World Improving the Performance of Community-Managed Revolving Loan Funds Through Mobile Technology

Transcription

1 Report No: ACS10221 World Improving the Performance of Community-Managed Revolving Loan Funds Through Mobile Technology September 24, 2014 GGODR OTHER Document of the World Bank

2 Standard Disclaimer: This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Copyright Statement: The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA, telephone , fax , All other queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, fax , pubrights@worldbank.org.

3 Implementation Completion Report Improving the Performance of Community-managed Revolving Loan Funds Through Mobile Technology (P149180) Innovation Rationale One of poverty reduction programs in Indonesia (PNPM Urban) includes productive microloan for poor households through community-managed revolving loan funds (RLF). As of May 2014, in the World Bank funded project area, there are around 6,500 urban-wards with Financial Management Unit called Unit Pengelola Keuangan (UPK) operating Revolving Loan Fund (RLF), providing services to more than 445,000 borrower groups (Kelompok Swadaya Masyarakat - KSM), with an estimated outreach of more than 2.2 million individual borrowers. The RLF activity faces the following challenges: Inadequate capacity of UPK in management of funds leading to poor performance of the RLF portfolio as indicated by high balance of non-performing loans and inadequate accounting and financial reporting Lack of accountability and transparency leading to some cases of misuse of fund UPK staff do not have regular communication with KSM groups that contributes to low commitment savings and low awareness among KSM members about group liability High turnover of UPK staff due to administrative burden and low incentive UPK staffs spend inordinate amounts of time for a lot of tasks, such as copying information stored in paper records and collecting loan repayments, rather than on more value-added tasks such as signing up new clients, providing training on RLF scheme, promote savings, and disseminate information on the RLF program to the communities. The challenges faced by RLF activity above were captured during implementation support review. This is supported by information in PNPM Urban database, there were about 60% of UPKs have non-performing loan in excess of 20% of their portfolio in August In a report prepared by Micro-Credit Ratings International Limited, PNPM Mandiri: Consolidated Assessment of UPK RLF in Indonesia, it is stated that the motivation of UPK staff is low due to heavy workload and little incentives. The report also advises that UPK needs capacity building, especially in dealing with non-performing loans. Aims Using funds provided by the World Bank through FY 14 Innovation Challenge, a pilot project was implemented to improve performance of the RLF activity in the piloted cities. The intention was to improve UPKs management, transparency, and accountability, by (i) introducing basic computer skills at UPKs, (ii), using FrontlineSMS application to help UPK communicate with KSMs, and (iii) using a bookkeeping application software to help UPK administration. The original idea was to use combination of FrontlineSMS and mobile money services to assist UPKs in performing their tasks related to RLF monitoring and banking transactions. FrontlineSMS, a free source application, enables users to manage and receive mobile payments, support automated confirmation messages and client queries on loan/account balances, facilitate reminders on overdue payments, and keep track on banking transactions. Mobile money services will make it possible for borrower groups to repay installments using mobile phone without requiring a bank account and internet connection. To complement the system, a bookkeeping application would be developed in

4 formats similar to that of current paper-based bookkeeping. Government support The Bank has been providing assistance for more than a decade to the Government of Indonesia (GOI) for PNPM Urban. The Implementing Agency, Ministry of Public Works, is aware of weaknesses noted in implementation support mission reports and project audit reports. Therefore, they are very supportive with this pilot project to help community groups in their administration. Pilot cities/districts were decided based on several criteria agreed in consultation with the Government prior to implementation. The Government also wanted to capture the knowledge within the project through capacity building for the PNPM project consultants in pilot area, an idea fully supported by the Bank. This created the opportunity to continue with possible replication in other project area with Government s own resources, once the pilot was successful. Early Lessons in Implementation The implementation started late in April 2014, due to difficulties in findings an individual consultant who could develop the system. After recruiting IT and Training consultants, the Bank team started by introducing the concept to PNPM project team at provincial and city/district level of pilot areas. This was followed by meetings with representatives of community groups to get their feedback as ultimate user of the product. The team also met with commercial bank to assess further about mobile money services. Based on the discussion and feedback from the field, the team decided to make some changes with the design. The proposal basically consists of two main components: (1) using FrontlineSMS and linked with community groups banking transactions, and (2) developing bookkeeping application for community groups. It was expected that the bookkeeping application would be linked to the banking transactions generated from FrontlineSMS application, hence the bank transaction data will be fed directly to the bookkeeping application. After first visit to the pilot areas and dialogs with community groups and commercial bank, we realized that it was difficult to implement the first component due to the following reasons: (a) existing SMS banking service that allowed borrower groups (KSM) transfer to community groups account for loan repayments without KSM having bank account in that particular commercial bank required UPK to open bank account in that commercial bank therefore limiting involvement of commercial banks. (b) The commercial bank described above only has cooperation with one cellular service provider, therefore limiting cellular service providers. It did not seem to be practical to ask the community to change their cellular service providers and banks, especially when considering to scaling up the innovation throughout the country. From market share percentage, this could mean that up to 60% of communities need to switch provider. (c) Many KSM members were very traditional and objected to the idea of having bank transactions without paper trail. Through this innovation, it was proposed to help UPK in collecting loan repayment from KSMs. Agents deployed by commercial bank were expected to act as fund collectors in remote areas and then deposit the amount to the nearest bank branch (e.g. at sub-district level). Afterwards, KSM group could have checked their balance through their cellphone and transferred the loan repayment to UPK account using SMS banking, where UPK would have received the information through FrontlineSMS application in their computers. Although all transactions were expected to be recorded by the bank and UPK, KSM members would only have text messages as proof of transfer.

5 (d) The Bank team could not assure that KSM group would continue to have cellphones. Community groups advised that sometimes members sold their phones when they needed money for other urgent needs. Therefore the first component was revised where the FrontlineSMS would only be used for UPK to send loan information to KSM groups, such as repayments dates, amount due, etc. The Bank team is still working on the possibility to use FrontlineSMS for KSM groups where they can check their loan balance by sending text message to UPK database and receive automatic response from the database. Progress so far Two areas located in East Java were selected for piloting, i.e. Blitar area (covering city and district) and Sidoarjo district. Those areas were selected based on the following criteria: Areas with moderate RLF performance history UPK familiarity with and easy access to computer, and Support from the local governments. The pilot has delivered Training of Trainers for 42 PNPM Urban project consultants and community facilitators, and user training for 80 UPK staff on using bookkeeping and FrontlineSMS application. Training of Trainers was held in Surabaya on June 4-7, This was followed by Training of Users for UPK from Blitar city and district on June 9-11, 2014, and UPK from Sidoarjo district on June 11-13, As the bookkeeping application was not completed yet, the trainings were conducted using dummy application. Interface and data flows were ready but data could not be stored. Nevertheless, the project consultants and UPK staff were very enthusiastic and looked forward to the full product. While the bookkeeping application is still in development stage, the three pilot trainings that have been held in East Java served as a try out and provided great insights into the actual use of the software. Much constructive feedbacks have been received for improvement and further development of the software. The training will be followed-up with rolling out the bookkeeping and FrontlineSMS applications at urban-ward level after the application is completed. The following training modules were specially developed and used for this pilot project: Trainer s Guide: UPK Bookkeeping Software and FrontlineSMS User Manual: Computer for Beginners User Manual: UPK Bookkeeping Software User Manual: FrontlineSMS With its highly technical content, training on UPK bookkeeping software and FrontlineSMS featured a lot of simulation exercises, where participants practiced directly on their computers and simulated through a set of scenarios to ensure good comprehension of the topics. User Manual: Computer for Beginners was developed later as the team found many UPK staff were not familiar with computers. Disbursement Total expenditure as of June 30, 2014 was USD 54,683 or represents 55% of allocated fund. Many factors contributed for low disbursement, as follow: - Undisbursed consulting services cost, which represents 22% of allocated fund, due to the following: (a) individual consultants hired only worked for 65 days instead of 90 days planned due to delay in hiring, and (b) cost saving since the Bank team are utilizing from

6 available resources from existing project (PNPM Urban project consultants) for some of the activities, e.g. selection of pilot areas, facilitating with local governments, and training for UPK staff. - As the application was not fully running before the close of the project, end line survey and the dissemination workshop activities were not carried out. This category represents 16% of total allocated fund. - Undisbursed/lower travel costs, which represent 5% of allocated fund, due to the following reasons: (a) budget estimated was for three cities/districts in different provinces, the pilot was only done in two cities in the same province (East Java), and (b) User Training was done within the same week and in cities nearby, hence reduced airfares. - Lower costs for goods procured (GSM modem devices) as one area for piloting was cancelled (from three to two cities/districts) due to the Government s request. There was also cost efficiency since the goods were procured in bulk. This represents 2% of allocated fund. Next Step The bookkeeping application is still in development stage. The IT consultant is still working on the data storage codes for bookkeeping, financial report and KSM database. It will be followed by link the application with Frontline SMS for communication purposes. It is expected to be completed by October After full product is completed, the team will start with full deployment in 40 UPK that have been trained. Support will be provided to UPK by PNPM Project consultant to ensure integrity and accuracy of the data. This will be followed by data validation by PNPM project consultants before full migration of bookkeeping. The main goal of the innovation is to improve performance of the RLF activity in the piloted cities by improving its management, transparency, and accountability. Progress towards this goal will be measured by lowering the percentage of non-performing loans in UPK, and timelines in financial records and reporting. Since the pilot project is closed, this will be monitored with support of the TTL of PNPM Urban and the Government through PNPM Urban project monitoring system. This can be done through existing mechanism of assessment of community groups financial management performance indicators reported on monthly basis by communities facilitators. This will be followed by handing over the application to the Government for possible replication in other areas. The project consultants trained through TOT have expressed their willingness in assisting with trainings to user in other locations. Scaling Up The idea of using mobile technology and software application can be adopted anywhere for similar projects (micro credit with CDD-type of project). It offers simplification of sharing information that contributes to project monitoring and bookkeeping process that will help community groups with limited accounting skills. Even without having fully running application, the Government, the project consultants and UPK involved for piloting are very keen on the idea as they see this innovation helping them with some of their issues. The application is designed by individual consultant made from scratch using local language, hence is easier to operate for UPK. The application interface is familiar to UPK as it is very similar to manual forms. Rather than manually writing in 14 separate books and reporting

7 forms, UPK only needs to do one time input per transaction that will generate those different books and reports by using this application. Lessons Learned The pilot benefited from Government s full support. PNPM Urban project consultants that already trained will be able to extend the knowledge to the communities. Although the grant is closed, the innovation continues to receive their support. The Bank team also benefited with full support from the TTL and task team of PNPM Urban who facilitated the initial dialog with the Government. In terms of designing the application, the team struggled with the timing. Two months is a very short period to develop an IT application from scratch and conduct full cycle of testing to ensure the application is running well. Lack of experience in developing IT product is also main contributor of this problem. At the later stage, the team realized it would be better to separate tasks between application design and system programmer. The IT consultant took some time to understand the flow of bookkeeping before translated them to system codes. If we separated the work of designing the application and building the system, these tasks could have been done simultaneously and completed sooner. Introducing IT product to communities is another challenge. The team needed to change the project design to adapt with their needs. It is important to ensure that they will use the product. Listening to clients is the key. In the past, accounting software was introduced but they were not interested as it was difficult to operate, the application was not in local language, and it used accounting terms which they do not understand. To ensure the transfer knowledge has been done in a sustainable way, it is important to design trainings where the participants can demonstrate that they have the capability to mentor and assist others beyond the project time. The modules need to be completed with troubleshooting to ensure they would be able to resolve any issues when operating the application.