Abstract This paper was prepared for the National Conference on Microfinance, held in Fiji from 21-23 October 1998. Resource mobilisation in a narrow sense is not the most important challenge facing microfinance in Fiji. The major problems that microfinance institutions (MFIs) have faced in the Pacific, including in Fiji, have not been due to any lack of resources. Outreach, viability and sustainability, and the policy environment, have been much more serious constraints to the development of microfinance in this region than has resource mobilisation. On greater reflection, however, there is a great deal of interest to say about resource mobilisation. While MFIs in the Pacific have generally had little trouble in mobilising resources for their start-up operations, a more interesting question is to ask how can MFIs mobilise resources to maintain and expand their operations over the longer term? To put this question in another way, how can MFIs move from reliance on donor agencies and government to accessing resources from more sustainable sources? The paper presents a framework for analysing resource mobilisation by MFIs, emphasising the relationship between resource mobilisation and self-sufficiency. It then applies this framework to the Women’s Social and Economic Development project (WOSED), the most prominent MFI in Fiji. The paper also looks at some particular aspects of resource mobilisation, specifically donor agencies and governments, commercial banks and the private sector, and savings mobilisation. |
