Sponsor

Malena Ruth
AMF president
malena@1amf.org
(310) 498-2752.

Overview

The African Millennium Foundation (AMF) seeks the development of software that will allow microcredit/microfinance organizations to share and interactively exchange information that will help poor women in Africa create and maintain small businesses.

Initial work on MicroNet – a database system that connects nongovernmental organizations to funding opportunities – has been done by USC Viterbi School of Engineering and USC Marshall School of Business students for several semesters. We are now ready for the development of a prototype that will allow the launching of the following:

• AMF Portal - The AMF is a portal where news, educational materials, discussions, articles and links can be published, about the AMF and regarding relevant information for the micro credit community. The new portal should replace the current AMF Website ( www.1amf.org ).
• MicroNet Donation Site - The MicroNet Donation Site is a site where non-profits can register projects/initiates for which they are seeking funds. Various donors can locate projects and donate funds to specific initiatives that they feel more aligned with. AMF is the mediator of this non-profit marketplace and will be providing admin services to both non-profits and donors.
• MicroNet Ecommerce Site - The MicroNet E-commerce Site is intended to provide a marketplace for non-profits to promote and sell products and services to consumers and potential customers. The goal is to provide a window to products created by the initiatives funded with proceeds from the donations received through the MicroNet Site or with proceedings from the MicroNet Investment Fund.
• MicroNet Fund Site - AMF also would like to create a MicroNet Fund in order to provide small loans to poor, yet entrepreneurial, Africans so that they can improve their lives through access to credit, and to generate model investment returns for its partners/investors. By partnering with the Grameen Bank ( www.grameen-info.org ) and investors, the MicroNet Fund will offer a high-impact investment alternative for investors to attain modest financial returns while assisting the entrepreneurial poor in Africa to improve their lives with dignity. The MicroNet Fund Site would support this initiative, by promoting the fund and providing potential investors with information on how to invest.

MicroNet will also serve as a mailing list for the newsletter or a home for an online version of the Newsletter. The newsletter will be written in French, Portuguese and English. The content of the articles can be contributed by direct recipients of the microcredit program, other non-governmental organizations or organizations of similar character and AMF.

Microcredit is neither run nor maintained by a single organization; rather, many organizations are actively involved in both its use and plausibility. While each party adds their unique contribution, they can all benefit from an immediate access to the information of others. By bringing together domestic and international organizations actively involved in microcredit, AMF and others can benefit from sharing of studies, operational detail, and findings.

CLIENT:

AMF is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization committed to the social and economic empowerment of the people of Africa , especially women, through the implementation of microcredit programs on the continent. AMF works in partnership with grassroots organizations in Africa to support locally conceived microcredit programs that promote sustainable development on the continent while generating a sense of ownership and agency among African women.