Strengths, Weaknesses and Evolution of the Peace Corps' 11-Year ...

1. Introduction
1.1 History of the Programa de Ahorro y Crédito (PAC)
In 1999, Peace Corps Ecuador adapted the community banking program implemented by
CARE Niger called Mata Masu Dubara (Women Moving Ahead). The community banking
manual from Niger was translated from French to Spanish, and seven Peace Corps volunteers and
their counterparts as well as three Ecuadorian national volunteers were trained on the methodology.
After eight months, they had formed ten banks with $2,500 in accumulated savings.
After the pilot, Peace Corps began conducting at least two trainings per year with Peace Corps
volunteers and their counterparts. The goal of PAC is to create self-managed, sustainable
community banks where members can save, access loans, generate interest on their savings and
engage in income-generation and community development activities.
Initially, Peace Corps volunteers from the four program areas of agriculture, environment, health
and youth were involved in PAC. More recently, the agriculture program volunteers have been most
involved in part because of the funding source and the fact that the manager of the agriculture
program has also managed PAC. PAC helps to achieve one of the goals of the Peace Corps
agriculture program: promoting agro-business.
The PAC intends to reach rural communities and low-income populations. Peace Corps estimates
that approximately 80% of the participants in the program are women. Peace Corps believes
the program functions better with women because they invest in their families.
Currently there are 200 Peace Corps volunteers in Ecuador, approximately 30 of whom are working
with community banks. Given the withdrawal of Peace Corps volunteers from communities after
their two-year service and the spontaneous spread of community banks, it has been difficult for
Peace Corps to maintain contact with community banks. In addition, Peace Corps does not have a
formal monitoring system in place for the PAC.
However, given the contacts it has in the communities, Peace Corps estimates there are
approximately 50,000 members in 1,500 community banks in Ecuador. The majority of the
community banks are located in the coastal regions, including Chone, Bahía de Caráquez and Santa
Elena and in Loja in the Andes. Peace Corps suspects that there are fewer community banks in the
Andes because of a more risk-averse culture, fewer appropriate activities for community banking
such as agriculture in the Andes vs. commerce on the coast, and the lesser likelihood of the
populations in the Andes to go out at night due to the cold weather.
In addition to the PAC in Ecuador, Peace Corps Ecuador has conducted PAC trainings with
Peace Corps Dominican Republic where there are currently 200 community banks;
Peace Corps Nicaragua where there are 400 community banks;
Peace Corps Peru; and
one organization in Mexico.
Strengths, Weaknesses and Evolution of the Peace Corps’ 11-Yearl-Old Savings Group Program in Ecuador P a g e | 1