Microfinance and Mitigation of the Impacts of HIV/AIDS : An Exploratory Study from Zimbabwe

Microfinance has been advocated as a strategy to help households mitigate the negative economic impacts of HIV/AIDS.

This study addresses the following questions:

• What effect does HIV/AIDS have on microentrepreneurs and their households?
• Does microfinance help microentrepreneurs mitigate the negative economic effects of HIV/AIDS?
• How do illness and death affect the operations of MFIs and participation in their programs?
• What can MFIs do to lessen the impact of HIV/AIDS on their organisation and clients?

The survey recommends that:

• MFIs ensure that their interest rates and fees keep pace with inflation, so that their capital base is not eroded;
• Development assistance organizations should focus more attention on assisting governments to strengthen policies that allow households to mitigate the negative economic impact of HIV/AIDS;
• MFIs should broaden their products and services to meet the demands of HIV/AIDS affected households and safeguard client deposits;
• Tools should be developed to enable organizations to estimate HIV/AIDS affectedness and poverty among their clients;
• Participatory approaches should continue to be used to identify ways to ameliorate the negative economic impact of HIV/AIDS on households and to stimulate collaboration among organizations.