by Edward Mishaud

28 May 2003

Nairobi, Kenya: A little seed money goes a long way to plant small businesses in Kenya. It can also change the lives of many new entrepreneurs.

Through the work of United Nations Volunteer Nurul Huda Chowdhury, more than 3,000 Kenyans have launched small income-generating activities through the Trickle-Up Programme, a U.S.-based initiative that provides US$100 grants to poor people to start their own businesses.

In the coastal city of Mombassa, for example, two sex workers received a grant to start up their own produce stand where they sell fresh fruit and vegetables. On a field visit to monitor the women's activities, Nurul was quite impressed with what he saw.

"Prior to the [Trickle-Up] project, the woman worked as sex workers. Now they support themselves in dignity and haven't looked back to their previous life," he says.

With 24 years of work experience in his native Bangladesh, Nurul moved to Nairobi in 2001 where he started working as a UN Volunteer microfinance specialist through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) initiative.

Nurul was instrumental in establishing Trickle-Up in Kenya by designing a manual to implement the microcredit scheme. The 120-page document contains the tools needed to successfully launch a business. In addition, he visited the businesses to monitor their progress and offer advice.

The UN Volunteer also works extensively with Kenya's 57 village banks located in the remotest areas of the East African country. To improve the operation of the banks, he designed a harmonized and simplified evaluation process for monitoring, inspecting and auditing the financial activities of the facilities. He says the village banks are important structures in rural communities as they provide credit services to people who normally would not have access.

In addition, Nurul trains credit officers and bank branch managers on evaluating, monitoring and auditing techniques. So far 100 officers and other staff members have benefited from his knowledge.

His third initiative in Kenya was with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/ World Bank MicroStart initiative. Under this pilot project, five microfinance institutions (MFIs) -- two women's organizations, one in gender and two dealing with entrepreneurship and business management -- received funds to improve their operations and ability to offer credit to people living in rural areas.

With MicroStart he monitored, followed-up and supervised the activities of the MFIs and ensured the funds granted to the institutions were used accordingly. He says that given the success of the MicroStart pilot project, plans are under way to expand it throughout Kenya starting in 2004.

"I'm proud of being involved with the task of providing technical and advisory services to the poor segment of Kenya's population," he says. "Even though I had a good job in Bangladesh, I wanted to share my experience and contribute to the development process in the developing countries. I could help the most by being a volunteer and this spirit motivated me to join as a TICAD UN Volunteer."

TICAD was launched in 1993 through the joint effort of the Government of Japan, the United Nations and the Global Coalition for Africa. The World Bank joined the TICAD co-organizers in 2000. The primary functions of TICAD are: promotion of high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and their partners, and mobilization of support for Africa's own development efforts.