Director,
T.E.(Terry)
Manning,
Schoener
50,
1771 ED
Wieringerwerf,
The
Tel:
0031-227-604128
Homepage:
http://www.flowman.nl
E-mail:
(nameatendofline)@xs4all.nl : bakensverzet
Incorporating innovative
social, financial, economic, local administrative and productive structures,
numerous renewable energy applications, with an important role for women in
poverty alleviation in rural and poor urban environments.
"Money is not the key that
opens the gates of the market but the bolt that bars them"
Gesell, Silvio The Natural
Economic Order
Revised English edition, Peter
Owen, London 1958, page 228
Edition 11:
The
following drawings and graphs form an integral part of this project proposal.
They give an idea of what the results of the Moraisian organisational workshops
setting the structures up might produce.
DRAWING OF
INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES.
GRAPH SHOWING
DEVELOPMENT OF MICRO-LOANS .
THE INTEREST-FREE LOAN
CYCLE.
HOW
THE ORIGINAL SEED LOAN MONEY IS USED.
The
micro-credit system will be set up by the Moraisian organisation workshop
conducted for the purpose.
The
proposed micro-credit system will be different from those formed up till now.
The loan capital repayments and longer term reserves within the project itself
will be used to finance the micro-credit system. This is possible because the
money is already available for multiple re-cycling, interest-free. When, at the
close of the ten years' loan repayment period, the original project capital is
repaid, the users will continue their monthly contributions to build up capital
for system extensions and to replace the system hardware after 20-30 years. This
money, which will build up to a considerable sum, also becomes available for
interest-free micro-credits within the project area until it is needed.
Final
repayments of blocks of micro-credits will be coordinated so that money for long
term capital investment purposes (system replacement and extensions) will be
available when it is needed. This way, money for the micro-credits granted is
generated by the users themselves within the framework of the project and those
micro-credits belong to the users. They are interest-free to ensure they
continue to re-circulate within the local economy.
The
Cooperative Local Development Bank will charge a set fee for each transaction to
cover its costs and make a socially acceptable profit. The Cooperative Local
Development Bank's fee will be set before the system starts working. The fee
will be expressed in the local LETS currencies to stop leakage of money from the
local economy. In any case associated such as collection of payments and
distribution of information will all be paid for in the local LETS currencies.
The
Cooperative Local Development Bank will thus become a regular member of the
local LETS system. It could, for instance, use the LETS credits it derives from
its banking services to buy local products and services and distribute them
outside the system in exchange for formal currency.
The
purpose of the planned Micro-Credit system is to ensure that individuals or
cooperatives wanting to expand their production who have no access to formal
currency to pay for their capital investment can get interest-free micro-credit
loans to boost the local economy. The Micro-credit system is therefore applied
only to micro-project investment which needs to be made outside the local
currency exchange (LETS) systems.
The
pay-back time for the interest free loans will vary from case to case. Some
investments will generate more goods and services that can be sold outside the
local LETS currency area than others. The formal currency so earned can then be
used to repay the loans. The sale of some production in the formal economy will
be a condition of the granting of the Micro-Credit loan. The speed at which the
formal loan currency can be recovered will determine the payback period, which
could therefore be anything between a few months and a few years. The loan
repayments must be realistically possible. The system is cooperative and
interest free and designed to enhance the general welfare within the beneficiary
communities. As with the Grameen bank systems, any person or cooperative group
wanting a Micro-Loan will be expected to produce four friends who agree to be
jointly and severally liable for the periodic loan repayments, and to make sure
they are made on time. Since the Micro-credits are essentially self-financed by
the communities through their communal funds, the funding priorities must be
left to the communities themselves. This is especially so where potential
conflicts of interest arise because there is not enough funding immediately
available to meet all requests for assistance. Meetings to discuss members'
proposals and further developments with on-going projects will become a feature
of the social life of the communities. Since it is expected that many of the
beneficiaries under the scheme will be women and women's groups, women will need
to have full representation during such meetings. One of the basic goals of the
formation of the Community Health Clubs foreseen is to use them as a launching
pad to create women's groups. These groups will give women the chance to discuss
their needs, develop their priorities, and make submissions during the
Micro-Credit meetings. The Health Clubs should also be able to ensure that women
participate en bloc at the Micro-Credit meetings.
Rules
for the organisation of the Micro-Credit meetings will be set up during the
workshop with the full participation of the beneficiary communities. These rules
must lay down the general principles behind the system. These would, for
example, include:
1)
All loans are to enable the beneficiary to extend his/her income by producing
more goods and services
2) The goods and services must benefit the general
interests of the community and encourage exchanges under the local LETS systems.
3) Some of the goods and services must be saleable outside the LETS systems
to earn formal currency to repay the micro-loan.
4) The Micro-Credit loan
must promote the rapid circulation of formal money within the beneficiary
communities. For example, using formal currency to build a clinic or hospital
would not qualify for micro-credits because the capital invested cannot be
re-circulated. On the other hand, buying equipment for testing water quality
(foreseen in the project) would qualify, as the formal currency cost can be
recovered by charging in formal currency for water analyses conducted for users
outside the project area.
5) Special priority will be given in the first
instance to micro-loans to start the collection and transport of compost, urine,
and grey water, and establish the recycling centres that will collect, store,
and export non-organic waste products from the project area.
Forward: Gypsum
composite manufacturing units.
List of drawings and
graphs.
Typical list of maps.
List of key
words.
List of
abbreviations used.
Documents for
funding applications.
