The WCIRC was launched in October 1998, under the preparatory phase of the UNDP's Women in Urban Credit (WUC) Project. The WCIRC was launched almost a year after the WUC preparatory phase was initiated and began actively working in partnership with the First Women Bank Limited. To date WCIRC has been functioning as a part of the larger project, collaborating closely with the FWBL and the Women in Urban Credit support office. However, the long-term vision of the Centre is to function as an independent and sustainable entity. WCIRC's over-all objective is to assist in the creation of an enabling environment for micro finance practitioners in Pakistan. To do so, WCIRC activities include the disseminating of information on micro credit, the profiling of successful activities being undertaken by various partners, and actively raising the awareness of the general public in regard to women's economic empowerment through micro finance.
WCIRC's Achievements (Tasks Completed since October 1998):
The greatest achievement of the Women in Urban Credit Project during this preparatory phase, is the creating of the FWBL's Micro Credit Programme. The WUC and the WCIRC succeeded in convincing the First Women Bank to establish an independent Micro Credit Department as this would lead to greater impact on poor women. The WCIRC has been working actively with the WUC to first convince the Bank that a separate Micro Credit Programme would be an excellent achievement, and then subsequently assisting them in designing and developing a viable programme.
• Data collected from the FWBL on its micro credit initiatives, including number of borrowers/amount disbursed. FWBL activities profiled through the WCIRC newsletter, and information on FWBL disseminated to all our partners.
• Data collected from Government agencies, relevant to women in the economic sector. Information collected on Government's various programmes related to poverty & gender development. Have assisted the Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare & Special Education, by providing information as requested.
• DataBase on Professional Women, Women in Banking & Women in Business has been established.
• Library on Micro Finance has been established with documents and books indexed and catalogued in WCIRC Library DataBase.
• Networking and Linkage Development has been a main priority during the preparatory phase of the WCIRC. All organizations involved in providing micro financial services for women in Pakistan have been contacted by WCIRC. Brochures on the Centre's activities have been disbursed to these partners. WCIRC has also been collecting information/data from these organizations for its library and profiling activities of these organizations, by including articles on them in the newsletter.
• Quaterly issues of "Credit News", the first newsletter focusing exclusively on micro-finance, are published and disseminated amongst over 700 partners. The newsletter is also translated into Urdu, so that community organizations can also access it.
• Carried out credit-related training needs assessment exercise on Jumma Bazaar women's group as a model of Borrower> NGO> Finance Institution cooperation.Ongoing/Regular Outputs of WCIRC
• Information Provision & Advisory Services to any and all clientele
• Continued enhancement of WCIRC Library.
• Continued work on database/directory of working women.
• Continued publication of quarterly newsletter.
• Continued networking and information dissemination activities related to micro finance.Future Initiatives for WCIRC
• Networking with the Micro Finance Group & other resource centres to share efforts and work- plans, and avoid replication of activities. Also collaborate with the MFG to identify specific areas where WCIRC can play its advocacy role.
• Development of Research Portfolio. Currently a sample group of small NGOs is being studied to devise an MIS system appropraite to their needs which will eventually help conduct an impact assessment study at a later stage.
• Commence consultancy services for micro-credit, particularly in the area ofcapacity-
building training (this aspect correlates with the current activitiy of our research portfolio through which small MFIs/NGOs are to be provided an FIS/MIS. The next step would be to provide them training in using and maintaining this system).
• Collection/collation of disaggregated data related to women in the economic sector
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