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Banking on good health:
Global Partnerships partners to improve health through microfinance
Global Perspectives | Summer 2010
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| The microfinance-health initiative will build on Pro Mujer’s track record in health programming. |
Ana Luz García is a single mother of two children in Nicaragua whose first microfinance loan from Pro Mujer, a microfinance partner of Global Partnerships, was $40. She used the loan to expand her seafood business.
Like many Pro Mujer clients, Ana received some health services and education from Pro Mujer as part of her client benefits. These included a screening for cervical cancer, a highly preventable disease that is a leading killer of women in Latin America because so few women are screened. In Ana’s case, the screening proved to be life-saving—it led to a diagnosis of early-stage cervical cancer. Ana received treatment and recovered, and now has a thriving business. She is even able to save for her children’s education.
Ana’s case is but one example of the kind of health success story that Global Partnerships hopes to multiply through a new microfinance-health initiative with Pro Mujer and PATH, a Seattle-based global health nonprofit. Launched in October 2009, the initiative aims to improve healthcare for poor women and their families in Latin America by expanding access to health solutions and education offered by microfinance institutions.
“We believe that microfinance institutions (MFIs) are an untapped, potentially powerful way to address key health challenges for people living in poverty,” says Lara Puglielli, GP’s vice president of Latin American programs, who is overseeing the project. “MFIs are already experts at reaching numerous poor and underserved people, often in remote settings.”
The initiative is building on Pro Mujer’s already-strong track record of providing women in Latin America with a package of financial services, healthcare and training. The first phase—in process right now—involves a comprehensive assessment of high-impact, low-cost opportunities to improve health for Pro Mujer clients. Global Partnerships, which is serving as project manager for the initiative, is particularly focusing on how MFIs can offer such services on an economically sustainable basis.
Based on the assessment, the partners are developing a proposed package of low-cost health services focusing on health conditions that affect Nicaraguan women and their families, which will then inform a pilot project for Pro Mujer. Depending on the findings, the pilot may focus on strategies such as simple practices to improve children’s health; screenings for cervical and breast cancer; or education for women on topics such as domestic violence or how to become more educated consumers of healthcare.
“Village bank meetings are an easy and powerful way to reach women with access to lower-cost, higher-quality, health services than would be available to them as a non-client,” says Global Partnerships’ Puglielli. “We’re looking at what type of education is most effective and what business model is most sustainable to deliver it.”\
Initially, the initiative aims to see improvement in the health of Pro Mujer’s Nicaragua clients. Ultimately, the hope is to create a powerful model to demonstrate how MFIs can be leveraged to provide health solutions and education that can improve lives—and save lives.
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| Microfinance can be a powerful channel to reach rural clients with health trainings, like this one in Nicaragua. |
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