Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status Update - July 2020

Kiva has been in contact with ADICLA to understand how we can best support their business and borrowers during the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic. We continue to prioritize the safety and well-being of all staff, borrowers and their families as this global pandemic continues.

While country-specific responses to the crisis vary, most governments have imposed curfews, travel restrictions, and nation-wide shutdowns. Guatemala has imposed temporary moratoriums on loan payments, affecting not only microfinance, but the economy as a whole. 

As a result, borrowers and ADICLA may experience difficulty making and collecting loan repayments due to the aforementioned restrictions or fallout effects of the virus. Over the coming months, it’s possible that lenders will see a delay in repayments and new loans posted by ADICLA. As an impact-first funder, Kiva is committed to serving our Lending Partners, as in past crises. We are sympathetic to temporary increases in repayment delays and delinquency in order to help Lending Partners and borrower communities recover. 

Kiva is working closely with ADICLA to support them and their borrowers through the COVID-19 crisis. ADICLA is sending regular updates to Kiva, and we'll update Partner Pages as we learn more. 

On behalf of Kiva and ADICLA, we’re grateful for your continued support through this difficult time. 

Status Update - June 11, 2018

On June 3rd, Volcan Fuego in Guatemala erupted sending pyroclastic flows down its south-eastern slopes which engulfed several villages such as San Miguel de Los Lotes and El Rodeo. More than 100 people have lost their lives and more than 200 are still missing as search & rescue efforts are on-going amidst renewed volcanic activity emanating from Fuego. 4,000 people have also been evacuated. We have contacted our partners in Guatemala and both field staff and their families are safe. Our partners are in the process of contacting their clients to ascertain the gravity of the situation and initiate disaster relief activities. We will be in touch with our partners to assess how best we can help their borrowers recover in the event some of them have been affected. 

Partner Description:

ADICLA (Association for the Holistic Development of the Basin of Lake Atitlán) is a nonprofit rural community development association that provides small loans and services to improve quality of life in Sololá and Suchitepequez, two of the poorest regions of Guatemala and home to an indigenous majority. ADICLA was founded in 1993 by community leaders from the municipalities around the northern basin of Lake Atitlán in Sololá, Guatemala.

As a community organization, ADICLA’s staff includes many members of the Lake Atitlán community, and its board is entirely comprised of actual clients. This keeps loan services nimble and responsive to client needs. 

ADICLA’s loan program is called the Community Finance Program (PROFINCO is its acronym in Spanish). PROFINCO disburses and collects on small loans through three different lending methodologies: individual loans, solidarity group loans, and loans for larger groups of women. As part of a strategy to offer a diversified range of services, PROFINCO also provides the following services through a partnership with a local bank: check cashing, remittance payments, receipt of bank deposits, and phone and electric bill payments.

ADICLA also seeks to diversify its loan product offerings. With the help of Kiva’s 0% interest capital, it is launching several pilot programs. In particular, Kiva lenders will help fund three lending initiatives:

Loans for youth entrepreneurs: These loans allow young people without prior credit histories to borrow in groups, an opportunity that isn’t offered by many other microfinance institutions. The loans will be used to help them start small businesses.

Green loans: These loans will fund a number of environmentally friendly initiatives, such as the purchase and installation of solar panels, green community tourism projects, and reforestation, among other initiatives.

Down-market loans: These are smaller loans tailored to poorer borrowers. ADICLA plans to focus more on poverty alleviation by expanding a women’s village banking product and tracking borrower poverty indicators.

Vision:

To be the association that drives the holistic development of the department of Sololá by facilitating economic, social and environmental technical services, and assisting in community organizing processes to strengthen local economies with inclusion and equality, articulated in spaces and through participatory movements in favor of improving the living conditions of the target population and based on ethical principles and values. -- Provided by ADICLA

A note on ADICLA's portfolio yield:

We care deeply about the cost that Kiva borrowers pay for their loans, which is why fair pricing is a core part of our initial due diligence process for Lending Partners. With Kiva's 0% capital, many of our Lending Partners are also able to add additional value to their loans by reducing interest rates, offering non-financial services or creating new loan products.

For partners with reported portfolio yields or average APRs higher than 50%, Kiva takes steps to check that the high rates are justified by the impact of the loans. Kiva also verifies that the partner is not generating unreasonable profits or paying inflated salaries, and that the partner’s elevated operating costs are justified by its operating environment and/or the design of its loan products.

We seek to support loans that don’t impose an unjustifiable cost burden on hard-working borrowers. We nevertheless recognize that in order to reach vulnerable and excluded people with high-impact products and services, some of our partners incur high costs that necessitate charging higher-than-average costs to borrowers in order to allow for sustainability and scale. With this partner, Kiva capital is supporting a loan product that costs less than the partner's typical products.

Factors that drive up the costs that this partner organization charges its borrowers include:

• They provide very small loans. This leads to higher operating costs, since providing each individual loan presents a minimum per-unit cost.
• They work extensively in rural areas, which requires their employees to engage in costly travel to find and serve their clients.
• They’re based in an area with a high cost of living and doing business. This is often due to the high demand and low supply of adequate housing and goods.