From Luxembourg, ADA has leveraged all its resources to keep current projects ongoing as much as possible, as well as designing and implementing responses to the Covid-19 crisis as soon as possible.

We would like to thank the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs for its responsiveness and flexibility, which have enabled us to allocate funds to new projects in order to tackle the urgent situation.

Since the outbreak of the crisis, our main concern has been to keep in touch with our partners to rise to their new challenges.

Thanks to this "remote proximity" approach, we have been able to set up a response programme to help our partners navigate the crisis and ensure the continuity of their activities. At the same time, we have taken part in several joint initiatives of donors and social investors with a view to coordinating our responses to our partners, sharing the tools that we have developed and gathering data on the evolution of the crisis

RESPONSE COVID-19 PROGRAMME
The Response Covid-19 programme was launched on 20 April with the aim of providing our partners with emergency technical support as soon as possible, granting them subsidies for the purchase of sanitary equipment or IT material to ensure the continuity of their activities despite the lockdown, and giving them tools to facilitate the analyses needed to run their operations against the backdrop of the epidemic. It has supported 80 MFIs in 30 countries with a total budget of €1 million.

ATTENTION POINTS BUSINESS CONTINUITY FOR MFIs
A series of tools have been developed in parallel. In early April, an "Attention points business continuity for MFIs" was published in three languages (French, English and Spanish), in cooperation with Oikocredit and with the support of Hans Hekkenberg, an expert in risk management. It has received widespread circulation among MFIs and other partners. Numerous partners have come forward with positive feedback on these attention points.

TOOLBOX AND STRESS TESTS WITH MICROVISION
A toolbox has been developed to make it easier to use. It provides supports for drafting a business continuity plan and devising scenarios (stress tests), especially through the use of Microvision, a financial projection tool developed jointly with BRS. These tools are also available in three languages.

GUIDE ON DEBT RESCHEDULING FOR BANKS AND MFIs IN THE WAMU ZONE
In order to ensure the continuity of the activities of financial institutions, ADA, after sharing with the BCEAO, published a Guide on debt rescheduling for banks and MFIs in the WAMU zone.

STUDIES AMONG MFIs AND THEIR CLIENTS
ADA is taking part in two studies to anticipate the future needs of its partners. A survey among MFIs has been launched by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation together with ADA and Inpulse. The aim of the initiative is to gather data from partner MFIs to monitor their evolution after the crisis.

At the same time, the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF) has joined forces with Oikocredit and the MFI FINCA to launch the initiative "Survey among MFI clients". ADA has participated in the design of the questionnaire, which is used to collect feedback from MFI clients on a monthly basis. The survey will enable monitoring of their situation in order to come up with tailored solution. Several donors will be using the same questionnaire, so that the results can be aggregated to provide a snapshot of the evolution of the situation in each region.

COORDINATION GROUP ON SOCIAL INVESTORS AND NGOs SUPPORT FOR MFIS
Finally, ADA has gone to great lengths to make sure that the actions taken are coordinated with most of the stakeholders in the sector. ADA leads the group that is coordinating the support from TA facilities of investors so that its members can share information on the aid (subsidies and TAs) available to MFIs. The group is made up of ADA, Banca Etica, Grameen Crédit Agricole, Incofin, Inpulse, Oikocredit, SIDI/Fefisol, SPTF and Triple Jump.

SOCIAL INVESTOR PLEDGE
Through LMDF, ADA has also signed the social investor pledge promoted by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation. The objective is to protect both the microfinance institutions and their clients to ensure the continued access to funding in the best possible conditions and to look out for clients’ and staff well-being. Since its launch in June, the initiative has 26 active signatories in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Other stakeholders are invited to join the initiative.

What's next? What post-Covid support?
Faced with an unprecedented situation, we will continue to provide MFIs with technical and financial support in the short and medium term to ensure the continuity of their activities and help them succeed in their imperative transformation. The MFIs and our other partners in the field have been dealt a hard blow against a context of rising poverty. The need to adapt their organisation, secure their financing and develop new products is greater than ever before.

Finally, the crisis caused by the Covid-19 epidemic is yet another reminder, if any were needed, of the importance of the areas in which we intervene, especially the use of digital technologies and the adaptation to climate change, which requires a laser-like focus on the big challenges of the world of tomorrow.