M-CRIL inclusive microeconomics

30/10/2024

21/09/2024

We are pleased to share that M-CRIL Limited has signed an agreement for the promotion of new FPOs under MOVCD-NER, Phase IV. The contract signing was attended by Ashok Kumar, Deputy Managing Director, M-CRIL and Rajesh Gupta, Project Manager, M-CRIL. The contract was signed by Mr Jigme Dorjee Bhutia (IAS), Agriculture Secretary of the Agriculture Department on behalf of the Government of Sikkim and Ashok Kumar, on behalf of M-CRIL. Dr. S. Anabalagan (IFS), CEO of Sikkim Organic Farming Development Agency (SOFDA), and other department officials were also present at the signing.

The assignment will entail the mobilisation of farmers into Farmer Producer Organisations. With these new FPOs, M-CRIL has so far promoted 21 FPOs in Sikkim under MOVCD-NER.

21/09/2024

Among several other activities including consulting in livelihoods and value chain promotion, M-CRIL is also engaged in promoting Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and it is one of the key activities of M-CRIL to generate sustainable economic benefits to smallholders. M-CRIL as a cluster-based business organisation (CBBO) for the Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) scheme, Government of India, is currently engaged in promoting and building capacity of 37 FPOs with 20,000+ smallholder farmers across various states of India with support from SFAC India, National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and Sikkim Organic Farming Development Agency (SOFDA), Govt. of Sikkim.

We are pleased to share the key achievements and progress made by several Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Bihar, and West Bengal in India, with support and guidance from M-CRIL. The FPO promotion work of M-CRIL is managed by a core team consisting of Abhishek Anand, Ajay Kumar, Vinay Srivastava, Rajesh Gupta, Shashi Mani Gupta, Shashi Bhushan, Kavindra Nath Shukla, Subhash Chandra Dubey, Saroj Rai, Rahul Raj and several other team members, under the leadership and guidance of Ashok Kumar, Deputy Managing Director at M-CRIL.

Please follow the link to download and read the document -https://www.m-cril.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/24-09-03-Key-achievements-and-progress-by-FPOs-supported-by-M-CRIL-1.pdf

13/07/2024

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗗𝗚 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱’𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆-𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗦𝗗𝗚 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼, 𝗯𝘆 𝗠-𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗟

In 2023, M-CRIL was commissioned to undertake a Thematic Global Evaluation of the UN Joint SDG Fund’s country-level SDG financing portfolio

The evaluation report is now public and is available at https://lnkd.in/g4wMKV9y – attached here for quick access to the main report.

This evaluation explored the performance of 61 country-level JPs that form the SDG Financing: Enabling Environment Portfolio for the period June 2020 to June 2023. The overall evaluation approach was to document direct programme results, emerging impact and broader systemic changes to strengthen the mobilization or improve utilization of financial resources to meet the demonstrated needs of SDG promotion in a broad range of countries.

As part of this evaluation, 7 country case studies spread across the five United Nations Development Coordination Office (UNDCO) regions were conducted – Mongolia, Nepal (Asia Pacific), Kyrgyzstan (ECA), Jordan (MENA) Guinea (Conakry), Comoros (SSA) and Costa Rica (LAC). The choice of case study countries was based on both regional and effectiveness considerations. The aim was to cover JPs that were at diverse levels of progress and maturity.

For this evaluation, the M-CRIL Evaluation Team analysed a large database of annual progress and final reports from the country-level JPs plus other information provided by the Joint SDG Fund. The evaluation found an extensive and growing commitment from country governments to finding resources for the funding of SDGs. Key constraints included lack of experience with targeted budgeting of the sort needed for the funding approach advocated by the Joint SDG Fund as well as limited domestic as well as international resources. In this context, the evaluation documents a range of innovative financing measures devised in a variety of countries. The report makes exciting reading in this context.

08/04/2024

M-CRIL had an incredible and exciting journey during 2023-24 related to its engagement in promoting, capacity building and supporting over 67 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) with >70,000 smallholder farmers across states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, National Capital Region (NCR), Sikkim and West Bengal. We are happy to share the participation of some of our FPOs in several key fairs, exhibitions, and events held at the national and international levels.

The promotion and capacity building of smallholder farmers has been one of M-CRIL's commitment to enhance smallholders' incomes sustainably, among M-CRIL's expertise related to FPO rating/assessment and training of FPOs' board & management team. With dedicated team members of M-CRIL's Livelihoods Team including Abhishek Anand, Ajay Kumar Singh, Rajesh Gupta, Vinay Srivastava, Shashi Bhushan, Shashi Mani Gupta, Kavindra Nath Shukla, Subhash Chandra Dubey, Saroj Rai, Rahul Raj and others, under the leadership and guidance of Ashok Kumar, Deputy Managing Director, M-CRIL, we have achieved a remarkable success in the FPO promotion and capacity building work. As we reflect on these accomplishments, we are further committed to contributing to a brighter future for smallholder farmers in India and creating a meaningful impact on their lives!

09/03/2024

🌟 Celebrating the Women of M-CRIL! 🌟

It is often said that women are not suited for the corporate world, but we at M-CRIL say watch us thrive! We are proud of our incredible women team who have defied stereotypes and made a lasting impact in the development sector.

Meet Frances Sinha, our visionary founder from England. She has dedicated her life to grassroots development in India, bridging nations and making meaningful changes, especially to gender equity contributing to the economic and social development of low-income families.

Rakhi Gupta is our finance powerhouse. Despite the assumption that women cannot handle numbers, Rakhi effortlessly manages our finances, proving them wrong with every balance sheet.

Kalpana Kashyap is a true multitasker, balancing her role as a mother with her professional commitments with ease. Her resilience and dedication are an inspiration to us all.

Ratika Kathuria, our globetrotting leader, fearlessly manages an international team and travels across countries for work. Her leadership knows no bounds, inspiring us all to reach for the stars.

We express our admiration and appreciation for our team of talented female analysts - Arpana Keren Gone, Charlene Samuel, Ritu Dhoke, Roshni Wadhwani, Shalvi Agrawal and Shwetangi Raj along with our pool of specialised women consultants and enumerators across various countries, who work tirelessly to address a wide range of on-the-ground issues in even the most remote areas with professionalism and passion. Their dedication and commitment to driving real change in the communities we serve is truly inspiring.

Durga Verma, our dedicated office assistant, ensures that every cog in our organisation runs smoothly.

This Women's Day, we celebrate the incredible women of M-CRIL who have broken barriers, shattered stereotypes, and made a profound difference in the development sector. Here's to strong women - may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them!💪🌍

17/02/2024

The sector has been under the spotlight of the international media and investors in recent years. It is accused of aggressive lending leading to coercive behaviour towards poor clients causing landlessness and suicides. Based on its recent impact assessment study of Cambodian microfinance, M-CRIL has written two advisory notes: Note-1 examines the validity of some of the sensational international headlines; Note-2 highlights key weaknesses of the sector and proposes measures for the reform microfinance in Cambodia.

Link to Advisory Note-1 - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7164681354062880768
Link to Advisory Note-2 - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7164681986744238080

25/01/2024

𝗠-𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗟’𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱!

In late 2022, Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) commissioned M-CRIL Limited to conduct an independent impact assessment of the microfinance sector in . This study, the first of its kind in the country, draws on survey responses from over 3,200 client households and 40+ qualitative interactions across 10 provinces and more than 450 villages in the country. The survey was undertaken in January-February 2023 and analysis, report writing and revisions took place mainly up to August 2023.

CMA hosted an in person and virtual conference for stakeholders on 19 January 2024 at the Center for Banking Studies (CBS), Phnom Penh to disseminate the results.

Sanjay Sinha, Co-Founder & Managing Director, M-CRIL and team leader for this impact assessment study presented the key findings during the event with remote support from India by Ratika Kathuria, AVP, Research and Evaluation, who was the Research Manager for the study. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the field team of enumerators and supervisors, M-CRIL’s team in Cambodia (Sengdy Khiev and Country Manager, Shayandeep Chakraborty), data management support by Analysts in India (Arpana Keren Gone, Shwetangi Raj and Rejoice Parackal) as well as ongoing inputs and advice on methodology from M-CRIL’s co-Founder and Director Frances Sinha.

M-CRIL thanks CMA – Chairman Sok Voeun, Secretary General Phal Vandy, and Head of Financial Inclusion and Social Impact Vong Pheakyny – for commissioning the study and the CMA Board for their comments on various versions of the report.

The report is now public and available at https://lnkd.in/gvf3mQbx

We hope and expect that the report will make an evidence-based contribution to the controversies around the performance and approach of Cambodian MFIs towards lending to low-income families and create a better understanding of the nuanced impact of microfinance on micro-borrower households in the country.

Here are some glimpses of the event.

23/12/2023

Season's greetings!

12/07/2023

M-CRIL is pleased to welcome Abhishek Anand as a Senior Analyst, Livelihoods & Value Chains to our team.