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Citigroup Fund for Microfinance

Lead Organisation:

Citigroup and The Citigroup Foundation

Where:

United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Middle East, South Africa

Time period:

Program began in 1965 but accelerated in 1994

Web link:

http://www.citigroup.com/citigroup/corporate/foundation

Partners:

ACCION International

CARE

FINCA

Grameen Trust and Foundation

World Resources Institute

MikroFond Integra Foundation

Opportunity International

Save The Children

Women's World Banking

Shared Interest

Aims/Objectives:

	Provide microfinance providers around the world with a wide variety of services including grants, equity, loans, technical assistance, training and employee voluntarism in order to:
	Expand access to microfinance particularly credit to reduce family poverty through job development;
	Support the role of microfinance intermediaries to accelerate local microfinance development;
	Support the development of microfinance standards to increase efficiency and transparency;
	Support microfinance institutions to achieve greater scale, outreach and self-sustainability and evolve to market-based regulated institutions where appropriate.

Measurable results and specific targets:

	Increased the number of local businesses around the world who have access to credit and training.
	During past 4 years provided nearly $12 million to 91
	microfinance institutions in 33 countries.
	Assisted microfinance institutions progress towards self-sustainability.
	Contributed thousands of employee volunteer hours to Citigroup partnerships.
	Grant recipients report annually on progress towards goals articulated in funding proposal.
	Citigroup reports annually to our stake holders.

Implementation mechanisms and further application:

	Citigroup implements microfinance partnerships around the world through the following steps:
	Provide grants as a first step and follow with training, technical assistance, employee voluntarism, equity and lending;
	Work to expand in-country supports for local microfinance institutions;
	Work with multilateral donors and other providers of capital to provide adequate loan capital at commercial rates to microfinance institutions.
	Citigroup will continue to expand its partnerships with microfinance institutions and intermediaries; and to
	Deepen relationships with in-country programs and expand reach to newer institutions and additional countries.