Macquarie and Good Return

Together we will empower women, reduce poverty and create a fairer system for everyone. We want to celebrate our partnership and highlight Macquarie Foundation’s role in changing the lives of the excluded and build meaningful connections between our communities.

This online hub is where the Macquarie team can access your Good Return impact reports, stories and case studies and content for your channels.

Key statistics from the report

As at 31 December 2022: 

  • 443 SMEs in aquaculture, chilli, maize, rice, cucumber, tomato and cabbage farming accessed AUD $3.75 million in loans from Chamroeun and CROWDE using Good Return's loan guarantees. 

  • 388 (88%) of these loans were disbursed to women. 

  • These support jobs and income for 3,467 people.

Stories of impact

Mrs Siti Hasanah farms chillies, cucumbers and tomatoes in Indonesia. With the support of GBF Partners Good Return and CROWDE, she has doubled her land to 2000 metres square, enjoying greater access to market opportunities, capital, digitalisation initiatives and green technology.

This has allowed her to expand the breadth of produce she grows, to employ people in her community who had previously been unemployed and to pay her children's school fees.

Mrs Siti Hasanah shares her story in this video, edited by Aden. Aden is differently abled and has been supported by Good Return to offer his services shooting and editing footage of women owned businesses in Indonesia.

Protecting seedlings, protecting farmers

Good Return’s local partner CROWDE ensures access to finance is also balanced with access to technical training and capability building for farmers. CROWDE knows that one of the biggest challenges facing farmers is the quality of seedlings and protecting seedlings in their early growing days from weather.

To help this problem, CROWDE has built three nurseries for raising seedlings for planting purposes in West Java. The nurseries are designed to suit the local climate, so the two structures in Tasikmalaya and Bogor have higher ceilings than the third structure in Sukabumi, where it is cooler. The closed-system nurseries protect the seedlings from climate factors such as rain and excessive sunlight and against unwanted pests and pathogens. After growing for 14 days, the seedlings are taken by CROWDE’s loan recipients for planting on their own land. 

This reduces the chances of crop failure tremendously at the early age of plantation. The nurseries also support local employment - there are 4 full time employees and 10 part time ones hired during plantation season in the Tasikmalaya nursery.