The Good Update - April 2023 Newsletter
This year is a big one for Good Return as we celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are 20 years old in terms of our work in the field and the thousands of people we have helped. We are 20 years young when it comes to what we need to achieve next and the innovations we will use to get there. Many of our supporters have been with us since the early days, and I look forward to celebrating this milestone with you in the lead up to the official day on 10 September.
I was so thrilled to see My Money Tracker launch recently in the Philippines. This simple app designed for the local context helps entrepreneurs track their profits and expenses. It has been hugely popular in Cambodia and will be vital in helping more women build their businesses and livelihoods.
Shane Nichols, CEO
My Money Tracker app reaches business owners in the Philippines
After helping more than 50,000 microentrepreneurs in Cambodia, My Money Tracker has launched in the Philippines. The app makes it easy for microentrepreneurs to track their profits and expenses. The design integrates the different ways of savings in the Philippines, where it is common for people to have a bank account as well as a personal ‘piggy bank’ called Alkansiya.
Jona Joy Navarro was one of the first people to trial the app and provide feedback, so we could ensure it meets the needs of users. Jona Joy is a mother of three and, like most mothers, juggles many hats and responsibilities. She volunteers as her village-elected official and is the central contact for her local loan group. She is also a student through the Philippines government adult learning program and she runs her own business.
Jona’s business is focussed on pre-loved items such as clothes and toys, which she buys, restores and then resells. Jona was trained on the My Money Tracker app, which she has used since October 2022 to track the costs and takings of her businesses. Not only has the app helped her build her business management skills, but she has become better at keeping on top of her household expenses. The convenience and ease of the My Money Tracker app has simplified the life of this very busy microentrepreneur! Jona’s long term goal is to help her children go to university, and with a clearer vision in sight on the growth of her business, she knows this goal could be achieved.
My Money Tracker is delivered in partnership with the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) and with support from the Accenture Australia Foundation.
We interrupt this broadcast with an important message
At Good Return, we are always finding innovative ways to achieve our mission of financial inclusion and improved financial literacy for all.
The FIFA World Cup presented us with a unique opportunity to connect with a wider reach of participants in the Solomon Islands - where one third of people are ‘unbanked’ or not included in the formal banking system.
The World Cup is hugely popular in the Solomon Islands, and through our partnership with the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, we were able to take a number of advertising spots during the coverage. Our ads featured local actors and shared information about savings, money mindfulness, fraud and borrowing to the watching audiences.
This project is part of a wider financial inclusion and education program that strives to achieve the Solomon Islands Government’s bold financial inclusion targets set in 2021. Good Return is thrilled to be partnering with the Central Bank of Solomon Islands and their local implementing partners to help meet these targets.
Watch one of the videos below.
"None of my family members can sit still for very long"
Our team recently sat down with Good Return borrower Mrs Sochea to learn about her life and business.
Mrs. Sochea (23) lives in Siem Reap with her husband, child and in-laws. While taking care of her 2 year-old son, Sochea also runs her small business - a grocery shop at the front of her house.
With the store doing well, Sochea found she had some spare hours in the day to run a side hustle mending and repairing second hand clothes to resell at the market. But she required a loan to get her idea off the ground.
"As a newly married woman I did not have much experience in applying for loans or talking to financial services", explains Mrs Sochea. "My relatives actually introduced me to Chamroeun microfinance and I was able to apply for a loan with little difficulty". Mrs Sochea has since repaid that loan and her business goals are growing. A new factory is being built near her house, and she will seek a further loan to start a third business, making and selling desserts to the factory workers.
“None of my family members can really sit still and we are always looking for opportunities to expand our business and improving our family living. Thank you for making this happen!"
Impact Investment fund proves the right model to help rural women
Our recent report on our Impact Investment program shows the impact goes far beyond business growth and employment. Through the program and our local partners, we are developing sustainable farming techniques, building the skills of local farmers and breaking barriers for women to be part of the agricultural economy.
Good Return’s award-winning Impact Investing program identifies and supports small to medium sized businesses in agricultural value chains that play a vital role in bringing jobs and income to people living in poverty, especially women. Between January 2021 and December 2022, the Fund has provided loans to 433 SMEs in Indonesia and Cambodia, with 88% of the loans going to women. The loans are worth $3.75m, and have helped create jobs for 3,467 people.
In the last reporting period, we highlighted our Indonesian partner Crowde’s work to build two plant nurseries in chilli growing regions. These nurseries are helping farmers who are battling with the changing climate damaging their crops. The nurseries protect young seedlings, so that when farmers transfer the seedlings to their land the crops are more resilient to different weather patterns and pests. Read the full report here.