A New Twist on Micro-Lending in South Sudan

A new twist on a now-familiar strategy: person-to-person micro-lending.

Peace Dividend is connecting individual lenders, i.e., people like you and me, to entrepreneurs working to rebuild South Sudan. The new twist is that PD is also working with the Sudanese diaspora as lenders to leverage their local knowledge and networks and reduce the riskiness of lending.

The group is supporting medium-sized businesses -- an important segment of the economy that isn't typically eligible for micro-lending and that may not have good access to commercial credit. So, PD fills a needed niche.

I really like their "Added Value":

Innovation - Peace Dividend proposes a novel way to reduce the risk of lending to SME’s despite Southern Sudan’s weak or lacking legal, court and regulatory frameworks, land collateral and credit bureaus. Peace Dividend‘s methodology reduces credit default risk by using informal mechanisms (such as group lending that proves so effective in microfinance, as well as Diaspora knowledge and networks which functioned effectively before the formalization of western markets) to mitigate moral hazard and adverse selection.

A Catalyst for Opportunity & Peace - Medium sized companies are a key source of jobs, production, and growth in post-conflict economies. Thus, in addition to the primary goal of expanding opportunities and income to populations recovering from conflict, Peace Dividend will also provide a platform for building peace dividends by providing key stakeholder groups with greater gains from their continued engagement and support of local and national peace processes.

All of the projects are in the "under evaluation" stage so check back in a bit and see what opportunities come up.

- Karol