Organizational Design for Economic and Social Development: The Case of the Rural Microcredit Program

Abstract

The Rural Microcredit Program, managed through the General Directorate of Rural Development of the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries of Uruguay, in a joint work with the Uruguayan Foundation for Solidarity Cooperation and Development, grants access to microcredit to dispersed and economically disadvantaged rural population. The organizational design implemented over the course of 13 years has distributed more than 20 million dollars, delivered in 36,917 loans, to a total of 13,072 people in scalable amounts. It articulates 139 local credit committees (CCL), with the participation of more than 721 people in 12 departments, who give their time on an honorary basis to evaluate the credits requested by their peers. The investigation was done based on the case study. The organizational design chosen to implement the PMR through the hierarchy of the CCL grants access to credit for isolated communities in the country, facilitating their economic and social development. The chosen strategy has contributed to the self-organization of the participants for the improvement of microcredits as an instrument of financial inclusion.