BRAC, an international development organization, began its operation in Bangladesh as a small-scale relief and rehabilitation project in 1972 to help the country overcome the devastation and trauma of the liberation war. Its primary focus was on the resettlement of refugees returning from India. Today, BRAC has emerged as an independent, virtually self-financed paradigm in sustainable human development. It is one of the largest Southern development organizations employing over 100,000 people, 61% of which are women, and working with the twin objectives of poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor. Diagnosing poverty in human terms and recognizing its multifaceted nature, BRAC approaches poverty alleviation with a holistic approach. BRAC has expanded its development interventions beyond borders as it now thrives to build resources across communities

The Vision and Mission:

BRAC's successful story over the years has been guided by its vision which is a just, enlightened, healthy and democratic society free from hunger, poverty, environmental degradation and all forms of exploitation based on age, sex, religion and ethnicity. The vision is explicitly reflected in the mission statement, which is striving to bring about positive changes in the quality of life of the people where it works.

Major Development Initiatives by BRAC: 

From the time of its modest inception in 1972, BRAC recognized women as the caregivers who would ensure the education of their children and the subsequent inter-generational sustainability of their families and households. Its comprehensive approach combines Micro-finance, Health, Water and Sanitation, Education, Agriculture and Livestock and other Social Development programs, linking all the programs strategically to counter poverty through livelihood generation and protection.

International Programs of BRAC:

Having recognized BRAC's goodwill and impressed with its results in Bangladesh, the government of Afghanistan invited BRAC to begin mobilizing Afghan communities and providing development services in May 2002. BRAC Afghanistan now provides services in micro-finance, health, education, income generation and small enterprise development. By the end of year 2005, BRAC was providing financial services to 109,469 women, non-formal education to over 24,000 children and health services to the people in 19 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan.

Given its experience of post conflict natural disaster relief and rehabilitation activities in Bangladesh and Afghanistan, BRAC responded to the need for undertaking rehabilitation activities and livelihood projects in tsunami affected areas of Sri Lanka on February 2005. Considering development needs BRAC started working in Pakistan in 2006. The international donor community has welcomed and supported BRAC led programs in these three countries.

The successes of BRAC in the international development arena have stimulated a series of discussions, both with African delegations, who have visited BRAC programs, and with donors who work in Asia and Africa. Both the African countries and the donors have encouraged BRAC to join the development campaign in Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and more recently to join the campaign of "ending poverty", which is an area where Africa represents the greatest global challenge. Besides Uganda, Southern Sudan and Tanzania, BRAC is currently in the process of setting up its development initiatives in Malawi.

In Uganda BRAC registered as Non Government Organization (NGO) in January 2006, to undertake programs in Education, Health, Water & Sanitation, Agriculture & Livestock and Microfinance. The Microfinance and Education are the pioneer programs launched in Uganda.

A note about BRAC Uganda’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.

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

• They provide more than just cash to many of their borrowers, including costly wraparound services such as healthcare, financial or business training, agricultural extension services, insurance or access to education.
• They work in areas with very poor infrastructure, such as limited roads. This increases the costs of finding clients and maintaining branch offices.
• They work extensively in rural areas, which requires their employees to engage in costly travel to find and serve their clients.