Location

5 Districts in North, Central and South Malawi.

Responsible Organisation

Trickle Up Program (TUP) New York (responsible for training tools and seed capital) and United Nations Volunteers (UNV) facilitates logistical support and implementation. Funding: TUP NY (seed capital, US$ 100 in conditional grant per business) and United Nations Development Program Malawi (administrative support).

Description

This project is ongoing and it started in late 1996 when Trickle Up initiated to collaborate with the UNV in Malawi. The objective of the UNV Program is to support capacity building at the grass roots level by attaching field workers to the Government of Malawi’s Governance and Development Management programmes and the World Food Program. Trickle Up has become an integral part of the programme by providing a microfinance and an income generation tool for the field workers to use in their communities. The field workers train selected entrepreneurs and are responsible for the disbursal of the conditional grants and communication with Trickle Up Program New York office.

Issues Addressed

Poverty alleviation, economic development and capacity building.

Results Achieved

• Started 390 businesses benefiting over 1200 people. Entrepreneurs are engaged in a variety of businesses such as petty trade activities, vegetable production, tie and dye, carpentry, etc. eighty six percent of the entrepreneurs stated that this project is their main source of income, while 98% stated this enabled them provide better food for their families.

• Entrepreneurs learn how to do book keeping and record keeping and have bank accounts to deposit their savings and business profit. This way they can build up their business skills and in the future acquire a loan from a microfinance institution.

• Several TUP Business Groups joined together and started a Revolving Loan Fund (RLF). The RLF is meant to attract future attention of microfinance institutions (MFI) and can serve as a security for these MFIs. In the meantime, TUP entrepreneurs apply for loan from the RLF and use it to expand their businesses.

• Successful TUP entrepreneurs encourage others to initiate their own self-help groups and start little businesses themselves with the small funds they have.

Lessons Learned

The start-up of these small businesses fits well into the overall theme of Malawi’s poverty alleviation programs and makes a visible impact.

Trickle Up is a household-based microenterprise program. However, in the beginning UNV field workers also helped start group businesses, comprised of members from different families. They tended to be less successful than the family businesses, because the profit proved too small to be able to support 3-4 families. Having learned from this experience, the UNV workers only assist start family businesses (from one – extended- family).

The Trickle Up conditional grant approach certainly fills a niche by exclusively assisting the most vulnerable groups in Malawi. Many of the rural low-income communities are unable to meet the loan requirements from MFIs (where credit is available) and thanks to this programme they are given an opportunity to improve the quality of their lives, establish savings and build up business skills. By doing so, Trickle Up can be a bridge to the micro credit world for the poorest people and Trickle Up entrepreneurs can graduate to loans, whether from a private, government or UN affiliated loan program.

Contacts

Marinke van Riet, Program Officer for Africa, Trickle Up Program,
121 West 27^th Street, Suite 504, New York NY 10001, USA.
Tel. (212) 362 7958; Fax (212) 877 74 64; Email: africa@trickleup.org