Sustainable Microfinance - Balanced Scorecard's added value for ...

In 2007, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, under the management of State
Secretary Frank Heemskerk, appointed The Council for Microfinance. One of the
members of this Council is Her Royal Highness Princess Maxima of the Netherlands,
who was a member of the UN advisory committee during the year of microcredit
2005.
In October 2007, the Council presented an advisory report to State Secretary
Heemskerk. This report states that microfinance has big potential as stimulator of
entrepreneurship. According to the Council this will have a positive influence on:
1. Economic growth;
2. Integration of disadvantaged groups;
3. Reducing unemployment.
Further the report states that local microfinance initiatives, of which already many
were presents at the time the report was presented, are the source of power when it
comes to using the potential. In order to strengthen these initiatives and to increase
the sustainability, the Council proposed an approach where the local initiatives, which
have direct access to the target groups, are supported by a franchise system. This
enables them to use coaching networks and to have access to simple financings
models (Council for microfinance, 2007).
Another statement from the report is that the Netherlands, compared to other
countries in Europe, was behind with stimulating micro entrepreneurs. A couple of
countries (in particular France, Spain, England and Finland) were already using
microfinance for several years. The Council stated that the Netherlands could learn
the following lessons from those experiences:
1. Local microfinance initiatives, carried out by people that stand in the middle of
local communities are of indispensable importance;
2. Coaching, both before and at the beginning of the lifetime of the business, is
next to financing very important;
3. Scale is important for sustainability. National coordination under one central
brand can be the key to success;
Elmar Hoogendoorn 4
Sustainable Microfinance