Financial products, such as credit and savings, are essential tools that millions of people around the world access to provide for their families and plan for their futures.  Yet, for the people who need these resources the most—the economically active poor—there has not been sufficient access or the variety of products necessary to overcome the obstacles that chronic poverty presents.  That is why Freedom from Hunger specializes in helping implementing organizations strengthen and integrate services and reach down-market with appropriate credit and savings products to meet this demand.  Most are group-based and all are designed to be client-responsive, context-appropriate, financially self-sustaining and tailored for poor, often rural, women. 

We engage with implementing organizations by providing technical assistance and training in the following:

• Market Research to analyze local markets, identify potential clients within them, understand their economic activities and livelihood strategies, and determine their actual and potential financial needs.

• Product Design to develop prototypes based on market research results and organizational objectives, test in target markets and appropriately modify for rollout.

• System Design to build marketing strategies for new products, create staff training systems and develop supervision, incentive and internal control mechanisms.

• Monitoring and Evaluation to implement client satisfaction tools, identify necessary product adjustments, assess product impact and identify new needs and markets.

We also respond to evolving needs of implementing organizations and the clients they serve through product innovation.  Recent innovations include the following:

• Advanced credit and savings products for more mature clients, such as individual lending within group settings.

• Flexible loans and savings through self-help groups.

• Pre-paid health care and other health linkages.

Follow the links to learn more.