WHO’S WHO IN MICROFINANCE: Aloysius P. Fernandez

Aloysius P. Fernandez is the Executive Director, as well as board member, of Bangalore-based Mysore Resettlement and Development Agency (MYRADA), a non-governmental organization (NGO) in India which provides training programs for rural development in the Indian states of Karnataka, Andhrapradesh, and Tamil Nadu as well as staff support to 6 other states and promotion of the Self-help Affinity Strategy in Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. MYRADA also publishes on various topics such as watershed development—projects which pursue better management of natural water resources—and NGO-government collaboration.

MYRADA was founded in 1968 and was dedicated entirely to the resettlement of Tibetan refugees. However, since 1979, MYRADA has been involved with various aspects of rural development. As of September 2005, MYRADA was working with over nine thousand Self-help Affinity Groups (SAGs or SHGs) and nearly 800 watershed institutions, in addition to hundreds of other projects. SAGs, simply, are unions of individuals, usually connected by geographical location, which organize to take advantage of the financial services that can be utilized from their collective assets. MYRADA is affiliated with Banking with the Poor (BWTP), a network of organizations promoting SAG-commercial bank linkages which provide increased access to credit for the poor, according to the MIX Market, the microfinance information clearinghouse. MicroCapital has reported recently on both MYRADA and BWTP.

Additionally, Mr. Fernandez serves as the Chairman of Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services, a microfinance institution (MFI) based in Mysore with total assets in 2007 of more than USD 7.6 million and a loan portfolio of USD 7.5 million, as reported by the MIX Market. The idea for Sanghamithra, which traces its development to the mid 1990s, was born when employees of MYRADA were searching for more efficient ways to link financial institutions and SAGs and in October of 2000 the first loan check was given to an SAG borrower. Sanghamithra has been operationally self-sufficient for at least the past four years and reports a return on assests (ROA) of 0.21 percent and debt to equity ratio of 455 percent. SAG-bank linkages refer to banks which directly lend to SAGs. This is made possible by the power of the group’s assets and their ability to govern one another thereby ensuring that loans are returned on a timely basis, which benefits both the individual and the group in need of financial services.

Mr. Fernandez is also a Governing Board Member for Janaagraha, an NGO working towards better public governance and increased democratic participation in India since December 2001.

Mr. Fernandez received an MA and a Diploma in Sociology and Research Methodology from the University of Louvain in Belgium in addition to a Diploma in Development Studies from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

He is well-known for his work with MYRADA on developing the practice of SAG-bank linkages in the late 1980s and early 1990s, thereby also helping to define the proper role that NGOs can play in microfinance. From his own account, the pilot program that MYRADA initiated with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1987 was the impetus to a change in rules in 1991 which allowed for SAG-bank linkages.

In 2000, Mr. Fernandez received two prestigious awards for his work in India. The Padma Shri award for distinguished service was given to him on January 26th by President Narayanan on India’s 50th Republic Day. Later that year, Caritas India, in which Mr. Fernandez served as the Deputy Director from 1971 through 1975, bestowed upon him the inaugural Caritas India Jubilee award for his “involvement in the Bangladesh Refugee Operations in 1971 and for his contribution towards professionalizing the organization,” according to the MYRADA Web site. Caritas India is affiliated with Caritas Internationalis and conducts on-going development projects as well as relief operations following major disasters.

It is significant to note that although the acronym “SHG” is a common acronym for self-help groups, Mr. Fernandez distinguishes between self-help affinity groups and self-help groups remarking “that SHGs are formed from outside the group, with rules stipulated by people outside the group; affinity groups are built on trust from within, and the rules are developed internally” in an interview with IndianNGOs.com.

MYRADA can be contacted by e-mail at myrada@vsnl.com or by phone at +91 802 535 2028.

Sanghamithra can be contacted by e-mail at info@sanghamithra.org or by phone at +91 802 535 3166.

By Anthony Busch, Research Assistant

Additional Resources:

Aloysius P. Fernandez, NGOs in South Asia: People’s participation and partnership, World Development, Volume 15, Supplement 1, Autumn 1987, Pages 39-49, available via ScienceDirect

Banking With the Poor: Home, MIX Market

Caritas Internationalis: Home

IndianNGOs.com: Home, Interview

Janaagraha: Home, Governance Structure

MicroCapital article, September 13, 2007: “Birla Sun Life to Offer Microinsurance Products to Indian’s Rural Community”

MicroCapital article, September 11, 2007: “Citigroup, the Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC), and the Banking with the Poor Network (BWTP) Oversee Program to Advance Microfinance Partnerships in Indonesia”

MIX Market: Home

Mysore Resettlement and Development Agency: Home, Recognition, Publications

Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services: Home, Management, Historical Perspective, MIX Market