Friends of Women's World Banking

Infobox_Company
company_name = Friends of Women's World Banking (FWWB), India
company_
company_type = NGO
company_slogan = Give Credit to Women
foundation = 1982 by Ela Bhatt
location = flagicon|INDAhmedabad, India
key_people = flagicon|IND Vijayalakshmi Das, CEO
num_employees = 24 (2007)
industry = Microfinance
products = Microcredit, Microinsurance, Capacity Building Supports
homepage = [http://fwwbindia.org/site/index.html www.fwwbindia.org]

Friends of Women's World Banking, India, often shortened to "FWWB, India", or just "FWWB", is an Indian APEX organization that assists microfinance and microenterprise organizations. Founded in 1982 by Ela Bhatt, it is located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

Foundation

Friends of Women's World Banking was established as a non-profit organization to promote direct participation of poor women in the economy through access to financial services. It was created to extend and expand informal credit supports and networks within India to link them to a global movement.

Outreach

As of now FWWB is working in 17 states of India, with 120 partner organisations with a total client outreach of 5 million in India.

Niche of FWWB

According to CGAP, FWWB's niche lies in identifying and handholding small grassroots microfinance organizations working for empowerment of women through financial intervention.

FWWB specializes in dealing with small local lending organizations. It selects its partner organization through a rigorous screening process. But unlike commercial banks that require a credit history to asses their risk of loss, FWWB evaluates an organization on a set of parameters which includes the company's management and business systems (accounts, MIS, HR, etc.). If an organization is found that has potential to develop into a financially sustainable community development organization, it is selected as a partner.

Partners

The organization categorizes its partner into three broad groups according to its internal parameters

*Big Partner
*Institutional (ID) Partner
*General Partner

Big Partners

As of March, 2007, FWWB has 14 partners in this category. This includes some of the biggest MFIs in India today like Share Microfin Ltd., SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd., Cashpor Microcredit, Saadhana Microfin Society, BANDHAN etc.

Incidentally all these organizations have started with FWWB as General partners and over the years have graduated to the Big Partners.

The organizations in big partner category is characterized by very strong systems and well diversified funding sources. The major service to this category of partners by FWWB is Revolving loan Fund.

ID Partners

The partner organizations falling under this category is characterized by relatively strong operational systems but its top management may require more orientation to grow the organization further and hence cater to a larger section of the society. Again the inputs required are very subjective and cannot be generalized. But basically this is a transitional phase. FWWB has 16 partne organization in this category as of March, 2007. Some of these organizations are Star Microfin Service Society, Nirman Bharti Samajik Arthik Vikas,Sonata Finance Pvt. Ltd., Jaago Samajik Arthik & Harit Vikas Sangathan (under process)etc.

General Partners

This category is the primary focus of FWWB. Out of its 102 partners (March,2007), 72 partners falls in this category. These organizations are grassroot startups usually with a social orientation but not properly equipped to handle a sustainable financial operation as required for a Microfinance organization.

Services provided by FWWB to this category are funding support (Revolving Loan Fund), Capacity building support (through trainings, workshops and conferences), institutional support, referral & allied support.

FWWB seeks to develop the fledgling grassroot organizations to the level where it can tap external resources, primarily loan fund to grow as a sustainable microfinance organization.

Donors & Funders

Donors

#Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)
#United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
#CORDAID
#Citi
#Charities Aid Foundation
#Women's World Banking
#Ford Foundation
#Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)
#Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

Funders

#Indian Overseas Bank(IOB)
#CORDAID
#Axis Bank
#HDFC Bank
#National Backward Classes Finance Development Corporation
#National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
#IndusInd Bank
#Small Industries Development Bank of India SIDBI
#Indian Bank
#Dena Bank

External links

* [http://fwwbindia.org/site/index.html FWWB Official Website]