Ben Tre Province Women's Economic Development Support Fund: 10 years of development

Mr. Nguyen Truc Son, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Ben Tre province, awarded certificates of merit from the Provincial People's Committee to many individuals with outstanding achievements in the project to Support Women in Starting a Business.

Formation of the Fund to support women in economic development

Since 2007, the Ben Tre Provincial Women's Union (the Union) has received investment from the Swiss organization Terdeshommes in the project "Improving the status and position of poor women through the operation of sustainable small microfinance organizations". The project was implemented in the communes of Luong Hoa (Giong Trom District); An Ngai Tay, Tan Thuy (Ba Tri District), then expanded to the communes of An Ngai Trung (Ba Tri), Luong Quoi and Phong My (Giong Trom).

In 2008, the Association continued to be selected by the Vietnam Women's Union to invest in the project "Improving the quality of life for poor women through microfinance activities" invested by Unilever - VN Fund; implemented in Giong Trom town and Hung Nhuong commune, then expanded to Binh Thanh, Chau Binh, Long My and Hung Le communes.

In 2012, the Association was selected by the IFAD Project Management Board of Ben Tre province as a partner to implement the rural credit component for the poor of the project "Rural Development with the Poor" (abbreviated as DBRP), with capital deployed in 50 communes in 8 districts: Chau Thanh, Binh Dai, Ba Tri, Giong Trom, Mo Cay Bac, Mo Cay Nam, Thanh Phu, Cho Lach.

On June 28, 2013, the Ben Tre Provincial Women's Union was granted Decision No. 1100-QD-UBND by the Ben Tre Provincial People's Committee on granting an operating license and recognizing the charter of the Women's Economic Development Support Fund (PTKT) under the Union, with operating capital consolidated from 3 sources: Swiss TDH Organization, Unilever - VN Fund, and IFAD Project of Ben Tre Province. At the same time, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 1101-QD-UBND on recognizing the Fund Management Board to lead and orient activities in accordance with the strategy, plan, and set goals that the Social Fund operates on a non-profit basis, aiming at equality in access to capital support services and science and technology transfer activities to help all poor women's households, low-income women and women in particularly difficult circumstances in the province have the conditions to develop production and business activities, increase income, stabilize life, rise out of poverty, contribute to the implementation of the province's poverty reduction policy, and enhance the position of women in the family and society.

At the end of 2014, the Fund continued to access the rural credit component of the project "Adapting to Climate Change in the Mekong Delta" (abbreviated as AMD), with a loan through the Ministry of Finance equivalent to 34 billion VND, implemented in 30 communes in the project area in 8 districts, including 20 communes overlapping with the DBRP project and 10 new communes.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Tam, Chairman of Ben Tre Provincial People's Committee, presented flowers to the leadership of the Ben Tre Provincial Women's Economic Development Support Fund at an event.

Trusted companion organization of women in Ben Tre province

Identifying the work of helping and supporting members, women with disabilities, to rise out of poverty and become rich legitimately is an important requirement and task. In recent years, the Women's Union of Ben Tre province and the grassroots level have implemented many diverse forms to help women with disabilities, reduce poverty, and prevent re-poverty, bringing practical results. A typical example is the work of supporting credit loans through the Ben Tre Provincial Women's Support Fund. The fund is operated according to a microfinance model, providing small loans suitable for poor and low-income households in the province.

With the set goals and missions, since its establishment, the Fund has maintained and developed well in 157 communes, wards and towns; established 8 transaction offices in 9 districts and cities in the province, and was granted 5 Microfinance program certificates by the State Bank of Vietnam, Ben Tre branch, according to Decision 20/2017 of the Prime Minister.

Since its establishment, the Fund has supported more than 125,600 customers to borrow capital with a disbursement amount of up to VND 1,194 billion. The number of new clusters and groups has increased steadily over the years. As of March 2023, the Fund has established 1,397 clusters and 6,092 guarantee groups with regular borrowers; supported more than 19,500 customers to borrow capital with outstanding loans reaching VND 167 billion, the balance of savings deposited by customers in the Fund reached VND 49 billion. The above results show that with simple and effective loan methods and procedures, the form of unsecured loans by guarantee groups has created favorable conditions for many poor women and women in difficult circumstances in the province to easily access long-term capital to invest in production and business, and escape poverty sustainably.

Women's economic models benefit from the Fund's capital.

In the past time, the Fund's operations have encountered many obstacles due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Fund has tried to overcome the difficulties, continue to maintain and expand loan support activities to the Fund's target groups, especially supporting members to restore production after the pandemic, minimizing the situation of borrowing "black credit", playing hui, supporting poor female members to increase income, stabilize their lives, thereby improving the position of women; at the same time, contributing to the locality's implementation of the policy of reducing poor households, building new rural areas, and advanced new rural areas. The number of poor and near-poor households with loan books at the Fund has always reached an average of more than 4,000 households per year. Over many years of borrowing capital, people's income has improved, helping over 300 customers escape poverty or change their households from poor to near-poor each year, of which about 50% of households are headed by women.

In addition, with more than 90% of customers being female, this source of capital has helped to improve the position of women in the family and society through the development of the family economy. At the same time, through the loan cluster meetings, the Fund has helped women access a lot of knowledge in building a "warm, equal, progressive, happy" family; knowing how to calculate and make a production and business plan before investing capital to use capital effectively. Many women have proactively risen up, from being hired workers to becoming owners, creating jobs for many local workers.

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