Integrated microcredit: A participatory approach to health promotion and economic development

Microcredit is a development policy employed worldwide to reduce poverty. Microcredit institutions provide small loans to poor people who are unable to qualify for traditional bank loans. BanComun de la frontera in Nogales, Sonora, a northern Mexico border town, is a microcredit organization utilizing village banking methodology to provide small loans to mostly women entrepreneurs as a sustainable alternative to factory employment and migration.

In 2006, with the improved understanding that poor health is one of the multidimensional causes of poverty, BanComun explored integrating its microcredit methodology with health education. Integrated health and microcredit models implemented in Bolivia, Ghana, Bangladesh and other countries demonstrate success through improved health knowledge and behavior. Integrated health programs have also proven financial sustainability, without increasing organizational costs. BanComun's new health program is innovative due to a participatory planning and implementation process that relies on community stakeholder knowledge and involvement to promote program buy-in and commitment. The integrated health program partners with local providers to support training, health sector capacity building and the provision of health education to clients, families, community members and non-borrowing families for a multiplicative effect. At the Mexico-U.S. border, few microcredit agencies exist and there are no other integrated health programs. The health program at BanComun de la frontera responds to the Nogales community's voiced need for both financial and health services, and assists with the agency's projected expansion by facilitating increased client outreach and retention.