The microfinance component of the STAR programme, funded by IDRC and PSO, is based on the view that increased ICT capacity among microfinance organisations will lead to improved and increased access to up-to-date and relevant information for both the organisations and the clients, as well as to increased knowledge-sharing among the different stakeholders.

Hivos has received support from IDRC for the second phase of the microfinance component of the STAR programme, entitled: Open MIS & Microfinance. This phase consists of the implementation of a research programme based on the following question:

What is the impact of introducing an automated MIS within a Microfinance Institution (MFI) or Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation (SACCO) on the people (staff and management) and business processes of the organisation?

The research is action-research and evidence/data will be collected through the implementation of three interconnected activities:

1. Deployment of an open source MIS (Mifos Vanilla) within two or three MFIs
2. Development of an offline module (Mifos Light) and pilot among two MFIs. Logica from Holland is involved in this activity.
3. Capacity building for all invloved partners
   

The research will have three practical outputs:

• Guidelines for the implementation Mifos
• An assessment tool for the automation for MFIs
• A research paper
  

The results will be distributed online as well as offline through three national events in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

National Workshop Uganda
The national workshop in Uganda took place in June 2007 in Kampala.
The workshop is entitles: Needs identification for MFIs & Saccos
In this section you will find the workshop report.

National Workshop Tanzania
The national workshop in Tanzania took place on June 2007 in  Dar es Salaam.
The workshop is entitled: ICT trends in Microfinance.
The main focus was on MIS, identification of needs and trends in the microfinance sector. The one day workshop was a success with 65 participants showing a keen interest.

First Regional Workshop
FiThe first regional workshop entitled: "Microfinance and ICTs "
The workshop took place in Nairobi, Kenya, September 2006. The programme, workshop report and presentations are uploaded in this section.

Baseline Findings
At the start the STAR programme conducted a baseline study among the participating microfinance organisations to find out about the current use of ICTs. The findings are published here. Both for the questionnaire findings as well as the face-to-face interview findings.