Transferring Our Approach

S³IDF US and S³IDF India, with assistance from organizational supporters and project partners, work to disseminate the Social Merchant Bank Approach^SM (SMBA^SM) to new countries and to additional regions in India. The SMBA^SM is designed to be widely applicable across both geographies and technologies and has the potential to alleviate poverty on a large scale across the globe.

To date, S³IDF has explored opportunities for transferring the SMBA^SM beyond India to East Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Opportunities in Sri Lanka and Nepal have been pursued through reconnaissance studies and, in the case of Nepal, through additional investigation and implementation, including an examination of the requirements for setting up a revolving fund (RF) and an active pilot test of the SMBA^SM in a project to expand Nepal’s Improved Water Mill Programme (IWMP).

A larger scale application of S³IDF’s SMBA^SM in Nepal is now progressing and has the potential to impact hundreds of thousands of households as it expands the current IWMP through its package of bundled services, including financing, technological know-now, and business development support.

To learn more about transferring the SMBA^SM to new countries, see “Dissemination Reports” on the Publications page.

Banner photo credit: Ian Taylor, ADB.