Paper
Survey Results on Risk Management: Prevention and Mitigation of HIV/AIDS in African MFIs
Preliminary results from the HIV/AIDS risk management in micro finance project survey
This is a preliminary report of the results from the survey that:
- Constituted ten microfinance institutions (MFIs) from Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe with varied legal status;
- Interviewed respondents via telephone or e-mail;
- Targeted unbanked people, small and micro-entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises and the poorest sections of the economically active people;
- Aimed to provide in-depth knowledge about MFIs and their current HIV/AIDS situation.
The survey questions covered:
- General awareness about HIV/AIDS;
- Product development and augmentation;
- Workplace programs;
- Strategic alliances;
- Code of conduct.
The report also presents the following survey conclusions:
- HIV/AIDS impacted institutions directly in the form of increasing default rates and indirectly in the form of staff absenteeism;
- Only seven out of ten MFIs had implemented mitigation strategies. These included insurance, awareness training programs and anti-discriminatory policies;
- Institutions had implemented awareness and prevention training programs in partnership with local non-government organizations (NGOs);
- Only two MFIs offered specific HIV/AIDS products;
- Only three MFIs had adjusted products according to clients in terms of loan repayments, downsizing of groups etc.;
- Five respondents had a policy relating to non-discrimination;
- Six out of ten respondents had a code of conduct/best practice developed by a network organization of which the MFI was a member.
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