Ingrid Munro

Ingrid Munro founded Jamii Bora in 1999. Today, it is the largest and fastest growing microfinance institution in East Africa and has created the platform for an integrated economic and social movement that is transforming the lives of destitute slum dwellers, the poorest of the urban poor.

Ingrid Munro, the founder of Jamii Bora, has not only created the largest microfinance institution in East Africa, but, with a relentless focus on channeling empathy, she has harnessed the power of hundreds of thousands of economically empowered borrowers to transform their own lives and communities. By constantly innovating and engaging every member of the community, Jamii Bora has grown from a group of beggars saving some 50 cents per week for food to an organization more than 200,000 members strong, supporting thousands of businesses, and with nearly 100 centers throughout Kenya, all staffed by Jamii Bora beneficiaries.

The people who have benefited most from Jamii Bora’s support are not necessarily the earliest and most eager adopters. And very few fit the profile of the typical micro-borrower. Jamii Bora targets the poorest in urban areas – beggars, prostitutes, and even criminals. While other microfinance institutions and international aid donors say that the poorest of the poor are not reachable and can only be helped with hand-outs and other social safety nets, Ingrid proved otherwise. And with these extremely disadvantaged groups, Ingrid has built an unlikely but tightly connected community. Ingrid reaches out to and absorbs even the most improbable individuals into her empathetic and inclusive community.

Just as all people are included in Jamii Bora, so too are all challenges tackled. Thousands of people have made the shift from begging, stealing, or prostitution to gainful employment, and Ingrid and Jamii Bora have been able to harness the entrepreneurial energy and newfound economic security to start a movement for poor urban dwellers unlike any ever seen before. Across Kenya, hundreds of thousands of Jamii Bora members are starting businesses, moving out of the slums and into new homes, purchasing medical insurance for the first time, and shattering longstanding stereotypes. The community is proving in innumerable ways that it can solve and scale any challenge together and in a systematic and sustainable way.

In the mid 1980s, Nairobi’s urban slums were growing rapidly as poor people from Kenya’s rural areas left their homes in search of jobs and better opportunities in the city. But while the slum population grew and the number of jobs available did not, conditions deteriorated. The municipal government was failing to assist the city’s newest and poorest residents. For a wide range of reasons, from population growth and limited resources to the conflicting jurisdictions of municipal authorities and restrictions imposed by Structural Adjustment Programs, no clear approach to working with urban informal settlements existed and the municipal government was in fact doing less to help the city’s poor than it had even a decade earlier. Many development experts and donors started to believe that supporting the urban poor would encourage even more people to come to the cities from rural areas.

During this same time period, in 1984, Ingrid moved to Nairobi for a contract with the UN preparing for the International Year of Housing. Despite her training as an architect and more than a decade of experience in international development, Ingrid was struck by the squalid conditions in which so many urban dwellers lived. So when her contract ended, Ingrid and her young family stayed on in Kenya where she continued to work in international development and, in one position, was charged with finding best practices from around the world to recommend to the government. Microfinance for the poor was taking hold and Ingrid was particularly impressed with the work of the Grameen Bank, but she became convinced that these efforts were not going far enough to reach the poorest of the poor – beggars, criminals, and prostitutes in large urban slums. Though governments were still convinced that self-help schemes were the answer, Ingrid saw that more needed to be done to support the urban poor and that microfinance could be part of the solution.

But Ingrid knew that borrowing, saving, and taking advantage of other financial services was not enough to transform the slums. By this time, microfinance institutions were already celebrated as a way to help groups of people -- often poor, rural women -- raise their incomes and participate in the market economy. Though many of these borrowers’ financial problems may have been solved, the transformation was often primarily economic, and not rooted in empathy or part of a greater societal transformation. Indeed, traditional microfinance institutions usually focus on the finances of individuals or small groups; Ingrid, however, envisioned microfinance as a tool for slum dwellers to uplift themselves and each other rapidly and on a massive scale.

Furthermore, in the approaches tried and tested at the time, there was no place for the sort of people Ingrid wanted to reach out to – beggars, prostitutes, and criminals in Nairobi’s largest slums. The development establishment was accustomed to thinking about the poor in smaller and more manageable groups and often in geographic terms. Never had a comprehensive approach with the aim of possibly including all the ethnically diverse and deeply impoverished people in a teeming informal urban settlement been launched. Ingrid would have to deal with deep divisions between ethnic groups and complex power dynamics in the slums. Many people doubted her, but she would soon go on to prove them wrong.

Ingrid Munro started Jamii Bora in 1999 by reaching out to people from all walks of life: beggars, criminals, rural migrants brand new to Nairobi, prostitutes, squatters, and landless renters. To Ingrid and members of Jamii Bora, it doesn’t matter where you come from; what matters is where you are going. Ingrid saw that the enormous talent among street kids and beggars was being wasted and that the poorest, most disenfranchised were languishing in urban slums and abject poverty. By engaging these individuals and harnessing their energy, Jamii Bora has become the largest and most successful microfinance institution in East Africa and has sparked a bottom-of-the-pyramid movement for social justice. By August 2008, Jamii Bora had enrolled more than 200,000 members and, to date, the organization has loaned out almost three billion Kenya shillings (almost 40 million USD) and written off only 0.04%. There are now 90 centers across the country and the organization continues to grow, penetrating the poorest areas and offering even more new and innovative products and services.

One of the keys to Ingrid’s success has been to creatively conquer barriers using microfinance as a tool to solve social problems. Instead of simply increasing the buying power of borrowers in order to create a base of built-in customers for a wider range of financial products, Ingrid has used the momentum behind thousands of economically empowered people to build a broad movement for social change. In 2001 Ingrid faced her first major challenge; 93 percent of Jamii Bora members were defaulting on their loans. Ingrid visited each defaulting member’s home to understand the reasons for defaulting firsthand. In this way, Ingrid discovered that all the struggling members had at least one family member in the hospital. Instead of confiscating their few possessions, Ingrid set about finding a health insurance company that could provide health coverage for her members. When she could not find a company willing to provide coverage for her target population – many of whom were women in their childbearing years or HIV positive – she built an insurance policy within Jamii Bora. Today her insurance program works with 48 hospitals around Kenya, has 70,000 member-subscribers and covers 350,000 family members – all without any donor subsidy or any clause excluding pregnant women or individuals living with HIV.

And, when just last year more than half of her current borrowers lost everything in the post-election violence that marred Kenya, not only was Jamii Bora able to cover the cost of the destruction, but the institution was stronger having poignantly proven a powerful point: it was not that Ingrid had such significant reserves or extra money on hand, but that she had built an integrated economic movement in which people strongly believed. Significant funds were raised through a cell phone campaign and 80,000 Jamii Bora members were reimbursed. While other insurance companies closed, Jamii Bora didn’t even have to raise its fees. In the end, the organization proved that it runs on empathy, not charity or sympathy.

Under Ingrid’s leadership, Jamii Bora has also championed an ethic of embracing your enemies. By working in large slums, she has met and made a number of enemies in the form of gang leaders, jealous neighbors, disgruntled spouses, and corrupt politicians. But Ingrid has been able to convert even her most violent opponents and absorb them into her movement based on a belief that the people you need most in your community may at first be your biggest opponents. Again during the 2008 post-election violence, when 1,700 vendors (60% of them Jamii Bora members) in Nairobi’s Toi Market lost everything in a violent blaze, Jamii Bora helped a divided community reorganize and rebuild the market with 500 additional stalls. They even recruited the youth responsible for burning and looting Toi Market, rehabilitated them, and have since employed them to work as guards.

Though they have naturally met some opposition along the way, Jamii Bora has grown and continues to be a fount of constant economic innovation. With hundreds of thousands of people growing more financially independent, continuing to innovate, and challenging the status quo, Ingrid and Jamii Bora members have been transforming entire communities. In fact just last year a new town named Kaputei – with 2,000 homes, space for 3,000 businesses, roads, sewers and a brand new school –welcomed its first residents. Kaputei was built from the ground up by Jamii Bora members who were able to buy their own homes and move out of the slums. Ingrid insists that you can’t upgrade a slum. Though it required years of struggle and mountains of bureaucracy, Jamii Bora members came forward with a comprehensive answer to the persistent problem of sprawling slums.

Ingrid has even challenged the stigma around who can run these institutions. Jamii Bora’s staff consists exclusively of clients or former clients and people from all over the world are now marveling at everything they have accomplished. The energy they have created and the momentum they have built is inspiring people to believe that they too can take these principles and implement them in their own communities. The lending programs, disaster and health insurance, and housing projects already mentioned as well as Jamii Bora’s programs in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, its business school, its rigorous staff training program, and its cutting edge use of technology have been lauded and copied worldwide. Jamii Bora’s impact on the field of microfinance and in the lives of slum dwellers around the world is felt through the spread of its best practices and core values: a bottom-of-the-pyramid focus; its values of inclusiveness, community building, and constant innovation; and its use of microfinance as a platform for integrated economic and social empowerment.

Ingrid Munro started Jamii Bora in 1999 by reaching out to people from all walks of life: beggars, criminals, rural migrants brand new to Nairobi, prostitutes, squatters, and landless renters. To Ingrid and members of Jamii Bora, it doesn’t matter where you come from; what matters is where you are going. Ingrid saw that the enormous talent among street kids and beggars was being wasted and that the poorest, most disenfranchised were languishing in urban slums and abject poverty. By engaging these individuals and harnessing their energy, Jamii Bora has become the largest and most successful microfinance institution in East Africa and has sparked a bottom-of-the-pyramid movement for social justice. By August 2008, Jamii Bora had enrolled more than 200,000 members and, to date, the organization has loaned out almost three billion Kenya shillings (almost 40 million USD) and written off only 0.04%. There are now 90 centers across the country and the organization continues to grow, penetrating the poorest areas and offering even more new and innovative products and services.

One of the keys to Ingrid’s success has been to creatively conquer barriers using microfinance as a tool to solve social problems. Instead of simply increasing the buying power of borrowers in order to create a base of built-in customers for a wider range of financial products, Ingrid has used the momentum behind thousands of economically empowered people to build a broad movement for social change. In 2001 Ingrid faced her first major challenge; 93 percent of Jamii Bora members were defaulting on their loans. Ingrid visited each defaulting member’s home to understand the reasons for defaulting firsthand. In this way, Ingrid discovered that all the struggling members had at least one family member in the hospital. Instead of confiscating their few possessions, Ingrid set about finding a health insurance company that could provide health coverage for her members. When she could not find a company willing to provide coverage for her target population – many of whom were women in their childbearing years or HIV positive – she built an insurance policy within Jamii Bora. Today her insurance program works with 48 hospitals around Kenya, has 70,000 member-subscribers and covers 350,000 family members – all without any donor subsidy or any clause excluding pregnant women or individuals living with HIV.

And, when just last year more than half of her current borrowers lost everything in the post-election violence that marred Kenya, not only was Jamii Bora able to cover the cost of the destruction, but the institution was stronger having poignantly proven a powerful point: it was not that Ingrid had such significant reserves or extra money on hand, but that she had built an integrated economic movement in which people strongly believed. Significant funds were raised through a cell phone campaign and 80,000 Jamii Bora members were reimbursed. While other insurance companies closed, Jamii Bora didn’t even have to raise its fees. In the end, the organization proved that it runs on empathy, not charity or sympathy.

Under Ingrid’s leadership, Jamii Bora has also championed an ethic of embracing your enemies. By working in large slums, she has met and made a number of enemies in the form of gang leaders, jealous neighbors, disgruntled spouses, and corrupt politicians. But Ingrid has been able to convert even her most violent opponents and absorb them into her movement based on a belief that the people you need most in your community may at first be your biggest opponents. Again during the 2008 post-election violence, when 1,700 vendors (60% of them Jamii Bora members) in Nairobi’s Toi Market lost everything in a violent blaze, Jamii Bora helped a divided community reorganize and rebuild the market with 500 additional stalls. They even recruited the youth responsible for burning and looting Toi Market, rehabilitated them, and have since employed them to work as guards.

Though they have naturally met some opposition along the way, Jamii Bora has grown and continues to be a fount of constant economic innovation. With hundreds of thousands of people growing more financially independent, continuing to innovate, and challenging the status quo, Ingrid and Jamii Bora members have been transforming entire communities. In fact just last year a new town named Kaputei – with 2,000 homes, space for 3,000 businesses, roads, sewers and a brand new school –welcomed its first residents. Kaputei was built from the ground up by Jamii Bora members who were able to buy their own homes and move out of the slums. Ingrid insists that you can’t upgrade a slum. Though it required years of struggle and mountains of bureaucracy, Jamii Bora members came forward with a comprehensive answer to the persistent problem of sprawling slums.

Ingrid has even challenged the stigma around who can run these institutions. Jamii Bora’s staff consists exclusively of clients or former clients and people from all over the world are now marveling at everything they have accomplished. The energy they have created and the momentum they have built is inspiring people to believe that they too can take these principles and implement them in their own communities. The lending programs, disaster and health insurance, and housing projects already mentioned as well as Jamii Bora’s programs in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, its business school, its rigorous staff training program, and its cutting edge use of technology have been lauded and copied worldwide. Jamii Bora’s impact on the field of microfinance and in the lives of slum dwellers around the world is felt through the spread of its best practices and core values: a bottom-of-the-pyramid focus; its values of inclusiveness, community building, and constant innovation; and its use of microfinance as a platform for integrated economic and social empowerment.