The Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation publishes its Newsletter N.36. The end of July marks the fifth month of the global health and economic crisis. All countries have been affected but, like the impact of extreme weather events, the health crisis is profoundly unequal in that it affects the most vulnerable populations most severely.
Since the end of February, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation’s teams have been working on several major initiatives. First, we have established a rapid and ongoing dialogue with the organisations we support so that we can understand the effects of the crisis, the measures taken and their needs accordingly. Secondly, we have adapted our monitoring and analysis tools and our requests for information, particularly with regard to business continuity plans and short-term cash flow plans. At the same time, we led an international coordination of lenders and players in inclusive finance to act together, in consultation, to prevent any liquidity shock that would have destabilized the sector. Finally, we regularly published articles on the Covid-19 Observatory and on social networks to share our analyses and inform stakeholders.
Five months after the beginning of the crisis, we feel that this first wave has been well managed by the microfinance institutions, which have all shown great professionalism. We would also like to highlight the remarkable support and attentiveness of our own financiers: Agence Française de Développement, Proparco, the European Investment Bank, Crédit Agricole and its entities Crédit Agricole CIB and Amundi. The sector’s remarkable resilience has undoubtedly been strengthened thanks to these concerted and convergent actions between donors and microfinance institutions operating in all parts of the world.
In this edition of the Newsletter, you will discover, among other things, details of the International Coalition coordinated by the Foundation in response to the Covid-19 crisis and two projects that we launched during this complex period: the new website and the Foundation’s first Impact Report. This new website and this Report are yours: administrators, the Grameen network, the Regional Banks and Crédit Agricole entities, donors, technical partners and supported organisations. It is also our way of paying tribute to you.
We continue to monitor closely the effects of the health crisis and our mobilization, on which you know you can count, is constant.