The Three Pillars

Pillar 1 - Functional and financial literacy

To succeed in a market economy you need to be able to read, write and understand how money works. Good Return supports the borrowers of our local microfinance partners to gain essential literacy, numeracy and money management skills.

We develop short-term training courses that focus on crucial skills such as:

• Basic literacy and numeracy
• Household finance: budgets and cash flows
• Introduction to savings and credit
• Understanding interest rates
• Debt management
• Financial management for business planning

Pillar 2 - Skills for sustainable livelihoods

Converting loans to income requires a unique set of skills. Good Return works with local training providers to help the poor to develop vocational and business skills, knowledge and experience needed to improve their livelihoods in areas including:

• Small business management, for example, market assessment, business plans, managing finances and marketing
• Vocational skills such as sewing, agriculture, livestock, hairdressing, mechanical repair and handicrafts

Pillar 3 - Access to appropriate financial services

Good Return works closely with its microfinance field partners, giving advice and formal training to staff, to ensure that they can deliver the best possible service to their clients. By helping our local partners to improve their products and services, we can be confident that the poor are getting the best service available.

We provide training in:

• business planning
• product development and pro-poor services
• risk management
• delinquency management
• social performance management