Let me go back to my little table. In the area of microfinance, as I said a bit earlier, when we did a comparative study of various programs to determine which ones were a success and which ones were not, we realized that it is very important to know our clients, to know what their situation is. Take the very specific example of someone who is hungry, who is not able to eat every day. A secure source of food is very important. That person cannot become part of a solidarity group and get consistently involved in business activities. The situation must be stabilized first.
We divide the market into segments. When we arrive in a village, we check to see who the very poor people are. We ask poor people to show us people who are even poorer. We try to put them in groups so that we can decide how we are going to work with them. Together with BRAC, CGAP and the MasterCard Foundation, we developed the program called Chemen Lavi Miyò or Road to a Better Life. We set up a pilot project to see if it would improve the credit situation. People want to do business and they want to see the program succeed. But if they are not equipped to make it happen, they have to be given the necessary training. We have to be able to work with them in a number of respects. That is why we developed the four programs: Chemen Lavi Miyò, or Road to a Better Life; Ti Kredi, or Little Credit, solidarity groups and business development. Now we are working with Zafèn.
We realized that people working in agriculture, for example, needed to diversify their incomes. They cannot make a living from agriculture and farm animals alone. They must have goats and pigs, and if they can have a little business as well, so much the better. It gives them additional income, and, if things get tough, they can keep paying off their loan. It is also good for their self-esteem.
These are transferable practices, I feel. You have to know how to divide up the market. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions. You really have to study the situation in each country. In Haiti, we were able to choose our targets well from region to region because of the evaluation grid that was developed.