Global Brigades Inc.

Approved to post Kiva loans from: Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras

Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Partner Description:

Global Brigades is an international non-profit that uniquely implements a holistic model to meet a community’s healthcare, water and sanitation, and economic development goals. Over the next eight years, Global Brigades is committed to empower 100 rural Central American communities, that represent about 65,000 persons, to permanently rise out of extreme poverty. The ambitious approach aligns to 6 UN Sustainable Development goals, with the ultimate goal to create a blueprint to end rural poverty in Central America.

Global Brigades' economic development program is focused on achieving two goals 1) community financial inclusion through equal access to sufficient, affordable credit with a trained Community Bank in place and 2) to increase and diversify family income. These goals are supported through the development of community-owned banks, financial literacy training, business consulting and micro loans.

A unique lending approach:

Through Kiva loans, families in Global Brigades' Panamanian and Nicaraguan partner communities are able to access financial resources to invest in small businesses to reduce financial risk and increase their income. In Panama, Global Brigades mainly works with women business owners, often in rural and indigenous communities. In Nicaragua, Global Brigades works with mostly women business owners, all located in rural areas. Kiva funding is one of the most important sources that capitalize the community-owned bank (Cajas Rurales) for these loans for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Repayment Performance on Kiva

	This Lending Partner	All Kiva Partners
Start Date On Kiva	Apr 9, 2018	Oct 12, 2005
Total Loans	$1,383,235	$1,971,169,190
Amount of raised Inactive loans	$0	$536,105
Number of raised Inactive loans	0	280
Amount of Paying Back Loans	$638,310	$161,586,925
Number of Paying Back Loans	226	189,718
Amount of Ended Loans	$744,925	$1,778,439,615
Number of Ended Loans	332	2,385,454
Delinquency Rate	9.94%	12.15%
Amount in Arrears	$35,003	$12,086,832
Outstanding Portfolio	$312,479	$99,463,978
Number of Loans Delinquent	86	74,101
Default Rate	0.00%	1.83%
Amount of Ended Loans Defaulted	$0	$32,495,440
Number of Ended Loans Defaulted	0	85,192
Currency Exchange Loss Rate	0.00%	0.49%
Amount of Currency Exchange Loss	$0	$12,087,286
Refund Rate	2.46%	0.55%
Amount of Refunded Loans	$34,000	$10,837,725
Number of Refunded Loans	13	9,606

Loan Characteristics On Kiva

	This Lending Partner	All Kiva Partners
Loans to Women Borrowers	62.29%	78.27%
Average Loan Size	$2,109	$392
Average Individual Loan Size	$2,380	$589
Average Group Loan Size	$4,324	$1,896
Average number of borrowers per group	4.4	8.3
Average GDP per capita (PPP) in local country	$20,300	$5,597
Average Loan Size / GDP per capita (PPP)	10.39%	7.01%
Average Time to Fund a Loan	9.02 days	8.96 days
Average Dollars Raised Per Day Per Loan	$233.72	$43.79
Average Loan Term	21.81 months	11.47 months

Journaling Performance on Kiva

	This Lending Partner	All Kiva Partners
Total Journals	383	1,185,427
Journaling Rate	74.93%	42.20%
Average Number of Comments Per Journal	0.00	0.02
Average Number of Recommendations Per Journal	0.00	0.57

Borrowing Cost Comparison (based on 2014 data)

	This Lending Partner	Median for MFI's in Country	All Kiva Partners
Average Cost to Borrower	36% APR	N/A	26.71% PY
Profitability (return on assets)	24.96%	N/A	-3.03%
Average Loan Size (% of per capita income)	N/A	N/A	0.00%

Country Fast Facts

Country:: Panama
Capital:: Panama City
Official Language:: Spanish (official), indigenous languages
Population:: 3,608,431
Avg Annual Income:: $20,300
Labor Force:: agriculture: 17%, industry: 18.6%, services: 64.4%
Population Below Poverty Line:: 25.80%
Literacy Rate:: 95%
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1000):: 10.7 deaths
Life Expectancy:: 62.16 years