Livelihoods and Inclusive Finance Expansion (LIFE)
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
KEY PARTNERS
Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact— the intentional creation and measurement of enduring social and economic value. We work with corporations, governments, foundations, investors, communities and civil society to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental and financial benefits.
LMFA’s mission is to support microfinance institutions to improve the provision of financial services to non-inclusive groups in the main and official financial system and to activate the relationship between microfinance institutions and the relevant authorities
Contact
For more information about this initiative, please contact Sonya Salanti, SEEP Project Director [email protected]
Livelihoods and Inclusive Finance Expansion (LIFE) – Lebanon
The USAID-funded Lebanon Livelihoods Inclusive Finance Expansion (LIFE) (2016 – 2021) will link vulnerable entrepreneurs at the bottom of the economic pyramid with business training and financial services, improving livelihoods, creating jobs, and reducing poverty while facilitating growth and consolidation of the microfinance sector in Lebanon.
The LIFE project is comprised of three components:
Component 1: Inclusive Finance
The LIFE Project will elevate the microfinance discourse by bringing about key policy and institutional changes with the potential to transform the financial inclusion landscape. One of the primary objectives of the Inclusive Finance component are to strengthen the Lebanese Micro-Finance LMFA to serve as a voice for policy change and bring about significant policy changes that contribute to the growth and consolidation of the microfinance industry and set the stage for a national financial inclusion policy.
Component 2: Microcredit
The LIFE Project will strengthen the capacity of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to increase their range of products and services and expand their reach of borrowers to include microenterprises with an emphasis on higher-risk, conflict affected areas (areas where economic pressures and social tensions have increased significantly as a result of the high influx of refugees), including new, unbanked, and existing microenterprises, and low-income women-headed households. LIFE will provide customized business management training, technical know-how, mentoring, basic business development skills, and new lending products to the MFI’s current and potential clientele.
Component 3: Livelihoods
The LIFE Project will design, operationalize, and start generating results from a set of performance-based grants partnered with NGOs and MFIs to stimulate a new generation of entrepreneurs and assist these to take advantage of financial products and business services to scale-up their businesses. LIFE will leverage NGOs and MFIs with existing networks to identify and provide grant and training support to micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs focusing on unemployed women, youth, and physically impaired populations in rural areas suffering from the refugee influx.
SEEP’s Role
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