Haitian Emergency Liquidity Program

Grant announced: July 7, 2010
Grant amount: $250,000
Key Partners: Inter-American Development Bank, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation,Calvert Foundation,and Giving Assets,Inc.

Please click here to download the HELP Fact Sheet.

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund contributed $250,000 to launch the Haitian Emergency Liquidity Program (HELP), designed to inject needed liquidity into key microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Haiti.


HELP assists Haitians like this woman who runs who her own
small business (Photo courtesy of: http://www.usaid.gov/)

Haitian microfinance institutions had approximately 130,000 borrowers at the end of 2009, with nearly $62 million in loans unpaid. About one quarter of these clients were affected by the earthquake with loans ranging from $180 to $1,400. HELP uses funding from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and key partners to buy up outstanding loans from microfinance institutions. These institutions can then use this cash to maintain their lending operations and preserve their capital base. The program will allow microlenders to restructure loans and offer borrowers extended repayment terms.

Transforming Lives and Livelihoods
This catalytic grant from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund will:

  • Provide key recovery grants to major Haitian microfinance institutions, which allows them to remain operational, potentially aiding up to 50,000 borrowers.
  • Stop the contraction of lending by microfinance institutions by buying up the loans affected by the earthquake, providing funds to these institutions, and allowing them to preserve their capital base.
  • Support businesswomen and rural borrowers who depend on these microloans to survive.


A rural borrower displays products sold at her small business
(Photo courtesy of: http://www.wholeplanetfoundation.org/)

About HELP
The Haitian Emergency Liquidity Program (HELP) is an initiative created by the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, and various key partners to ensure the availability of microcredit in Haiti. The project had an initial budget of $2MM, which represented 12.5% of the entire capital in the microfinance institution sector in Haiti.