? How do we teach the younger generation of Liberians what it means to succeed in business? In the case of the Lebanese, it comes from the family and the community, working in the family business, and being around the community of entrepreneurs. Yet Liberians will have to learn or re learn these skills after decades of living without a functioning economy. Even worse, the aid that sustained Liberians through the war, in many cases dulled their business sensibilities.

Yes, most folks are in business for themselves already. They have “small small” businesses, selling peanuts, fixing cars, selling donuts etc. Don’t get me wrong, microentrpreneurs are an important part of the economy here. They will be for a long time, but their jobs are insecure, and produce little excess income for their households. What I’m talking about are businesses that grow to scale, employ hundreds of people in stable jobs, and can withstand the kind of external shocks that are present in an economy like Liberia. In a country that hasn’t had a functioning economy for almost 20 years, how do you find and train the kind of entrepreneurs who can make these society stabilizing businesses happen.

The Foundation for Women does provide some business training before it gives its microloans. It educates women on how to run small microenterprises that generate household income. Generally this means a small provisions type shop, some type of farming, making charcoal something like that. A few women have already shown their ambition though. They have recently taken 500 USD (a large loan for local and international microfinance standards). They have restaurants and other more substantial “growth” businesses. Maybe they can be business mentors for other FFW women? Maybe FFW can recreate the family dynamic seen in communities such as the Lebanese? Witnessing the closeness of the women at their group meetings has been encouraging. It might be too early to tell whther this is possible in such a difficult economic environment, but I sincerely hope that the FFW family can provide the education, support and resources to build a family of successful women entrepreneurs. Liberia needs them!

Today we went to visit some of the centers in the countryside. First we went to Gbowee Town which was about an hour and a half outside of Monrovia. To get to the road to Gbowee town, we drove across Monrovia’s only bridge (the other one is near by, but collapsed) and past the “free port of Liberia.” Anyway after the port, we turned off of paved road and headed into the interior. The months of June, July and August comprise the rainy season here in West Africa, and as such, the countryside is verdant and lush. Unfortunately, the rainy season also makes for awful road conditions throughout most of Liberia’s dirt road system. In order to move around here, you really need a jeep (slang for land rover) and you have to have a lot of patience.

As we approached the village, which was basically a small turn off from the main dirt road into a little valley, we ran into the town preacher. He also runs a shop on the main road, and Emily, my boss, made sure we stopped and caught up with him. Then we made our way down what was less and less of a road towards the meeting place. When we arrived, women were trickling in, and a few were even wearing their FFW shirts. I took a brief walking tour of the village, which consisted of about eight or ten homes that I could see, and a lot of banana, avocado, mango, pepper, and cassava. Cassava is a very important staple food here. I will explain it later. I returned just in time for the meeting to start.

The first thing we did was pray. As I have learned, this is a very religious country. All types of Christian churches prosper and there are parts of the country that are Muslim as well, though they are a minority. Most of the group meetings take place in or around the local churches. Anyway, the women were very thankful for having Emily and me there, and they offered us Kola nuts after the prayer. Kola nuts taste awful, but have caffeine and are used here by folks to get through tough days of work without having to eat (sound familiar?). The meeting was relaxed and Emily gave them a pep talk and I introduced myself. After that, they served us food. They served us Fufu, which is pounded out cassava root, (think white plado but kinda salty) served with a fishy type stew. Liberians don’t even chew the fufu; they just swallow it whole. It does the trick, I was full in no time.  To show us their appreciation, they also gave us giant quantities of banana and butter pear (avocado).

On the way to the next meeting, I took a serious nap. That fufu was thick! Our next meeting was at (surprise) a church on famous island. This is a bit of dry land surrounded by swamp. At this meeting there were over 50 women, though only 15 had taken loans thus far. This group was extraordinarily energetic, and as soon as we walked in, commenced singing and dancing and all manner of celebration. Throughout the whole meeting they would call and respond denouncing the importance of men, and praising the capabilities of women to lift themselves up.  They served BBQ Pringles too which was nice. All of the singing and good vibes contributed to make this meeting truly inspirational. In addition at this meeting I also saw first hand how dedicated these women are to this program. One of the borrowers had her daughter pass away this morning. She still sent her payment in. What an honor it was to be in these incredibly empowered women’s presence!

Here is the Press Release from the Office of the Vice President. I have chosen to leave it as is. What the PR man heard is not necessarily what we said in some cases, but overall it was a wonderful experience meeting the VP.

International foundation empowers Liberian women…

Vice president Joseph Boakai has commended the California based foundation for Women (FFW) for partnering with the Liberian Government to empower Liberian women.

He observed that by extending micro-loans to market women, the FFW was contributing in small measure to the Unity Party-led Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, otherwise known as ‘Lift Liberia’.

Vice President Boakai made the commendation over the weekend when an intern from the headquarters of the Foundation for Women, Andrew Hapke, who is in Liberia as guest of the Foundation for women, accompanied by the Foundation’s country Director, Emily Peal, paid a courtesy call on him in his Capitol Building Office.

He paid homage to the founder of the FFW, Deborah Lindholm whom he described as a true humanitarian. He said her foundation has transformed the lives of many women who had lost hope after losing everything, including their husbands during the conflict.

Earlier, Madam Peal disclosed plans by the foundation to increase its capacity to empower more Liberian women. She said the Foundation which has empowered over 500 women with micro-loans in Bong, Nimba, Grand Bassa, Montserrado and Margibi counties will, this month extend its micro-credit loan program to Lofa county.

Also briefing the Vice Preisdent, Mr. Hapke, a candidate for the MBA in Micro Credit, said he was in the country on a two-month tour duty. He said while in the country, he will help make the Foundation more effective to enable it reach more women.

One of the biggest differences between the “developing” world and the “developed” world is the understanding and conception of time. Here, folks are laid back, and instead of scheduling meetings at 2 they schedule the meetings at “any time after 2.” Things always seemed to get pushed back until tomorrow, and in general stuff takes a heck of a lot longer to get done. This is quite understandable. Just getting from one’s home to one’s office can be a marathon journey involving any number of technological malfunctions, infrastructure failures, or governmental fiascos. In Liberia, where there is not really even a power grid, it makes sense that things just can’t be done quite as quickly.

 This often means a lot of waiting around. Whether it’s waiting for weird traffic catastrophes, the power to come back on, or some government minister to take his or her sweet time, the result of this time insensitivity is a lot of unproductive time. Now whether this is a chicken or the egg, I’m not sure, but this is directly related to the fact that people’s time in these countries is MUCH less valuable. Even if folks are paid employees, the cost of them waiting around being unproductive is minimal. Imagine an American management consultant or lawyer sitting around in some dim office in the developing world, sweating and wondering how many hundreds of dollars worth of his or her time was being flushed down the toilet by this cultural / structural difference. It’s no wonder these folks don’t come around here too much!

 Now Andrew, how does this relate to microfinance? What is the most important thing a microfinance organization has to enforce on its customers? Financial discipline! Whether it is through group meetings or set repayment dates / times, in order for microfinance organizations to get paid back, and in essence, function, they have to effectively manage this relaxed view of time. What would happen if an MFI allowed its borrowers, to pay, later this afternoon, or tomorrow, or maybe next week? One of the most challenging parts of microfinance is working with people’s mindsets, and getting them to respect and understand that in order to run a business efficiently (their own included) certain deadlines must be followed. Many MFIs have this down to a science. They time group meetings to the minute, and do not accept exceptions. In many cases this efficiency allows them to serve more customers, and operate more profitably. Hopefully some of this discipline rubs off on the borrowers as well. The more wisely and efficiently one uses his or her time (in spite of external factors), the more profit one can squeeze out of a day.

I am aware of how capitalist and western this post sounds, and I am aware of some of the intractable external impediments in the developing world, but I believe that by learning to manage one’s own time effectively and efficiently, despite external factors, folks in Liberia and elsewhere can make important gains in their own economic standing. I hope microfinance can be a path to that progress, and eventually provide for the kind of excess wealth that affords luxurious relaxation!

So my first day in Monrovia consisted of familiarizing myself with the community. I was expecting to bear witness to overwhelming poverty, a direct result of the catastrophic civil war this country dealt with for decades, and I did. What surprised me however, was seeing the detachment and almost parallel universe in which the development community (UN, UNDP, UNICEF, ICRC, ACF, WFP the list goes on) lives. I have never seen so much barbed wire in my life! The American Embassy’s property is the size of 3 world-class golf resorts, and yes, right on the ocean too. My Dutch friend who works for UNICEF lives in her office building and only leaves when she can borrow a giant white UN labeled Land Cruiser that has bench seats in the back like it was meant for troops.

We went for “Chinese” food (Fried Chicken Smooth) last night with a smattering of folks from the development community. Their acronyms, prejudices, and inside jokes seemed worn, maybe its because the English language only communicates so much between 2 Italians, a Swiss, a Dutch a Palestinian and me. Thank god we were speaking English…

It got me thinking about what good these folks are doing over here. Many of them seemed to go from “posting” to “posting” getting coarser as the list of posts under their belt grew. I suppose one has to learn to tolerate living in bitterly impoverished and war torn countries in some way, but I guess that is the point I am after. Is their presence really necessary? What if they had scooped up 1000 Liberians and brought them to Paris, Geneva, Rome, Brussels, New York, etc. and just trained them up for a month. Granted these are expensive cities, but surely this would not be as expensive as flying Europeans and Americans into foreign conditions, building up western infrastructure specifically for them and then paying them western salaries to work in these compounds and NGO ghettos.

These folks get 2 weeks R and R for every 2 months they work over here. How effective can they be? They have little understanding of the local issues, little investment in the country itself and their mere presence in a place as small as Liberia distorts the local economy dramatically. They barely even mingle with Liberians: official policies mean curfews and perimeters of mobility, and their western tastes keep them places Liberians can’t afford! I am no expert on this subject, and clearly there is a place for international peace-keepers in a country that experienced violent civil war, but as far as this foreign aid policy is concerned, how much good are these people actually doing?

What if all of the money spent on aid (I wonder what % is spent on western infrastructure / “experts” and what is spent on actual “projects”) was invested in local entrepreneurs? In a country with rich natural resources like Liberia, why not promote an entrepreneurial environment rather than a hand-out environment? I know these are complex subjects, but there has been a lot of discussion on the effectiveness of foreign aid recently and I guess I had a gut reaction to this encounter with these folks.

Additionally, I am reading a great book called “In The River They Swim” I have linked a review of it. It talks about enterprise solutions to poverty, rather than hand out solutions to poverty. Finally, here is an article in the NY Times today discussing corruption in Africa. It scares me to think that because foreign aid is so often government-to-government, corruption in many cases thrives in poor countries BECAUSE of the foreign aid. The quote “If poverty is your business, more poverty is more business” is chilling…

All this reinforces my work here in Liberia in microfinance. Microfinance deals directly with entrepreneurship, with people invested in the success of their businesses, lending groups, and communities. It has very little to do with government, and it encourages grassroots businesses, some of which will one day grow into the kinds of businesses that offer good jobs and good livelihoods to those who deserve them. That makes sense to me.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

I just arrived in Liberia last night after a harrowing tri-continent journey. As a surfer, I am excited to explore a new coastline, as a traveler I am excited to explore a new continent, and as a microfinance practitioner, I am excited to work on a new project. I am a native San Diegan, die-hard surfer, hopeless traveler and career-wise, I have worked in microfinance since I graduated from college in 2005. Working for the Foundation for Women in Liberia promises to be an adventure in many ways no doubt. I will spare you the boring details of waves and travels, but I am excited to discuss my work with the micro lending Foundation for Women in Liberia.

Liberia had been ravaged by civil war for over 15 years until, in 2006, the country elected Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Taking the country in a new direction, President Ellen, the first democratically elected female president in Africa, has encouraged women’s empowerment, and helped to stabilize the country. In 2006, the Foundation for Women of San Diego partnered with Liberian Emily Peal to begin a microlending program in the country to support women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment.

I will be working closely with the Foundation for Women Liberia to expand its impact by reaching new borrowers and by developing new services. Interestingly enough, my background has been working with individual loans in both the US and in India, so this will be my first time working with a “Grameen” style group lending methodology. I feel strongly that this group-lending model will be effective here in Liberia. Not only will the economic stimulus from microcredit benefit women, their families and their communities, but the group empowerment will facilitate the rebuilding of trust and cohesion in a society that dealt with war and strife for decades.

While in here Liberia over the next few months, I hope to share some of my notes and continue to stay involved with the San Diego Microfinance Alliance. Through the Alliance I have been lucky enough to connect with a vibrant microfinance community in San Diego. It is my hope that through some of my thoughts on my work in microfinance in Africa, I can contribute a bit to the dialogue on Microfinance in San Diego. Thanks for reading, and please, don’t be afraid to comment!