The Good Update - December 2024
The Good Return strategy planning meeting in Cambodia
Dear Good Return Supporters,
In social purpose organisations like Good Return, the Monitoring and Evaluation teams are the behind-the-scenes heroes. Anvesha, based in Delhi, and Sovann from Cambodia have spent the year understanding our programs and our impact. They found that 89% of the 4,425 people trained in financial literacy improved their financial capability, and 97% of 1,620 financial institution staff rated our social inclusion course highly. They also calculated that $5M in loans from our impact investment fund supported jobs and income for 4,100 people. Read more highlights from the year in our new Annual Report.
Looking back on the year, a standout moment was our October strategy meeting in Siem Reap, where many Good Return team members met in person for the first time. After the initial excitement of greeting each other, we settled into an important three days understanding the key issues in each country where we work. Our new strategy will prioritise country needs to tackle gender imbalances in finance, and promote financial inclusion to address climate challenges.
We hope you all have a wonderful and restful end to the year. This festive season we’re encouraging our supporters to give the gift of confidence, helping women and their families to manage their money and plan ahead for life’s unexpected events.
Shane Nichols, CEO
The gift of confidence is vital after a challenging year
As we come towards the end of 2024, let’s acknowledge it’s been a big year of overwhelming issues.
At Good Return, we help vulnerable women and their families protect themselves from the things that can happen around them by learning to build a financial safety net. Women like Catherine from Solomon Islands (pictured), who has completed our training and is now President of her local savings group.
Our financial skills training can be the difference between surviving and thriving, teaching people how to take control of their money, make good financial decisions and save for what life might throw at them.
At an unpredictable time, you can give the gift of confidence and safety for a woman and her family.
Our Darwin team has doubled!
We were thrilled to welcome Siana Cork to the Good Return team in October, joining our Darwin colleague Cindy Mitchell. Cindy and Siana are working alongside program ambassador Natasha Short to build the Future Weavers movement - elevating extraordinary First Nations women entrepreneurs in regional, rural and remote communities.
Siana is a proud Gurindji woman who, after starting and running her own businesses, has dedicated her past few years to helping women in their entrepreneurship journey. Previous to this she was a financial capability worker in remote and urban Indigenous communities in Northern Territory where she championed issues of financial access and equality.
Siana is proud to call Vincent Lingiari her great great grandfather, who famously led the ‘Wave Hill walk-off’ in 1966 to demand fair pay and conditions for the Indigenous workers, and protection for Aboriginal women. Her great grandmother, Daisy Ruddick, was also a respected figure in Indigenous activism and a child of the stolen generation. “Daisy established the ‘Sunshine Club’ in Darwin as a protest to the social exclusions imposed at other local venues” says Siana. “They welcomed people from all cultural backgrounds - it was a vibrant hub during its time!”.
As she embarks on this new chapter at Good Return, Siana is excited to continue her focus on Indigenous empowerment and financial capability.
Mrs Chot has a plan in place
Mrs Chot runs a farm in Battambang, Cambodia. A year ago, Mrs Chot was at risk of having to sell her land, after taking on multiple loans from informal lenders.
Mrs Chot took part in Good Return's financial skills training and over the 8-week course, built her confidence to gain control of her money and understand her rights when it comes to borrowing. She was able to start saving, and also access a responsible loan from Good Return's local partner. She now has a flourishing farm, with vegetables, chickens and the latest addition of frogs. Even better, she is a trusted member of the local savings group and together they put money aside in case of emergencies.
We love sharing stories of learners like Mrs Chot, and she reflects the results we see from our financial skills training. When we speak to learners after the sessions, we find that 89% have improved their confidence and are putting their learnings into action.
Minister Conroy backs innovative financial solutions for regional development
Good Return and a key group of social purpose organisations have been working with the Australian government to look at the role of blended finance in international development. In a series of workshops this year, we spoke about innovative projects led by NGOs - development impact bonds, climate and carbon credit projects, microfinance, and impact investments - and the barriers preventing them from scaling these innovative solutions.
Good Return has seen positive outcomes from our own impact investment fund, which has leveraged a $1m investment from Australian investors to make $5m in responsible loans to women in agriculture in the Asia Pacific.
The Minister for International Development and the Pacific has recently announced an accelerator initiative that will help more NGOs unlock the potential of blended finance to achieve their mission and development goals. The $10 million accelerator will increase the scale and impact of initiatives that promote gender equality and climate resilience, with a particular focus on the Pacific. Read Minister Conroy’s announcement here.