While international organizations and national governments diligently measure economic growth, surveys in recent years reveal that increases in GDP are not always accompanied by reductions in poverty. Hoping to hit closer to the heart of the poverty dilemma is Trickle Up, an organization focused on one major obstacle faced by the poor: lack of access to credit. Though hard for us to imagine here in the United States, where credit card applications flood our mailboxes daily, such credit in developing countries is unattainable for the majority of the population, and especially for the poorest of the poor. Furthermore, the structure of these partially industrialized employment markets is such that agriculture and small independent businesses make up the majority of job opportunities available--both characteristically requiring capital for individuals to get started.

Trickle Up seeks to meet the needs of the poor by providing small grants to help entrepreneurs start or expand their own businesses. The New York-based NGO specializes in micro-enterprise development and is active in over 50 countries throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. Through funding secured by USAID, foundations and individual donations, Trickle Up channels this money to local partner NGOs. These partners are responsible for identifying entrepreneurs among the poorest of the poor who have the motivation and skill to run a business--if only they had the capital available. In order to monitor these NGOs and evaluate the impact of the grant money, Trickle Up sends ten graduate students overseas for a meager stipend but highly educational field experience. (Not every country can be monitored every year).

I learned of this opportunity from a then-second-year Fletcher student who had spent her summer in the Philippines. I, myself, was interested in going to Indonesia. Prior to Fletcher I had worked for two years in South Korea, but had never spent more than a few vacations in Southeast Asia. After a semester of Islamic History and Civilization, as well as courses in Development Economics and Political Economy, I recognized Indonesia as the country where many of my interests converged. Plus, through reading literature by the U.S.-Indonesia Society (founded by a Fletcher graduate), it seemed that despite Indonesia’s place as the forth most populous nation in the world (behind China, India and the U.S.), it is vastly understudied by Americans. A final reason why I pursued Indonesia was that if I were to start another language, Indonesian has got to be one of the easiest. This I confirmed to be true. Two months studying Indonesian had the same effect as six months studying Korean!

At the beginning of summer 1999, I spent two weeks at Trickle Up headquarters in New York for training, and then headed out for a nine-week tour in Indonesia. Despite parliamentary elections leading to a presidential election and secessionist movements brewing at both ends of the archipelago, my trip was completely uneventful in terms of any dangerous encounters, for which I am very thankful. My job was to visit the local partner NGOs and examine their selection process to make sure that they are targeting the poverty sector (and not relatives, community leaders, or NGO staff members, for example). I also looked for what kind of "added value" the NGOs are able to give entrepreneurs in the way of business, basic accounting, or trade/skill training. I proposed recommendations for how to improve these programs and interviewed 60 beneficiaries to find out about their experience with the program and the impact of the income generated from the businesses. In all, I visited six NGOs, most of them Christian in orientation (minorities in Indonesia), operating in both urban poverty pockets hard hit by riots and rural indigenous villages in the remote Eastern Islands. I really got to see a lot of the country: Java, Flores, West Timor and Rote Islands, spanning thousands of miles--involving travel by train, bus, ferry, bechak, bejai and plane.

Overall, my observations were very positive. I was really impressed with the local capacity to advance community development from the grass roots level. In addition to Trickle Up, these NGOs implemented other exceptional programs. Particularly fascinating was seeing the village banking concept in action and integration of Trickle Up with newly installed solar-powered electrification and water sanitation infrastructure of rural villages in West Timor. Trickle Up business grants were targeted toward the poorest community members to help them develop income-generating activities so that they could pay for their portion of the new services. New electric lights would help children to study at night and raise productivity overall. Without electricity, Indonesians live in 12 hours of darkness each day. Of course, these new changes will alter traditional aspects of their indigenous cultures, but without access to the technologies and tools of modern society, they will be left behind to remain impoverished. By helping support income generation, Trickle Up has helped these people improve their lives. They can now afford the school fees for their children, pay for medicines for their babies and the elderly, and buy materials to build or repair their homes. A large percentage of Trickle Up beneficiaries couldn’t afford meeting these basic needs prior to working with Trickle Up.

I really enjoyed my Indonesian experience. With so much transition taking place there, I anticipate future work with the archipelago after Fletcher. As well, I have become more interested in banking and finance which I hope I can apply toward meeting development needs in the future.

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