Executive Summary

The Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs (ESPA) in conjunction with the School of Business, Department of Economics, and Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington (UW), Irkutsk State University (ISU), and the Siberian Academy for Public Administration (SAPA) have agreed to form a partnership to jointly develop a unique curriculum, conduct innovative and applicable research, and promote professional training and outreach in the field of microfinance. They are supported in this endeavor by local nonprofits commited to poverty alleviation and enterprise development.

We believe there are compelling reasons to promote microfinance in distressed regions in Siberia, and that together our Universities offer the business, public policy, and management expertise to provide the necessary support. Accordingly, ESPA is seeking a three-year, $297,560 grant from the United States Department of State to fund this program.

Microfinance organizations offers savings and credit programs that extend small loans to the very poor for self employment projects that have the potential to generate income, encourage entrepreneurship, build social capital, and allow individuals to care for themselves and their families.

The proposed activities of the program are:

• two way faculty exchanges between ESPA, ISU and SPA every year for a minimum of 6 weeks to develop curriculum, teach courses, evaluate databases, develop indicators, collect resources, conduct joint research on the impact of microcredit, receive training in the case teaching method, and assist in the evaluation of the partnership program.
• two UW research assistants visiting Russia for a minimum of 10 weeks every year to develop teaching case studies based on Russian microfinance efforts, to provide research support in the field, and to work collaboratively with the Russian students.
• one ISU and one SAPA research assistant visiting the UW for a minimum of 10 weeks every year to collect resources towards creating microfinance centers at each University, providing research support, and working collaboratively with the UW students.
• professional outreach and field training with a subset of the curriculum taken directly to communities wishing to initiate microfinance programs.
  

The program’s anticipated results are:

• A minimum of three jointly designed courses in microcredit in the areas of Program Design, Program Management and Program Evaluation that are offered at ESPA, ISU and SAPA.
• Approximately six case studies on microfinance in Russia and the U.S. for teaching at academic institutions and widely available online through the Electronic Hallwayä.
• Research presented to scholars, practitioners, policy makers and donors at conferences and workshops that will contribute to our collective knowledge about designing and managing microfinance programs, particularly in transition economies, and a better understanding of the impact of microcredit on the economic and social conditions of the individuals, their households, and their communities.
• Long term partnership and collaboration opportunities between partner institutions and a contribution to greater cultural understanding between the people of the United States and Russia.
• Students and practitioners uniquely prepared through academic study and field experience for professional careers in the field of microfinance.
• Microfinance resource centers at ESPA, ISU and SAPA to sustain activity beyond the grant terms.

Both the program’s progress, that is, the success of each faculty and student exchange, and the program’s outputs – the courses, cases, and research will be evaluated. An evaluation of each exchange and a year-end progress report will be prepared and reviewed by the project directors.

Courses will be subject to course evaluations by participants, experts in microcredit will assess course syllabi, and student focus groups will be convened to offer their assessment of the course sessions, assignments and written materials. The best cases developed in the field will be taught in the microfinance courses, and revised according to course feedback. These cases will then be evaluated by the Cascade Center through its standard review process and considered for widespread distribution on the Electronic Hallway™, considerably leveraging our ability to share lessons learned.

The joint research efforts of the faculty will be evaluated internally, by the success of designing measures and databases for on-going use by microfinance programs, and the ability to use those and other databases for empirical research and analysis on the impact of microcredit. The research output will be evaluated externally at conferences, through the distribution and solicited comments from outside academic and practitioner reviewers, and from the peer review of the final papers submitted for publication.