Opportunity International in Malawi Fall 2023
ENABLING SELF-SUFFICIENCY ► Reaching people living in ultra poverty and equipping them with the skills and resources they need to build sustainable livelihoods. ► Helping farmers diversify their crops and lessen their dependence on growing tobacco. ► Connecting farmers to fair markets, buyers, and suppliers.
OUR GRATITUDE Celia lives in a remote, rural village in Malawi. She had to drop out of school as a teenager to take care of her family; she struggled to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. Now she is a participant in Opportunity International’s Graduation program which creates a path out of extreme poverty into self-sufficiency. Celia raises goats and makes bricks. She is making and saving money, improving her home and the daily lives of her family. Thanks to your belief in Opportunity International’s work in Malawi, mothers like Celia can live with dignity, purpose, and hope.
THE NEED
Celia, Graduation Client, Malawi. Access to financial resources, job training, and support have changed her life and provided opportunities for her children.
► 80% of Malawians experience food insecurity. ► Over 70% of people in Malawi live on less than $2 a day; Malawi has the fourth highest percentage of people living in extreme poverty in the world, almost all of whom rely on smallscale farming for their livelihoods. ► 43% of the population in Malawi are under the age of 15.
THE SOLUTIONS
In our continued desire to reach people who have been overlooked, who are living in the deepest areas of poverty, we are focused on lifting up the people of Malawi through specific interventions including livelihood training, financial literacy, and improved agricultural practices. The Graduation program provides two years of training, support, and resources—two years of work that will impact literal generations to come. Our Agriculture Finance work equips farmers with the tools and knowledge they need to diversify their crops, increase their yields, and better support their families. 101 N. Wacker Drive, Suite 1150, Chicago, IL 60606 T 800.793.9455 W opportunity.org
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PROGRESS ON OUR WORK Graduation: Moving out of Extreme Poverty Opportunity has over fifty years of experience working with people in poverty; we continue to extend our outreach to and deepen our impact on people living in what some call ultra or “invisible” poverty: families that can barely afford one meal a day; parents who have no job skills or income-generating activities; homes that barely protect toddlers from the elements. In Malawi, many of these families live in geographic and/or social isolation. Poverty is cyclical and generational, as families scramble to meet immediate and basic needs with no plans or resources for the future. The Graduation program is a proven intervention that provides: • Financial help to kickstart a business • Business coaching and training • Financial skills training • Expert local support • Basic needs covered for the family so they can focus on building an income-generating business
Research by the London School of Economics found favorable outcomes for graduation program participants, seven years post-graduation, in comparison to a control group. Households that have been positively impacted by the graduation model have shown an increase in school attendance for their children, food security, access to health care, and confidence.
The model is rooted in a financial resource with accompanying training and support: a market-viable asset (say, livestock or shop inventory) is transferred to a client, along with a larger package of comprehensive services such as crisis relief; training in life skills and financial literacy; access to health and education; introduction to formal or informal financial services. Community-based case workers provide support to Graduation participants and work with Opportunity staffers; each case worker supports 20 households. Case workers help families stay on track in making substantial life changes, provide links to services not provided by the program, and generally provide psycho-social care. The program works with government, community leadership, and development structures to ensure alignment with the district and community development plans.
Watch this video to learn more about the program and participating families.
101 N. Wacker Drive, Suite 1150, Chicago, IL 60606 T 800.793.9455 W opportunity.org
In November 2021, Opportunity launched its first cohort of 120 Graduation families in Malawi, who are on target to complete the two-year program in November 2023. This summer (2023), we launched a second cohort of 200 additional families and hope to launch a third cohort of 120 families by the end of this year. Cost per family in Malawi is less than Graduation programs in other countries due to variances in staff costs and cost of living; $2,500 enables one family of five to participate in the two-year Graduation program in Malawi.
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Farmer Support Agents A critical intervention is Opportunity’s Farmer Support Agents (FSAs), local community leaders who provide digitally enhanced trainings to the hardest-to-reach farmers on a range of topics (e.g., good agricultural practices, financial literacy, agronomy, mentorship, environmental care), high-quality agricultural inputs, and linkages to affordable financial services. Farmer Support Agents continue to use smart phones and tablets to train farmers in successful, sustainable farming—including regenerative ag practices and “Farming as a Family Business” that encourages collaboration with all family, including women and youth which leads to financial inclusion and stability. As of August 2023, in Malawi we have 503 Farmer Support Agents supporting 106,115 farmers, representing the greatest reach in the five African countries supported by FSAs. In Malawi, AgFinance is testing several approaches to reaching rural communities, including an FSA cohort in partnership with an agricultural supplier chain, supporting government-managed Village Savings & Loan Associations (VSLAs), and various cooperatives of key value chains across the country. Innovation: Using ChatGPT to Strengthen Farming Practices In response to the needs of smallholder farmers in Lilongwe, Malawi, we piloted an AI ChatGPT tool that farmers can use to answer questions they have about farming practices. The system is populated with content from local sources—the government’s agriculture manual of best practices and Opportunity’s Agriculture Finance training material—together with ChatGPT-like conversational interface in WhatsApp, implemented through cloud services and application programming interface that enables scalability. This advanced technology allows more timely access to critical information, in a familiar interface that lowers the learning curve for smallholder farmers. We anticipate replicating and scaling in other countries.
Smart phone + WhatsApp + ChatGPT =
Smallholder farmer learning how to use ChatGPT digital tool to access information on ag best practices.
101 N. Wacker Drive, Suite 1150, Chicago, IL 60606 T 800.793.9455 W opportunity.org
Increased, timely, and efficient access to critical information
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Financial Institution Partnerships AgFinance also plays a central role in facilitating loan repayments to financial institution partners through a range of digital channels that allow farmers to repay loans using mobile money and rural bank agent networks. Farmers can access banks without having to travel directly to bank branches, which is often a time- and resourceconsuming activity as the branches are far away from where farmers live and work. By reducing barriers to access financial services, we have seen an increase in repayment rates and interest in accessing financial services.
Graduation family, Malawi
As of August 2023, in Malawi, 7,000 ag loans had been disbursed at a value of $11M. Of note, Malawian financial partners are restructuring loans due to recent extreme climate events; some farmers report 75% reduction in outputs. AgFinance hosted 20 financial service partners in Nairobi, Kenya this August for three days of sharing learnings and innovations, building networks, and gathering feedback. We heard from partners about digital tools, savings groups linkages, and data mining. Opportunity’s Digital Innovation Group led an innovations testing session.
We are humbled by the sheer force of will, depth of faith, and extraordinary commitment of the people of Malawi—our clients who show us every day what it means to embrace opportunity with vigor, heart, and grace. Thank you for making our work possible; thank you for investing your faith and treasure in truly life-changing work.
What excites us the most right now? ► Graduation program: field staff who meet regularly with participating families share successes both big and small—progress that proves our clients’ hard work and dedication are changing their circumstances. ► Digital innovation: the ChatGPT pilot for smallholder farmers in Malawi has generated immense excitement around the replication of this digital tool in other countries. 101 N. Wacker Drive, Suiteand 1150,optimism Chicago, IL 60606 4 T 800.793.9455 W opportunity.org ► Farmer Support Agents: FSAs continue their outreach and support to neighboring farmers, sharing information and resources that are key to productive smallholder farming and community’s stability.