question... government...

[Guest]

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[asuguy1]

strange place to put this, i guess.

so, suppose for fun that the federal government decided that Kiva was "all that" and waned to help. how would they go about it? could they even do it legally?

not clear enough?

ok, say the government wanted to give Kiva $3 mil to put in a fund to be distributed to business in south america as needed - could it be done? could the government legally give money to Kiva? would Kiva accept the money? who would handle making sure it only goes to businesses the government intended?


i know it's a strange question, but i'm just curious like that.

[Peter S]

yes, it is a strange question, but strange can be good...

I think if the US Government was overtaken by the urge to recognize that Kiva is "all that" and slip an appreciative $3m Kiva's way, it would probably immediately have second thoughts and decide that it would be more practical that the $3m should be allocated through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to initiate and strengthen the efforts of foreign microfinance organizations, with whom Kiva could enter into partnership.

In fact, it already does this, USAID has been instrumental in supporting some of Kiva's Field Partners, usually in partnership with major NGOs and the aid programs of other developed nations:

Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER in Peru http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=72
Microfinanzas PRISMA - also Peru http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=71
Pearl Microfinance Limited - Uganda http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=84
Iraqi Al-Aman center / Kirkuk http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=50
Aqroinvest CU - Azerbaijan - http://www.kiva.org/about/inside & later http://www.kiva.org/about/archivedNews/

http://www.usaid.gov/ is of course a good place to find out more about what USAID gets up to.

P