Hungarian professionals’ visit to Spanish microfinance organization

Within the scope of the co-operation between the Spanish Microfinance Association and the Hungarian Microfinance Network a group of Hungarian professionals visited PINNAE Fundació in Barcelona, Spain to study its microcrediting, training and mentoring activities.

The Hungarian professionals led by Fejér Enterprise Agency visited the Spanish PINNAE Fundació in Barcelona. During the visit the participants had the opportunity to hear about a special programme called GENERA, which was created to provide support to people who became unemployed as a result of the economic crisis.

The purpose of the programme is to generate opportunities to people by promoting entrepreneurial spirit, fighting against unemployment and vulnerability, as well as facilitating self-employment. The players of the programme are:

- users (people who receive training, accompaniment and microcredit)
- prescribing entities (organizations that filter the users and refer them to the foundation)
- companies (that support the users within the framework of corporate social responsibility)
- volunteers (who stand by the users and provide them with advice)

GENERA provides training, personal or professional mentoring and microcredit to the target group. The maximum amount of this microcredit product is EUR 25,000, and it is granted for 48 months at an annual interest rate of 12%. It is important that no bank guarantee is requested, thus, it reaches a wider group of people than the normal banking products.

The social impact of the programme is also very important. The results of the programme are measured in four fields: social and labour inclusion, improvement in quality of life, labour generation and generation of local economy. The impact is measured by asking the users in the form of a predefined questionnaire. The answers are linked to impact indicators, which indicate today’s results and the evolution in time. The survey is made periodically – before, during and after the microcredit.
The Hungarian professionals had the opportunity to meet the representatives of private companies and some volunteers, who shared their personal experience and their motivation for participating in the programme. After this, they visited two microentrepreneurs, who received support from the foundation in the form of mentoring and microcredit.

The Hungarian professionals found the study trip very useful. A completely new aspect of giving assistance emphasizing the importance of social responsibility at both personal and community level was shown to them.

For further information about the GENERA Program please visit the following page of Gazdasági.TV: www.gazdasagi.tv/?page=view&id=38