History of IFAD/NGO Consultations 1990-2000
10th Session, Pune 2000			9th Session, Cairo 1998
8th Session, Rome 1997			7th Session, Rome 1996
6th Session, Rome 1995			5th Session, Rome 1994
4th Session, Rome 1993			3rd Session, Rome 1992
2nd Session, Rome 1991			1st Session, Rome 1990

Providing Credit to the Rural Poor

The fourth IFAD/NGO Consultation, held in April 1993, was attended by 31 NGOs, of which 20 were from the south, 6 from Europe and 5 from North America. With a view to further improving the Consultation's focus. Three case studies presented by NGOs on their experience in credit delivery and IFAD's paper on 16 closed credit projects were reviewed and discussed. In considering the general lessons drawn from the case studies and IFAD's experience, the meeting touched upon issues such as the importance of defining the target group; the viability of credit institutions; the need for careful prior assessment of beneficiary needs; the importance of community participation; the need for savings mobilization; the importance of marketing and a remunerative pricing policy to assure the success of credit projects; the need to establish guarantee funds under specific conditions; the importance of promoting or assuring democracy and transparency in credit and rural financing systems as a whole; and ensuring equitable access to credit by rural women. IFAD provided information on its current project pipeline, highlighting the project components that lent themselves to collaboration with NGOs. The Fund also distributed information on a number of successful NGO experiences suitable for replication.