Community Banking for All: Rural Women's Savings and Loan Scheme in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Abstract

This paper presents a model for an indigenous community-based banking system that also provides microcredit for rural women in the small remote village of Fancy, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This model of a savings and loan scheme, the Fancy Help Group Loan Scheme, was established in 2003 by the women of the community-based women’s organization the Fancy Community Help Group as a strategic response to the economic realities in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which include the difficulties rural women face in accessing loans and credit from financial institutions in the formal banking sector. The only known example of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, the Fancy Help Group Loan Scheme has also been an innovative way for women to assist each other to achieve some measure of economic independence through their own efforts and industry on the basis of mutual support, mutual trust, and mutual sharing. Key words: Caribbean; Fancy, St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Fancy Community Help Group; microcredit; rural savings and loan schemes; rural women